History Main / SkullCups

* ''VideoGame/DragonAge2'': If you defeate the Arashok in single combat in Act 2, during Act 3 you can hear [=NPCs=] gossiping about rumors that you use his skull as a gravy boat.

* ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'': ''The Fall of Deadworld'' gives a variant: when Casey Tweed seizes control of Justice Department, he uses Judge Death's skull as an ashtray and waste bin.

-> ''"Now for our national beverage, apple brandy drunk from the skulls of our enemies! It's a very heady liquor."''

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* ''{{Literature/Wulfrik}}'': After killing Torgald the king of the Aeslings in battle, Wulfrik has his skul fashioned into a drinking cup. Later he has it fixed to the pommel of his sword. Recycling skull is something of a theme with the Norscans, one of which has a

* In ''Manga/{{Drifters}}'', Nobunaga admits to Olminu that he enjoys drinking in his spare time using mugs fashioned from the skulls of his dead enemies. Needless to say, this admission left Olminu scared of him.

* ''The Fall of Deadworld'' gives a variant: when Casey Tweed seizes control of Justice Department, he uses Judge Death's skull as an ashtray and waste bin.

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* ''Film/DriveAngry'': AntiHero John Milton drinks some booze from the skull of the deceased bad guy to make good on a promise he made him earlier in the film. He then takes it with him as a souvenir.
* ''Film/BluesBrothers2000'': After the title characters rudely interrupt the funeral of a Russian mobster's nephew, an associate assures that they will become this. Filled with vodka, of course.

* The Chinese historian Sima Qian, writing in his ''Records of the Grand Historian'' about 350-400 years after Herodotus, reports that the Xiongnu nomads who frequently fought China during the Qin and Han eras, observed the custom of drinking out of skulls.

* In the Literature/XWingSeries novel ''Iron Fist'', a reference to Skull Cups is used as a LastSecondWordSwap. Undercover as a SpacePirate, Face Loran is about to wish his comrades "May the Force be with you," but thinks better of it.
-->'''Face:''' And may... we drink from the skulls of our enemies tonight!
* In ''Literature/TheFifthElephant'', Detritus has the cranium of a human's skull as an heirloom from his grandmother, which he shows to Vimes after they arrive at an embassy with a troll's head on a trophy wall. Evidently she used it as a bowl to keep small items in.
* In the Latin translation of the Old Norse "Literature/{{Krakumal}}" a.k.a. "The Death-Song of Ragnar Lodbrok" made in 1635 by the Danish antiquarian Ole Worm, Ragnar Lodbrok expresses his belief that after his earthly demise, he will drink beer "from the curved hollows of skulls" in Odin's hall. In his commentary, Worm elaborated that the heroes of old "believed that in Odin's hall they would drink from the skulls of those they had slain". In reality, Worm's translation is wrong, as the Old Norse text actually means "from curved trees of the skull", which is to say, from drinking horns (because they grow on a bovine skull). As early translations of "Krákumál" into English were based on Worm's Latin version rather than the original, popular wisdom in Britain and elsewhere maintained far into the 19th century that Vikings used to drink from skull cups, or hoped to do so in the afterlife (they did neither).

* In the {{narrative poem}} ''Balder Dead'' by Matthew Arnold (1855), the gods and heroes in Valhalla are so shocked over the death of Balder, they desist from their usual habit of drinking wine from "horns and gold-rimmed sculls".

* Background for Literature/ThePrincessDiaries, of all things. The founder of Mia's royal bloodline, Queen Rosamunde, was forcibly married by an invading general, who on their wedding night made her drink wine out of a cup made from her dead father's skull. She was so outraged by this that once he'd fallen asleep she strangled him with her long braid of hair. This impressed the General's followers so much that they accepted her as Queen instead.
* In the second ''Literature/DrGretaHelsing'' novel, self-proclaimed "king of the vampires" Corvin guzzles a blend of fine wine and blood from a cup fashioned from a human skull. Played with in that Corvin is a slimy edgelord wannabee who had the cup made from a random, centuries-dead skull from the Paris catacombs ... although it'd be entirely in-character if he were to ''pretend'' it was that of an enemy.

* ''Literature/{{Indexing}}: Reflections'': Sloan, as she says in a MustHaveCaffeine rant:
-->'''Sloane''': "I came for coffee. If you have consumed all the coffee, I am going to straight-up fucking murder you, and drink a latte out of your skull."

* Myth/WaylandTheSmith is imprisoned by a king to work only for him, having his hamstrings cut to prevent escape. As part of his revenge for this and other slights, he tricks the king's sons into visiting him, kills them, and makes their skulls into ivory goblets, which he gifts to the king and queen. (And as a nice bonus, Wayland set the kids' teeth into brooches which he also gifted to the royal couple.)

* Myth/ClassicalMythology had the Anthrophagi, a tribe of northern cannibals that were said to not only keep skulls decorated with gold, but also occasionally made drinking cups out of them. To add to the NauseaFuel, they were also said to use human scalps as napkins.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Spelunky}}'', gathering enough favour from Kali rewards the player with a kapala with which they can collect blood to restore HitPoints.
* In ''VideoGame/DeadlyPremonition'', there's an optional scene in which [[FBIAgent York]] regales his Sheriff's Department allies with the story of a case he worked on involving a perp who drank Cuba Libres out of the skulls of his victims. [[BlackComedy He does this nonchalantly over dinner.]]
* Suggested, though not actually displayed, from the [[MemeticMutation memetic taunt]] "I will drink from your skull!" from Sea Raiders of ''VideoGame/MountAndBlade'' in battle.

* In ''VideoGame/Injustice2'', one of Gorilla Grodd's intros features him drinking out of a human skull. Uniquely, he holds the skull cranium-side down and drinks out of the hole where the neck would meet the skull. [[AGlassInTheHand He also crushes it in his hand like a wineglass at the end of his intro]].

* In ''Webcomic/TheWhiteboard'' one of the things Doc says he'd do to cheaters is "drink my wine from their sun-bleached skull".

* In a variant, Belkar of ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' once turned the skull of one of the kobolds in the Linear Guild into a chip bowl. The next one became a litter box for his cat, while still alive.
* Parodied in ''Jägershots'', a side comic to ''Webcomic/GirlGenius''. A Jäger offers a "drink from the skull of an enemy" to Agatha, who reluctantly accepts... and gags when she finds out too late ''it wasn't cleaned out first''. The Jäger doesn't see a problem.
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* ''Literature/HowToSurviveCamping'': The man with a skull cup carries one around, as his name implies. Drinking from it will leave one unable to eat or drink for the entire next day, but it is much preferable to what happens to those who refuse the drink.

* Played for laughs in ''Fanfic/TwilightSparklesAwesomeAdventure''. [[KickTheDog To establish that Queen Celesia is evil]], the very first sentence of her very first scene reads:
-->"Celesia was sitting on her I throne n Ponyland Castle, drinking blood out of a skull. ([[ButNotTooEvil Don't worry it's not a pony skull.]])." ''[sic]''