a big friendly bear dancing before a bowl brimming with honey

Slovenia · sung in Slovenian

Stari Medo

"Stari Medo" ("Old Bear") is a playful Slovenian children's song with a growling "brunda gunda" refrain: an empty bowl means Old Bear goes to sleep, but a bowl full of honey and he'll gladly dance for you.

Opens a YouTube search for this song in a new tab — nothing plays inside this page.

Besedilo (Lyrics)

Celotno besedilo pesmi »Stari Medo« z angleškim prevodom.

Brunda gunda, brunda gunda - meda polna skleda! Stari Medo - bistra glava: prazna skleda - Medo spava...

#

Brunda gunda, brunda gunda - meda polna skleda! Če pa vidi polno skledo, rad vam pleše stari Medo!

#

Brunda gunda, brunda gunda - meda polna skleda!

#

English translation

Brunda gunda, brunda gunda — a bowl full of honey! Old Bear — a clever head: an empty bowl — and Bear goes to sleep… Brunda gunda, brunda gunda — a bowl full of honey! But if he sees a full bowl, Old Bear will gladly dance for you! Brunda gunda, brunda gunda — a bowl full of honey!

#

Stari Medo at a glance

Country of origin
🇸🇮 Slovenia
Sung in
Slovenian
Words by
Traditional
First known
Slovenian children's song; author not established
Best for ages
2–7
Mood
playful, traditional
Last updated
25 July 2026

Meaning and origin

This is a growly, good-humoured little song about a bear who knows exactly what he wants. Old Bear is described, drily, as a “clever head”: faced with an empty bowl, he sees no reason to stir and simply goes back to sleep — but let him spy a bowl brimming with honey, and he will happily get up and dance for you. It is a comic portrait of a creature ruled entirely by his stomach, and children recognise the logic at once.

Half the fun is in the refrain, brunda gunda, brunda gunda — a bowl full of honey!, a rumbling nonsense growl that begs to be sung in a deep, bearish voice. No reliable author could be found for it, so it is treated here as a traditional Slovenian children’s song — one more of the animal songs that turn a familiar creature’s one great appetite into a joke a small child can share.

Common questions

What is "Stari Medo" about?
A honey-loving bear. Old Bear is a "clever head": when the bowl is empty, he just goes to sleep — but if he sees a bowl full of honey, he will gladly dance for you. The growly refrain "brunda gunda, brunda gunda — a bowl full of honey!" runs all the way through.
What does "brunda gunda" mean?
It is a nonsense growl — the sound a bear makes, turned into a refrain. It has no literal meaning; it is there to be rumbled and grumbled like a contented, hungry bear.
Who wrote "Stari Medo"?
No reliable author could be found for it, so it is treated here as a traditional Slovenian children's song, of the kind handed down and sung in nurseries.

Sources