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Krummavísa

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Krummavísa
Krummi krunkar úti
by Bjarni Þorsteinsson
1906 printing
LanguageIcelandic
Publication date1906 (1906)
Lines8
Krummavísa at Icelandic Wikisource

Krummavísa (English: Raven Verse) or Krummi krunkar úti (English: A Raven Croaks Outside) is an Icelandic folk song or nursery rhyme. The song was published in 1906 in the book Íslenzk þjóðlög (Icelandic Folk Songs) by Bjarni Þorsteinsson [is]. Bjarni learned the song from Ólafur Davíðsson, who in turn learned it as a child in Sléttuhlíð.[1]

As with all traditional Icelandic poetry, Krummavísa conforms to the set of rules called bragfræði (prosody). According to this system, a poem must be alliterative: a line of verse must have two words beginning with the same letter, and the first word of the next line must also begin with the same letter.[3] Here, for example, the first line has two words beginning with a K (krummi and krunkar) and the first word of the second line also begins with a K (kallar).

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Þorsteinsson, Bjarni (1906). Íslenzk þjóðlög. Copenhagen: Siglufjarðarprentsmiðja. p. 510.
  2. ^ Icelandic Folk Song - Krummi krunkar úti on YouTube
  3. ^ Sigmundsdóttir, Alda (2016). "Amazing alliteration". The Little Book of Icelandic. Little Books Publishing. pp. 56–57. ISBN 978-9935-9298-6-0.