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Du gamla, Du fria ("Thou ancient, Thou free") is the national anthem of Sweden. Although the Swedish constitution makes no mention of a national anthem, the song enjoys universal recognition and is used, for example, at sporting events. Only the first two verses are normally sung. At international sporting events, often only the first verse is played, which is really more like playing only half a verse of "God Save the Queen", and ending before the last chorus-like strophes. Furthermore, many - if not most - instrumental recordings instead take up time by playing the repeated fourth and fifth strophe of the melody as an "intro" before playing the actual song. This is something that is never done with any other national anthem.

The lyrics were written by Richard Dybeck in 1844 to a traditional melody from Västmanland, and have sometimes been wrongly thought as beginning with "Du gamla, Du friska" (Thou ancient, Thou hale). However, the original lyrics are "Du gamla, Du fria" (Thou ancient, Thou free).

The song first began to be used as a national anthem in the 1890s. Despite a widespread belief that the song was adopted as the national anthem in 1866, no such recognition has ever been officially accorded. In 2000 a Riksdag committee rejected, as "unnecessary", a proposal to give the song official status.

It should be noted that the true title of the song is Sång till Norden ("Song to the North"). The opening words Du gamla, Du fria as the title is rather the de facto title. Mostly everything concerning this very unofficial national anthem deals with de facto singing this way, or that way. Another very common mistake is singing "Jag vet att Du är och förblir vad du var" ("I know that You are and remain what You were") instead of "Jag vet att Du är och Du blir vad du var" ("I know that You are and You will be what You were") in that strophe.

Patriotic sentiment is notably absent from the text of the original two verses, which is because they were written in the spirit of Scandinavism popular at the time (Norden can also refer to the Nordic countries in Swedish).

Since the song had started getting its informal status of national anthem, Louise Ahlén wrote the verses three and four in 1910. They have, however, very seldomly been published, and have remained largely unknown to the public.

Note that verse 3 and 4 is nearly never sung and few actually know that there is a third and fourth verse.

• Flag of Sweden
• National holiday of Sweden
• Holidays in Sweden
• Vårt land (Maamme) - Finland's national anthem, originally with Swedish lyrics
• Ålänningens sång - the official anthem of Åland

• Sound file (mp3)

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