Stev facts for kids

Stev is a form of poetry. It can be found in lyric poetry from Scandinavia. Stev are made of stanzas, that have four lines

The different types of stev

There are different types of stev:

• gamle-stev or "gamlestev" is the oldest type. It is likely that gamle-stev were danced. The earliest gamle-stev have been found from around the end of the 1200's. Most gamle-stevs are from Setesdal and Vest-Telemark. Some gamle-stev may be part of folk songs. The gamle-stev is the only part of the folk song which was past down from generation to generation. The rest of the folk song is no longer known.
• ny-stev or "nystev" have probably been around since about year 1700. Most ny-stevs have been replaced by rural folksongs in Telemark, but not in Setesdal.
• om-kved or "omkved" are similar to refrains in ballads. Inn-stev, etter-stev, mellom-sleng and etter-sleng are different types of om-kved.
• slåtte-stev or "slåttestev" are instrumental dance songs.
• herme-stev or hermestev are often referred to as "parody-quote" stev. The contain apologetic proverbs (also known as Wellerisms).

The people who can perform stev

A person who can perform a stev, is known as a kveder ( a type of artist ). Aslak Brekke is possibly the most well known of those who have been recorded. A kveder from Setesdal, when performing stev, usually sings more slowly, than a kveder from Telemark. One reason for this may be that the text of Setesdal stev are usually more meditative (or elegiac).