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Musevisa
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Wikipedia article
"'Musevisa'" ("The Mouse Song") is a Norwegian Christmas song by singer-songwriter Alf Prysen from 1946. Prysen wrote the lyrics for the song in 1946, to a traditional tune. 'Musevisa' is a secular song, where a family of anthropomorphic mice are preparing for Christmas. The mouse-mother specifically warns her children against the dangers of the mousetrap. In December 2008 the alleged rediscovery of a missing verse from the song attracted the attention of the Norwegian media. Though an alternative ending was originally written for the song, the discovery in question was eventually revealed to be a hoax.
Creation
In the late autumn of 1946, Prysen (19141970), who had just left his job as a farm hand, received a commission from the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) to write a Christmas song for children. Before presenting the song to the network, he met with his friend Arnljot Hyland near the Oslo railway station Vestbanen, to get his opinion on the song he had written. Prysen said he was worried about the happy and sympathetic tone of the song, since the subject was mice, considered a pest. For this reason he had written an alternative ending to the lyrics. Hyland told him not to worry, correctly predicting that this would not be an issue. Prysen presented the song in its original form, it was accepted and became an instant classic. Hyland never heard the alternative ending.
Rediscovery of missing verse
In December 2008, NRK-presenter Vidar Lnn-Arnesen claimed to have found the missing verse. In Lnn-Arnesen's version, it was children's program host "Onkel" Lauritz Johnson who had objected to the original verse, and asked Prysen to write a new one. In the original version the mice were eaten by a cat, which Johnson found too disturbing for children's radio. The original verse had been thrown away, but a cleaning maid had picked it up. The woman had kept the piece of paper, but fifty years laternow living in Thailandshe sent it back to NRK. Then, in 2008, Lnn-Arnesen was editing a Christmas songbook, and decided to include the original verse and the story behind it.
The story attracted widespread attention in Norwegian newspapers, but not everybody was ready to accept it. Ove Rsbak, who had written a biography on Prysen, had interviewed Hyland and others, and debunked Lnn-Arnesen's story as false. The song in its present version was in fact the original, according to Rsbak, and if another version existed this had to be a discarded early draft. Pointing out the poor literary quality as the reason why the extra verse had been abandoned, he still conceded that the verse was written by Prysen: "There is no doubt about that, but there's a reason why it ended up in the dustbin." Rsbak also took issue with the late Johnson being presented as a prude who censored controversial content. Lnn-Arnesen stuck to his version of the events, but insisted that he had never intended any disrespect to Johnson, who had been his colleague.
Hoax revealed
On 23 December 2008, former NRK-photographer Ivar Kalleberg revealed that it was in fact he who had written the missing verse, as a hoax. Kalleberg had used an old yellowed piece of paper, and copied Prysen's handwriting from a letter he had once received from him. He then asked his neighbor if she would compose a letter, posing as the fictional retired cleaning lady. Kalleberg claimed to have used the Hitler Diaries as an inspiration for the hoax. To back up his claim, Kalleberg referred to an autobiography he had written in 2003, where he had reproduced the verse from memory, almost verbatim.
Rsbak appreciated Kalleberg's hoax, though he commented that the episode did raise some issues about source criticism in the Norwegian publishing business. Lnn-Arnesen admitted that, although he didn't believe Kalleberg's story, if he had indeed been the victim of a practical joke, it was a good one. Kalleberg, meanwhile, was convinced that Prysen would have appreciated the hoax had he been alive. The poet was once, in the 1950s, informed about an impostor who performed under his name. He reacted with a shrug and replied "Perhaps he sings better than I do."
Swedish version
There is a Swedish version of the song - without the false verse - called "Mssens julafton" ("Christmas Eve for the Mice") written by Prysen's long time co-operative partner, the popular Swedish composer and songwriter Ulf Peder Olrog. In Sweden, Olrog usually is known as the composer of the song's melody.
References
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