Skærvindsel
Danish card game
Skærvindsel is a Danish card game for four players that is a member of the Schafkopf family. Today it is mostly played in Jutland and is therefore often spelled Sjervinsel, but was previously widespread throughout Denmark. It was the first Danish game where the winner of the auction, the declarer, could choose a partner by calling an Ace. This principle has since been transferred to Call-Ace Whist (Esmakkerwhist).
History
Skærvindsel came to Denmark over 200 years ago and is probably a Danish version of the old Bohemian game of Scharwenzel which spread to Denmark during the Napoleonic Wars. Scherwenzel was certainly played in harbour town of Porsgrunn in southern Norway, in 1790 and is known in Denmark from around 1800.
Skærvindsel was the first ordinary card game in Denmark where one choose a partner by calling an Ace. It was popular in Denmark until around 1950.
The game is still regularly played, for example, at Nyvang near Holbæk.
Names
The Danish Ordbog gives the following spelling variations for the game: Scherwenzel, Scharwenzel, Skavendsel, Skærvensel, Skervensel, Skærvindsel, Skærvinsel, Skevensel, Skevinsel, Sjervensel, Sjervinsel, Servensel, Sevensel, Servinsel, Sevinsel.
“Skærvindsel” enters the record as danish card game. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Skærvindsel, Danish and card can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Oct 11, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q112627806. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1790, 1800 and 1950.
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This entry incorporates text from “Skærvindsel” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.