My grandparents on my father’s side immigrated to America from Sweden in the 1920s. Many Americans are obsessed about their “roots”, being proud of having Irish or Italian or whatever heritage, even if they have no contact or relationship with the land of their ancestors. I don’t know why exactly, but it may be because America as a nation has a short history and there are many people who can trace their heritage to another country of origin in a few generations or less.

Growing up, I wasn’t obsessed with my Scandinavian heritage, but I was definitely aware of it. I didn’t care or know very much about Sweden, but if say a Swedish boxer was fighting a Portuguese boxer on TV I would cheer for the Swedish one just because. If I went to IHOP and had a choice of German, French or Swedish pancakes, I’d choose the Swedish ones, just because. It was just a fun thing to do.

Since my firstborn son was born last September, I’ve had some unexplainable shift in my thinking and now I have a stronger feeling of attachment to my Swedish roots. As a result of this, my baby son has begun to accumulate a lot of Sweden-related [and Japanese] things [my wife is Japanese]. My son now has Dala horse pajamas, D’Aulaires’ Book of Norse Myths and more recently, we got him a cd of Swedish children songs.

Anyway, that’s a long introduction to this post about a Swedish children’s song. Sorry about that.

Most English speakers are probably familiar with the song “Bingo”. You know, the one that goes like this:

There was a farmer (who) had a dog,
and Bingo was his name-o.
B-I-N-G-O
B-I-N-G-O
B-I-N-G-O
and Bingo was his name-o.

Our cd of Swedish children’s songs has a Swedish version of this song called Grevens Hund. The verse has a different melody than “Bingo”, but the spelling chorus has the same tune. I thought I’d share it with you. I don’t speak or read Swedish, but I found that I could translate some of the song anyway. Below is a link to the .mp3 (hope I don’t get in trouble) followed by the lyrics. It’s a short song.

Listen to the song here

Grevens Hund

Greven hade en liten hund
Trulle var hans namn, serru
greven hade en liten hund
Trulle var hans namn serru
T-R-U-L-L-E
T-R-U-L-L-E
T-R-U-L-L-E
Trulle var hans namn serru

Greven hade en liten katt
Trisse var hans namn, serru
greven hade en liten katt
Trisse var hans namn serru
T-R-I-S-S-E
T-R-I-S-S-E
T-R-I-S-S-E
Trisse var hans namn, serru

Greven hade båd hund och katt
trilla om varann, serru
greven hade båd hund och katt
trilla om varann, serru
T-R-I-L-L-A
T-R-I-L-L-A
T-R-I-L-L-A
trilla om varann, serru

trans: Greven (proper name? [edit: Greven means The Count. Big thanks to helpful reader adjusting]) had a little dog
Trulle was his name.
Greven had a little dog
Trulle was his name.
T-R-U-L-L-E …

Greven had a little cat
Trisse was his name.
Greven had a little cat
Trisse was his name.
T-R-I-S-S-E …

[edit: a friendly reader helped with the translation of the third verse. Thanks adjusting!]
Greven had a dog and cat…
They tumble around together.
Greven had a dog and cat,
They tumble around together.
T-R-I-L-L-A …

My son loves these songs, and I’ve been having fun learning to sing them (with poor pronunciation I’m sure :) ). I wanted to share my love of language with my son somehow - what better way than introducing him to other languages through music?

Do you know of another version of this song? Write about it in the comments. Or if you want to talk about children songs in general or Swedish or whatever, please do!

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