Donna Lombarda
The history of popular song has ancient origins and the further you go back in time, the more difficult it is to find songs and their stories.
Everything was passed down orally since the first musical score of popular music were printed after the mid of 1800s.
Traditional music has never been given such importance and this has always been a serious mistake that has become even more serious today.
Having to choose the oldest song to start our journey to discover the popular music of Northern Italy, I chose “Donna Lombarda”. That’s why Lombardy descends from the Lombard domination in the great Po valley called Val Padana.
This song is about Rosmunda wife of King Alboinus who was the first King of the Lombards to reign on our lands in 568 AD.
From the history books of elementary school we all remember the famous phrase, pronounced as a sign of contempt and ostentatious arrogance by Alboino while offering wine to his wife, said “Drink Rosmunda in your father’s skull”.
Lombards derives from the German words long beards or, even better, long bards, that is, the long spears of the Lombards.
The song tells of a woman who poisoned her husband and the reference to the legends of the Lombards is very strong.
In fact, Queen Rosmunda, to avenge her father’s murder by her husband Alboino, organized the murder of Alboino with her lover Elmichi.
Another curiosity linked to the Lombards is the name of the Bonarda wine.
It seems that this very good wine, whose grape variety is croatina, already existed in the times of the Lombards.
And the name Bonarda derives from the words Bon Hart which meant “King Bon the valiant”.
The Lombard people in fact dedicated this wine, made with the grapevines “Croatina” and a little bit of Barbera, to their King Bon the Valiant, therefore, over time the name of the wine “bonhart” became, in Italian, Bonarda.
Un abbraccio/ a big Hug
Marcus Dardi
