WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.339 Picture this. It's the year 1644. You are standing 00:00:04.339 --> 00:00:07.980 on the deck of the Danish flagship Trafalda Hayden. 00:00:08.119 --> 00:00:09.939 Right in the middle of the Battle of Kohlberger 00:00:09.939 --> 00:00:13.300 Heide. Exactly. The air is just thick with smoke, 00:00:13.599 --> 00:00:17.269 fog, and the absolute... deafening roar of naval 00:00:17.269 --> 00:00:20.230 artillery. It's chaos. Complete chaos. And suddenly 00:00:20.230 --> 00:00:23.089 a Swedish cannonball strikes a Danish cannon 00:00:23.089 --> 00:00:26.109 right near the commander. Shrapnel, you know, 00:00:26.109 --> 00:00:28.750 splinters of wood and chunks of burning metal 00:00:28.750 --> 00:00:30.829 just flies across the deck. And the king himself 00:00:30.829 --> 00:00:33.229 is struck down. Yeah. King Christian IV, who 00:00:33.229 --> 00:00:35.509 was personally commanding the fleet at 67 years 00:00:35.509 --> 00:00:38.469 old, he loses his right eye. His ear is mutilated. 00:00:38.549 --> 00:00:41.149 He collapses onto the blood -slicked wooden boards. 00:00:41.390 --> 00:00:43.750 And for a terrifying moment, the entire crew 00:00:43.750 --> 00:00:46.060 assumes their monarch is dead. I mean, you would. 00:00:46.299 --> 00:00:49.420 But then, bleeding heavily and half blind, he 00:00:49.420 --> 00:00:51.799 struggles back to his feet, props himself against 00:00:51.799 --> 00:00:54.219 the main mast, and orders his men to keep firing. 00:00:54.520 --> 00:00:56.979 It is a truly remarkable moment of historical 00:00:56.979 --> 00:00:59.740 resilience. Welcome to the Deep Dive. I am your 00:00:59.740 --> 00:01:02.000 host, and today we are looking at Denmark's royal 00:01:02.000 --> 00:01:04.319 anthem and the bloody history of Kong Christian. 00:01:04.560 --> 00:01:07.439 I'm our resident historian, and I am very excited 00:01:07.439 --> 00:01:09.670 for this one. If you're joining us on this deep 00:01:09.670 --> 00:01:11.969 dive into one of the world's oldest national 00:01:11.969 --> 00:01:15.629 anthems, Kong Christian Stood Vade Hoojan Mast, 00:01:15.709 --> 00:01:18.250 which translates to King Christian Stood by the 00:01:18.250 --> 00:01:21.790 Lofty Mast, you are absolutely in the right place. 00:01:22.280 --> 00:01:25.420 We're going to uncover the thrilling 17th century 00:01:25.420 --> 00:01:28.819 naval battles, the mysterious debated musical 00:01:28.819 --> 00:01:31.879 origins, and the surprisingly anti -Swedish lyrics 00:01:31.879 --> 00:01:34.120 that were originally censored from the stage. 00:01:34.359 --> 00:01:37.200 Whether you are a history buff, a classical music 00:01:37.200 --> 00:01:40.159 lover, or just insanely curious about Danish 00:01:40.159 --> 00:01:43.120 history, this deep dive unpacks the heroic tales 00:01:43.120 --> 00:01:46.439 of King Christian IV, Niels Jule, and Peter Wessel 00:01:46.439 --> 00:01:48.859 Tordenskild. Okay, let's unpack this. Our mission 00:01:48.859 --> 00:01:51.540 today is to explore how this incredibly gritty, 00:01:51.540 --> 00:01:53.799 violent naval battle was transformed over the 00:01:53.799 --> 00:01:56.459 centuries into a revered national symbol. We 00:01:56.459 --> 00:01:58.760 should probably establish the unique status of 00:01:58.760 --> 00:02:01.560 this piece of music right away, because it occupies 00:02:01.560 --> 00:02:03.700 a very specific and somewhat complicated space 00:02:03.700 --> 00:02:06.180 in Danish culture. Right. It is the unofficial 00:02:06.180 --> 00:02:08.719 royal anthem of Denmark, but it also officially 00:02:08.719 --> 00:02:11.099 shares equal national anthem status with another 00:02:11.099 --> 00:02:15.039 song. Right. Der er er et inded land, which translates 00:02:15.039 --> 00:02:18.400 to There is a lovely country. Denmark is in that 00:02:18.400 --> 00:02:21.240 rare club of nations with two officially recognized 00:02:21.240 --> 00:02:23.800 national anthems. But there's a really strict 00:02:23.800 --> 00:02:27.039 division of labor here. Very strict. Kong Christian 00:02:27.039 --> 00:02:29.599 is reserved almost exclusively for the Danish 00:02:29.599 --> 00:02:32.379 royal house and the military. If the monarch 00:02:32.379 --> 00:02:34.919 is present or if it is a major military anniversary, 00:02:35.300 --> 00:02:37.439 this is the anthem you're going to hear. And 00:02:37.439 --> 00:02:39.419 even then, on official occasions, they usually 00:02:39.419 --> 00:02:42.020 only sing the first verse. Exactly. The other 00:02:42.020 --> 00:02:45.919 anthem, their Ere et Indit Land, serves as the 00:02:45.919 --> 00:02:47.919 civilian anthem. That's what you would hear at 00:02:47.919 --> 00:02:50.400 a football match or the Olympics. And the contrast 00:02:50.400 --> 00:02:52.719 between the two is striking. The civilian anthem 00:02:52.719 --> 00:02:55.960 is this romantic, pastoral piece focusing on 00:02:55.960 --> 00:02:59.340 broad beech trees and blonde maidens. It is gentle. 00:02:59.500 --> 00:03:01.960 While Con Christian is martial, rhythmic, and 00:03:01.960 --> 00:03:04.139 just intensely aggressive. It is not a song about 00:03:04.139 --> 00:03:06.620 the beauty of the landscape. It is a song about 00:03:06.620 --> 00:03:08.860 dominating the sea and crushing your enemies. 00:03:09.080 --> 00:03:11.919 But to understand its place in modern culture, 00:03:12.120 --> 00:03:14.800 we have to look at how it bridges the gap between 00:03:14.800 --> 00:03:17.240 the military and the civilian population today. 00:03:17.719 --> 00:03:20.919 It is deeply woven into the fabric of Danish 00:03:20.919 --> 00:03:23.419 celebration. Oh, the New Year's tradition. Yes. 00:03:23.960 --> 00:03:27.379 Let's put you, the listener, right in the middle 00:03:27.379 --> 00:03:31.080 of a modern Danish tradition. Imagine it's New 00:03:31.080 --> 00:03:33.680 Year's Eve. You've had your dinner, you've celebrated, 00:03:33.879 --> 00:03:36.819 and the clock has just struck midnight. The new 00:03:36.819 --> 00:03:39.240 year has officially begun. On television, the 00:03:39.240 --> 00:03:41.400 civilian national anthem has just been played. 00:03:41.520 --> 00:03:44.439 And then, immediately following it, the Denmark's 00:03:44.439 --> 00:03:47.199 Radio Girls Choir begins to sing Kong Christian. 00:03:47.460 --> 00:03:49.719 And all across the country, people are standing 00:03:49.719 --> 00:03:51.759 in their living rooms, holding a glass of champagne, 00:03:52.000 --> 00:03:54.879 singing along. When you participate in that moment, 00:03:55.000 --> 00:03:57.740 you are connecting to a very long legacy. Absolutely. 00:03:58.039 --> 00:04:01.280 Having been adopted in 1780, It holds the impressive 00:04:01.280 --> 00:04:03.900 title of being one of the oldest national anthems 00:04:03.900 --> 00:04:06.039 in the world. To put that in perspective, the 00:04:06.039 --> 00:04:07.659 United States was still in the middle of the 00:04:07.659 --> 00:04:10.500 Revolutionary War when Denmark formalized this 00:04:10.500 --> 00:04:12.580 piece of music. It's incredible. Let's go back 00:04:12.580 --> 00:04:15.300 to that origin story. The lyrics first appeared 00:04:15.300 --> 00:04:17.600 a couple of years prior to that adoption, in 00:04:17.600 --> 00:04:21.279 May of 1778. They were written by a prominent 00:04:21.279 --> 00:04:24.290 poet named Johannes Ewald. But they didn't debut 00:04:24.290 --> 00:04:27.529 at a military parade or a solemn royal coronation. 00:04:27.649 --> 00:04:30.550 No, they debuted in a theatrical play. The play 00:04:30.550 --> 00:04:33.389 was called The Fishermen, or Fiskern in Danish. 00:04:33.610 --> 00:04:36.069 It officially premiered at the Royal Danish Theatre 00:04:36.069 --> 00:04:39.230 in January of 1780. This was for King Christian 00:04:39.230 --> 00:04:42.769 VII's birthday, right? Yes. And Ewald categorized 00:04:42.769 --> 00:04:45.670 the fishermen as a vaudeville, which in the context 00:04:45.670 --> 00:04:49.310 of 1780s Europe meant a singspiel. So a musical 00:04:49.310 --> 00:04:51.970 drama incorporating popular pre -existing street 00:04:51.970 --> 00:04:54.709 melodies rather than the American variety shows 00:04:54.709 --> 00:04:57.350 we picture today. Exactly. But the narrative 00:04:57.350 --> 00:04:59.230 of the play itself wasn't directly about the 00:04:59.230 --> 00:05:02.170 king. It focused on everyday people fishermen 00:05:02.170 --> 00:05:04.550 from the northern part of Zealand. Who risked 00:05:04.550 --> 00:05:06.509 their own lives to save a group of sailors from 00:05:06.509 --> 00:05:08.850 drowning in a terrible storm. And the climax 00:05:08.850 --> 00:05:11.170 of the story centers on the fishermen humbly 00:05:11.170 --> 00:05:13.569 refusing to accept any financial reward for their 00:05:13.569 --> 00:05:17.370 bravery. In 1780, that kind of selfless maritime 00:05:17.370 --> 00:05:20.509 heroism functioned as an overarching tribute 00:05:20.509 --> 00:05:23.709 to the Danish -Norwegian Navy. The fishermen 00:05:23.709 --> 00:05:26.649 represented the ideal Danish spirit on the water. 00:05:27.110 --> 00:05:30.110 Ewald used this narrative framework to insert 00:05:30.110 --> 00:05:32.449 a song that celebrated the ultimate maritime 00:05:32.449 --> 00:05:35.959 heroes. of Denmark and Norway's past. He specifically 00:05:35.959 --> 00:05:38.699 highlighted their monumental naval wars against 00:05:38.699 --> 00:05:41.600 Sweden in the 17th and early 18th centuries. 00:05:41.860 --> 00:05:44.040 He did. I want to read some of the English translation 00:05:44.040 --> 00:05:46.839 of these lyrics done by the famous American poet 00:05:46.839 --> 00:05:49.620 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow because the imagery 00:05:49.620 --> 00:05:53.379 is striking. It is a stark contrast to the peaceful 00:05:53.379 --> 00:05:55.800 imagery you usually find in national anthems. 00:05:55.920 --> 00:05:58.199 It definitely is. It starts with that scene we 00:05:58.199 --> 00:06:00.139 described at the beginning, King Christian IV, 00:06:00.399 --> 00:06:04.079 at the 1644 Battle of Kohlberger Heide. The lyrics, 00:06:04.220 --> 00:06:06.759 Go King Christian, stood by the lofty mast in 00:06:06.759 --> 00:06:08.660 mist and smoke. Setting the scene perfectly. 00:06:08.879 --> 00:06:11.079 His sword was hammering so fast, through gothic 00:06:11.079 --> 00:06:13.500 helm and brain it passed. It leaves absolutely 00:06:13.500 --> 00:06:15.920 nothing to the imagination. You're smashing brains. 00:06:16.540 --> 00:06:19.339 Yeah, the phrase gothic helm refers directly 00:06:19.339 --> 00:06:22.220 to the Swedish enemy. It paints a picture of 00:06:22.220 --> 00:06:24.300 a monarch who isn't just commanding from a safe 00:06:24.300 --> 00:06:27.000 distance. He is physically engaged in the slaughter. 00:06:27.399 --> 00:06:29.600 Smashing his sword through the helmets and brains 00:06:29.600 --> 00:06:32.879 of his foes, it is designed to evoke a visceral, 00:06:32.959 --> 00:06:35.879 almost terrifying sense of national power. And 00:06:35.879 --> 00:06:38.879 Ewald didn't stop with King Christian. He structured 00:06:38.879 --> 00:06:41.720 the song to name -drop other legendary Danish 00:06:41.720 --> 00:06:44.839 -Norwegian naval commanders to build this crescendo 00:06:44.839 --> 00:06:47.779 of maritime supremacy. Like Niels Jule, a hero 00:06:47.779 --> 00:06:50.680 from the Scania War in the 1670s, the lyrics 00:06:50.680 --> 00:06:53.800 detail how Jule hoisted his blood -red flag and 00:06:53.800 --> 00:06:56.379 struck the enemy. Then the song moves on to Peter 00:06:56.379 --> 00:06:58.680 Wessel Tordenskild, a legendary vice admiral 00:06:58.680 --> 00:07:00.410 from the Great Northern War. The descriptions 00:07:00.410 --> 00:07:03.110 of Tordenskild are downright apocalyptic. The 00:07:03.110 --> 00:07:05.230 song states that where he went, terror and death 00:07:05.230 --> 00:07:07.750 glared. It issues a direct command to the enemy. 00:07:07.970 --> 00:07:10.610 Let each to heaven commend his soul and fly. 00:07:10.910 --> 00:07:13.410 Tordenskild was famous for his audacious, highly 00:07:13.410 --> 00:07:16.970 aggressive tactics. And Ewald captures that perfectly. 00:07:17.350 --> 00:07:20.550 The sheer aggression in the text was carefully 00:07:20.550 --> 00:07:24.490 calibrated to stir up deep patriotic fervor and 00:07:24.490 --> 00:07:26.970 remind the theater audience of these monumental 00:07:26.970 --> 00:07:29.910 life or death struggles at sea. But here's where 00:07:29.910 --> 00:07:32.769 it gets really interesting. The censorship. Yes. 00:07:33.170 --> 00:07:36.550 You have this intense, deeply patriotic song 00:07:36.550 --> 00:07:39.110 debuting at the Royal Theater for the current 00:07:39.110 --> 00:07:41.810 king's birthday. You would assume the crowd would 00:07:41.810 --> 00:07:43.829 be on their feet cheering these verses. You would 00:07:43.829 --> 00:07:45.870 think so. But in the original staging of the 00:07:45.870 --> 00:07:48.550 play, verses one through three, the ones detailing 00:07:48.550 --> 00:07:50.990 the smashing of Swedish brains, the blood red 00:07:50.990 --> 00:07:53.490 flags, and the terror and death were completely 00:07:53.490 --> 00:07:56.009 cut from the performance. Completely removed. 00:07:56.269 --> 00:07:58.939 If we connect this to the bigger picture. The 00:07:58.939 --> 00:08:00.920 theater director's sudden attack of stage fright 00:08:00.920 --> 00:08:03.740 makes perfect sense. We have to look at the geopolitical 00:08:03.740 --> 00:08:06.720 reality of 1780. Denmark was navigating a very 00:08:06.720 --> 00:08:09.199 precarious diplomatic landscape at that exact 00:08:09.199 --> 00:08:11.779 time. They were a key member of something called 00:08:11.779 --> 00:08:14.480 the League of Armed Neutrality. This was an alliance 00:08:14.480 --> 00:08:17.040 formed to protect neutral shipping rights, primarily 00:08:17.040 --> 00:08:19.040 against the United Kingdom and France during 00:08:19.040 --> 00:08:21.220 the American Revolutionary War. This implies 00:08:21.220 --> 00:08:23.980 a level of censorship driven entirely by foreign 00:08:23.980 --> 00:08:27.449 policy. Who was their crucial ally in this neutral 00:08:27.449 --> 00:08:30.089 league? Sweden. Exactly. The League of Armed 00:08:30.089 --> 00:08:32.850 Neutrality required Denmark, Sweden and Russia 00:08:32.850 --> 00:08:36.389 to maintain a united front to protect their vital 00:08:36.389 --> 00:08:39.269 maritime trade routes. And Denmark and Sweden 00:08:39.269 --> 00:08:42.269 had spent centuries at war with each other. So 00:08:42.269 --> 00:08:44.809 this alliance was strictly a marriage of economic 00:08:44.809 --> 00:08:47.750 convenience. It was incredibly fragile. The diplomatic 00:08:47.750 --> 00:08:49.990 nightmare of the Swedish ambassador attending 00:08:49.990 --> 00:08:53.250 a royal birthday play. Only to hear a newly commissioned 00:08:53.250 --> 00:08:56.149 song vividly celebrating the historical slaughter 00:08:56.149 --> 00:08:59.250 of his countrymen is so easy to picture. Singing 00:08:59.250 --> 00:09:01.370 about hammering swords through Swedish brains 00:09:01.370 --> 00:09:03.789 would have been a catastrophic diplomatic blunder. 00:09:03.909 --> 00:09:06.830 The court of Christian VII simply could not afford 00:09:06.830 --> 00:09:10.129 to antagonize their primary ally. Not while British 00:09:10.129 --> 00:09:12.629 warships were harassing neutral trade. Right. 00:09:12.690 --> 00:09:15.779 So. Out of an abundance of caution, the theater 00:09:15.779 --> 00:09:18.220 decided to completely omit the first three verses 00:09:18.220 --> 00:09:20.779 during those initial performances. Only the fourth 00:09:20.779 --> 00:09:23.179 verse was deemed safe enough to be sung out loud 00:09:23.179 --> 00:09:25.919 on stage. The fourth verse is much more of a 00:09:25.919 --> 00:09:28.179 general ode to the dark rolling waves of the 00:09:28.179 --> 00:09:31.259 North Sea and facing maritime danger bravely 00:09:31.259 --> 00:09:33.840 without specifically mentioning Swedish casualties. 00:09:34.179 --> 00:09:36.460 It's a fascinating origin. It is fascinating 00:09:36.460 --> 00:09:38.779 that one of the oldest national anthems in the 00:09:38.779 --> 00:09:42.220 world essentially started out being heavily censored 00:09:42.220 --> 00:09:45.419 by its own creators to avoid a geopolitical incident. 00:09:45.919 --> 00:09:48.720 Eventually, the political tides shifted. The 00:09:48.720 --> 00:09:51.100 league of armed neutrality dissolved, the immediate 00:09:51.100 --> 00:09:54.899 need to placate Sweden faded, and the full, unedited 00:09:54.899 --> 00:09:58.039 lyrics became the standard. The song cemented 00:09:58.039 --> 00:10:00.019 its place in history. But the lyrical censorship 00:10:00.019 --> 00:10:02.320 is really only half the story. The music itself 00:10:02.320 --> 00:10:04.960 presents a massive historical blind spot. Yes, 00:10:05.159 --> 00:10:08.080 the centuries -old musical whodunit. We know 00:10:08.080 --> 00:10:11.120 Johannes Ewald wrote the words, but with lyrics 00:10:11.120 --> 00:10:14.000 this iconic, who wrote the epic melody, the twist 00:10:14.000 --> 00:10:16.679 is nobody actually knows for sure. The irony 00:10:16.679 --> 00:10:19.159 is that while they were meticulously censoring 00:10:19.159 --> 00:10:22.120 Ewald's lyrics to avoid a war, they were entirely 00:10:22.120 --> 00:10:24.580 careless with the musical score itself. Let's 00:10:24.580 --> 00:10:26.940 look at the suspects. The logical starting point 00:10:26.940 --> 00:10:29.230 for historians was a man named Johann Hartmann. 00:10:29.389 --> 00:10:31.649 Hartmann was the composer who wrote the rest 00:10:31.649 --> 00:10:33.549 of the score for the original play, The Fisherman. 00:10:34.070 --> 00:10:36.769 When the play debuted, it was naturally assumed 00:10:36.769 --> 00:10:39.389 that he had composed the music for the Kong Christian 00:10:39.389 --> 00:10:42.049 song as well. For a long time, he was given the 00:10:42.049 --> 00:10:44.909 credit, but historians eventually crossed him 00:10:44.909 --> 00:10:47.370 off the list. The musical style didn't match 00:10:47.370 --> 00:10:50.190 his usual output rate. Musicologists noticed 00:10:50.190 --> 00:10:53.429 severe discrepancies. Hartmann was a classically 00:10:53.429 --> 00:10:56.009 trained composer who wrote in a very specific, 00:10:56.210 --> 00:10:59.360 polished, operatic style. And the melody of Calm 00:10:59.360 --> 00:11:03.259 Christian is rigid, repetitive, heavily rhythmic. 00:11:03.559 --> 00:11:05.740 It functions much more like a traditional march 00:11:05.740 --> 00:11:08.440 or a working class sea shanty than a piece of 00:11:08.440 --> 00:11:11.200 high art theater music. It lacked the formal 00:11:11.200 --> 00:11:13.220 hallmarks of Hartman's typical compositions. 00:11:13.600 --> 00:11:16.279 That stylistic mismatch brings us to suspect 00:11:16.279 --> 00:11:19.549 number two, Ditlev Ludwig Rodger. Roger brings 00:11:19.549 --> 00:11:21.509 a completely different background to the table. 00:11:21.649 --> 00:11:23.690 He wasn't a professional composer by trade. He 00:11:23.690 --> 00:11:25.889 was a high court judge. But he was known to be 00:11:25.889 --> 00:11:28.830 a highly skilled violinist. And more importantly 00:11:28.830 --> 00:11:31.190 for this investigation, he was a close personal 00:11:31.190 --> 00:11:34.029 friend of the lyricist Johannes Ewald. During 00:11:34.029 --> 00:11:36.789 the 19th century, several prominent intellectuals 00:11:36.789 --> 00:11:38.950 backed the theory that Roger, the violin -playing 00:11:38.950 --> 00:11:41.789 judge, had actually composed the original melody 00:11:41.789 --> 00:11:45.230 specifically for his friend's poem. The narrative 00:11:45.230 --> 00:11:47.809 of a high court judge Casually composing one 00:11:47.809 --> 00:11:49.669 of the most famous melodies in his country's 00:11:49.669 --> 00:11:51.929 history and then just returning to the bench 00:11:51.929 --> 00:11:54.610 is compelling. It is, but the modern consensus 00:11:54.610 --> 00:11:57.450 points in a completely different direction, thanks 00:11:57.450 --> 00:12:01.190 to a researcher named Wilhelm Carl Raven in 1880. 00:12:01.429 --> 00:12:04.129 Raven's research fundamentally shifted the academic 00:12:04.129 --> 00:12:06.730 understanding of the song. He didn't just guess. 00:12:06.889 --> 00:12:10.049 He engaged in deep forensic musicology. What 00:12:10.049 --> 00:12:12.870 did he find? He combed through 18th century musical 00:12:12.870 --> 00:12:15.629 archives and traced the chord progressions in 00:12:15.629 --> 00:12:18.049 rhythmic structures. He concluded that the musical 00:12:18.049 --> 00:12:19.889 score didn't originate with the play at all. 00:12:20.029 --> 00:12:22.049 And it certainly wasn't written by a high court 00:12:22.049 --> 00:12:25.049 judge in 1778. No, he proved that the melody 00:12:25.049 --> 00:12:27.870 significantly predated Johannes Ewald's poem 00:12:27.870 --> 00:12:30.669 and likely has no single original composer at 00:12:30.669 --> 00:12:33.830 all. So Ewald essentially culturally appropriated 00:12:33.830 --> 00:12:36.309 a working class sea shanty or a traditional folk 00:12:36.309 --> 00:12:39.049 tune and elevated it into high court propaganda. 00:12:39.350 --> 00:12:41.429 That is definitely the most accurate way to describe 00:12:41.429 --> 00:12:43.830 it. Raven believed the tune had been circulating 00:12:43.830 --> 00:12:46.389 for decades, perhaps as an anonymous sailors 00:12:46.389 --> 00:12:49.480 march or a traditional dance tune. Ewald simply 00:12:49.480 --> 00:12:53.320 recognized a powerful, driving rhythm and repurposed 00:12:53.320 --> 00:12:56.440 it, setting his new, violent lyrics to a melody 00:12:56.440 --> 00:12:58.500 the public was already somewhat familiar with. 00:12:58.639 --> 00:13:01.639 Exactly. Today, this remains the most commonly 00:13:01.639 --> 00:13:04.259 supported theory among historians. But there 00:13:04.259 --> 00:13:06.600 is another case of mistaken musical identity 00:13:06.600 --> 00:13:09.480 here. Even today, if you ask people who composed 00:13:09.480 --> 00:13:12.820 Kong Christian, many will frequently and wrongly 00:13:12.820 --> 00:13:15.399 credit Friedrich Kulow. The confusion regarding 00:13:15.399 --> 00:13:19.159 Kulow is entirely understandable. He is inextricably 00:13:19.159 --> 00:13:21.620 linked to the song's massive cultural saturation. 00:13:22.320 --> 00:13:24.960 Kulal didn't invent the melody, but he did write 00:13:24.960 --> 00:13:27.899 an incredibly popular, sweeping orchestral arrangement 00:13:27.899 --> 00:13:30.080 of the score. He used that arrangement in his 00:13:30.080 --> 00:13:33.720 own play called Elverherge, or Elves' Hill, which 00:13:33.720 --> 00:13:36.179 premiered in November of 1828. Elverherge is 00:13:36.179 --> 00:13:38.840 a foundational piece of Danish romanticism, and 00:13:38.840 --> 00:13:40.419 it was commissioned for an absolutely massive 00:13:40.419 --> 00:13:43.139 royal event, the wedding between Crown Prince 00:13:43.139 --> 00:13:45.860 Frederick and Princess Philomene. Kulaw took 00:13:45.860 --> 00:13:48.860 this repurposed folk tune and gave it a grand, 00:13:49.059 --> 00:13:52.379 majestic orchestration suitable for a royal wedding. 00:13:52.559 --> 00:13:55.909 He made it famous, but he didn't invent it. He 00:13:55.909 --> 00:13:58.629 elevated the song from a popular theatrical tune 00:13:58.629 --> 00:14:02.169 to an undeniable institutional national anthem. 00:14:02.309 --> 00:14:05.590 He gave the song its definitive sound. And the 00:14:05.590 --> 00:14:07.929 reach of this melody eventually extended far 00:14:07.929 --> 00:14:10.690 beyond Danish borders. I love this piece of musical 00:14:10.690 --> 00:14:14.269 trivia. The legendary Russian composer Pyotr 00:14:14.269 --> 00:14:16.769 Ilyich Tchaikovsky actually incorporated Kong 00:14:16.769 --> 00:14:19.730 Christian into his own work. Tchaikovsky composed 00:14:19.730 --> 00:14:22.250 a piece called the Festival Overture on the Danish 00:14:22.250 --> 00:14:25.220 national anthem. It is a brilliant piece of musical 00:14:25.220 --> 00:14:27.519 diplomacy. He wrote it for the visit of the Russian 00:14:27.519 --> 00:14:30.799 Tsarevich to the Moscow Conservatoire. The Tsarevich, 00:14:30.820 --> 00:14:33.039 the future emperor Alexander III, was accompanied 00:14:33.039 --> 00:14:35.440 by his new wife, Princess Dagmar of Denmark. 00:14:35.820 --> 00:14:38.100 Tchaikovsky blended elements of the Russian national 00:14:38.100 --> 00:14:40.440 anthem with the driving melody of Kong Christian 00:14:40.440 --> 00:14:43.000 as a musical welcome gift for the new princess. 00:14:43.580 --> 00:14:45.799 That commission demonstrates just how universally 00:14:45.799 --> 00:14:48.059 recognizable the melody had become across Europe 00:14:48.059 --> 00:14:50.559 by the late 19th century. It had evolved from 00:14:50.559 --> 00:14:53.259 a questionable, anonymous maritime folk tune 00:14:53.259 --> 00:14:56.720 to a censored theater song to a grand orchestration 00:14:56.720 --> 00:14:59.679 in Copenhagen, all the way to a symphonic tribute 00:14:59.679 --> 00:15:02.700 by Tchaikovsky in Moscow. The historical journey 00:15:02.700 --> 00:15:05.360 of this piece of music is just staggering. We 00:15:05.360 --> 00:15:07.879 have traced it from a brutal, shrapnel -filled 00:15:07.879 --> 00:15:11.179 naval battle at Kohlberger Heid, where a 67 -year 00:15:11.179 --> 00:15:14.159 -old king refused to die, to an 18th century 00:15:14.159 --> 00:15:17.019 sing -spiel about humble fishermen, to a censored 00:15:17.019 --> 00:15:20.039 theatrical debut. Right, we've seen how geopolitical 00:15:20.039 --> 00:15:22.759 precariousness forced a theater to cut verses 00:15:22.759 --> 00:15:25.899 about smashing Swedish brains, and we've tracked 00:15:25.899 --> 00:15:28.220 an unsolved musical mystery involving a high 00:15:28.220 --> 00:15:31.269 court judge, an anonymous ancient tune, and a 00:15:31.269 --> 00:15:33.570 royal wedding. And despite all of that messy 00:15:33.570 --> 00:15:36.470 history, it has survived to become this cherished 00:15:36.470 --> 00:15:38.850 New Year's Eve tradition where the entire country 00:15:38.850 --> 00:15:40.870 sings along with a girls' choir at midnight. 00:15:41.110 --> 00:15:43.850 So what does this all mean? Well, this deep dive 00:15:43.850 --> 00:15:46.250 proves that the national symbols we often take 00:15:46.250 --> 00:15:49.049 for granted are rarely as simple as they appear. 00:15:49.490 --> 00:15:52.250 We tend to look at national anthems, flags, and 00:15:52.250 --> 00:15:55.509 traditions as static, boring institutions that 00:15:55.509 --> 00:15:58.210 arrived fully formed. The reality is that they 00:15:58.210 --> 00:16:00.909 are usually born from incredibly dynamic, messy, 00:16:01.070 --> 00:16:03.690 and fascinating histories. They are the products 00:16:03.690 --> 00:16:05.830 of political compromise and debated origins. 00:16:06.370 --> 00:16:08.870 Kong Christian wasn't created in a sterile vacuum. 00:16:09.169 --> 00:16:12.330 It was forged in the memory of war, shaped by 00:16:12.330 --> 00:16:15.289 the fear of diplomatic fallout, and carried forward 00:16:15.289 --> 00:16:18.259 by the sheer power of an anonymous melody. It 00:16:18.259 --> 00:16:21.279 definitely changes how you perceive every traditional 00:16:21.279 --> 00:16:23.919 piece of music, which leads me to a final thought 00:16:23.919 --> 00:16:26.139 for you, the listener, to mull over. Think about 00:16:26.139 --> 00:16:28.600 your own country's patriotic songs or even your 00:16:28.600 --> 00:16:31.000 favorite traditional anthems. Given that Kong 00:16:31.000 --> 00:16:33.519 Christian was an old, recycled tune that had 00:16:33.519 --> 00:16:35.980 its most passionate, violently anti -Swedish 00:16:35.980 --> 00:16:38.100 verses censored from the stage to keep foreign 00:16:38.100 --> 00:16:40.519 diplomats happy, how many of the sacred, traditional 00:16:40.519 --> 00:16:42.659 songs that we sing today with total reverence 00:16:42.659 --> 00:16:44.960 are actually masking a scandalous, controversial, 00:16:45.279 --> 00:16:48.120 or highly pol - history that we've simply forgotten 00:16:48.120 --> 00:16:50.759 over time. It requires us to look critically 00:16:50.759 --> 00:16:53.620 at the art we consider traditional. Thanks for 00:16:53.620 --> 00:16:56.120 joining us on this exploration of history, music, 00:16:56.200 --> 00:16:58.620 and the secrets hiding in plain sight. We'll 00:16:58.620 --> 00:17:00.539 be back next time to unpack another fascinating 00:17:00.539 --> 00:17:01.019 topic.