Mors lilla Olle
Encyclopedia
"Mors lilla Olle" is a Swedish
children's song
by Alice Tegnér
. The song is about the boy Olle, who meets a bear
in the forest. He is not frightened, believing the bear to be a dog, and feeds the bear all of his precious blueberries
. When Olle's mother sees him and the bear she screams loudly, and the bear flees. Olle then asks his mother if the "dog" couldn't come back again.
In the song, Olle is approximately 4–5 years of age, and therefore does not understand what a bear is. The lyrics was inspired by an actual event. In September 1850, a toddler named Jon Ersson and his older siblings picked lingonberries a couple of hundred meters from their home in Morbäcksätern outside the village Särna
in Dalarna
. Jon, at that time just one year and seven months old, met a female brown bear
with two cubs and fed the cubs lingonberry twigs. They got tired and the cubs and Jon all lay to rest next to the female bear. Jon's eldest sister then fetched their mother and she scared off the bears. A Norwegian newspaper wrote an article about this incident in April 1851 and the author Wilhelm von Braun (1813–1860) wrote a poem about it, Stark i sin oskuld ("Strong in his innocence") which starts with the line "Small boy in a mountain forest went, rosy cheeks and angelic look...".
Alice Tegner was inspired by the poem and as a consequence wrote "Mors lilla Olle". It was published in volume 3 of Tegner's Sjung med oss, mamma! ("Sing with us, mom!") in 1895.
The melody and text is copyrighted to 2013 (70 years after the death of the author).
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
children's song
Children's song
Children's song may be a nursery rhyme set to music, a song that young children invent and share among themselves, or a modern creation intended for entertainment, use in the home, or education...
by Alice Tegnér
Alice Tegnér
Alice Charlotta Tegnér was a Swedish music teacher, poet and composer. She was recognized as a foremost composer of Swedish children's songs during the first half of the 20th century.-Background:...
. The song is about the boy Olle, who meets a bear
Bear
Bears are mammals of the family Ursidae. Bears are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans, with the pinnipeds being their closest living relatives. Although there are only eight living species of bear, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the Northern...
in the forest. He is not frightened, believing the bear to be a dog, and feeds the bear all of his precious blueberries
Blueberry
Blueberries are flowering plants of the genus Vaccinium with dark-blue berries and are perennial...
. When Olle's mother sees him and the bear she screams loudly, and the bear flees. Olle then asks his mother if the "dog" couldn't come back again.
In the song, Olle is approximately 4–5 years of age, and therefore does not understand what a bear is. The lyrics was inspired by an actual event. In September 1850, a toddler named Jon Ersson and his older siblings picked lingonberries a couple of hundred meters from their home in Morbäcksätern outside the village Särna
Särna
Särna is a locality situated in Älvdalen Municipality, Dalarna County, Sweden with 768 inhabitants in 2005.The two parishes Särna and Idre were originally part of Norway but were occupied by Swedish farmers in 1644...
in Dalarna
Dalarna
', English exonym: Dalecarlia, is a historical province or landskap in central Sweden. Another English language form established in literature is the Dales. Places involving the element Dalecarlia exist in the United States....
. Jon, at that time just one year and seven months old, met a female brown bear
Brown Bear
The brown bear is a large bear distributed across much of northern Eurasia and North America. It can weigh from and its largest subspecies, the Kodiak Bear, rivals the polar bear as the largest member of the bear family and as the largest land-based predator.There are several recognized...
with two cubs and fed the cubs lingonberry twigs. They got tired and the cubs and Jon all lay to rest next to the female bear. Jon's eldest sister then fetched their mother and she scared off the bears. A Norwegian newspaper wrote an article about this incident in April 1851 and the author Wilhelm von Braun (1813–1860) wrote a poem about it, Stark i sin oskuld ("Strong in his innocence") which starts with the line "Small boy in a mountain forest went, rosy cheeks and angelic look...".
Alice Tegner was inspired by the poem and as a consequence wrote "Mors lilla Olle". It was published in volume 3 of Tegner's Sjung med oss, mamma! ("Sing with us, mom!") in 1895.
The melody and text is copyrighted to 2013 (70 years after the death of the author).