| Designations of rural dance music in triple time in Hedmark are a particularly multifarious subject. The county is far-flung, and contacts and influences in many directions have resulted in many different forms of music as well as designations.
Petter Høistad Østvang in Os used the term "pols", likewise Marius Nytrøen and Ola Gjelten in Tolga, who also used "polsdans". The "pols" is also played in northern Engerdal, Elgå and Drevsjø, and the designation in this northern belt of Hedmark naturally coincides with the uniform use of "pols" in Sør-Trøndelag.
Today the designation "pols" is also used in Tynset, Kvikne and Alvdal, although the picture is more complex here. Our principal source in Kvikne, Martin Strøm, uses four different terms: "pols", "springlek", "springdans" and "springar". Moreover, O.T. Hagen applies the term "polsk" to tunes he transcribed at an earlier stage.
Part of the explanation is that Strøm (and others) perceived a certain bifurcation in the repertoire at Kvikne between an older repertoire of "springlek", "springdans" and "springar" tunes, and a more recent "Reitan repertoire" of "pols" tunes (Anders Reitan from Ålen, teacher at Kvikne from the 1850s onwards).
The designation "springar" may be inspired by contacts with fiddlers from "the fiords", above all Halvard Ørsal who for a number of summers was a farmworker at Kvikne and in Folldal. The same designation is used by Thorvald and Melvin Trondsgård in Folldal, and in Ottadalen in Gudbrandsdalen (many recordings from the 1950s). In both these areas the term "springleik" is otherwise predominant.
Strøm's use of "springdans", and similar occurrences in Folldal, may refer to the dance, but may also be a generic term used by certain collectors and scholars in the early 1900s. "Polsk" is used by some collectors, especially in very early transcriptions, and is also used, for example, in Arne Bjørndal's material from Nordfjord (see Vol. 3). The prevalence of the term "polsk" was probably due to a widespread notion that all types of pols and springar in south-east Norway had their origins in Poland (see p. ??).
While the term "springleik" is predominant in Folldal, "springar" and "springdans" also occur.
Towards Alvdal a dialect boundary is crossed which resulted in "springlek" being the only term passed down from olden times. It is consistently used by, for example, Malena-Knut (I. Hoel). Erik Storstrøm (born 1885) from Fåset made it clear that all old people used the term "springlek" in his youth, but that he and the Strøm Band preferred to play round dance tunes and the "pols". This tallies well with I. Hoel's perceptions: the pols (as a type of dance and tune) became fashionable in about 1910, brought back by young people who had gone to school (e.g. carpentry school) and taken employment further north.
Hence the fact that the old tunes that Hågen Ligård learned from Malena-Knut are called "pols" in the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation archives appears implausible, and may be due to erratic use of terms (the pols designation gained wider currency in the 1950s). There must be a specific reason why Ryssdal wrote the term "polsdans" above a tune he took down directly from Malena-Knut in 1918; he also noted "pålsdans" after Ole Braataa in Vågå where the term "springleik" has predominated for as long as anyone can recall.
In his transcriptions after Martinus Helgesen in Stor-Elvdal (Sollia) Sandvik noted "pols", "polsdans", "polskdans" and "polsk" - the last-mentioned tallies with the only term used in the neighbouring valley of Rendalen and in western and central parts of Engerdal. However, "polsdans" was commonly used in Sollia by, among others, Johan Rønningen (S130), who also used "springar" on occasion (Brænd).
In the relatively sparse material from Åmot, Elverum, Våler, Åsnes and Grue the term "polsdans" (with examples of "pols") predominates. Very sporadic material (including older transcriptions) from Hedemarken and the southernmost districts of the county also shows "springdans", while Lauritz Tangen from Austmarka (now part of Kongsvinger) applied the term "springar" to tunes in his tradition from southern parts of Finnskogene.
Early transcriptions from Romedal, Stange in Hedemarken, include an oddity. Here the spelling "rundtom" (after Kristian Horne) is applied to a variant of a 'familiar' polsdans from Elverum. However, the term "runnom" is also used in recordings from Løten and Stange (among others Nils Øye, Td 2038 k6).
The remaining districts of Trysil and Engerdal are no less complicated in regard to use of designations.
Interviews and recordings regarding the traditions of southern Trysil (not in our selection) show that Karine Rundfloen (mouth organ, Td 1175), Magnus Ås and Eivind Petershagen all said "runnom" (however the southern rhythm prevails here - quite distinct from the runnom to the north). Rundfloen also used the term "springdans".
Magnus Buflod near Innbygda in Trysil applied "springar", "springdans" and "runnom" to the same tunes, and drew no distinction between the terms. The same was the case for Johan Hollseter. Recordings of the plucking tunes (S190-191) are rounded of with "…this is a springdans!"
- "Springdans?"
- "Some said springdans, some said runnom".
But Hollseter's conclusion was that the "Trysil term is runnom".
"Runnom" appears to be the customary term in eastern Trysil (Bæk), northern Trysil and southern Engerdal (Heggeriset and Hylleråsen). However, Kaspar Jota also used the term "springar", and believed that Johan Elgshøen also used both terms (Sandvik noted only "runnom" for Elgshøen's tunes). His brother Per P. Jota called his few recordings "springdans" (see Hollseter, above).
It is slightly surprising that such a central fiddler as Embret Kveen (born 1886), playing in the tradition of Embret Langeggen from his home community of Heggeriset and of old Embret Lund (born 1854) in Hylleråsen, should use both "runnom" and "polsk" (Td 1153). He clearly viewed "runnom" as the older term, but he believed it was called "polsk…nowadays (year 1969), and he uses "polsk" in references to his playing together with Embret Langeggen. His son, Hans Kveen's, use of "runnom" and "springdans" (Td 1640) adds confusion.
Embret Lund (Hylleråsen) mostly used "runnom", as the old folks generally did, but believed that "…it is really a springdans" (Td 1146), and he says "springdans" at several points in the recordings from 1969 (Td 1146-7). Lund also mentions "polsk" as a general term for old tunes in 3/4 time.
In Elvdalen, Sundet and mid-Engerdal "polsk" is the term generally used, in common with Helmer Kjølvang and others. However, Kjølvang was convinced that "runnom" was used in earlier times, also in Engerdal and further north in his own home district, Risbakken. In his earliest recordings Kjølvang used the term "polsk", and from about 1980 he used "runnom" just as frequently.
At Drevsjø the "pols" is used by our performers (e.g. Eilif Enesen and Ingeborg Neby), but there too "runnom" must have been used as a designation both for tune and dance earlier on. Herman Berdtsson (born 1905), Drevsjø, mentions "runnom" and "pols" from his youth, and the distinction comes across most clearly in the type of dance, where pols (or "nordsving") dancers rotated both ways (as in the pols further north) compared with the runnom's rotation in one direction only.
As mentioned, the tunes and dance are termed "pols" in Elgå - as in Brekken in Sør-Trøndelag. In interviews Jakob Elgåen also calls the dance "nordsving" - possibly to distinguish it from the runnom/polskdans further south in Engerdal with which he was evidently very familiar (his mother was from Engerdal).
On the Swedish side of the border "polska" predominates, although "springlek" (and "norska") occur in some areas of Dalarna, such as Malung. "Bakmes" is also used - possibly denoting a 'long' rendition of a tune adapted to a version of this dance in which the dancers rotate in both directions? Moreover, Sandvik's phonograph recordings of Olmorts Olof Svensson in Särna include a "round dance" after the latter's grandfather Olmorts Lars (born in 1803, see S175): this term must be synonymous with "runnom", and describes the short version of the dance (Moll). |
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