The Norwegian title of Edvard Munch’s ‘The Scream’ is Skrik.
Munch created the first version of the composition in 1893, and the work became a defining image of modern anxiety. The Norwegian word skrik means “scream,” while the German title used when the work was first exhibited was Der Schrei der Natur, or “The Scream of Nature.”
The Scream is not just one identical painting. Munch produced four principal painted and pastel versions between 1893 and 1910, as well as a lithographic print. Two versions are held by Oslo’s Munch Museum, while the National Museum holds the celebrated 1893 painted version.
A common mix-up is confusing Skrik with the emotional interpretation of the image. Angst, smerte, and fortvilelse mean anxiety, pain, and despair in Norwegian, but they are not the artwork’s title.