10 August 2008

Swedish bagpipes ???

Yes. Pictured at left are "sakpipa," which date from Medieval times. The tradition dwindled down to a single practitioner before undergoing a revival in the modern era. You can even listen to an MP3 recording of that old favorite - "Krigsvisa om danskarna" - about war with Denmark. Note the catchy lyrics:
"Armar, tarmar, lår och ben, sig upp i luften svinga,
och hela mänskokroppar med, sig stora flugor flinga..."
Which roughly translates as -
"Arms, guts, thighs and bones are flying through the air.
And whole human bodies too, attracting big flies."
This improbable post prompted by hearing bagpipe music playing while non-European teams were marching into the Olympic stadium, and discovering afterwards that bagpipes are traditional in many countries outside of Great Britain, including the Balkans, Portugal, Malta, Italy, Greece...and Kuwait, Bahrain, Iran...!

This blog is called TYWKIWDBI for a reason...

1 comment:

  1. you could have gotten by with NDM for never a dull moment...

    ReplyDelete

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