Oleanna (song)

"Oleanna" (or "Oleana") is a Norwegian folk song that was translated into English and popularized by former Weavers member Pete Seeger. The song is a critique of Ole Bull's vision of a perfect society in America. Oleanna was actually the name of one of Ole Bull's settlements in the New Norway colony of Pennsylvania. His society failed, and all of the immigrants moved away, since the dense forest made it hard to settle there. The lyrics concern the singer's desire to leave Norway and escape to Oleanna, a land where "wheat and corn just plant themselves, then grow a good four feet a day while on your bed you rest yourself."^[1]

The lyrics for Oleanna were written by Ditmar Meidell, a Norwegian magazine editor, who set his words to the melody "Rio Janeiro".^[2] The song was first published on March 5, 1853, in Krydseren (The Cruiser), a satirical magazine which Meidell had founded.^[3]

^ Folk Songs Of Four Continents (New York City, NY: Folkways Records, 1955).
^ Emigrantviser by Svein Schröder Amundsen and Reimund Kvideland, (Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 1975).
^ Norwegian Emigrant Songs and Ballads by Theodore C. Blegen, (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1936).

[Four_Continents-1] Folk Songs Of Four Continents (New York City, NY: Folkways Records, 1955).

[2] Emigrantviser by Svein Schröder Amundsen and Reimund Kvideland, (Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 1975).

[Emigrant_1936-3] Norwegian Emigrant Songs and Ballads by Theodore C. Blegen, (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1936).

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Oleanna (song)

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