The case in summary Skillingsviser, printed songs that were sold for a shilling, are one of the oldest forms of journalism in Norway, and were used to convey news about murders, executions, shipwrecks and natural disasters. Siv Gøril Brandtzæg, one of the country’s greatest experts on shilling songs, calls this singing journalism our neglected cultural heritage. The skilling songs were sold in Norway for four hundred years, and people bought the songs and sang them to each other, which helped to spread important events. The shillings tunes continued to exist even after newspapers came along, and people continued to sing about events and buy shillings tunes. Skillings’ songs also had the task of giving people comfort, and many of the songs tried to give meaning to the senseless. The summary is made by an AI service from OpenAi. The content is quality assured by news’s journalists before publication. – This is probably the oldest form of journalism. And they sang it. That’s what Siv Gøril Brandtzæg says. She is one of the country’s biggest experts on shillings. People communicated news to each other long before the first newspapers were printed. Murders, executions, shipwrecks and natural disasters. Everything could be sung about and find its way into a shilling tune. A shilling song is a printed song on paper that you could buy for a shilling. Skillingsviene existed in Norway well into the 20th century. But when they arose four hundred years earlier, they were news leaders, long before newspapers were invented. Photo: Ingrid Lindgaard Stranden / news Brandtzæg calls this singing journalism our neglected cultural heritage. The bills of exchange are the very oldest printed matter that exists in this country. Beat the newspapers by a couple of hundred years – We think the shillings have not received enough attention, says Brandtzæg. Skillingsvise was sold in Norway for a full four hundred years. People bought the songs, the shilling prints, and sang them on to each other. – This is how important events were spread and told about, says Brandtzæg. Researcher at NTNU, Siv Gøril Brandtzæg is one of the country’s foremost researchers on shillings. She calls them our neglected cultural heritage. Photo: Ingrid Lindgaard Stranden / news As people were willing to pay for the shilling visas, it was also a bit of a chore to have them. – You can compare the ways of sharing money with today’s social media. People got an unfiltered version of something that had happened, says the researcher. Dilling printing could have both small and large print runs. – The most popular 19th-century plays were printed in the thousands. The payment methods came in several categories. Many songs also contained stories about love, patriotism and humour. Only historical source The oldest shillingsvise in Norway are from 1550. These were printed in Denmark because there was no printing press in Norway until 1643. This means that news was written and disseminated as shillingsvise two hundred years before the first newspapers appeared. Skillingsviene were often about dramatic events. This is from 1750 and tells about several people who died in the Trondheimsfjord in an accident. Norway’s oldest newspaper did not appear until ten years later. Photo: NTNU – The shillingstrykken are also an important written source for us now in our time about what has happened in the past, says Brandtzæg. Brandtzæg is completing a book about natural disasters in Norwegian shilling prints. Here, she has, among other things, taken a closer look at songs about shipwrecks. She refers, among other things, to a shipwreck in the Folla Sea off the Namdal coast in Trøndelag that occurred in 1625, and where the shilling print is the only historical source available. 210 fishermen perished. This painting is from 1832 and shows “Shipwreck on the Norwegian coast”. Artist is Johan Christian Dahl. Photo: Shipwreck on the Norwegian coast” (JC Dahl, 1832) / National Museum/Larsen, Frode Singing a familiar melody The singing news had to have a melody. And most often the songs were based on well-known songs that most people could sing. – They sort of used “greatest hits” in their time. A bit like what you do in confirmation where you create lyrics to a well-known melody, says Brandtzæg. In the 15th – 16th and 18th centuries, the shilling tunes were mainly based on hymn melodies. – People sang much more than what we do today, says Brandtzæg. The melody was often stated at the very bottom of the text, below the lyrics themselves. In this dirge from 1798 about four men who died in a storm at sea, the shilling tune is to be sung to the tune of “Sorrig og glede de vander til hobe” by Thomas Kingo. Photo: ntnu Executions were good material In recent years, many skilling songs have been digitized and they can be searched in a separate database at the Gunnerius Library at NTNU: skillingsviser.no The skilling songs also tell of a time when people were quite lawless. – Stories about executions were popular, says the researcher. On some of the shilling forms, you can see that they cost ten øre. This applies, among other things, to the song about when the Titanic sank in 1912. In step with society at large, the price of the songs also increased. But they should be cheap. Several songs were also composed about some accidents. Such as the example of the Titran accident in 1899. 210 fishermen died on the Folda Sea off the Namdal coast in Trøndelag in 1625. The pressure of the penny is the only historical source. Photo: Ingrid Lindgaard Stranden / news – What is interesting is that the shilling methods continued to exist even after the newspapers came. One had both, for a long time. People kept singing about events and they bought shilling songs, says Brandtzæg. Was also a comfort But the shillings songs did not only have the task of telling. They gave people comfort. – Many of the songs try to make sense of the meaningless. They told about the bad things that had happened, but they were also written in such a way that they should help the next of kin and others, says Brandzæg. The songs show great respect. For nature and for God. People had little, they lived hard lives and they depended on the sea and the rest of nature to survive. – Shipwreck in particular was seen as an extra tragic way to die. For a while there was also uncertainty around whether one went to heaven when one perished in the sea. But the sages sought to comfort and help people, says Brandtzæg. Siv Gøril Brandtzæg gives a lecture on shillings. Here she is at the Museum of Coastal Heritage in Stadsbygd in Indre Fosen. Photo: Ingrid Lindgaard Stranden / no
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Paid for songs about death and corruption – news Trøndelag – Local news, TV and radio
