NATTERGALEN
Text: trad.
Tune: unknown

Translated by The Dane
Please note that the song is several hundred years old, which means that a lot of the words are no longer in use in Denmark. This has made it difficult to tranlate directly, but the meaning of each line and verse should be intact.


I know well where there is a castle
it is so nicely embellished
with silver and with the red gold
with carved stones and walls

Inside that castle stands a lime tree
with leaves so fantastically beautiful
and in that tree lived a nightingale fair
that moved its tongue so eloquently

A knight he came riding there
he heard the nightingale sing
He was very amazed by that
for it was the midnight hour

"O, listen, little nightingale
a song I will ask thou to sing
thy feathers I will cover with gold,
thy neck I will cover with pearls"

"I do not want thy feathers of gold
that I should wear for thee
in the world I am a strange bird
and no man knows me"

"Art thou in the world a strange wild bird
and does no man know thou
thou will be plagued by hunger, cold and snow
that will fall upon thy way"

"Hunger does not plague me, snow does not plague me
it falls not upon my way
what plagues me is a more secret sorrow
that brings me fear

Between mountains and deep valleys
the wild streams run
but he who has a devoted friend
he will not soon be forgotten

I had a boyfriend
a knight so powerful and mighty,
my step mother ruined it all,
as she did not want it.

She turned me into a nightingale
told me to fly into the world
My brother was turned into a wolf so gray
she told him to run in the forest

She prayed to God that he would have no rest
but always would run in the forest
until he would drink the blood from her heart
Seven years later that happened

One day she was walking happily out
to stroll in the rose garden
my brother noticed and cunningly
he watched her with great care

He grabed her by her left foot
with his terrible wolf claw
tore out her heart and drannk her blood
and got his good health back

I am still a little bird
that flies on the wild heather
So wretched I shall live my life
and even more in th winter

I do, however, thank my Lord, so has created me
so that I can move my tongue
for I have not spoken for 15 years
as I do now with you

But all the time I have sung from the branch
with the sweet nightingale's voice
and I never found a more beautiful place
than in the green woods".

"o, listen, little nightingale
what I will offer thou
In the wintertime thou can sit in my cage
in the summertime thou can fly out again"

"Thank you, noble kngiht, for thy offer
but it cannot be so
for my step mother has forbidden that
as long as I carry feathers"

The nightingale was caught in deep thought
it did not notice the cunning knight
as he caught her by the foot
for God had wanted it so

He brought her home to his cage
closed all the windows and doors
she turned into many an amazing creature
that you could ever imagine

First she turned herself into a lion and a bear
and then into many small worms
finally into a giant snake
that wanted to kill the knight

He cut her with a wee little knife
till the blood came runing out
And at that moment on the floor in front of him
was a virgin as clear as a flower

"Now I have saved thou from all thy need
and from thy secret sorrow
so tell me about thy kin so fair
on thy father's and mother's side"

"Egypt's King was the father of mine
his Queen was my mother so brave
my brother used to be a wolf so gray
that walked upon the greenest bank"

"Is Egypt's King thy dear father
his queen thy honourful mother
Then thou art surely my sister's daughter
who once was a nightingale"

There was great happiness all over the farm
indeed all over the country
the knight had caught the nightingale
that was nesting in the lime tree so long