In Sam Mendes’ 1917, Lance Corp. Scholfield has survived a harrowing journey when a voice calls him into a woods. A soldier is singing an old song, “(I Am a Poor) Wayfaring Stranger,” as his regiment prepares to go into an assault that will doom most of them. It’s Schofield’s task to stop them, but he needs to regather his strength first.

It’s a mesmerizing moment. Here is the song, performed by Joe Slovick and recorded at Abbey Road:

And here are the lyrics:

The irony, according to an excellent website, Counting Stars, is that the song has its origins in 1816 as a German hymn. But it gained new life recast as an American song in 1858 and became popular among other soldiers in another war–our Civil War. In the 20th and 21st centuries, it became a bluegrass staple, performed by Johnny Cash, Emmylou Harris and Jack Black in the Civil War film Cold Mountain.

This borrowed German song—it must’ve come here with the “Forty-Eighters,” the wave of German immigrants fleeing a failed revolution as their Irish contemporaries were fleeing hunger—is now completely American.

I am fond of this version, quite different from Slovick’s stunning solo but valuable because it restores the song to its bluegrass roots. The beauty of American music? This is a Norwegian band.