Can Someone Help with a Norwegian Song about a Horse with the Line, “Stodola Pumpa”?
Jeanette wrote me…
Good Evening;
My husband’s Grandmother was from Norway and she used to sing a song to him as a little boy about a poor man’s horse, a rich man’s horse, a soldier’s horse etc. My children and Grandchildren only remember the chorus – and only phonetically as they remember my husband (who is now deceased) singing it to them as he gave them a horsey ride on his knee.
The chorus sounded like this to them:
Stoldala, stodola, stodola pumpa,
Stodola pumpa,
Stodola pumpa,
Stoldala, stodola, stodola pumpa,
Stodola pum, pum, pum, pum, pum.I hope you can help me find it for them.
A Grandmother,
Jeanette
If anyone can help Jeanette with this song, please comment below.
Thanks in advance!
Lisa










April 27th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
I remember that song … but I learned it as Czech song. We sang it in our high school glee club (1964-1968).
I alos found this posting
http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=11063
Subject: RE: Anyone know the words to ‘Stodala Pumpa’?
From: Bob Schwarer
Date: 20 May 99 – 07:33 PM
As I recall: Stodala,stodala,stodala pumpa
Stodala pumpa, stodala pumpa
Stodala, stodala, stodala pumpa
Stodala pumpa, pum pa pa.
Also my recall is that stodala pumpa = barn pump
Bob S.
—
I know that I have a book of songs that includes this one in my attic … if come across it, I’ll send you the music score
Ed
April 27th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
I’d like to confirm that the Polish word for barn is:
StodoÅ‚a – budynek w gospodarstwie rolnym przeznaczony do przechowywania zebranego zboża, siana i sÅ‚omy. W stodole wykonywaÅ‚o siÄ™ też omÅ‚oty zboża, przechowywano narzÄ™dzia, pojazdy rolnicze.
The Czech word for barn is
Stodola je zemÄ›dÄ›lská stavba, urÄ?ená k uskladňovánà objemných zemÄ›dÄ›lských produktů (obilÃ, sláma, seno). DÅ™Ãve byla souÄ?ástà téměř každého statku.
The Norwegian word is
Løe er en selvstendig bygning eller et rom i en større driftsbygning. Ei løe er til lagring av høy eller annet tørrfor til husdyr, og for lagring av korn før det blir tresket.
April 29th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
There’s definitely a Czech folk song called “Stodala Pumpa” called “Walking at Night” in English. I don’t know if it’s related to Jeanette’s song though.
May 1st, 2008 at 9:39 am
Ed Gawlinski was kind enough to send me a midi tune of the Czech folk song “Stodala Pumpa”. You can hear it if you click the link. Is this the tune of your husband’s Grandmother’s song Jeanette?
July 4th, 2008 at 8:35 pm
I don’t know if this will help, but I’ve found a few different sets of lyrics to this song that I learned from Grandmother.
http://nz.youtube.com/watch?v=7stnHz7dADI
October 28th, 2008 at 11:58 pm
We use to sing this song in grade school back in the 50’s in Detroit Mich.
In the song book the title, “Stodola Pumpa” was suppose to mean Dance of the Barn Owl? Stodola meaning Barn and Pumpa, meaning Owl. At least that’s what I remember the book stating.
May 22nd, 2009 at 11:47 am
I have also been searching for the Czech text to “Stodola pumpa” without much success. However, being a Norwegian-American who has spoken Norwegian and English since I was a child (at home in the Midwest), and as a public school music teacher in both the US and Norway, I must say that this song is definitely NOT Norwegian; the song rhythm doesn’t fit the Norwegian language, nor does the melodic structure. The passage in Norwegian from Ed Gawlinski is an encyclopedia definition of a “løe”, a hay-barn or a hayloft. I guess we are all still searching for that text. I found an English version of it in an old American songbook — at the home of my Norwegian grandparents in northwest Wisconsin, back in the 1950s.
Jim Nelson, Drammen, Norway, May 2009
October 5th, 2009 at 9:57 pm
stodola pumpa is a czech folk song. i learned it as a boy in country school in michigan. it was one of our favorite songs even though we didn’t have a clue what it was about. we were just little kids.