# Danish: Gravøllet drikker vi til fæller vores, der døde



## Aryaman

This phrase is from the lyrics of a danish band but i am almost certain it is in old norse, or at least not in modern danish, because i can't find most of the words in a danish-english dictionary.

If anyone could translate it or give me some information about it i would be thankful.


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## oskhen

Aryaman said:


> This phrase is from the lyrics of a danish band but i am almost certain it is in old norse, or at least not in modern danish, because i can't find most of the words in a danish-english dictionary.
> 
> If anyone could translate it or give me some information about it i would be thankful.


 

It's not Old Norse. But even though I'm not Danish, it looks, to me, a bit weird as Danish goes. Some words I thought was rather Norwegian, but I suppose they may be found in both languages.


The meaning is fairly clear, though. I'll take it word for word

*Gravøllet* - okay, I've got problems already. *Øl* means *beer*, and the word *Gravøl* means both to a feast held after the funeral and the beer drunk during the feast. I thought it was a purely Norwegian custom, but what do I know about Danes? My problem is that I don't know how to translate it. Literally, it would be "grave beer" or "tomb beer", but I don't suppose that works in English.

*Drikker* - *drink* (the verb). Here, it's used both literally - they drink the beer - and as a way of saying that the feast is held.

*Vi* - *we*

*Til* - *to*

*Fæller* - I'm 91.32% sure that this means *friends* or *relatives*. I think it can be used for both.

*der* - here, it means *that*/*who*

*døde* - died


If I'm correct, we have: *The [beer] we drink *(mix in the meaning "the [feast] we hold") *to our friends/relatives, that died.*


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## Aryaman

The reason i suspected it was old norse is that, while i was looking on different dictionaries and google for meaning of the phrase or of words in it, i think i read somewhere that the lyrics of the band could be in old norse, or at least some of them. 

I also read somewhere that gravøllet means funeral but i couldn't find that in any dictionary or anywhere else at all. Some words like drikker where easy to find though. What is most weird about it is that we still don't know what language it is in, since it is neither old norse or danish ( By the way i intend to start learning norwegian this fall but this is irrelevant).

Also, i had the exact same problems finding the meaning of another phrase from the lyrics of a different danish band. Perhaps it could be some form of older danish that is not in use any more but that is only speculation as i don't know anything on the matter.

Thanks for the help. 

I will write here the other phrase in case someone can spot a similarity between the two or maybe recognize the language: "Lad dette være navnet paa sværd du trak af jord".


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## madshov

It is perfect Danish, except for the position of two words: fæller and vores. It should be "Gravøllet drikker vi til vores fæller, der døde". I think it's old Danish or maybe it's just to make it more poetic-like. We say we want to drink gravøl in Danish, when something has gone wrong, and it does indeed mean what oskhen writes. Fæller means fellows or companions.

"Lad dette være navnet paa sværd du trak af jord" is also (old) Danish and means "Let this be the name of the sword you pulled (out) of the ground".


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## oskhen

madshov said:


> It is perfect Danish, except for the position of two words: fæller and vores. It should be "Gravøllet drikker vi til vores fæller, der døde".


 
Of course. I think that's what made me confused


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## Wilma_Sweden

oskhen said:


> *Gravøllet* - okay, I've got problems already. *Øl* means *beer*, and the word *Gravøl* means both to a feast held after the funeral and the beer drunk during the feast. I thought it was a purely Norwegian custom, but what do I know about Danes? My problem is that I don't know how to translate it. Literally, it would be "grave beer" or "tomb beer", but I don't suppose that works in English.


Gravöl can be understood throughout Scandinavia to mean 'funeral feast', as beer was the principal drink, and I've seen the word used in Danish, Norwegian and Swedish contexts, predominantly in agrarian, pre-industrialised eras (19th century and earlier). 

/Wilma


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## oskhen

Wilma_Sweden said:


> Gravöl can be understood throughout Scandinavia to mean 'funeral feast',
> 
> /Wilma


 
Yes, but then you'd have to change the verb. You don't drink a feast.


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## Wilma_Sweden

Aryaman said:


> If anyone could translate it or *give me some information about it i would be thankful.*


It's true you don't drink feasts - I supplied background information as requested, that's all. I think we can all agree that the song is about drinking/toasting our dearly departed, and that translation of lyrics and poetry often has to be less than literal. I hope Aryaman feels he is sufficiently informed. 

/Wilma


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## Sepia

Yes it would be nice to have a word for a "liquid feast" when you describe social events in Scandinavia. If someone finds a good word in English for just that I'd be interested.

The sentence can definitely be considered Danish although the style is somewhat oldfashioned. I say, considered Danish, because sometimes such short sentences may be completely identical in Norwegian and Danish - especially when written in such an archaic style.


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## oskhen

Sepia said:


> The sentence can definitely be considered Danish although the style is somewhat oldfashioned. I say, considered Danish, because sometimes such short sentences may be completely identical in Norwegian and Danish - especially when written in such an archaic style.


 
Yes, the syntax looks un-Danish and more Norwegian.


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## Aryaman

Thanks for the replies. I suppose the reason i couldn't find some of the words in online dictionaries must be be because the entries are not in the same form as in the phrase.


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## Sepia

oskhen said:


> Yes, the syntax looks un-Danish and more Norwegian.



And the words too, I suppose? Old written Norwegian and old Danish are really close together.

Now that we are touching this subject: Somebody from Denmark told me that there is a Norwegian dialect that sounds pretty much like Danish (at least Jutland-Danish) - is this true? And if so, where do they speak that dialect?


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## oskhen

Sepia said:


> And the words too, I suppose? Old written Norwegian and old Danish are really close together.


 
They are close (depending on how old we're talking, of course), but that's because Norway adopted Danish. So when there are identical words, they are as likely to be Danish as Norwegian. I thought, for instance, that "gravøl" was a very Norwegian word, but from what I've read here, it seems to be just as Danish as Norwegian.


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## oskhen

Sepia said:


> Somebody from Denmark told me that there is a Norwegian dialect that sounds pretty much like Danish (at least Jutland-Danish) - is this true? And if so, where do they speak that dialect?


 
I don't know. I seem to remember somebody say (or write?) that people with a dialect from Western Norway - Bergen, for instance - better understands Danish (or was it Swedish?) than many others. But even though there may be some similarities, I'd say it's an exaggeration to say that they are close. 

However, those few people that write/speak conservative riksmål (that's old fashioned bokmål), you're not very far from Danish.


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## Wilma_Sweden

I remember the Bergen dialect to be similar to Scanian Swedish (Skånska) in intonation (less 'singing' for want of a better term) and pronunciation, which made it easier for me to understand than standard Norwegian.

/Wilma


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## Sepia

Wilma_Sweden said:


> I remember the Bergen dialect to be similar to Scanian Swedish (Skånska) in intonation (less 'singing' for want of a better term) and pronunciation, which made it easier for me to understand than standard Norwegian.
> 
> /Wilma



This shows how important it is to double-check info. Bergen is actually the region my connection mentioned, but when somebody talks about similarity with Skånska it still must be extremely different, because that is probably the version of Swedish that people from the western parts of DK have the worst trouble with. Swedes from other parts of the country probably also.


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## Wilma_Sweden

Sepia said:


> This shows how important it is to double-check info. Bergen is actually the region my connection mentioned, but when somebody talks about similarity with Skånska it still must be extremely different, because that is probably the version of Swedish that people from the western parts of DK have the worst trouble with. Swedes from other parts of the country probably also.


This was not a dialect discussion to begin with, so we're off topic. I can only speak for myself and my own perceptions, as a speaker of Skånska, of how it *sounds* in my ears, after speaking to people from Bergen, compared to people from Oslo. The similarities I listed were phonetic, not semantic, remember, but they helped *me*. How other people perceive it is a different matter altogether.
Here's a few Norwegian dialects to listen to for your entertainment:
http://www.ling.hf.ntnu.no/nos/?list

/Wilma


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## Lingvisten

About the word "gravøl". The word is not at all old fashioned in danish. I actually participated in gravøl last friday. After funerals you always have "gravøl".


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## Arrius

*"Lad dette være navnet paa sværd du trak af jord" is also (old) Danish and means "Let this be the name of the sword you pulled (out) of the ground*". 
*madshov*
I am proud to say I worked out the English meaning of the above before reading the translation. It sounds very much like the legend of our King Arthur, who alone was able to extract the sword _Excalibur _from a rock.
In those days swords had names, like Siegfried's  _Nothung._


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