The Berserker

Hi Folks Nest I want to tell you a bit about Berserkers and Ulfhednar two of the most legendary warrior types in Old Norse literature. However it will be a bit long to talk about both so I will start today with the Berserker and will talk about Ulfhednar at a different post.

Ok so first of all the word Berserker could have two meanings according to the experts, one is “ Bear shirt” and the second “ Bare skin” the first make reference to warrior that use Bear hides and second to warriors fighting naked, from the two theories “ Bear shirt” is the most supported and the one that has make the people imagination fly with those images of ferocious warriors using bear hides in combat.

The accounts we have about this warriors in the sagas are nothing but legendary, and there is a lot of mysticisms around them, they’re say to enter in a frenzy caused for some kind of ritual that may Include some kind of hallucinogenic drink or mushrooms, but t this days is not clear what it is. In this frenzy the warriors are say to fight fiercely as beast, even turning against their own sometimes, roar like animals, gnaw the rims of their shields, foam from their mouths and acquired immunity to fire and weapon’s. They were always at the front of the battle lines and were known to cause great deal of damage on battle. There is also some accounts were this warriors take the shape of a bear itself, like in the saga of Saga of Hrólf Kraki were a character called Bödvar Bjarki went to hide and meditate in the middle of an important battle and in his place a huge bear appeared in the battlefield, the animal however disappeared once Bödvar was discovered and awaked, which confirms that the Bear in the field had been him all this time somehow.

There is some exceptions like for example the same Bödvar which is quite heroic, but mostly the Berserkers are depicted as quite chaotic and unpredictable characters.

And we have a lot of accounts about them, they were quite the popular characters in the literature of the time; some you can look for are Gesta Danorum, were Saxo Grammaticus tell us about a number of berserker characters on his story’s.

As I mentioned before Saga of Hrólf Kraki , Ynglinga Saga, Egil's Saga, Þjalar-Jóns saga, Eyrbyggja Saga, Þorsteins saga Víkingssonar and The Tale of Ragnar Lodbrok.

We have also Law writing's outlawing berserkers in more Christian times, so we know the practice was historical and not just the thing of legends and folklore.

We even have at least two supposed historical accounts:

One at the famous battle of Stamford Bridge where it says a single berserker warrior armed with an axe stopped the entire English army and cut down at least 40 men before he was fell down and only because a soldier sneaked down the bridge stabbing him by surprise from that position.

Another is a Christian account ( and you had to forgive me this time as I don’t remember the source and was unable to found it with a quick search) which is supposed to be real, but sound more like a discrediting campaign, were a Christian monk compete with a berserker to see which one can step on fire without been harmed, obviously the monks win, and it may be totally fake but it at least tell us the berserkers exist because there were shame an discrediting campaigns against the as well as laws.

So what do you all think? Will you be brave enough to fight a berserker ? ;)