Maamme

Our land, Maamme (Finnish) or Vårt land (Swedish), is the title of Finland's de facto national anthem. The music was composed by the German Fredrik Pacius, with (original Swedish) words by the Finland-Swede Johan Ludvig Runeberg, and was performed for the first time on 13 May 1848. The original poem, written in 1846 but not printed until 1848, had 11 stanzas and formed the prologue to the great verse cycle The Tales of Ensign Stål ("Fänrik Ståhls Sägner"), a masterpiece of Romantic nationalism. The finnish text was written 1889 by Paavo Cajander.

The Tales of Ensign Stål were much appreciated throughout all of Scandinavia. Up until the time of Finland's independence in 1917–18, when the song began to be recognized as specifically applying to Finland, Pacius's tune and Runeberg's text were often also sung in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. Note that in the original Swedish text there is no reference to Finland, only to a country in the north, but the Finnish text explicitly refers to Finland. The poem's theme is, furthermore, remarkably similar to that of the national anthems of Sweden (Du gamla, Du fria) and Norway (Ja, vi elsker dette landet).

Some Finns have proposed the Finnish national anthem to be changed to Finlandia by Jean Sibelius: partly because Pacius's tune is also used for the national anthem of Estonia with a similarly themed text, Mu isamaa, My Fatherland (1869); and partly because Pacius was German and Runeberg a Finland-Swede (although Sibelius also was a Finland-Swede). It is also said that he composed the tune in a mere fifteen minutes, with no idea that it would become so important to the people of Finland that they would eventually make it their national anthem. There are also those who simply prefer Finlandia as a musical piece. Jean Sibelius is Finland's national composer. Critics of Finlandia call it difficult to sing, as it was written as a purely instrumental piece; neverthless, the music is used for a popular Christian hymn (Be Still, My Soul), and it also briefly became the national anthem of Biafra. Some people would say that the national anthem of Finland is unlikely to change because of conservative traditions.

Lyrics

Here are the lyrics of the first and last verse in Finnish, in Swedish (as originally written), and in an English-language version:

Maamme

(translation from Swedish, as it appeared in the edition attributed to Paavo Cajander)

Oi maamme, Suomi, synnyinmaa!

Soi, sana kultainen!

Ei laaksoa, ei kukkulaa,

ei vettä, rantaa rakkaampaa

kuin kotimaa tää pohjoinen,

maa kallis isien.

Sun kukoistukses kuorestaan

kerrankin puhkeaa;

viel' lempemme saa nousemaan

sun toivos, riemus loistossaan,

ja kerran laulus, synnyinmaa

korkeemman kaiun saa.

Vårt land

(the original, by Johan Ludvig Runeberg)

Vårt land, vårt land, vårt fosterland,

ljud högt, o dyra ord!

Ej lyfts en höjd mot himlens rand,

ej sänks en dal, ej sköljs en strand,

mer älskad än vår bygd i nord,

än våra fäders jord!

Din blomning, sluten än i knopp,

Skall mogna ur sitt tvång;

Se, ur vår kärlek skall gå opp

Ditt ljus, din glans, din fröjd, ditt hopp.

Och högre klinga skall en gång

Vår fosterländska sång.

Our Land

(translation by Clement Burbank Shaw from the Swedish version)

Our land, our land, our fatherland,

Sound loud, O name of worth!

No mount that meets the heaven's band,

No hidden vale, no wavewashed strand,

Is loved, as is our native North,

Our own forefathers' earth.

Thy blossom, in the bud laid low,

Yet ripened shall upspring.

See! From our love once more shall grow

Thy light, thy joy, thy hope, thy glow!

And clearer yet one day shall ring

The song our land shall sing.

External links

Maamme at Wikisource
The Finnish National Anthem - history of the anthem, and RealAudio of the song
www.national-anthems.net - mp3, RealAudio and Windows Media files of the anthem

Finnish culture | National anthems

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Lyrics

Maamme

Vårt land

Our Land

See also

External links