National Anthem Comparison
Iceland vs Norway
3
Shared themes
✗
Different moods
15
15 years apart
✓
Same continent
Comparison Analysis
Iceland and Norway, both Europe nations, take distinct approaches to their national anthems. Iceland's "Hymn" was written in 1874, while Norway's "Yes, We Love This Country" dates to 1859.
Both anthems share themes of god / faith, nature and ancestors / heritage.
The emotional tones differ: Iceland's anthem is prayerful, while Norway's is proud.
Shared themes
Iceland
✝ God / Faith 🌿 Nature 🏺 Ancestors / Heritage
Norway
❤ Love of homeland 🌿 Nature 🏺 Ancestors / Heritage ✝ God / Faith ☮ Peace
Shared themes:
✝ God / Faith 🌿 Nature 🏺 Ancestors / Heritage
Metadata
| Iceland | Norway | |
|---|---|---|
| Written | 1874 | 1859 |
| Adopted | 1918 | 1864 |
| Lyricist | Matthías Jochumsson | Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson |
| Composer | Sveinbjörn Sveinbjörnsson | Rikard Nordraak |
| Language | is | nb |
| Region | Northern Europe | Northern Europe |
Lyrics Side by Side
Iceland
Lofsöngur
Original
Ó, guð vors lands! Ó, lands vors guð!
Vér lofum þitt heilaga, heilaga nafn!
Úr sólkerfum himnanna hnýta þér krans
þínir herskarar, tímanna safn.
Fyrir þér er einn dagur sem þúsund ár
og þúsund ár dagur, ei meir:
eitt eilífðar smáblóm með titrandi tár,
sem tilbiður guð sinn og deyr.
Íslands þúsund ár,
Íslands þúsund ár,
eitt eilífðar smáblóm með titrandi tár,
sem tilbiður guð sinn og deyr.
Ó, guð, ó, guð! Vér föllum fram
og fórnum þér brennandi, brennandi sál,
guð faðir, vor drottinn frá kyni til kyns,
og vér kvökum vort helgasta mál.
Vér kvökum og þökkum í þúsund ár,
því þú ert vort einasta skjól.
Vér kvökum og þökkum með titrandi tár,
því þú tilbjóst vort forlagahjól.
Íslands þúsund ár,
Íslands þúsund ár,
voru morgunsins húmköldu, hrynjandi tár,
sem hitna við skínandi sól.
Ó, guð vors lands! Ó, lands vors guð!
Vér lifum sem blaktandi, blaktandi strá.
Vér deyjum, ef þú ert ei ljós það og líf,
sem að lyftir oss duftinu frá.
Ó, vert þú hvern morgun vort ljúfasta líf,
vor leiðtogi í daganna þraut
og á kvöldin vor himneska hvíld og vor hlíf
og vor hertogi á þjóðlífsins braut.
Íslands þúsund ár,
Íslands þúsund ár,
verði gróandi þjóðlíf með þverrandi tár,
sem þroskast á guðsríkis braut.
Translation
O God of our land! O our land's God!
We praise Your holy, holy name!
Out of the solar systems of the heavens Your hosts weave You a crown,
Your hosts, the gathering of the ages.
Before You one day is as a thousand years
and a thousand years a day, no more:
one little flower of eternity with a trembling tear,
that worships its God and dies.
Iceland's thousand years,
Iceland's thousand years,
one little flower of eternity with a trembling tear,
that worships its God and dies.
O God, O God! We fall down before You
and offer You a burning, burning soul,
God the Father, our Lord from age to age,
and we murmur our holiest words.
We murmur and give thanks a thousand years,
for You are our only shelter.
We murmur and give thanks with a trembling tear,
for You shaped the wheel of our fate.
Iceland's thousand years,
Iceland's thousand years,
were the morning's dusk-cold, falling tears
that grow warm in the shining sun.
O God of our land! O our land's God!
We live like a fluttering, fluttering blade of grass.
We die if You are not that light and that life
which lifts us up out of the dust.
O, be each morning our dearest life,
our guide through the labour of the days,
and in the evenings our heavenly rest and our shield
and our captain on the road of the nation's life.
Iceland's thousand years,
Iceland's thousand years,
let the nation's life flourish with dwindling tears,
ripening on the road of the kingdom of God.
Norway
Ja, vi elsker dette landet
Original
Ja, vi elsker dette landet,
som det stiger frem,
furet, værbitt over vannet,
med de tusen hjem,
elsker, elsker det og tenker
på vår far og mor
og den saganatt som senker
drømme på vår jord.
Norske mann i hus og hytte,
takk din store Gud!
Landet ville han beskytte,
skjønt det mørkt så ud.
Alt, hva fedrene har kjempet,
mødrene har grett,
har den Herre stille lempet,
så vi vant vår rett.
Ja, vi elsker dette landet,
som det stiger frem,
furet, værbitt over vannet,
med de tusen hjem.
Og som fedres kamp har hevet
det av nød til seir,
også vi, når det blir krevet,
for dets fred slår leir.
Translation
Yes, we love this country,
as it rises forth,
rugged, weathered, above the sea,
with its thousand homes,
love it, love it, and think
of our father and mother
and the saga night that sends
dreams upon our earth.
Norwegian man in house and cabin,
thank your great God!
The country He wanted to protect,
though it looked dark.
All that our fathers fought for,
our mothers wept for,
the Lord has quietly granted,
so we won our right.
Yes, we love this country,
as it rises forth,
rugged, weathered, above the sea,
with its thousand homes.
And as our fathers' struggle raised
it from need to victory,
we too, when called upon,
shall pitch camp for its peace.
Interesting facts
Iceland
- 1. The hymn's central image comes from Psalm 90, where a thousand years in God's sight are like a day that has gone by. Its two-way wording, 'one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years a day', is closer to 2 Peter 3:8.
- 2. It is notoriously difficult to sing. In the official score the melody spans a minor fourteenth, an octave plus a minor seventh, and the government itself says the range is much too wide for many people. Usually only the first of the three stanzas is sung.
- 3. Act No. 7 of 1983 formally made Lofsöngur the national anthem of Iceland and forbids performing or publishing it in any form other than the original, or using it for commercial or advertising purposes; before that the song's status rested on custom. The state had acquired the copyright to the music in 1948 and to the poem in 1949.
- 4. Jochumsson wrote the first stanza in the autumn of 1873 while staying with Sveinbjörnsson at 15 London Street in Edinburgh, where a plaque has marked the house since 1974. He wrote the other two stanzas in London, and the music followed in the spring of 1874.
Norway
- 1. Composer Rikard Nordraak, a cousin of Bjørnson, died of tuberculosis in March 1866 at just 23, less than two years after the first performance; his friend Edvard Grieg wrote a Funeral March in Memory of Rikard Nordraak.
- 2. The melody spans an octave and a fourth, an unusually wide range for a national anthem; in 1900 Edvard Grieg called it a "seeming impossibility" for a crowd to sing, yet said it captures the poem's feelings exactly.
- 3. The final text has eight stanzas, but usually only the first and the last two are sung.
- 4. The first version, printed in 1859 for the opening of the Storting, had six stanzas and was dedicated to Charles XV, king of the union of Sweden and Norway; in the revised version Bjørnson published in December 1863, the king was gone.
Listen
Iceland
Norway
