Schlaflied für Anne - Lullaby Exchange

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Where does this lullaby come from?

Germany

Additional Information

My family learned this lullaby from a CD of German children’s songs/Kinderlieder by Fredrik Vahle that we bought for listening to at home and in the car. Although we knew quite a few German lullabies already, this one was new to me and also to my German husband and quickly became a favourite. According to the liner notes of the CD, the melody of this lullaby comes from Greece but I don’t know any more about it than that. I think Vahle himself may have written the lyrics but can’t be entirely sure. Part of the charm of the song for me is that it’s very easy to personalise by substituting ‘Anne’ with one’s own children’s names in each verse. Along with the comforting repetition and predictability of the text each time, the imagery in each verse is really beautiful – ‘Sleep, Anne, fall asleep/here comes (or ‘soon will come’) the Night/the Moon/a Dream.’ In the first verse, the Nighttime has made slippers for itself out of the little clouds and comes from far away in the mountains. In the second, the Moon, who lives behind the pear trees, is laughing as one of the trees tickles him under the chin and, in the third, the child travels in a dream on the ‘Dream-ship’ until the end of the night, when the morning-time will wake him or her up or ‘open your eyes’ … : )

Uploaded by Kelly Boyle

July 2, 2022

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