I cannot begin to describe how thrilled I am to have found this thread! My grandpa and my dad used to both sing parts of this song to me as a child setting with them. I loved this song. My grandpa a full blood Swede sang the song in a very heavy Swede accent which left me with the mistaken impression the song was a Scandinavian song. My dad would also sing a much condensed version of this same song as I sat with him as a child when he would be putting me to sleep.

I was born in 1962 so even my dad is now well into his 80's with little memory of this song, or its origins, and until finding this thread I could not trace the roots of this song. Thanks to everyone so very much, having this info just means so much to me!