Two Norwegian Easter Hymns

The women at the tomb, MS. Harley 2889, German, 2nd quarter of the 12th century

Maundy Thursday now being past we have entered the final stage of the greatest and most important of Christian celebrations. The mystery of Easter is at the very heart of Christianity and it marks the climax (but not the end) of the liturgical drama by which Christ's life, death and resurrection is commemorated. There are a great number of beautiful Easter hymns, and in this little blogpost I aim to present to you two Norwegian hymns, which I love dearly and which are a crucial part of my identity as a Western Norwegian Lutheran (although I'm more a heretic than a Lutheran nowadays). Although neither hymn is of Norwegian origin (the first is Swedish, the second Danish) they are an important part of the Norwegian hymnal.

I had initially planned to include a large array of Easter hymns here, but these are the only hymns I could find on youtube which were not purely instrumental or too horrifyingly funked up to be of any use.



Se vi går opp til Jerusalem

(Lo, we approach Jerusalem)

Text: Paul Nilsson, 1898, 1906

Translation from Swedish: Eyvind Skeie, 1980

Melody: Anders Arrebo, 1627

Påskemorgen slukker sorgen

(Easter Morrow quenches the sorrow)

Text: Nikolai Frederik Severin Grundtvig, 1843

Melody: Ludvig M. Lindemann, 1864