Karen Larson wrote asking for help with a Norwegian children’s song. Here’s her email:

I can only remember the second verse of a song, not the first… It’s about a milk truck on a bumpy road. You hold the child on your knee and when the truck goes up your knee goes up. When the truck goes down, you slip your knee and let the child slide down your leg. I learned it when I lived in Trondelag in the 1970’s. The chorus starts with a nonsense rhyme:

Hompetitin hompetatin hompetutin taeya

Mjølkeruta kommer I fra (Skumperund på Heia)
(The milk route/truck comes from Skumperund on Heia)

Hold deg I stolkarmen, lek du er med
(Hold yourself in the chair, play that you’re along)

Dermed så humper vi opp og ned
(So we bump up and down)

Vi humper opp og ned
(We bump up and down)

Vi humper opp
(We bump up)

Vi humper ned
(We bump down)

Vi humper opp
(We bump up)

Vi humper ned.
(We bump down.)

The second verse is:

Nå har han Per fatt det slik som han vil
(Now Per has it just as he wants)

Med jakke og bukse og nå kjøre han bil
(With jacket and pants and now he drives a car)

Men veien er humpete, hei hvor det går
(The road is bumpy, hey how it goes)

Det humper and dumper I ruta vår.
(It bumps and dumps in our route.)

The dialect forms of the word milk, “mjølk” instead of “melk” and the feminine form of “route” (“ruta” instead of “ruten”) indicate an origin further south in the area where Nynorsk is spoken, and it’s clearly of rural origin based on the content. I have the tune, and am singing it to my grandson. Does anybody have the first verse?

Thanks,

Karen Larson

If anyone can help with this song, please comment below. 

Thanks!

Mama Lisa