Swedish Song - 'Herr Mannelig' [English Subtitles]

"Herr Mannelig" - (English: aka The Courting of the Mountain Troll)

Herr Mannelig is a Swedish medieval ballad that tells the story of a female mountain troll who proposes to a young man. The troll tries to convince him to accept her as his wife. She offers him gifts, but the man refuses as she is not a Christian woman but a troll, who belongs to the devil. The failure to seduce him makes her desperate, because by winning him over she would get rid of her plight, possibly suggesting that she is under a curse. The picture is unrelated to the song, performed by Garmarna.

[alicepersson]

Troll: "The worst thing he can say is no"
Herr Mannelig:

[lottaleissner]

Swede here.
I knew this song as a child, but only heard/sang it quite a bit faster. That way, even though it's in a minor key, it sounded way less tragic and more jokingly as the troll is listing all the ridiculous riches she wish to give the young lad for his hand in marriage. We children were even encouraged to make up our own verses about what we would promise to give him if we were the troll, each and everyone getting more exaggerated as we went.
It's funny how much the tempo can change a song!

[SurrealKeenan]

LOL! The lyrics are literally "Will you go out with me? The worst you can say is no."
"You are the worst mountain troll, the spawn of the Neck and the Devil!"

[Shanaoh]

I did some research regarding the painting in the video and with the help of people in this comment section, I finally understood the context of the painting. The painting is called: "Here is a piece of a troll herb which nobody else but me can find" and the artist who painted this work is a gentleman by the name of John Bauer.

As the description of this video states, the painting has nothing to do with the song. In fact, the big old lady you see in the painting isn't even a troll. She's apparently a witch that got her hair stuck in the branches of a spruce tree. The boy in the painting then set her free and for his kindness, the witch gave him a magical herb that enables him to understand what the animals of the forest are saying, and that's the scene that's depicted in the painting.

The story this painting is based on is called: "The boy who was never afraid" and the story is about a young boy whose cow was abducted by a troll. Knowing that nothing would harm him thanks to his kind-hearted nature, the boy fearlessly went out to search for his cow.

The story does feature a troll as the main antagonist but the painting itself is about the boy's encounter with the witch.

[pennychenery]

From what I've read about this song, it was believed that although fairies were unaging and thus _might_ live forever, they had no immortal souls. But they could gain a soul by marrying a human.

[MrTeniguafez]

F in the chat for my girl. Imagine you work up the guts to ask a guy out and he's like "I rebuke thee, devilspawn!"

[TheJoppa]

Her: I’m going to ask him out! The worst thing he can say is no.

Mannelig: 4:18

[joakimalderborn]

As a native Swedish speaker, I can tell you that the English subtitles, while mostly correct, don't bring out the elegance of the Swedish original. This is very beautiful Swedish with lots of poetic twists and turns. Also, it uses a lot of old words that are uncommon in modern every-day Swedish.

[HATECELL]

I love Swedish words translated into a language I understand. It's kinda funny how as a German speaker I don't understand Swedish but once I see a word and hear its meaning it kinda makes sense to me. Like the two languages split up too long ago to straight up understand each other but you can kinda see the way they took. Hope that makes sense

[TheSmongo]

My mom sang this to me when i was a kid. The nostalgia is overwhelming. RIP mom. <3

[Vox-Multis]

I am obsessed with this song. I don't know a word of Swedish, yet I find myself compelled to learn the lyrics so I can sing along.

[oliverlewis]

I should have slept hours ago but i'm listening to a Swedish folk ballad. I wish the algorithm would behave

[sohambhattacharya]

I think the woman is not troll in the mythical sense. She's just a pagan, non Christian, woman who is proposing a Christian man. And the man is rejecting her for not being Christian.

[RelativelyBest]

2:47 - This line actually means "that rings/chimes from fifteen gold rings." The word "klinga" means "blade" as a noun but is also a verb meaning "to ring" as in the sound bells make. Whoever wrote the translation probably got them mixed up. The implication seems to be that the sword has rings attached to it, or possibly a gold chain.

[Sdb]

Got this random Youtube recommendation, this is such a beautiful language and song. Love from India to the people who speak this.

[marilynp]

Art is by Swedish painter and illustrator John Bauer (1882-1918).

[Nova-xygf]

Bro has some guts to reject a troll who's double his size.

[VasiliyOgniov]

First time I've heard this song, it was a Russian translation and I found it very interesting from a historical standpoint. I googled it and found out that the whole poem is an allegory of Norse-Christian relations at the time which, in humble opinion, makes the song much more cooler to say the least. I mean, it's basically a centuries-old social commentary which brings up one of the perspectives on this matter, which allows us to understand the feelings of the people of this era somewhat, or at least this one particular writer.
This version though is just outright beautiful. I'm even considering learning Swedish now, after hearing that. This language is somehow sounds both familiar yet very distinctly alien. Fascinating stuff, I'd say

[huskiiyt]

I know this song from a very popular german game called "Gothic" where it is played by "In Extremo" in the game, but in a more "cheerful" and "rocky" way. I really liked the song back then and i occasionally listen to it. But this version sounds more "sad" which makes it even more mysterious.

Greetings to all Swedes from Germany!

[LBerti]

I love that the text is written in swedish and english, because as a german who also speaks english, this made me understand the swedish as well, because it is is so closely related to both languages