philosopher

The very first Scandinavian (or Danish) written melody is said to be "Drømde mik æn drøm inat" or "Drømte mig en drøm i nat" (Translated: "Dreamt a dream last night") written in Codex Runicus containing Scanian law. It dates back to the early 1300s.



But today I stumpled upon a piece of music so strikingly simlar to this melody. It is called "Ja nuns hons pris" (Translated: "No prisoner ever tells his story objectively").



Not only is the melody simlar. The content is similar too. Both songs are about the judicial system. For example, the Danish version goes like this:

"Drømde mik æn drøm inat um silki oc ærlik pæl" (Literally translated into: "Dreamt a dream last night about silk and honest measure"). As you can see, this makes no sense, unless we translate it further: Silk was expensive in the middle ages, and "Pæl" was a standard of measure. I would like to translate this into "I dreamt a dream last night about wealth and justice".

So my question is: Is it likely the King Richard Lionheart was the founder of the melody that is written on Codex Runicus (Scanian law), and that this melody actually dates back to the 12th and 13th century England rather than the 14th century Denmark?

Linschoten

Fascinating stuff. I can't provide any answer, but I thought it would be worth posting this performance of the Danish song which I found on youtube:

Gudenrath

They are not that similar, and those parts which are is probably just coincidence, caused by the fact that there was a certain taste in music which was adhered to. A phenomenon wellknown in our days as well: