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Berserkers (or Berserks) (Swedish: Bärsärk) were Norse warriors who wore coats of wolf or bear skin and who were commonly understood to have fought in an uncontrollable rage or trance of fury, hence the modern word berserk.

The Úlfhéðnar (singular Úlfhéðinn) mentioned in the Vatnsdœla saga, Haraldskvæði and the Völsunga saga were said to wear the pelt of a wolf upon their heads when they entered battle. (For example: Bernhari, Haimric, Hlodwig, Theudberga, Warinhari, etc.) Úlfhéðnar are sometimes described as Odin's special warriors, with the pelt from a wolf and a spear as distinguishing feature.

Contents 1 Literary references 2 History 3 On Going Berserk 4 Notes 5 References 6 External links

Literary references

The earliest surviving reference to the term berserker is in Haraldskvæði, a skaldic poem composed by Thórbiörn Hornklofi in the late ninth century in honor of King Harald Fairhair, a famous ruler of Norway. The poem was preserved by Snorri Sturluson. In this poem, Harald's army includes a warrior gang of berserkers fighting under the name of the Norse god of war, Tyr, in the battle of Hafrsfjord. In it, they are described as Ulfheðnar ("men clad in wolf skins"). This grounds a connection between bears and wolves in Norse warrior culture and the common assumption that the word "berserker" itself originates from men wearing the skin of the bear. An alternative etymology is from "bare", meaning unencumbered by a mail shirt.¹

Snorri Sturluson goes on to mention berserkers in the Ynglinga saga (chapter 6):

His (Odin's) men rushed forward without armor, were as mad as dogs or wolves, bit their shields, and were as strong as bears or wild bulls, and killed people at a blow, but neither fire nor iron told upon themselves.

Berserkers appear prominently in a multitude of other sagas and poems including The Saga of Hrólf Kraki, many of which describe berserkers as ravenous barbarians who loot, plunder, and kill indiscriminately. They also wore bear coats. In Njal's saga, a berserk is used to test two fires, one built by pagans, the other by Christians; he burns in the Christian fire, proving the superiority of the new religion.

Much can be derived about berserkers from Egils saga. Egil's grandfather was named Kveld-Ulf meaning "evening wolf", and this is generally ascribed as meaning he was a werewolf. Kveld-Ulf's son, referred to as Skalla-Grimm, was a berserker. Kveld-Ulf and Skalla-Grimm are both depicted as irascible and violent throughout the saga, the former attempting to kill his son. Egill Skallagrímsson himself is described in the saga as attacking opponents with his teeth, ripping out another berserker's jugular vein during a duel. Patently, violence and gruesome tragedies permeate the berserker ethos described in Icelandic sagas such as this one.

History

Hilda Ellis-Davidson draws a parallel between berserkers and the mention by the Byzantine emperor Constantine VII in his book De cerimoniis aulae byzantinae ("Book of Ceremonies of the Byzantine court") of a "Gothic Dance" performed by members of his Varangian Guard (Norse warriors working in the service of the Byzantine Empire), who took part wearing animal skins and masks: she believes this may have been connected with berserker rites.²

In 1015 Jarl Eiríkr Hákonarson of Norway outlawed berserkers. Grágás, the medieval Icelandic law-code, sentenced berserker warriors to outlawry. By the 1100s, organized berserker warbands had disappeared.

King Harald Fairhair's use of berserker "shock troops" broadened his sphere of influence. Other Scandinavian kings used berserkers as part of their army of hirdmen and sometimes ranked them as equivalent to a royal bodyguard. It may be that some of those warriors only adopted the organization or rituals of berserk warbands or used the name as a deterrent or claim of their ferocity.

Still, some scholars consider the frenzied and indomitable berserker and his bloodshot eyes to stand right alongside horned Viking helmets as a "feature of later literary [works] rather than contemporary historical ones", placing the legitimacy of Icelandic sagas as historical records into question. Little Icelandic literature was recorded before the mid-thirteenth century, more than two hundred years after the conversion of Iceland to Christianity. The sagas are broadly interested in history, but they are re-tellings of legend and in no way constitute a proper historical record. The family sagas in particular shed more light on 13th and 14th-century ideas about the 9th-11th centuries than they do on the legendary period itself.

On Going Berserk

Modern scholars believe that certain examples of berserker rage to have been induced coluntarily by the consumption of drugs such as the hallucinogenic mushroom Amanita muscaria (Howard D. Fabing. "On Going Berserk: A Neurochemical Inquiry." Scientific Monthly. 83 [Nov. 1956] p. 232), or massive quantities of alcohol (Robert Wernick. The Vikings. Alexandria VA: Time-Life Books. 1979. p. 285). While such practices would fit in with ritual usages, other explanations for the berserker's madness have been put forward, including self-induced hysteria, epilepsy, mental illness or genetic flaws (Peter G. Foote and David m. Wilson. the Viking Achievement. London: Sidgewick & Jackson. 1970. p. 285).

The actual fit or madness the berserk experienced was known as *berserkergang*. This condition is described as follows:

"This fury, which was called berserkergang, occurred not only in the heat of battle, but also during laborious work. Men who were thus seized performed things which otherwise seemed impossible for human power. This condition is said to have begun with shivering, chattering of the teeth, and chill in the body, and then the face swelled and changed its color. With this was connected a great hot-headedness, which at last gave over into a great rage, under which they howled as wild animals, bit the edge of their shields, and cut down everything they met without dicriminating bewteen friend or foe. When this condition ceased, a great dulling of the mind and feeble- ness followed, which could last for one or several days" (Fabing, p. 234).

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Notes

References

• Beard, D. J. "The Berserker in Icelandic Literature." In Approaches to Oral Literature, Ed. Robin Thelwall, Ulster: New University of Ulster, 1978, pp. 99-114.
• Blaney, Benjamin. The Berserkr: His Origin and Development in Old Norse Literature, Ph.D. Diss. University of Colorado, 1972.
• Davidson, Hilda R. E. "Shape-Changing in Old Norse Sagas." In Animals in Folklore, Ed. Joshua R. Porter and William M. S. Russell. Cambridge: Brewer; Totowa: Rowman and Littlefield, 1978, pp. 126-42.
• Davis, EW (1983) "The ethnobiology of the Haitian zombie", Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 9:85-104.
• Fabing, Howard D. "On Going Berserk: A Neurochemical Inquiry." Scientific Monthly, 83 [Nov. 1956].
• Höfler, Otto. "Berserker." Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde. Bd.2. Ed. Johannes Hoops. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. 1976. pp. 298-304.
• Ole Högberg, Flugsvampen och människan. Section concerning the berserker myth is published online [1] (In Swedish and PDF format) ISBN 91-7203-555-2
• Holtsmark, Anne. "On the Werewolf Motif in Egil's saga Skalla-Grímssonar" Scientia Islandica/Science in Iceland 1 (1968), pp. 7-9.
• von See, Klaus. "Berserker." Zeitschrift für deutsche Wortforschung 17 (1961), pp. 129-35; reprinted as "Exkurs rom Haraldskvæði: Berserker" in his Edda, Saga, Skaldendichtung: Aufsätze zur skandinavischen Literarur des Mittelalters. Heidelberg: Winter, 1981, pp. 311-7.
• Michael P. Speidel, "Berserks: A History of Indo-European 'Mad Warriors' ", Journal of World History 13.2 (2002) 253-290 [2]
• Weiser, Lilly. Altgermanische Jünglingsweihen und Männerbünde: Ein Beitrag zur deutschen und nordischen Alterums- und Volkskunde. Bausteine zur Volkskunde und Religionswissenschaft, 1 Buhl: Konkordia, 1927.
• The Sagas of Icelanders: Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition (World of the Sagas), Ed. Örnólfur Thorsson. Penguin (Non-Classics); New Ed edition (February 27, 2001). pp.741-742.
• Robert Wernick. The Vikings. Alexandria VA: Time-Life Books. 1979. p. 285

External links

• Berserkergang (vikinganswerlady.com)

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