Page "Du gamla, Du fria" Paragraph 8

Patriotic sentiment is notably absent from the text of the original two verses, due to them being written in the spirit of Scandinavism popular at the time ( Norden in general refers to the Nordic countries in Swedish, Norwegian and Danish ).

After the song started to acquire its informal status as the national anthem, various people wrote additional verses to increase the " Swedishness " of the song.

The aforementioned Lundqvist wrote his own third verse beginning with " Jag älskar dig Sverige " ( I love thee, Sweden ), Frans Österblom wrote four verses beginning with " Jag älskar min hembygd " (" I love my native area ") and Louise Ahlén in 1910 wrote two verses which are occasionally printed still to this day, not the least lately on the Internet.

For a long time, they were very seldom published, and are still largely unknown to the public ; however, recently they have become popular in Swedish extreme nationalistic circles.