Stev facts for kids

Stev is a special kind of poetry from Scandinavia. It's like a short song or poem. Each stev is made up of stanzas, which are like small paragraphs in a poem. Every stanza in a stev has four lines.

Types of Stev

There are several types of stev, each with its own history and style.

Gamle-stev

• Gamle-stev means "old stev." This is the oldest type of stev.
• People probably danced to gamle-stev.
• The first gamle-stev were found around the late 1200s.
• Most of these old stev come from areas like Setesdal and Vest-Telemark in Norway.
• Some gamle-stev were part of folk songs. Often, only the stev part of the song was remembered and passed down through generations. The rest of the song is now lost.

Ny-stev

• Ny-stev means "new stev." These have been around since about the 1700s.
• In Telemark, many ny-stev have been replaced by other rural folk songs.
• However, ny-stev are still very popular in Setesdal.

Om-kved

• Om-kved are similar to refrains you might hear in ballads. A refrain is a line or group of lines that repeat in a song or poem.
• There are different kinds of om-kved, such as inn-stev, etter-stev, mellom-sleng, and etter-sleng.

Slåtte-stev

• Slåtte-stev are special stev used with instrumental dance songs. This means they are sung along with music played on instruments, often for dancing.

Herme-stev

• Herme-stev are sometimes called "parody-quote" stev.
• They often include funny or clever sayings, like Wellerisms. A Wellerism is a saying where a proverb is followed by a humorous remark from a speaker.

People Who Perform Stev

A person who performs a stev is called a kveder. A kveder is a type of artist who sings or recites these poems.

• One of the most famous kveders whose performances have been recorded is Aslak Brekke.
• Kveders from Setesdal often sing stev more slowly than kveders from Telemark.
• This might be because the text of Setesdal stev are often more thoughtful or sad, which is called meditative or elegiac.