Oleanna (song)

"Oleanna" (or "Oleana") is a Norwegian folk song that was translated into English and popularized by former Weavers member Pete Seeger.

The lyrics concern the singer's desire to leave Norway and escape to Oleanna, a land where "wheat and corn just plant themselves, then grow a good four feet a day while on your bed you rest yourself.

"[1] The lyrics for Oleanna were written by Ditmar Meidell, a Norwegian magazine editor, who set his words to the melody "Rio Janeiro".

Folksinger Pete Seeger learned Oleanna from Blegen's book and in 1955 wrote a six-verse translation that was later published in Sing Out!

[4] In 1960 Theodore Bikel[5] and Alan Lomax[6] each published versions of Oleanna that drew on Seeger's translation, Meidell's original lyrics and their own imaginations.