Skál! (Skål!): The Norse Toast Word
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 11 ก.ย. 2024
- "Skál!" or "Skål!" is the toast used in the Scandinavian languages. This video looks at the word's origin (and its confusion with "skull") and at a little bit about Old Norse toasting practices in the Viking Age (at least as transmitted in the sagas).
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i think a good metaphor for raising your drink bowl and shouting "bowls!" is the way me and the girls will shout "shots!" when we take shots together. its a little vapid but we're not always trying to be clever
@@vivianadelatorre7267 Great example!
I guess it might also be something like, "raise your bowl to... !" eventually being shortened to "bowl to... !" and then just "bowl!" Perhaps at the same time as the ceremonial nature of the drinking fades into history.
Perhaps it is exactly as clever as one needs to be when they are under the "vapors" of spirits?
Yes. As in a command to grab and raise your bowl/glass/horn to be ready to drink together.
Bowl to that! Skål för det!
I think of it as more or less just a shorthand for "raise your glass". Like.. "GLASSES UP!"
As a Swede, I can add that this is how we rationalize it today
"Raise your glasses" is a term meaning to celebrate as well, at least sporadically used in Norwegian.
Another thing is that during a celebration or fiest, its expected the glasses to be filled before giving a toast (Skål), so the reference to "full" is well understood.
During a funeral, it is common to open a toast to the deciesed with a speach about a fond memory you have with the departed, so the reference to "minni" is also well understood.
My Norwegian grandparents raised a glass and said "skål" at every single dinner with the first raised glass. Everyone else at the table would raise their glasses and repeat "skål" in response. They kept the ritual even after they emigrated. Great video, since I've always wondered about the origin of "skål."
calling it a ritual is romanticizing it, it's literally just toasting before a drink
Toasting before a drink *is* a ritual. It isn't romanticising the act to call it a ritual; it is romanticising the idea of a ritual to gatekeep the word for only things you consider special enough.
@@molnet999 Words have meanings. A ritual is "a set of words or actions perfomed in a defined order, often with cultural or religious meaning," e.g., raising a glass (action) ; word (skål). Do we need to get into a discussion of the word "set?"
@@andrewcrowder4958 wow, words have meanings? i had no idea. what a condescending thing to write. words also have connotations. if you normally wouldn't use the term "ritual" for everything that technically is a ritual but use the word for mystic effect when describing and "exotic" word, you are using the term badly. also, raising a toast is not some uniquely norwegian or scandiniavian ritual either, they were just partaking in a typical toast while using a norwegian word, if every type of extremely similar toast that uses a different word is to be considered an exlusive ritual the definitions would be ridicululous, like "swedish/norwegian/danish toasting ritual: raise your glasses and say 'skål specifically'". americans have already started using skål incorrectly (as if it is interchangeable with the word cheers, which it isn't) to larp as scandinavians and the ritual talk is leaning into that cultural movement
I think "skål" for my grandparents was a daily reminder of their homeland. As a very young child, I remember them telling me that no place was as beautiful as Norway. Their emigration was out of poverty. My grandfather sewed draperies and came from a line of tailors in rural Norway. I was hoping Dr. Crawford would find some deep significance in the Old Norse, but alas, "skål" just meant "bowl."
"No, no, that was the sign of the Hammer" is such a funny excuse
😅
So much more makes sense with that scene.
Skål, Jackson! Thank you for dissipating misconceptions and misunderstandings regarding skulls - as a worker in a Viking museum, I've been asked if the Vikings drank from skulls dozens of times in a single season. I can now also refer visitors to this video! Greetings from Norway🤠
Come on, you know as well as I do that we obviously drink from 💀🍻💀 every single day.. 😅😂😂
I used to work at the Viking ship museum in Roskilde, Denmark. It was also a common question there 😅
As a native speaker of swedish, I always equated it to "bottoms up"
Fun times that bowl is in fact still called 'skål' in Norway, Danish and Swedish. Never something I really thought about before.
Meanwhile, I would love for people to stop using it as a greeting like 'cheers' it is not the same thing. No one ever sees a friend and goes 'skål' at them. Stop.
So, what would be a better replacement? 😂
So what would be a better replacement for “cheers” instead of “hi”? 😂
@@Just_Call_Me_Tim There isn't one. Is this a monolingual thing where you are not really getting that other languages don't work exactly like English? Like, what is happening here?
'hi' in scandinavian languages is a laughing sound. If you want a greeting: Hej, hejsa, hva' så, hej då, moin, dav, hallo - just to name a few. It depends on where you are from, what country and even what region of that country. Why use words from a language or a group of languages when you can't be bothered to learn if they even function like that?
@@Just_Call_Me_Tim Swede here, so I can really only talk about Swedish.
While "cheers" is rather ubiquitous in British English as both a toast and a greeting; Swedish doesn't have that. Out closest equivalent: "skål" is a toast and a noun meaning bowl. It's not a greeting at all.
In Swedish, we have a range of greetings ranging in levels of formality, regionalism, and chronorgism. Hej, hejsan, hallå, halloj, tjena, tjenare, hejsan svejsan, var hälsad, tjo, tjobre, hur är läget? god morgon/kväll/förmiddag/eftermiddag, god jul, glad midsommar, gratis på födelsedagen, and I'm sure there's more that can count as a greeting.
Never heard of 'cheers' being used as a greeting. Is it an American thing?
In southern England, other than as a toast, it is used as an informal form of thank you, usually to a friend or acquaintance who has done you a big or unexpected favour that has lifted up your mood or surprised you.
When toasting more formally, someone will say eg ”jag vill utbringa en skål för brudparet” (I would like to propose a toast for the bride and groom), then wait while all pick up their glasses, say ”skål!” and then everyone replies ”skål!”. At this point everone is holding their glass in chest height, looking each other in the eye, then gulping down the drink. Still holding the glass you look eachother in the eye again, and then put the glass down. So basically you start by proposing a bowl for something., which actually makes sense. Now, just having drinks with friends you usually skip that part and just say skål.
Skål from Sweden,, 🍻😋👍
To “Skull” a beer (drink it down in one) is still a dialect saying in north Ireland
Also in Canada
@@mgracew Also in Australia
Now that is interesting.
Skál úr Føroyum 🍻
Google is having a rough time translating Faroese.
In Minnesota, I have always seen it spelled "skol" by alcohol-related businesses, the Minnesota Vikings football team, and my own Scandinavian -American family when they wanted to be festive.
Reasonable, considering you don't have any of the funny letters. Apparently also need to look up how to do the á, on this Norwegian keyboard. It defaults to the à for some reason. Which can lead to awkward questions!
@@torbenkristiansen2742 For me I just hold the ´ button and press a = á. But those things are different on different keyboards. I think the only unique/common thing with Nordic keyboards is the buttons for Ö/Ø, Æ/Ä and Å close to the 'Enter' button.
That youtube thumbnail though
Nothing ever said more "howdy"😂
got me in here!
One hell of a white boy summer
Needs more Lighthur, though.
A weird use of this term is English-speakers just using it like they would use "cheers", so you get people, like in the comments here, who'll just call out to each other with "skål!", with no drinking being present. Or using it to say good-bye, etc. It sounds incredibly weird and inauthentic.
There's an English (modern) "raise your glass". "Bowl" sounds like a short version used before glasses were common. That is usually followed by "to ****."
Its even simple than that. Archeological finde of drinking vekselstrøm show that viking age scandinavians just preferred to drink from bowls. Often they would all have a sip from the same bowl as part of a feast (example can be found in Beowulf)
Drinking out of the skulls of your enemies was practiced by the Scythians and the Xiongnu. Two groups of people far from the time if not the place of vikings
Just a sidenote about the region of the Earl Håkon. The region is called Trøndelag, literally the law area of the Trønder (the parliament or thing was in the peninsula of Frosta), but it was the geographical area around the fjord that was called Trondheim. Later the city of Nidaros ended up taking the name of the landscape
Og dette skal være vor Jackson til ære, hurra. Og dette skal være vor Jackson til ære, hurra. Og skam få den som ikke vor Jacksons skål vil drikke. Hurra, hurra, den skål var bra, hurra!
Vi skåler for vores venner og dem som vi kender,
og dem som vi ikke kender dem skåler vi med,
Vi skåler for vores venner
Og dem uden tænder
Og dem der kan gå på hænder dem skåler vi med
Vi skåler for vore værter
Og dem som der er her
Og dem der har lommesmerter
Dem skåler vi med
Norsk versjon:
Og dette skal være Jackson sin skål, hurra!
Ja, dette skal være Jackson sin skål, hurra!
Og skam for den som ikke, Jackson sin skål vil drikke
Hurra, hurra, den skålen var bra, hurra!
Skål from Denmark
Skal from Australia
Skål from Norway 🍻 👋😊
Kippis from Finland
Google translated it as cheers.
@@ferretyluv That's because in english it is synonymous with the word cheers when it comes to making a toast, and only that. Other than that it also means different types of bowls etc. It does not however work/have the same meaning as the word cheers does when it comes to greeting/saying hi/bye or thank you to people. So if you use it in that way you're completely off because it doesn't carry that meaning, only cheers as in a toast or like I said, various types of bowls - that's it! 💞
Skål still means bowl and cheers in swedish and yes. I believe it might be a sort of subtle reference to "lets empty this glass". A bit like "bottoms up" seems to be a reference to emptying your glass before you start drinking.
My wife just bought me your translation of the Poetic Edda for my birthday! Thank you for all the work you do, Dr. Crawford!
Jsu moved house and had to do a huge clear out of books. No way that I'm yeeting that! What a fantastic gift 😁
Interesting linguistic drift in Australia. A toast word here downunder is "scull" which is to srink it down real quick.
I've heard 'skull/scull it' before from an Aussie friend and assumed it was referring to putting the drink into your skull. Thought that was interesting new slang...
@@mkuehter12 my own head cannon on scull was to do it fast aligned with rowing. Before my linguistics training - back when I was a teen.
Scull isn't really a toast word though, it's a verb meaning to drink a (usually full) glass in one go. People exclaim/chant it in order to sort of pressure someone into performing the action, but not to make a toast.
"What a medieval Catholic believed" yeah, one of the things that drives me up the wall is people (not you, Dr Crawford) forgetting that a _lot_ of the surviving literature came from Christians interpreting oral traditions that had already been filtered through Christians retelling them, so you end up with people thinking Valhalla was Norse Heaven (along with Folkvangr, if they even remember it exists) and that Helheim was solely a realm of punishment.
American living in Norway, your channel is super interesting and engaging as I'm struggling to learn Norwegian. Thanks!
Lær dansk istedet.
Det er der de rigtige vikinger bor😂🎉
@@thomashjortshj974 😂 Danish is just Norwegian spoken with a potato in the back of your throat 😅
@@karolinemathildehellan7869 😂🤣
I was raised in a Swedish immigrant community in northern Indiana and I vividly recall that the expression used was 'Skål på valla flicka' [sic]. I believe that this was their toast, which can be translated as you like, I have for all these years. Literal to english is, ' Bowls to Shepard Girls!'
'School' popped into my mind while watching. ...'.Old English scōl, scolu, via Latin from Greek skholē ‘leisure, philosophy, lecture place’, reinforced in Middle English by Old French escole'. Interesting how the word leisure is there.
On the part about scattering blood as a pagan ritual: if nothing else it is attested in early rome. It does have historical roots there.
You're aware that there's no link between the religious cults of early Rome and those in Northern Europe a millennia later?
I was thinking it's basically standard in the whole ancient Europe/middle east/north Africa. Even the jewish temple have similar customs described in the bible. The high priest supposedly scattered blood from a sacrifice over 'god's throne' in the holy of holies once every year. Given how ubiquitous this is in religious practice of ancient times it's not impossible at all.
@@jostein1195 I never said there were.
@@stoferb876 Yes. There is also a story I've heard about Pagans scattering blood all over the food in the markets sometime in the early 200's in rome.
Skål i skuret Skipper!
This was fascinating! I knew some of the origin of the word due to my study of modern Norsk Bokmål. It's shocking how different Old Norse and Icelandic sound from the rest of the Scandinavian languages. I feel like the Vikings are not fully understood by modern audiences. They make them seem more savage than they really were, despite them being a tough and rugged lot. The drinking from a "skull" image likely didn't help. Anyways, skål to you Jackson!
"Metal version of a catholic mass"! :D
Tbh catholic masses are already metal
Well, it's onlyu wednesday but in Sweden we used to call that "little saturday" so Skål brother!.
We still call it that in Norway 😅
Alternative explanation: "Sk-" The Danish and Old Norse abbreviated notation of the Germanic reflex equivalent to German "sich" meaning "self/oneself".
"-ål" from Common Germanic (written form) "alu" meaning "health".
Thus, alternatively "skål" means something close to "for your and my health".
Skål!
Fascinating, the Dutch word voor bowl is Schaal, but it is not used as a toast word
It is really cool being taught your own history by an american! When I listen to your pronounciation of the letter L in Skål, it may be that your american L is coming through. This american L is similar to what we in Norway call a “tjukk L” or “fat L. Typically spoken in Trøndelag. And I like to believe that is exactly like Håkon Jarl himself would have pronounce it. But when you read from Håkonar saga the L is similar to how I would pronounce an L myself. I come from the south west coast of Norway (Bømlo) where the L is pronounced more like the french or German L.
I also work as a teacher in Moster where Olav Tryggvason built the first norwegian church in 995.
Bowl in Danish = skål
Cheers in Danish = skål
Makes sense.
And the same in Norway 😊👍
@@user-B_8 norwegian is an artificial language constructed out of their superiors, the danes
@@bennyklabarpan7002 What a lame thing to say 🙄
@@user-B_8 not as lame as the reality of a norwegian nationalist
@@bennyklabarpan7002Danish is only a written language though. The noice and sounds they make with their faces aren't really words. It's believed that when the Danes are alone among their own, they speak English.
Skål doktor!
last time i was this early to a dr crawford video Mimir was still alive
"Metal version of a Catholic mass." That sounds like Powerwolf!
Schaal from the Netherlands!
As a pre christian native Canadian, I can only assume pre Christian european history is equally or more so subject to revisionism. I applaud you and your channel for trying to get the truth out to the masses.
In Liverpool they use the slang word scally short for scallywag.
As a Wisconsinite, my only interaction with “Skol” comes from those dastardly Minnesota Vikings fans
Skál úr Føroyum.
Hah, that feast description is so similar to how it works even today! Well, with more songs nowadays.
Specifically that there's an order of toasts for example.
you should come to the Norsk kornølfestival in Hornindal this year in october, lots of different traditional ales and interesting history
In Flanders (northern part of Belgium), we say "schol".
Asir Root Language is still spoken around here in the villages of the Groundland. :) Jäär e ein fullan ein ti minni åv Hel! :cheers: :D
Thank you Dr Jackson crawford for helping me sleep 😴 😊😅🎉🎉🎉
Brilliant just brilliant!! 💯🍻SKÅL🍻💯
or similar to saying "bottoms up!"
Funny how our languages have three ways of arranging the a and o sounds - Icelandic and Faroese swap them, and the rest of us put them on top of each other, as depicted in the letter å :P
Hi your are my all time favourite American.
Because you has a great knowledge of scandinavian iron age history.
About the word "skål" as a toast.
The word Skål as a toast can't be find in text until any text late 1700AD. Before it was "gutår". But we don't know how to toast before gutår we font know.
But probably did the old norse did not just the word skål, if we should know it because the tradition to drink Jul didn't stop with the Christians.
I think the toasts at viking age was more ceremonial. The kings toaste his soldiers to show the respect.
Beer and mjöd was like wather is for modern ppl. The most common thing to drink. So normal viking did not toast at all.
Thank you for your knowledge...
And here I was expecting something a bit more clever than "bowls!" Then again, half the planet says "to our health" or something along those lines when they toast, so at least the Norse did something original. Skål, and thanks for another great video, Doctor.
I belive that skål originaly means sharing the same bowl.. and those that share the same bowl (probaly mead?) is friends/ kind persons?
I refer to that sharing food/shelter/drinking is what fellows do.
In anyway, as we got more civilised and buildt soceitys.. it become a ritual.. a skål/toast for the king as an example.
Skål min vän
The misconception about Vikings drinking from skulls could also come from conflating Vikings with Scythians, who did drink from skulls according to Herodotus.
Herodotus, The Histories, book 4 chapter 65:
_"The heads themselves, not all of them but those of their bitterest enemies, they treat this way. Each saws off all the part beneath the eyebrows, and cleans the rest. If he is a poor man, then he covers the outside with a piece of raw hide, and so makes use of it; but if he is rich, he covers the head with the raw hide, and gilds the inside of it and uses it for a drinking-cup."_
I'm no expert, but I would think it's used in an abriviated way. A shortform for e.g "så løfter vi skålen" or "vi hever skålen" or "la oss drikke av skålen".
In contemporary Icelandic.. cheers, bowl and skull, is the same word.
You got a subscribe because of your excellent point about differences in "conservativeness" among language branches. So, Icelandic may be overall most similar to Old Norse, but Danish better retains the vowels. As Spock would say, "Fascinating."
2:00 that makes sense. I have my dad's ears. He keeps asking for me to return them
Gutår!
I love your in-depth look into the origins of Norse and its variants.
Though one thing I dont get is the "name" of the music at the intro. The link you provide only goes to the band's website. But they have lots of snippets and complete tracks.
Could you just let me know the track's name? Thank yu'le
Hey wait.... around 9:00 - that's some of the lyrics from the song I enjoy and I've been trying to learn - Jólanótt, by SKÁLD. NEAT! I wondered if it was from any source. (some of their other songs are)
"Ask" and "School" are native English words in Old English, palatalization simply didn't occur in them
I've heard that the actual practice of banging 'skålene' together, was to show that nothing was wrong with the content in the 'skål', as the liquid would've/could've transferred while banging together. No gift in this skål as it were
Can you do a video of the significance of animals with in Norse culture / myth? like ravens and wolves and what they stand for or represented for the Norse
Man, "kenning/s" needs to be bandied about more often! I've always loved that word!
Is kennings the correct plural or can I say kenningar for the plural?
@@nahblue in modern English, kennings is the correct plural. I don't know enough about Grimm's law, to say one way or the other.
@@haganegenkotsuThe pluralization has nothing to do with Grimm’s Law, one way or the other!
@@KateGladstone please cite a source for the grammatical ruling on this change in pluralization. I'm willing to learn, but was not sure about its effect.
Å is a very distinct sound, English struggle with it but you're actually using the sound. When you say Paul you can say skål. Same with Ø, burn.
Skay-owl från Skåne :-)
Hi Jackson; Thanks for all the good work you do! Here’s an idea for a video, you might enjoy a really fun Science Fiction novel by H. Beam Piper. “Space Viking” 1963. Now the title is rather cheesy, it’s true, and the most common paperback edition’s cover doesn’t help. Beautifully done, by one of my favorite cover artists, Michael Whelan, but as lurid as a Stallone action movie poster. However, it’s a fun read, good plot, good characters, and the set up is timeless. What occurred to me is that quite possibly, it is a retelling of an old Norse Saga.
I think you’d enjoy reading it, and telling us if it copies one or more original Sagas and giving us your thoughts on the adaption. If there is no direct correlate, maybe you could let us know how well it follows the form, or something. I won’t go into the story here, it’s so easy to look it up, but it should be easy to find a used copy online for just a few bucks. I think it would make a good movie as well. The author wrote a dozen or so excellent novels set in a more or less common universe and deserves more attention. Btw, it’s only 243 pages, not a long read.
Skal!
which saga is it retelling?
@@digitalbrentable I don’t know. I haven’t read that many Sagas. That’s why I’m asking Dr. Crawford. Maybe it’s not at all, or it could be a few bits of this and that. I was just hoping he would give it a read, and say, it’s a loose retelling of something. And if not, what he thinks about it. Thanks for caring enough about my idea to comment!
Please make a video on the word "lagom"!
You mean the word adequate?
In Flemish we say: 'schol' . Schol from Antwerp
Good morning, I have a question, which of these word is correct for the word death, between dauða or dauði? Thanks and greetings from Italy 😊
Trondheim mentioned!
I have two question that I've not been able to find the answers to, when I hear people reading or reciting old Norse I notice there's a pause between every word, is there a linguistic basis for this or is it because people are thinking about the pronunciation of the next word? I notice it's prevalent in a lot of modern icelandic as well but it's not universal which is why I'm asking. My second wuestion is would there have been a more fluid transition from one word to another in some dialects than others or would speech patterns be more universal? Is this information known?
Skål (dansk)
Grow.....a.......MIGHTY BEARD!
I have a question I've been trying to answer for years now. In the Poetic and Prose Edda, they always spell Odin with the d looking letter that I don't have on my tablet. I know that it makes a "th" sound.
So, my question is, Is the All Father's name Othin (not actual spelling) or Odin?
It makes me think that saying "bowl!" has some extra meaning. Like you are obliged to drink it ad fundum! Which gives it more meaning. And which gives it more dynamic. Toasting becomes a kind of daring ritual, which fits with the Viking spirit.
Skál úr Føroyum
Great video.
Turkic tribes did make skull cups of their enemies and the Norse would have encountered them in the east.
Bit unclear whether there's a direct connection to Australian-English "scull/skol", for downing a (large) serving of an (alcoholic) beverage in one go. Might go ahead and choose to believe there is because it's fun to think and a cool thing to mention while drinking.
Well, considering how many Australians have Irish or Scots roots, due to English bias, and how much interaction there was between those cultures and the Norse, it seems like a pretty straight line kind of connection… Am I wrong?
@@evanmorris1178 Skol has been used by Scots since the 16th century.
@@evanmorris1178 Makes intuitive sense for sure, but I couldn't find actual scholarship on it (man look tbh). But yeah, I would be surprised if there wasn't a connection, especially since the more traditional spelling/pronunciation is "skol".
nah they just really liked The Big Lebowski
Ngl with that thumbnail I thought this was another April fool's video.
Skull!
Need to practice that å sound, I expected you to do it really well. At least for Swedish, maybe it sounds more like you said it in Danish.
The word SKÅL is stil both a toast and a bowl in danish langauge!!!
But is it related to "scull" (to finish your drink in one go)?
How does that Old Norse use of "full" referring to toasts relate to the modern Norse use of "full" to mean intoxicated (if it isn't coincidental, of course)?
Maybe they drank more than one toast and some became full (of toast) and got toasted/intoxicated.
Skål fra Washington.
Skol. How about them Cowboys...🤘😤🤘
If written in English, then correctly pronounced .
So, bowls in the text but horns in the illustrations?
It is funny how Danish sj can be English sk in English and vice versa.
Danish sjippe, English play skip rope
Danish skal, English shell
Isn't it unusual that it can go both ways? Of course they can also be the same
Danish sjal, English shawl
Danish skole, English school
The danish sjippe in the meaning rope skipping seems to be borrowed from English. In Swedish we just say hoppa hopprep. But we do have skippa in the meaning to skip something. It is borrowed from English which in turned most likely borrowed it from Scandinavian.
"isn't it unusual that it can go both ways?" Absolutely not. In Old Jutish orthography "skib" was clearly pronounced "sjæw". There was an orthography shift sometime between the early migration era and the later Viking era, which sees all the otherwise seemingly strong patterns having glitches.
Takk!
It was only when I heard english speakig people trying to say skål that I realized how similar it must sound to them to the word skall. Very often english speakers say it wrong and end up saying skall, or skoll. If you listened to western scandinavians the similarities are even closer. This is more than a slight misstake, it can be seen even as terribly omnious. Skall means howl, not bowl. So what? Well Skoll, the old norse version of skall, was the name of the monstrous wolf that was chasing the moon and would swollow it during the end of the world, Ragnarök. You mustn't call for Skoll. Cheers and death to everything as you may understand have very different meaning. It's skål, or skol, absolutely never Skoll!
Funny that I should hear that a skål is actually a skål from a guy in a cowboy hat. I never thought about it like that, although I have been using the word kop (cup) as a toast when drinking from cups 😀That's cowboy wisdom right there :-)
Skål from Södermanland
So, Skál is cognate to Dutch schaal and English scale, right?
From the beautiful flatlands in the Netherlands, proost!