January 6, 2025 • 30 mins
The Anthems Podcast explores the fascinating story behind "The Song of the Falklands," a unique anthem reflecting the identity and emotions of the Falkland Islands. Host Patrick delves into the complexity of the islands' history, highlighting the interplay between their colonial past and the residents' desire for autonomy. The episode reveals the curious ambiguity surrounding the song's authorship, centering on the enigmatic figure of Christopher Lanham, whose existence is shrouded in mystery. Listeners are treated to a vivid portrayal of the Falkland Islands’ natural beauty, as the song captures themes of homesickness and nostalgia, resonating with the deep emotional connection of its people to their homeland. With insights into the local culture and the adorable penguin population, this episode offers a rich tapestry of history and sentiment, inviting listeners to appreciate the Falklands beyond their geopolitical significance.
- https://nationalanthems.info/fk.htm
- https://web.archive.org/web/20150628065803/http://www.diariobae.com/notas/50883-exlegislador-britanico-escribio-un-himno-para-las-malvinas.html
- https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/great-wall-of-china-even-longer-than-previously-thought-1.1263111
- https://library.humanitybook.com/government/facts/Falkland-Islands (general facts)
- https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Malvinas_the_South_Georgias_and_the/sGAJSfxqd7oC?hl=en
- https://appventions.com/world-facts/falkland-islands-islas-malvinas
- https://www.getamap.net/about/falkland_islands_(_islas_malvinas_)_[_united_kingdom_]/government.html
- Goebel, Julius. La Pugna por las Islas Malvinas. Yale University Press.
- https://es-academic.com/dic.nsf/eswiki/1102414
- https://www.indexmundi.com/falkland_islands_(islas_malvinas)/national_anthem.html
- https://www.lelongweekend.com/guide-falkland-islands-penguins/
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/microplate
- https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/falkland-islands-islas-malvinas/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Foreign hello and welcome tothe Anthems Podcast. I'm Patrick
and I'm here to tell you thestory of a song that helps to tell
(00:22):
the story of a nation. Today.We we are going to need to take the
fast car because we've got13,275 miles to drive to our next
country. That is 21,364kilometers, which is a fun coincidence
because that is just a 100more than the Great Wall of China.
(00:44):
But that's mostly informationconfirming what we know to be true.
China is enormous in size andpopulation. The People's Republic
is sort of a study inopposites from today's country because
less people live there thanwork for my employer in just the
state that I live in, and itis physically smaller than all but
(01:04):
two of the states in the us.If you knew that meant we were going
to the Falkland Islands, thenI suspect you might be reading my
correspondence. We're herebecause I have, as of this release,
been doing a monthly podcastfor two full calendar years. Honestly,
it feels like a medium sizeddeal and at least I have enjoyed
the time spent getting aroundin the world with you in trips of
(01:28):
varying length. When I firststarted the show, the entire process
was an experiment, which meantthat I got to learn a bunch of new
stuff and new ways toimplement old knowledge. This was
and continues to be especiallytrue about writing the thing. The
narrative, regardless ofhistorical context of a specific
song, was deliberatelysomething way outside of my typical
(01:50):
line of inquiry or work. So Itried some stuff out, kept some of
what I learned there, tossedmore, and tried to start with the
Falkland Islands, but clearlyI did not for reasons that right
now would be too much of aspoiler. But I have got my feet under
me with the show as far asformat goes and knowing how to write
(02:12):
one for the most part. So it'stime to circle back and tell you
about the anthem that firstpiqued my interest after deciding
to get going. The Song of theFalklands. This is a story that had
me start and stop many times,obviously because it was a tricky
thing to parse out asatisfying narrative for. It's different
as all the episodes have been,and yet another in my blank slate
(02:35):
series. So prepare to besurprised by the story of a song
regarding the southernmostcountry that we've been to. Also,
I have previously warned youthat some of these songs are rather
quite long or they're going tofeel that way anyway. The Song of
the Falklands is not one ofthose, so prepare your ears for about
(02:56):
A minute of anthem in.
My heart There far away wherethe wind from the horn up and wonders
(03:22):
and flies where the cow movesand swells Till the wind and the
and penguins sit down from thelonely hillside those isles of the
(03:43):
sea are calling to me Smell ofthe campfire a dear memory Though
far I may roam Someday I'llcome home to the island of Falkland,
the islands of the sea.
(04:07):
My first impression was tothink, well, that's a bit different.
But I like it and was glad tobe presented with something refreshing
again. Simple and distinctisn't what you get in many national
anthems. This is a very localsong, which is something that I really
like in an anthem because theyought to feel like the country that
they represent. Some of themdon't sound all that local due to
(04:30):
the specifics of history, butthat doesn't mean that non local
anthems are bad songs. Goodand bad music is mostly a subjective
idea because musical tastecan't be dictated. But I have neither
the time nor the desire to geton that soapbox because we need to
find out what where thesepenguins the anthem mentions are.
(04:51):
The Falklands are one of theeasier countries for me to pin down
on the map. I'll assume thatwe can all find South America. So
from there locate thesouthernmost point and about 480
kilometers, or 300 miles tothe east of the Patagonian coast
are the Falkland Islands.They're named after the Falkland
Sound, which is in between thetwo largest of them. And the sound
(05:14):
is in turn named after the 5thViscount of Falkland in. In 1690,
he was the treasurer of theRoyal Navy and financed an expedition
there, captained by JohnStrong. It will likely be named the
Falkland Islands in Englishfor a long time, but that's human
timescale stuff on a geologictime scale. This archipelago is hanging
(05:39):
out near Cape Horn for like amoment because of this episode's
geology term microplates.These are small, mostly rigid areas
of crust that are less than amillion square miles in size. They
sit in like sort of in betweenmajor plate boundaries and they rotate
independently and are able tomove along them in certain cases.
(06:02):
The Falkland Islands aregeologically interesting because
the rocks there are nothinglike the ones in mainland South America
and instead are similar to thesouthern part of Africa. Evidence
for this was noticed but notrecognized by a few people, including
Charles Darwin. But that wasway before Alfred Wegener came up
with the idea of continentaldrift in 1912, which helped lead
(06:26):
to the theory of platetectonics. And till then it was just
a few mysterious footnotes. Sountil about 300 million years ago,
the supercontinent Gondwana orsomething, the islands were butted
up to the bottom of Africa.And then when the continents separated
out, the microplate that theislands were on did a slow 180 degree
(06:47):
spin while waiting for me tobe around to talk about a song. So
yeah, I know the nationalanthem of the Falkland Islands is
officially God Save the King.Scotland's is too, and so are all
the other countries in theCommonwealth. And yes, I know that
the Falkland Islands are veryclose to not a country at all. So
why this place? The answer hassome mild spoilers for the rest of
(07:11):
the episode, so Skip aheadlike 10 or 15 seconds if you don't
want to hear them. Some of theanswer has spoilers anyway, because
part one is really that GodSave the King can only have one episode
or my show is gonna be reallyeven more boring than it already
is. What we've got in theFalkland Islands is a place where
the people rejected Argentinaand accepted England, but actually
(07:33):
I think don't want to be ineither and really want to be Falklanders.
Britain was the option thatallowed them to not substantially
change their lives, so theyget a show. Plus, this is technically
part of the Colonialismseries, even though this is not a
story that involves itcollapsing. Really though, once I
found out about all thepenguins there, I wanted to talk
(07:55):
about them because penguinsare adorable and if I don't do an
episode, I don't get to tellyou about them. So also in this note,
you're going to hear aboutbirds. The penguins of the Falkland
Islands are, at least in thispodcaster's mind, the unofficial
mascots. They are fivedifferent species. The King, Gentoo,
(08:16):
Rockhopper, the Magellanic,and occasionally the Macaroni Penguin.
It's not the most species inone country. New Zealand has that
title, but it is the fifth, soI guess that's pretty cool in terms
of numbers. What that means isthere are like a million of them
there during the summer, andthat seems like so many birds. With
(08:39):
no natural predators on theislands, it's a perfect place for
them to nest. It's verypicturesque, but it is important
part of the ecosystem and adriver of ecotourism. Sorry for the
diversion, but I read so muchabout the Falcon penguins that I
had to put something in theshow. Moving on. Normally, the possible
inroads to the narrative arefound along a timeline of unmanageable
(09:03):
length. Here, though, theFalkland Islands reached their current
hangout and then people mostlyleft the place to the birds. There
is some evidence that thecapable seafarers of old that used
to live on the modernArgentinian coast used some of the
islands as a waypoint. Butit's a near certainty that there
were no long term settlementsthere. It's likely that a ship in
(09:23):
Magellan's firstcircumnavigation of the planet spotted
it, but incorrectly noted thelocation. Because we had no idea
how to measure longitude backthen, because we didn't have chronometers.
The islands enter thehistorical record more fully in 1592
when the English captain JohnDavis was stranded there. There were
(09:46):
a couple of visits by theDutch in the 1600s, but it seems
that no one had any interestin setting up the islands as a settlement,
even as late as 1690. This waswhen the aforementioned Captain John
Strong gave the place itscurrent name. The first real attempt
at European settlementhappened in 1764, when French explorer
(10:08):
Louis Antoine Bougainvilleestablished a colony on East Falkland
island and named it Le Molunesafter a port in Brittany. The next
year, British Captain JohnByron came along and landed on Falkland
west and claimed the islandsfor Britain on the grounds of prior
discovery. The year afterthat, in 1765, yet another British
(10:32):
captain, John, this time hisname was McBride, a man that was
unaware that the Spanish werethere, established a permanent British
settlement at Port Egmont.There was some sort of an agreement
developed between the Bourbonkings of Spain and and France at
the time that had the Frenchleave and the Spanish assume control
in 1757. Then in early 1770,the Spanish noticed the British and
(10:59):
drove them off with 1400soldiers. It almost sparked a war,
but then just sort of didn't.And unbelievably, yet another Captain
John Re established thesettlement to Egmont. There were
a lot of these guys inEngland. Now the major twist of the
Falkland island story is thatdue to economic pressures in the
homeland because of theAmerican War of Independence, the
(11:21):
Napoleonic wrecking ball inEurope and the Argentine War of Independence,
the islands were almostentirely depopulated by 1811. The
British were out in 1776 andthe Spanish 35 years later. Both
of the countries left plaquesthere proclaiming their ownership.
After the British and theFrench were gone, it did not take
(11:43):
Argentina very long to try andestablish sovereignty over the Falklands.
At the time, Argentina wasknown as the United Provinces of
the River Plate. Just forcontext, in 1823 they granted fishing
rights to one Louis Vernet.And he's another guy with a real
(12:03):
interesting Backstory I do nothave the bandwidth to tell you about
here, but look him up. Causehe's pretty interesting, dude. He
did very well for himself onthe Falklands, but by 1929, he had
command of the islands, alongwith a monopoly on seal hunting there.
He was also savvy enough tohave permission from the British
as well as the Argentinians torun the place. Then, in 1831, he
(12:28):
captured three American ships,and the US Navy came and removed
all of the people from theislands. They did. They did not kill
them, but they took them offof the islands and dumped them in
Argentina, except for like 20people that they couldn't find because
they were out in thewilderness. And it was turned into
a penal colony colony by thegovernment in Buenos Aires. Vernay's
(12:49):
settlement went on, though,because it got the Brits attention.
And they returned in Januaryof 1833 and told them that it was
time to fly a British flag.The Argentinian major there protested,
but he had no soldiers, so hejust left. So for the rest of the
1830s, the British Crowngradually settled the islands, first
(13:10):
as a military outpost, relyingon the physical remains of Vernet's
enterprise. And over time,they were surveyed by the military.
Charles Darwin made a coupleof visits, and that put pressure
on the British government toformally colonize the place. And
from there we have another 60or so years of history that is interesting
(13:31):
in its own right, but oncewe've gotten to the establishment
of the colonial government,it's not all that super relevant
to what we're talking about inthis story. After all, the government
that was set into the place atthat time is essentially what is
happening there today. It isinstructive for us to know that in
2013, the islands voted verynearly unanimously to remain part
(13:54):
of the British Empire, eventhough that it's nothing to do with
the anthem, given thechronological distance. So we are
going to do a time jump about60 years forward to the turn of the
20th century, a stop that isusually where I get to peel off and
talk about the person thateither wrote the words or the music,
(14:14):
which I'm gonna do, but in akind of different way than we have
in past shows. I'm doing itfor the reason I could not write
the episode as the first one.You see, the Falkland Islands and
the Song of the Falklands areespecially interesting to me because
while both the song and thecountry definitely exist, I'm not
sure about the supposed authorof the song. That shouldn't be a
(14:37):
big surprise that there's nota lot of information because if you've
been listening to any of theshow, you'll know that there's a
light historical footprint ofnormal people. And most of these
people that wrote anthems arenormal people like us. But this one
is especially odd and it threwme for a loop when I, you know, as
(14:57):
my first effort. ChristopherLanham was supposedly a British school
teacher from the Hampshires.It's something called a ceremonial
county in southern England. Heis said to have taken a job on the
Falkland Islands as atraveling teacher. That is a job
that is parallels elsewhere inthe world, but also has a unique,
more than century long historyon the Falklands that deserves more
(15:21):
reading on its own.Christopher is said to have wrote
the song in the 1930s duringhis time on the islands, or possibly
on one of the trips he madeback and forth there. His song became
the unofficial anthem of theislands. And as said, I'm not actually
sure Christopher wrote this.The Internet is pretty sure it was
him though. I talked to theperson that wrote the Wikipedia page
(15:44):
for the Song of the Falklandsbecause they and the few sources
I could find do agree thatChristopher wrote it. They also agree
that there is very littleinformation out in the world about
him. In fact, it's so littlethat it is effectively nothing. In
digging and reading, I wasdirected to the archives of the Falkland
Island Magazine and I combedthrough every issue from 1889 through
(16:06):
1933, the entire run in fact,for any mention of the songwriter,
I found nothing. And I trustthis resource because it was the
main publication in a countrythat has less than 4,000 people living
there in the year 2024. Andthey covered the most ridiculously
minutia in only the way thatan old timey local journal could.
(16:31):
So Christopher is a Ghost intothe 30s. As far as what me and some
fairly dedicated localhistorians can find. However, there
is a JC Lanham that was on theislands in the correct period of
time. He was the right age, hemade some trips back and forth to
England, and he was actually atraveling teacher. I'm pretty sure
(16:52):
that he is the only Lanhamthat was on the islands in the correct
time frame. But the sourcesand the people I spoke to about this
anthem are all sure that thisis not the same guy. And I can't
confirm any of this becausethere are no birth records in the
UK for him or ChristopherLanham that I can access or that
anyone who I have talked tohas been able to find. So both of
(17:16):
these guys probably exist andthey seem to overlap in an interesting
enough way where I'm actuallysuspicious that they're the same
person. I can confirm none ofthat suspicion, though. And infuriatingly
enough, I also cannot deny thesuspicions that I have. So that is
the vague nature of history,and it infuriates me. Being unsure
(17:42):
about the timeline of ananthem. Writer's life is not anything
new here. 24 episodes in,though, and is super real. Clear
picture would be more out ofthe norm. Actually. That also means
that we have another anthemwhere the process of picking that
particular song is kind oflost to the mist. But the info that
(18:04):
I found looking for answers onthat actually makes things less clear
again. I was led to theFalkland Islands Magazine and I discovered
in 1915 there was a contest toname an unofficial anthem for the
islands. The winner of thatcontest was a completely different
guy and a completely differentsong. I can find reference to this
(18:25):
song in literally just thatone place. And as such, I'm hesitant
to weigh it too heavily, butit does cloud things more. So Charles
Hobley's words, set to musicby Sister Veroni, are called the
furthest south. They won't getmore than this sentence in the show,
and that is a shame because itwould have been one of the few where
(18:46):
a woman composer or writer wasinvolved. But we also shouldn't forget
that the Falkland Islands areclaimed by Argentina. And even in
2024, there is bad blood thatthe actual residents chose England,
which means that they haveanother regional anthem that is associated
with the Argentinian claim.Too complicated and not real helpful
(19:10):
for what I'm trying to parseout here. Even though I am a little
confused about the anthem andthe country, as opposed to just completely
ignorant of it, I can say thatwe've got the song and I'm gonna
tell you about it. Musicallyspeaking, this could be the work
of pretty much any patrioticfolk singer. And it is simple enough
song that I could play it onthe banjo. It's pretty enough, though,
(19:32):
and kind of reminds me of asea shanty. At least it does in the
single version of the songthat I could find that included the
lyrics. It's got sort of alilting rhythm to it. I'm completely
unsure of the writer'sintention with the thing, though,
because I was not able to findliterally any information regarding
that. Everything I'm writinghere is based on me having someone
(19:53):
that actually paid attentionin ear training. Transcribe the music
for me. So keep your salthandy. And if you can correct me,
you can do that through theMethods that I will tell you about
at the end of the show.Anyway, despite being written as
a folk song wherein a man islonging for a place that he took
a really cool work trip to,the Song of the Falklands checks
(20:16):
off a bunch of my anthemboxes. We've got a straightforward
and singable progression. It'sin 4 4, so it's hard to get lost
in while lending to thepossibility for it being played march
like. And the chorus roundsout more than deviates from the main
song. It's not very jarring.Like I said after I played it, this
(20:37):
song reminds me most of Flowerof Scotland because it's the other
unexpected anthem that I havecovered on the show. From a lyrical
standpoint, we've got a songwith three verses of four lines with
the rhyme scheme aabb. Eachverse is followed by a repeat refrain,
also with four lines, but withthe rhyme scheme aaba. Again, it's
(21:02):
basically a folk song, but inreading about it, I did learn that
the verse chorus structure iscalled strophic. That's S T R O P
H I C. So that's interestingnew information for me. Other than
that, I can't say too muchabout the anthem from a structural
standpoint. It's sort ofbasic. So I'm going to read it out
now and I will read thechorus, just the first of its three
(21:26):
appearances. I will note wherethe other two are, though, and this
time I'm going to read it inRussian to keep things kind of fresh
and confuse you. I'm kidding.I only speak English and a little
bit of Spanish, so I will readthis in the original English. In
my heart there's a call forthe isles far away where the wind
(21:48):
from the horn often wanders atplay where the kelp moves and sways
to the wind and the tide andpenguins troop down from the lonely
hillside those isles of thesea are calling to me the smell of
the campfire is a dear memoryThough far I may roam Some day I'll
come home to the islands theFalklands, the isles of the sea There's
(22:12):
a camphouse down yonder I'mlonging to see Though it's no gilded
palace it's there I would beJust to be there I would race o'er
the foam from that lone houseso far is my own sweet home and then
you hear the chorus again. Nowwe're off to the Falklands so wild
and so free where there'stussock and kelp and the red diddle
(22:36):
dee and the wild rugged beautythat Thrills More than Me is bred
in the bones on the isles ofthe sea. And then we hear the chorus
a final time. So the Song ofthe Falcons is one of the songs that
is very clearly not written asan anthem, and it sounds different
(22:56):
from most of them. Despitethat, we get a song that fits well
for the purpose and somehowthe themes of homesickness, nostalgia,
along with rugged beauty kindof work. The song was written by
someone with a deep emotionalconnection to the Falklands, even
though I can't say forabsolute certain who it was. There
is a nice interplay betweenpersonal memories and recollections
(23:20):
of natural character. It getsacross the yearning to return to
a beloved place. It's kind ofa mixture of wistful longing and
celebration that was spurredon by the writer very clearly missing
a place that holds a specialspot in their heart. There is a certain
universality that comes withthat, though. It makes sense as an
(23:42):
anthem, even though if it'sunconventional. The song opens by
painting a vivid portrait ofthe Falkland Islands by focusing
on the landscape and theemotional connection to the region.
The first verse establishesthe setting with vivid imagery of
the wind, tide, kelp and ofcourse, the penguins to present a
sense of the island's beautyand isolation. They're trying to
(24:03):
convey their love for theremote charm, emphasizing respect
for nature's power andsplendor. This sets the stage for
a deeply personal song.Despite not sounding like a typical
anthem, diverse does check offsome of the boxes that we need to
see. Nature and longingstrongly get represented in many
anthems and serving as asource of national pride. In the
(24:26):
second verse, the focus shiftsinward, drawing on the speaker's
personal memory of the island.This is far less typical in an anthem,
and they generally focus outinto a population of people. It makes
sense to me because the songthat is a national symbol should
make at least a perfunctoryattempt at being a song for all of
the people that live there. Iwould think the way the writer describes
(24:50):
the campfire and the camphouseevoke nostalgia and try to ground
the piece in an emotional way.They are clearly supposed to be seen
as symbols of comfort and andbelonging, trying to transform the
rugged landscape into acherished home. By intertwining the
grandeur of the islands withtender recollections, the verse creates
a poignant bridge between theexternal world and the speaker's
(25:13):
inner monologue. It's prettygood songwriting, but I find it to
be the least anthem like partof the song. The emotional arc of
the song crescendos in thethird verse, where the island's untamed
beauty is celebrated with atriumphant tone. It brings us right
back into the more typicalanthem, fair of extolling the natural
wonders of a nation. While Idid know that kelp is kind of a seagrass
(25:38):
and that some kinds aredelicious, tussock and red diddle
dee are new terms. Tussockgrass is a grass that grows in clumps
and is common in arcticclimates, or in this case very nearly
Antarctic ones. Red diddle deeis also known as red crowberry and
is a South American nativeplant that looks like a green evergreen
(26:00):
bush with little red berries.The other two lines of the verse
continue to cement the ruggedbeauty of the islands as their best
feature, and finally to hammerhome what the place means to the
people that love it. Lineslike the last one in the verse make
it make sense that a folk songcould become an anthem. Really, though,
the refrain is what does that?In my opinion, it ties the lyrics
(26:24):
together with the themes oflonging and the repetition of Someday
I'll come home to underscorethe writer's determination. The love
for the homeland, born oradopted, is powerful stuff and exactly
the sentiment you would wantin a song about a nation. So here
I am, 24 episodes into amassive project to learn about all
of the anthems in a worldwhere countries are actively forming
(26:47):
and failing and the literalland is slowly repositioning itself.
Of course, I'm more concernedwith the geopolitical than the geological,
in most cases because oftimescales, but it's important I
cede that all is changeeventually. Unfortunately, the change
that happens with respect tothe amount of information available
about history is usually areduction that only happens after
(27:11):
we have reached peak availableinformation, though, and with the
Song of the Falklands, it'snot a sure bet that we've got there
yet. I found an activecommunity of enthusiastic amateur
and professional historiansthat are trying to find out everything
about the islands and byextension have enabled me to tell
you a story about it that isas cohesive as I managed to make
(27:32):
it. It's a journey to learnabout this one, and it's an episode
that has shown me that themundane and exciting are not always
mutually exclusive things.This one was tricky for me to learn,
but but my intention isalready pointed at another place
to learn about. So on to thecredits. The writing, recording and
production for the show aredone by me. I wrote and played the
(27:56):
theme music. The music wasused by me with my permission unless
otherwise noted. The anthems Iplay are public domain or some other
equivalently free license or athing that I got permission to play
or have made a good faitheffort to get permission to play.
This time the audio's owner isa mystery. I did try to find out
(28:17):
who recorded this, but thereis nothing on the Internet that I
can get to about it other thanthe song as usual. Please let me
know if you know differently.My sources are contained in the show
notes and the most direct wayto get to the show notes is@anthemspodcast.com
this show is can credentialed,which means that you can report incidences
(28:39):
of harassment, abuse or otherharm on their hotline at 617-494255
or on their website atcreatoraccountability network.org
you can even go there andvolunteer your time or join up. As
a creator, I can be found onFacebook and WhatsApp as the anthems
(29:00):
podcast. You should follow meon Facebook because when I do post
it's a post about the show andif you see those posts you can share
those posts. That would helpme with trying to get the episode
out onto whatever platform Ican with the hashtag anthemspod.
So it would be super cool ifyou hashtag the post or something
like that. And maybe it wouldmean that more funding goes to Penguin
(29:24):
Ecotourism. As usual. You canemail me corrections, comments, concerns,
suggestions, ideas,instructions on how to do stuff,
and ask mequestions@anthemspodcastmail.com perhaps
you want me to hear exactlyhow mad or happy you are with my
content. If so, call or textat 203-759-8375. Or better still,
(29:50):
leave me a review wherever youcan so that more people hear me or
give me a rating on yourpodcast app. Same reason. It really
helps. Maybe listening to anepisode will lead you to walking
with your head down, deep inthought, and the person that you
bump into is doing exactly thesame thing. Then the excited conversation
you have about this veryepisode leads to passersby becoming
(30:13):
new listeners. But even if theonly thing that happens is that you
listen to another one. Thanks.So off we go. SA.
Foreign hello and welcome tothe Anthems Podcast. I'm Patrick
and I'm here to tell you thestory of a song that helps to tell
(00:22):
the story of a nation. Today.We we are going to need to take the
fast car because we've got13,275 miles to drive to our next
country. That is 21,364kilometers, which is a fun coincidence
because that is just a 100more than the Great Wall of China.
(00:44):
But that's mostly informationconfirming what we know to be true.
China is enormous in size andpopulation. The People's Republic
is sort of a study inopposites from today's country because
less people live there thanwork for my employer in just the
state that I live in, and itis physically smaller than all but
(01:04):
two of the states in the us.If you knew that meant we were going
to the Falkland Islands, thenI suspect you might be reading my
correspondence. We're herebecause I have, as of this release,
been doing a monthly podcastfor two full calendar years. Honestly,
it feels like a medium sizeddeal and at least I have enjoyed
the time spent getting aroundin the world with you in trips of
(01:28):
varying length. When I firststarted the show, the entire process
was an experiment, which meantthat I got to learn a bunch of new
stuff and new ways toimplement old knowledge. This was
and continues to be especiallytrue about writing the thing. The
narrative, regardless ofhistorical context of a specific
song, was deliberatelysomething way outside of my typical
(01:50):
line of inquiry or work. So Itried some stuff out, kept some of
what I learned there, tossedmore, and tried to start with the
Falkland Islands, but clearlyI did not for reasons that right
now would be too much of aspoiler. But I have got my feet under
me with the show as far asformat goes and knowing how to write
(02:12):
one for the most part. So it'stime to circle back and tell you
about the anthem that firstpiqued my interest after deciding
to get going. The Song of theFalklands. This is a story that had
me start and stop many times,obviously because it was a tricky
thing to parse out asatisfying narrative for. It's different
as all the episodes have been,and yet another in my blank slate
(02:35):
series. So prepare to besurprised by the story of a song
regarding the southernmostcountry that we've been to. Also,
I have previously warned youthat some of these songs are rather
quite long or they're going tofeel that way anyway. The Song of
the Falklands is not one ofthose, so prepare your ears for about
(02:56):
A minute of anthem in.
My heart There far away wherethe wind from the horn up and wonders
(03:22):
and flies where the cow movesand swells Till the wind and the
and penguins sit down from thelonely hillside those isles of the
(03:43):
sea are calling to me Smell ofthe campfire a dear memory Though
far I may roam Someday I'llcome home to the island of Falkland,
the islands of the sea.
(04:07):
My first impression was tothink, well, that's a bit different.
But I like it and was glad tobe presented with something refreshing
again. Simple and distinctisn't what you get in many national
anthems. This is a very localsong, which is something that I really
like in an anthem because theyought to feel like the country that
they represent. Some of themdon't sound all that local due to
(04:30):
the specifics of history, butthat doesn't mean that non local
anthems are bad songs. Goodand bad music is mostly a subjective
idea because musical tastecan't be dictated. But I have neither
the time nor the desire to geton that soapbox because we need to
find out what where thesepenguins the anthem mentions are.
(04:51):
The Falklands are one of theeasier countries for me to pin down
on the map. I'll assume thatwe can all find South America. So
from there locate thesouthernmost point and about 480
kilometers, or 300 miles tothe east of the Patagonian coast
are the Falkland Islands.They're named after the Falkland
Sound, which is in between thetwo largest of them. And the sound
(05:14):
is in turn named after the 5thViscount of Falkland in. In 1690,
he was the treasurer of theRoyal Navy and financed an expedition
there, captained by JohnStrong. It will likely be named the
Falkland Islands in Englishfor a long time, but that's human
timescale stuff on a geologictime scale. This archipelago is hanging
(05:39):
out near Cape Horn for like amoment because of this episode's
geology term microplates.These are small, mostly rigid areas
of crust that are less than amillion square miles in size. They
sit in like sort of in betweenmajor plate boundaries and they rotate
independently and are able tomove along them in certain cases.
(06:02):
The Falkland Islands aregeologically interesting because
the rocks there are nothinglike the ones in mainland South America
and instead are similar to thesouthern part of Africa. Evidence
for this was noticed but notrecognized by a few people, including
Charles Darwin. But that wasway before Alfred Wegener came up
with the idea of continentaldrift in 1912, which helped lead
(06:26):
to the theory of platetectonics. And till then it was just
a few mysterious footnotes. Sountil about 300 million years ago,
the supercontinent Gondwana orsomething, the islands were butted
up to the bottom of Africa.And then when the continents separated
out, the microplate that theislands were on did a slow 180 degree
(06:47):
spin while waiting for me tobe around to talk about a song. So
yeah, I know the nationalanthem of the Falkland Islands is
officially God Save the King.Scotland's is too, and so are all
the other countries in theCommonwealth. And yes, I know that
the Falkland Islands are veryclose to not a country at all. So
why this place? The answer hassome mild spoilers for the rest of
(07:11):
the episode, so Skip aheadlike 10 or 15 seconds if you don't
want to hear them. Some of theanswer has spoilers anyway, because
part one is really that GodSave the King can only have one episode
or my show is gonna be reallyeven more boring than it already
is. What we've got in theFalkland Islands is a place where
the people rejected Argentinaand accepted England, but actually
(07:33):
I think don't want to be ineither and really want to be Falklanders.
Britain was the option thatallowed them to not substantially
change their lives, so theyget a show. Plus, this is technically
part of the Colonialismseries, even though this is not a
story that involves itcollapsing. Really though, once I
found out about all thepenguins there, I wanted to talk
(07:55):
about them because penguinsare adorable and if I don't do an
episode, I don't get to tellyou about them. So also in this note,
you're going to hear aboutbirds. The penguins of the Falkland
Islands are, at least in thispodcaster's mind, the unofficial
mascots. They are fivedifferent species. The King, Gentoo,
(08:16):
Rockhopper, the Magellanic,and occasionally the Macaroni Penguin.
It's not the most species inone country. New Zealand has that
title, but it is the fifth, soI guess that's pretty cool in terms
of numbers. What that means isthere are like a million of them
there during the summer, andthat seems like so many birds. With
(08:39):
no natural predators on theislands, it's a perfect place for
them to nest. It's verypicturesque, but it is important
part of the ecosystem and adriver of ecotourism. Sorry for the
diversion, but I read so muchabout the Falcon penguins that I
had to put something in theshow. Moving on. Normally, the possible
inroads to the narrative arefound along a timeline of unmanageable
(09:03):
length. Here, though, theFalkland Islands reached their current
hangout and then people mostlyleft the place to the birds. There
is some evidence that thecapable seafarers of old that used
to live on the modernArgentinian coast used some of the
islands as a waypoint. Butit's a near certainty that there
were no long term settlementsthere. It's likely that a ship in
(09:23):
Magellan's firstcircumnavigation of the planet spotted
it, but incorrectly noted thelocation. Because we had no idea
how to measure longitude backthen, because we didn't have chronometers.
The islands enter thehistorical record more fully in 1592
when the English captain JohnDavis was stranded there. There were
(09:46):
a couple of visits by theDutch in the 1600s, but it seems
that no one had any interestin setting up the islands as a settlement,
even as late as 1690. This waswhen the aforementioned Captain John
Strong gave the place itscurrent name. The first real attempt
at European settlementhappened in 1764, when French explorer
(10:08):
Louis Antoine Bougainvilleestablished a colony on East Falkland
island and named it Le Molunesafter a port in Brittany. The next
year, British Captain JohnByron came along and landed on Falkland
west and claimed the islandsfor Britain on the grounds of prior
discovery. The year afterthat, in 1765, yet another British
(10:32):
captain, John, this time hisname was McBride, a man that was
unaware that the Spanish werethere, established a permanent British
settlement at Port Egmont.There was some sort of an agreement
developed between the Bourbonkings of Spain and and France at
the time that had the Frenchleave and the Spanish assume control
in 1757. Then in early 1770,the Spanish noticed the British and
(10:59):
drove them off with 1400soldiers. It almost sparked a war,
but then just sort of didn't.And unbelievably, yet another Captain
John Re established thesettlement to Egmont. There were
a lot of these guys inEngland. Now the major twist of the
Falkland island story is thatdue to economic pressures in the
homeland because of theAmerican War of Independence, the
(11:21):
Napoleonic wrecking ball inEurope and the Argentine War of Independence,
the islands were almostentirely depopulated by 1811. The
British were out in 1776 andthe Spanish 35 years later. Both
of the countries left plaquesthere proclaiming their ownership.
After the British and theFrench were gone, it did not take
(11:43):
Argentina very long to try andestablish sovereignty over the Falklands.
At the time, Argentina wasknown as the United Provinces of
the River Plate. Just forcontext, in 1823 they granted fishing
rights to one Louis Vernet.And he's another guy with a real
(12:03):
interesting Backstory I do nothave the bandwidth to tell you about
here, but look him up. Causehe's pretty interesting, dude. He
did very well for himself onthe Falklands, but by 1929, he had
command of the islands, alongwith a monopoly on seal hunting there.
He was also savvy enough tohave permission from the British
as well as the Argentinians torun the place. Then, in 1831, he
(12:28):
captured three American ships,and the US Navy came and removed
all of the people from theislands. They did. They did not kill
them, but they took them offof the islands and dumped them in
Argentina, except for like 20people that they couldn't find because
they were out in thewilderness. And it was turned into
a penal colony colony by thegovernment in Buenos Aires. Vernay's
(12:49):
settlement went on, though,because it got the Brits attention.
And they returned in Januaryof 1833 and told them that it was
time to fly a British flag.The Argentinian major there protested,
but he had no soldiers, so hejust left. So for the rest of the
1830s, the British Crowngradually settled the islands, first
(13:10):
as a military outpost, relyingon the physical remains of Vernet's
enterprise. And over time,they were surveyed by the military.
Charles Darwin made a coupleof visits, and that put pressure
on the British government toformally colonize the place. And
from there we have another 60or so years of history that is interesting
(13:31):
in its own right, but oncewe've gotten to the establishment
of the colonial government,it's not all that super relevant
to what we're talking about inthis story. After all, the government
that was set into the place atthat time is essentially what is
happening there today. It isinstructive for us to know that in
2013, the islands voted verynearly unanimously to remain part
(13:54):
of the British Empire, eventhough that it's nothing to do with
the anthem, given thechronological distance. So we are
going to do a time jump about60 years forward to the turn of the
20th century, a stop that isusually where I get to peel off and
talk about the person thateither wrote the words or the music,
(14:14):
which I'm gonna do, but in akind of different way than we have
in past shows. I'm doing itfor the reason I could not write
the episode as the first one.You see, the Falkland Islands and
the Song of the Falklands areespecially interesting to me because
while both the song and thecountry definitely exist, I'm not
sure about the supposed authorof the song. That shouldn't be a
(14:37):
big surprise that there's nota lot of information because if you've
been listening to any of theshow, you'll know that there's a
light historical footprint ofnormal people. And most of these
people that wrote anthems arenormal people like us. But this one
is especially odd and it threwme for a loop when I, you know, as
(14:57):
my first effort. ChristopherLanham was supposedly a British school
teacher from the Hampshires.It's something called a ceremonial
county in southern England. Heis said to have taken a job on the
Falkland Islands as atraveling teacher. That is a job
that is parallels elsewhere inthe world, but also has a unique,
more than century long historyon the Falklands that deserves more
(15:21):
reading on its own.Christopher is said to have wrote
the song in the 1930s duringhis time on the islands, or possibly
on one of the trips he madeback and forth there. His song became
the unofficial anthem of theislands. And as said, I'm not actually
sure Christopher wrote this.The Internet is pretty sure it was
him though. I talked to theperson that wrote the Wikipedia page
(15:44):
for the Song of the Falklandsbecause they and the few sources
I could find do agree thatChristopher wrote it. They also agree
that there is very littleinformation out in the world about
him. In fact, it's so littlethat it is effectively nothing. In
digging and reading, I wasdirected to the archives of the Falkland
Island Magazine and I combedthrough every issue from 1889 through
(16:06):
1933, the entire run in fact,for any mention of the songwriter,
I found nothing. And I trustthis resource because it was the
main publication in a countrythat has less than 4,000 people living
there in the year 2024. Andthey covered the most ridiculously
minutia in only the way thatan old timey local journal could.
(16:31):
So Christopher is a Ghost intothe 30s. As far as what me and some
fairly dedicated localhistorians can find. However, there
is a JC Lanham that was on theislands in the correct period of
time. He was the right age, hemade some trips back and forth to
England, and he was actually atraveling teacher. I'm pretty sure
(16:52):
that he is the only Lanhamthat was on the islands in the correct
time frame. But the sourcesand the people I spoke to about this
anthem are all sure that thisis not the same guy. And I can't
confirm any of this becausethere are no birth records in the
UK for him or ChristopherLanham that I can access or that
anyone who I have talked tohas been able to find. So both of
(17:16):
these guys probably exist andthey seem to overlap in an interesting
enough way where I'm actuallysuspicious that they're the same
person. I can confirm none ofthat suspicion, though. And infuriatingly
enough, I also cannot deny thesuspicions that I have. So that is
the vague nature of history,and it infuriates me. Being unsure
(17:42):
about the timeline of ananthem. Writer's life is not anything
new here. 24 episodes in,though, and is super real. Clear
picture would be more out ofthe norm. Actually. That also means
that we have another anthemwhere the process of picking that
particular song is kind oflost to the mist. But the info that
(18:04):
I found looking for answers onthat actually makes things less clear
again. I was led to theFalkland Islands Magazine and I discovered
in 1915 there was a contest toname an unofficial anthem for the
islands. The winner of thatcontest was a completely different
guy and a completely differentsong. I can find reference to this
(18:25):
song in literally just thatone place. And as such, I'm hesitant
to weigh it too heavily, butit does cloud things more. So Charles
Hobley's words, set to musicby Sister Veroni, are called the
furthest south. They won't getmore than this sentence in the show,
and that is a shame because itwould have been one of the few where
(18:46):
a woman composer or writer wasinvolved. But we also shouldn't forget
that the Falkland Islands areclaimed by Argentina. And even in
2024, there is bad blood thatthe actual residents chose England,
which means that they haveanother regional anthem that is associated
with the Argentinian claim.Too complicated and not real helpful
(19:10):
for what I'm trying to parseout here. Even though I am a little
confused about the anthem andthe country, as opposed to just completely
ignorant of it, I can say thatwe've got the song and I'm gonna
tell you about it. Musicallyspeaking, this could be the work
of pretty much any patrioticfolk singer. And it is simple enough
song that I could play it onthe banjo. It's pretty enough, though,
(19:32):
and kind of reminds me of asea shanty. At least it does in the
single version of the songthat I could find that included the
lyrics. It's got sort of alilting rhythm to it. I'm completely
unsure of the writer'sintention with the thing, though,
because I was not able to findliterally any information regarding
that. Everything I'm writinghere is based on me having someone
(19:53):
that actually paid attentionin ear training. Transcribe the music
for me. So keep your salthandy. And if you can correct me,
you can do that through theMethods that I will tell you about
at the end of the show.Anyway, despite being written as
a folk song wherein a man islonging for a place that he took
a really cool work trip to,the Song of the Falklands checks
(20:16):
off a bunch of my anthemboxes. We've got a straightforward
and singable progression. It'sin 4 4, so it's hard to get lost
in while lending to thepossibility for it being played march
like. And the chorus roundsout more than deviates from the main
song. It's not very jarring.Like I said after I played it, this
(20:37):
song reminds me most of Flowerof Scotland because it's the other
unexpected anthem that I havecovered on the show. From a lyrical
standpoint, we've got a songwith three verses of four lines with
the rhyme scheme aabb. Eachverse is followed by a repeat refrain,
also with four lines, but withthe rhyme scheme aaba. Again, it's
(21:02):
basically a folk song, but inreading about it, I did learn that
the verse chorus structure iscalled strophic. That's S T R O P
H I C. So that's interestingnew information for me. Other than
that, I can't say too muchabout the anthem from a structural
standpoint. It's sort ofbasic. So I'm going to read it out
now and I will read thechorus, just the first of its three
(21:26):
appearances. I will note wherethe other two are, though, and this
time I'm going to read it inRussian to keep things kind of fresh
and confuse you. I'm kidding.I only speak English and a little
bit of Spanish, so I will readthis in the original English. In
my heart there's a call forthe isles far away where the wind
(21:48):
from the horn often wanders atplay where the kelp moves and sways
to the wind and the tide andpenguins troop down from the lonely
hillside those isles of thesea are calling to me the smell of
the campfire is a dear memoryThough far I may roam Some day I'll
come home to the islands theFalklands, the isles of the sea There's
(22:12):
a camphouse down yonder I'mlonging to see Though it's no gilded
palace it's there I would beJust to be there I would race o'er
the foam from that lone houseso far is my own sweet home and then
you hear the chorus again. Nowwe're off to the Falklands so wild
and so free where there'stussock and kelp and the red diddle
(22:36):
dee and the wild rugged beautythat Thrills More than Me is bred
in the bones on the isles ofthe sea. And then we hear the chorus
a final time. So the Song ofthe Falcons is one of the songs that
is very clearly not written asan anthem, and it sounds different
(22:56):
from most of them. Despitethat, we get a song that fits well
for the purpose and somehowthe themes of homesickness, nostalgia,
along with rugged beauty kindof work. The song was written by
someone with a deep emotionalconnection to the Falklands, even
though I can't say forabsolute certain who it was. There
is a nice interplay betweenpersonal memories and recollections
(23:20):
of natural character. It getsacross the yearning to return to
a beloved place. It's kind ofa mixture of wistful longing and
celebration that was spurredon by the writer very clearly missing
a place that holds a specialspot in their heart. There is a certain
universality that comes withthat, though. It makes sense as an
(23:42):
anthem, even though if it'sunconventional. The song opens by
painting a vivid portrait ofthe Falkland Islands by focusing
on the landscape and theemotional connection to the region.
The first verse establishesthe setting with vivid imagery of
the wind, tide, kelp and ofcourse, the penguins to present a
sense of the island's beautyand isolation. They're trying to
(24:03):
convey their love for theremote charm, emphasizing respect
for nature's power andsplendor. This sets the stage for
a deeply personal song.Despite not sounding like a typical
anthem, diverse does check offsome of the boxes that we need to
see. Nature and longingstrongly get represented in many
anthems and serving as asource of national pride. In the
(24:26):
second verse, the focus shiftsinward, drawing on the speaker's
personal memory of the island.This is far less typical in an anthem,
and they generally focus outinto a population of people. It makes
sense to me because the songthat is a national symbol should
make at least a perfunctoryattempt at being a song for all of
the people that live there. Iwould think the way the writer describes
(24:50):
the campfire and the camphouseevoke nostalgia and try to ground
the piece in an emotional way.They are clearly supposed to be seen
as symbols of comfort and andbelonging, trying to transform the
rugged landscape into acherished home. By intertwining the
grandeur of the islands withtender recollections, the verse creates
a poignant bridge between theexternal world and the speaker's
(25:13):
inner monologue. It's prettygood songwriting, but I find it to
be the least anthem like partof the song. The emotional arc of
the song crescendos in thethird verse, where the island's untamed
beauty is celebrated with atriumphant tone. It brings us right
back into the more typicalanthem, fair of extolling the natural
wonders of a nation. While Idid know that kelp is kind of a seagrass
(25:38):
and that some kinds aredelicious, tussock and red diddle
dee are new terms. Tussockgrass is a grass that grows in clumps
and is common in arcticclimates, or in this case very nearly
Antarctic ones. Red diddle deeis also known as red crowberry and
is a South American nativeplant that looks like a green evergreen
(26:00):
bush with little red berries.The other two lines of the verse
continue to cement the ruggedbeauty of the islands as their best
feature, and finally to hammerhome what the place means to the
people that love it. Lineslike the last one in the verse make
it make sense that a folk songcould become an anthem. Really, though,
the refrain is what does that?In my opinion, it ties the lyrics
(26:24):
together with the themes oflonging and the repetition of Someday
I'll come home to underscorethe writer's determination. The love
for the homeland, born oradopted, is powerful stuff and exactly
the sentiment you would wantin a song about a nation. So here
I am, 24 episodes into amassive project to learn about all
of the anthems in a worldwhere countries are actively forming
(26:47):
and failing and the literalland is slowly repositioning itself.
Of course, I'm more concernedwith the geopolitical than the geological,
in most cases because oftimescales, but it's important I
cede that all is changeeventually. Unfortunately, the change
that happens with respect tothe amount of information available
about history is usually areduction that only happens after
(27:11):
we have reached peak availableinformation, though, and with the
Song of the Falklands, it'snot a sure bet that we've got there
yet. I found an activecommunity of enthusiastic amateur
and professional historiansthat are trying to find out everything
about the islands and byextension have enabled me to tell
you a story about it that isas cohesive as I managed to make
(27:32):
it. It's a journey to learnabout this one, and it's an episode
that has shown me that themundane and exciting are not always
mutually exclusive things.This one was tricky for me to learn,
but but my intention isalready pointed at another place
to learn about. So on to thecredits. The writing, recording and
production for the show aredone by me. I wrote and played the
(27:56):
theme music. The music wasused by me with my permission unless
otherwise noted. The anthems Iplay are public domain or some other
equivalently free license or athing that I got permission to play
or have made a good faitheffort to get permission to play.
This time the audio's owner isa mystery. I did try to find out
(28:17):
who recorded this, but thereis nothing on the Internet that I
can get to about it other thanthe song as usual. Please let me
know if you know differently.My sources are contained in the show
notes and the most direct wayto get to the show notes is@anthemspodcast.com
this show is can credentialed,which means that you can report incidences
(28:39):
of harassment, abuse or otherharm on their hotline at 617-494255
or on their website atcreatoraccountability network.org
you can even go there andvolunteer your time or join up. As
a creator, I can be found onFacebook and WhatsApp as the anthems
(29:00):
podcast. You should follow meon Facebook because when I do post
it's a post about the show andif you see those posts you can share
those posts. That would helpme with trying to get the episode
out onto whatever platform Ican with the hashtag anthemspod.
So it would be super cool ifyou hashtag the post or something
like that. And maybe it wouldmean that more funding goes to Penguin
(29:24):
Ecotourism. As usual. You canemail me corrections, comments, concerns,
suggestions, ideas,instructions on how to do stuff,
and ask mequestions@anthemspodcastmail.com perhaps
you want me to hear exactlyhow mad or happy you are with my
content. If so, call or textat 203-759-8375. Or better still,
(29:50):
leave me a review wherever youcan so that more people hear me or
give me a rating on yourpodcast app. Same reason. It really
helps. Maybe listening to anepisode will lead you to walking
with your head down, deep inthought, and the person that you
bump into is doing exactly thesame thing. Then the excited conversation
you have about this veryepisode leads to passersby becoming
(30:13):
new listeners. But even if theonly thing that happens is that you
listen to another one. Thanks.So off we go. SA.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!