"...Thorolf became so furious that he threw his shield behind his back and took the spear with both hands. He rushed forward and chopped and stabbed enemies right and left. People ran away from him in different directions, but he managed to kill many..."
Berserkers or berserkers are the rarest and most terrible of warriors, feared throughout the world for their superhuman strength, brutal nature and complete lack of fear. The essence of this phenomenon was the conditional “reincarnation” of a person into a ferocious beast - a bear or a wolf with a human face. Beast-like transformations were considered the highest form of manifestation of combat rage in many military traditions. These were suicide warriors, seeking in battle not to save their lives, but to sell them as dearly as possible, taking more enemies to the next world. Berserk is typical for many European peoples.
We can judge what the image of a warrior-beast was, first of all, from Scandinavian sources, for in Scandinavia such warriors existed until the 12th-13th centuries. Ber - “bear” (in Old Scandinavian - “bersi”), and "serk" can mean "shirt". Most often this is how this term is interpreted - “bear shirt”; in literal translation from Old Norse, “berserker” means “one who is in the skin of a bear”. However, bad luck, the totem of the berserkers was the wolf, and they had nothing to do with the bear; sometimes they were also called “ulfhedners,” that is, wolf-heads. Probably, these were different incarnations of the same phenomenon: many of those who are called berserkers bore the nickname “Wolf” (ulf), “Wolf’s skin”, “Wolf’s mouth”, etc. However, the name “Bear” (bjorn) is no less common. Not everything is in order with the shirt either, since among the characteristics of the berserker is his demonstrably naked torso; they usually fought half naked - dressed to the waist, or in bear or wolf skins. Berserkers decorated their bodies with a red or black tattoo, which had a magical meaning. There is another interpretation of the meaning of the roots of the word “berserker”. The Old German "berserker" can be translated in different ways, "Berr" translated from Old Low German means... "naked"! Thus, no “bears” or “shirts” have anything to do with the berserker. This concept is literally translated - naked slasher.” In “The Saga of the Tomsk Knights” the root “serker” is used, which comes from the concept of “axe”. Hence, the not entirely correct version of the name has been preserved - “berserker”. In the Russian tradition, the “berserker” option is more often used. The form "berserker" originated as a borrowing from English; English berserk means "furious, furious."
The only documented evidence of their existence is the poetic images preserved in the Scandinavian sagas about invincible warriors who, overwhelmed by battle fury, burst into the ranks of enemies with one sword or ax, crushing everything in their path. Modern scientists do not doubt their reality, but much of the history of berserkers remains an unsolved mystery today.
In written sources, berserkers were first mentioned by the skald Thorbjörn Hornklovi, in a song about the victory of King Harald Fairhair in the Battle of Hafsfjord, which supposedly took place in 872. There is a high probability that his description is documented: more than a thousand years ago, Harald Fairhair founded the Kingdom of Norway; this was far from a peaceful enterprise, since noble families did not want to lose their lands. He needed an army. He chose especially strong, determined and young men, those very berserkers, for the front battle formations. They dedicated their lives to Odin, the God of War, and at the decisive battle of Boxfjord, dressed in bearskins, they stood at the bow of the ship, “ The berserkers, dressed in bearskins, growled, shook their swords, bit the edge of their shield in rage and rushed at their enemies. They were possessed and did not feel pain, even if they were hit by a spear. When the battle was won, the warriors fell exhausted and fell into deep sleep." Similar descriptions of the actions of berserkers in battle can be found in other authors. For example, in the saga of the Ynglings by the famous Icelandic poet Snorri Sturlusson: “ Odin's men rushed into battle without chain mail, but raged like mad dogs or wolves. In anticipation of the fight, from the impatience and rage bubbling within them, they gnawed their shields and hands with their teeth until they bled. They were strong, like bears or bulls. With an animal roar they struck the enemy, and neither fire nor iron harmed them and, like rabid animals, foam flowed from their mouths..." In battle, berserkers entered a state of combat trance, they fell into an uncontrollable rage (amok) which the Vikings called fighting spirit, and demonstrated a complete disregard for death. The berserker could remove the spear from the wound and throw it at the enemy. Or continue to fight with a severed limb - without an arm or a leg. Probably, we should look for an analogy in this with the invulnerability of werewolves, who could not be killed with conventional weapons, but only with a silver bullet or an aspen stake. From a physiological point of view, this can be explained by the release of excess adrenaline into the blood. Then a person can endure pain for a long time and not feel tired.
During the attack, the berserker seemed to “become” the corresponding beast. At the same time, he threw away defensive weapons, and in some cases, offensive ones; all Scandinavian Vikings knew how to fight with their bare hands, but berserkers clearly stood out even at their level. Many paramilitary groups considered unarmed combat shameful. Among the Vikings, this postulate took the following form: it is shameful not to be able to fight with weapons, but there is nothing shameful in the ability to fight unarmedly. It is curious that as an auxiliary (and sometimes main - if he fought without a sword) weapon, the berserker used stones, a stick picked up from the ground, or a club stored in advance. This is partly due to the deliberate entry into the image: it is not appropriate for an animal to use weapons (a stone and a stick are natural, natural weapons). But, probably, archaism is also manifested in this, following the ancient schools of martial arts. The sword entered Scandinavia quite late, and even after widespread use, it was for some time out of favor with berserkers, who preferred the club and ax, with which they struck in a circular manner from the shoulder, without connecting the hand. The technique is quite primitive, but the degree of mastery of it was very high. In chapter 31 of Germania, the Roman writer Tacitus writes: As soon as they reached adulthood, they were allowed to grow hair and beard, and only after killing the first enemy could they style it... Cowards and others walked with their hair loose, in addition, they wore iron ring, and only the death of the enemy freed them from wearing it. Their task was to anticipate each battle; they always formed the front line. Tacitus mentions a special caste of warriors, which he calls "Harier" and who bear all the characteristics of berserkers (800 years before the Battle of Hafsfjord): " ...they are stubborn warriors. They are characterized by natural wildness. Black shields, painted bodies, choose dark nights for battle and instill fear in opponents. No one can resist their unusual and seemingly hellish appearance.". "Harier" means "Warrior" and Odin was called among them "Herjan", "Lord of Warriors". None of them had their own house or field, any care. They came to anyone, they were treated, they used someone else's , they were careless in their affairs, and only the weakness of old age made them unfit for military life. They considered it a shame to die in their own beds from decrepitude, and when death was imminent, they were stabbed with a spear. Among the Celts, for example, the Sequani tribe, which in the East Slavic tradition could sound like the "Vyatichi berserkers", plunged the ancient Romans into panic with the sight of the wild rage of their naked warriors. This was in 385 BC, when the Celts took Rome. It is likely that the old songs were somewhat embellished. However, It is striking that all the descriptions depict fierce warriors who fought with a wild, downright magical passion.
In literature, berserkers often appear in pairs, often twelve of them at once. They were considered the personal guard of the Old Scandinavian kings. This indicates the elitist nature of this warrior caste. Unwavering loyalty to one's ruler is found in several places in the old sagas. In one of the sagas, the Danish king Hrolf Krake had 12 berserkers who were his personal guard: “Bedvar, Bjarki, Hjalti, Hochgemut, Zvitserk, Kun, Wert, Veseti, Bajgud and the Svipdag brothers.”
Berserkers trace their origins to the mysterious male unions of animal warriors that existed among many peoples of the world. The training of berserkers took place primarily in peculiar pagan monasteries. Future animal warriors took a vow of celibacy and completely devoted themselves to the god Odin, their heavenly patron. It was the word Odin (or Wotan) that meant “mad, merciless, evil.” It is no coincidence that this god of wolf warriors was depicted in a wolf mask, feeding two sacred wolves on a throne under the tree of peace. Some ethnographers suggest that berserkers belonged to certain secret unions or families in which knowledge of mysterious forces or “plants of power” was passed down from generation to generation. Others believe that there were berserker "male unions" and that the display of berserker rage was a test of courage required of every young man upon entering an adult union. Among many primitive peoples, such rituals could be observed with dancing in masks and ecstatic states. What remains inexplicable in this theory, however, is that nothing like this exists in any of the Scandinavian sources. After the adoption of Christianity in Scandinavia, old pagan customs were prohibited, in particular, fighters wearing animal skins. A law passed in Iceland in 1123 reads: Marked in a berserker rage will be imprisoned for 3 years in exile" Since then, the berserker warriors have disappeared without a trace.
What is known about Russian berserkers? Berserk is not a Slavic word. Our ancestors have their own sound for this word - borsek. There is another interesting term - “knight”, that is, a screaming warrior. But they say that a knight is an unconventional concept for us, as if it came from the German “reiter” - “horseman”. I wonder what is phonetically closer to the modern Russian word “knight” - the German “reitor”, the English “knight”, the French “chevalier” or the Old Russian “knight”? I think the answer is obvious. East Slavic Rus' has always managed with a small professional military contingent. The squad, consisting of a younger (later forming a social stratum - “children of the boyars”) and an elder, even in the Great Duchies of Rus' rarely reached 2000 people. Let me remind you that on her shoulders fell not only a massacre in an open field, but also the defense of strategically important objects, the throne, the collection of tribute containing the treasury, the formation of an army in subject territories, etc. Of course, in such an army a special role was played by the individual qualities of each . In a sudden raid you cannot gather an army - it takes time. In addition, the military arsenal is also under the prince’s castle, and therefore, the men on the estates are armed with whatever they can and have no armor of any kind. Organizing an army is a complex matter. It is not enough to gather people; they need to be formed into combat units. And where to do this when the throne encampment is already surrounded from everywhere by nomads? Then the final word belonged to the lone suicide bomber, capable of neutralizing the enemy for some time.
Oh, how sweet it is for our “independent” historians to admit that East Slavic Rus' had its own berserkers. But you have to admit, where can you go, sources are stubborn things. The Byzantine writer Leo the Deacon wrote about the Russians, who, with huge shields, before going on the attack, growled, shouting something incomprehensible. The historian Klyuchevsky wrote: Demyan Kudenevich went to the Polovtsian army “without a helmet and armor”; the naked hobras of Svyatoslav the Great are also eloquently described in the chronicles: “ Olbeg Ratiborich, take your bow and lay an arrow, and strike Itlar in the heart, and beat up his entire squad...". The Nikon Chronicle about Ragdai speaks no less eloquently: “ And this man went against three hundred soldiers" What is this, hero worship? Where there! The chronicler is disgusted by the “ungodliness” of the bloody showdowns. Barbarian beauty is not his path at all. This is the real point. Remember Evpatiy Kolovrat. With one regiment he liberated the Ryazan region from the Tatars for six months, at the very height of the invasion. And Evpatiy did not give up his last battle. The Tatars were never able to take his warriors in hand-to-hand combat. They were simply pelted with stones from throwing weapons. A gesture of despair and at the same time resourcefulness of Batu. This beast was so amazed by what he saw that, having won, he ordered the living to be dug up and released, and the dead to be buried with honors. The “Tale of the Ruin of Ryazan by Batu,” written by the medieval writer Eustathius from Zaraysk, says that for each of these soldiers of the “desperate regiment” there were up to a thousand Tatar-Mongols. Let us restore the true picture of the events of those days. In the fall of 1237, Evpatiy Kolovrat had to stay in Chernigov. The Tatar-Mongols have already trampled the Ryazan region. Evpatiy returned in December to the ashes. Instead of Ryazan - charred firebrands. It didn’t take him long to look for something to do; he gathered 1,700 people who were ready to tear the enemy apart with their teeth. There was no time left to prepare for battle. But his people could not be called beginners in the martial art. The "Regiment of Desperados" chased the retreating hordes. " And they began to flog without mercy, and all the Tatar regiments were mixed up. It seemed to the Tatars that the dead had risen...“- this is what the chronicler says. There was no Eurasian policy in Rus' yet, and Kolovrat did what he had to do. The frightened Batu allocated the best regiments under the command of his brother-in-law Khostovrul. The Great Slaughter took place on Suzdal soil. The commanders themselves started the battle. They converged in front of the frozen shelves. The spears broke as they were being knocked down, but neither the horses nor the riders wavered. Let's use the sabers. And then Kolovrat cut Khostovrul in half, right down to the saddle. The Horde trembled and ran. But the Russian success was temporary. Batu surrounded the “desperate”. They repulsed all attacks, and then Batu ordered to shoot them with stone throwers. The fighters were covered with stones. Only five remained alive. Batu ordered to dig up Kolovrat’s body. Batu’s words over the dead berserker are known: “ If such a one served me, I would keep him close to my heart!“Batu gave Kolovrat’s body to the five surviving Ryazan residents and demanded that the knight be buried with proper honors. He let them go, something he had never done to an enemy before. The number of the Tatar army is not officially indicated anywhere and it is generally accepted that there were up to half a million of them. But the fact itself remains a fact. It is reliably known that such an event took place. Only one thing is absolutely clear: a simple person could not do such a thing, no matter how much rage he possessed, this is the limit of human strength (physical).
What exactly is “Kolovrat”? Kolovorot, that is, “rotating in a circle.” This is the nickname of a berserker. Space, as you know, is organized according to the principle of a circle. The zone of motor convenience for an ordinary person is the half-radius circle in front of him. To build movement in other directions, a person involves more complex and even structurally dangerous evolutions of the musculoskeletal system. For example, with an incorrectly organized movement behind the back, the menisci of the knee joints often “scatter” when turning the body, vertebral discs are pinched, etc. This happens mainly for two reasons. Firstly, a person evolves in frontally directed walking, and, secondly, he also does not have a special motor skill in constructing an atypical action. That is, not only is this method of movement structurally unjustified, it has also not been mastered. The human body has a large margin of safety, but it must, of course, be used intelligently. For a berserker, in this case, the concept of a back does not exist. Otherwise, he could not fight in the thick of battle, surrounded on all sides by the enemy. The half-radius of action “in front of your eyes” is an ordinary, combatant army. For him, no matter how you turn around, the idea of inconveniently repelling attacks from behind and the usual frontal attack will remain. The movements of the berserker are structured in such a way that he always slides along the blows, displacing the blow and moving himself. As a result, not a single blow hits a penetrating lesion. The berserker's reflexes react not to the blow as a whole, but to its individual phases! This is a very important circumstance. For example, if you are hacked with a sword year after year, you first begin to suppress the panic fear caused by the instinct of self-preservation, and then you notice that there are some patterns in the actions of the enemy. And really; If you learn to use them, then it becomes not scary at all. The body itself carries within itself a gigantic action potential. Of course, motor abilities, like abilities in general, are developed differently in each person.
Berserk is a mechanism exploded by ferocious passion, adrenaline, ideological attitude, breathing techniques, sound vibrations and a mechanical program of action. The berserker does not have to prove that he will survive. He must pay back his life many times over. The berserker not only goes to die, he goes to receive furious pleasure from this process. By the way, this is why he most often remains alive. Is the berserker a fanatic? Yes. But not the religious one who kills himself “for the sake of Allah.” No one has yet proven that Allah exists at all. God exists as long as there is faith in him. A berserker does not perform a spiritual feat. For him, the highest application of spiritual forces is the norm of behavior. How to shave for you. He experiences death and rebirth dozens of times, but a fanatic only once. But this is precisely where one of the amazing manifestations of barbaric superhumanity lies. I am ready to agree that berserkers are an exceptional phenomenon. But isn’t it the deformation of the barbarian’s personality, largely tamed by Christian doctrine, that makes such phenomena exceptional? Berserk is a necessity, it is an imprint of the struggle of the Northern European peoples for survival. If the East is capable of putting tens and thousands of people “under arms,” then the barbarian squads of Europe numbered only hundreds of warriors. Hence the military principle in barbarism is always a problem of the Personality. Something that the East has never known, completely devaluing the very concept of human life. " The filthy ones had 9 hundred mines, and Rus' had ninety copies. Those who hope for strength, the abominations of the pond, and ours are against them... And the wallpaper was dreamed of, and the slaughter of evil happened, and the Polovtsian fled, and ours chased after them, they are slashing..."That's the whole story for you. The barbaric essence is that you should never, under any circumstances, “run away” yourself. Then the enemy will run. Because he won't have a choice.
What can make us doubt the chronicle line? Ability. The ability to do something like this. Ability in general. What God has divided so unevenly among people. It’s surprising that no one questions the composer’s gift, which explodes the silence of the world with a storm of sounds of rushing passions. Or the gift of a sculptor, gnawing on stone to delight us with the impossibility of the living in the dead. What about the art of combat? Or is this not art at all, but only a routine of mutual self-mutilation? Not at all! It would be wrong to think that a berserker is just a psychopath with a weapon in his hands. Freedom is an expensive thing. Freedom is what is asked in full. It is no coincidence that berserkers are a privileged part of the military class. The complex mechanism of military labor gives them not at all spontaneous riots and sacrificial extravagance on the lists, but a completely definite, developed role. It is this that makes berserkers the elite. Berserker opens the battle! It was specially created in order to hold an exhibition match in full view of the entire army.
Another interesting point is that the berserkers, putting themselves in a deranged state, freeing themselves from clothes, simply tore them off. Such behavior in the language of prisoners now means: “ready to kill.” So this is why people lose their heads in a Russian fight. This fight is called “hunting” and is symbolized by wolves tearing each other apart. Their image is first found on a ritual goblet-rhyton from a 10th-century mound called the “Black Grave.” They lose their heads because they activate a complex physiological mechanism that changes the course of the body’s nervous reactions. In this state, the berserker's speed of motor reflexes increases significantly. His movements are impetuous and light, the activity of peripheral receptors is inhibited, which is why the berserker does not experience, for example, pain if he is wounded at this moment. The detail may be minor, but it left its own special imprint on the mystified mind of the ancients. For example, someone fighting with an arrow in his back and not experiencing pain is unlikely to cause superstitious fear in his enemy. And the wild power of a berserker, capable of tearing apart an enemy with his hands at these moments? This is where the “cutting into halves”, known from the chronicles, comes from, that is, in half. Let me remind you that in a ritual massacre, the Horde hero Khostavrul, Evpatiy Kolovrat cut his enemy to the saddle.
Modern science knows that the human nervous system - including those parts of it that are amenable to conscious control - is capable of producing substances that are similar in composition and action to drugs. They act directly on the “pleasure centers” of the brain. If these substances are released when a person falls into a certain state of consciousness, then in this state he experiences a complete analogue of a “high,” and when he leaves it, “withdrawal” begins.
“Professional” berserkers became hostages of their own rage. They were forced to look for dangerous situations that would allow them to engage in combat, or even provoke them. Hence the berserker asociality, which arouses wariness even among those who admired their courage and combat effectiveness. And from here comes this very combat capability, which manifests itself in the condition of “opening the floodgates.” Later, berserkers for the most part still managed to control such attacks. Sometimes they even entered a state that in the East is called “enlightened consciousness” (although they usually went to it not through detachment, not through meditation, but through fighting rage; such a path is sometimes fraught with the fact that the “beast” will prevail over a person) . This made them phenomenal warriors. A variety of sources unanimously assert that the warrior-beast actually could not be killed in battle. True, the details of this invulnerability are described differently. A berserker supposedly could neither be killed nor wounded with a military weapon (from which it followed that non-combat weapons must be used against him: a wooden club, a hammer with a stone top, etc.); sometimes he was invulnerable only against throwing weapons (arrows and darts); in some cases it was clarified that with skillful use of weapons he could still be wounded, even fatally, but he would die only after the battle, and before that he would not seem to notice the wound. The berserkers were protected from throwing (and also from striking) weapons by a kind of “wisdom of madness.” Disinhibited consciousness enabled extreme responsiveness, sharpened peripheral vision, and likely enabled some extrasensory skills. The berserker saw (or even predicted) any blow and managed to parry it or bounce away. Berserkness helped to fend off dangerous blows, but if the blow was missed, it made it possible to “not notice” it. It’s hard to believe, but many independent sources report: the Viking to some extent retained combat capability even after monstrous wounds, from which a modern person would instantly lose consciousness. With a cut off leg or arm, a cut chest, a pierced stomach, he continued to fight for some time - and could take his killer with him to Valhalla. And yet, descriptions of cases have been preserved when a berserker not only avoided a wound, and not even just endured it, but, having received a blow, remained unharmed! Also an exaggeration? Maybe... But this is very similar to the eastern “iron shirt method”, in which hardening of bones and muscles, and most importantly, the ability to concentrate internal energy, in certain cases makes the body difficult to vulnerable even to a blade. But the Viking blades are no match for the eastern ones: no matter how much the northern warriors admire them, this admiration comes from the lack of material for comparison. At least during the time of the berserkers, the blade's hardening was only superficial and it was far from the sharpness of a samurai katana. Moreover, even “energy” did not always save the berserker. Sometimes a missed blow with a sword did not actually cut the body, but caused such a serious bruise that it could ensure the end of the fight. After all, the berserkers’ opponents were a match for them. And not every berserker knew how to competently use internal energy. Sometimes they spent it too extensively - and then after the battle the warrior fell into a state of “berserker impotence” for a long time, which could not be explained only by physical fatigue. The attacks of this powerlessness were so severe that the beast warrior could sometimes die after the battle, without even being wounded in it!
Other attempts have been made to explain the "berserker rage", where the source of such power is not transcendental forces. The state of intoxication, attacks of rage, hallucinations and subsequent fatigue could be caused by chemical substances, namely muscarine, fly agaric poison. Today we know that when people are poisoned by fly agaric, they beat wildly around themselves, they are excited, and they are visited by delusional thoughts. In others and doctors, they see fairy-tale creatures, gods, spirits. The toxic effect stops after 20 hours, and then people fall into deep sleep, from which in most cases they wake up only after 30 hours. Researchers know why people become like this after consuming fly agarics: chemical processes arise due to hallucinogens similar to LSD, muscarine is one of them, changes the speed of impulses of nerve endings, causing a feeling of euphoria. But there may also be the opposite effect, due to its large amount, a bad trip (literally “bad trip”), which can end in death. However, the ongoing changes caused by this substance are surprising, which initially occur in only one person, and then spread to everyone. At any techno party you can observe a similar effect. The behavior of a person who has taken a hallucinogen, rhythmic music, monotonous clapping, stomping, lead others to the same state. This “synchronization” is carried out by activating the body’s neurotrans system, the action of which is similar to the actions of drugs. Thus, a dynamic arises that can be called "collective ecstasy." It is believed that the berserkers knew this and only a few leaders “encouraged themselves with doping” from fly agaric. It is certain that they knew what effect it has on a person. Göttingen professor of psychiatry Hanscarl Leuner: " From early times, the fly agaric has played an exceptional role as a mythological remedy in the subarctic and arctic spaces. It was used by the tribes living here for ecstatic practices". However, there is still no exact evidence of such a theory. No sources mention such a rise in strength. But this does not prevent some historians. They believe: "It was precisely because only the northern warriors knew the effect of the fly agaric, they hid this knowledge, keeping fearlessness and invulnerability of the Gods." But is this so?
Doctors also contributed to the issue of berserkers: " The legendary power of berserkers has nothing to do with spirits, drugs, or magical rituals, but was an inherited disease", thinks Professor Jesse L. Byock. The Icelandic poet Egil was hot-tempered, angry, invincible just like his father and grandfather. Stubborn in character, and his head was so massive that even after Egil’s death it was impossible to split it with an ax. This is written in the saga about Egil. The descriptions therein allowed Bayok to learn that Egil's family suffered from Paget's syndrome, a hereditary disease in which uncontrolled bone enlargement occurs. Professor Bayok: " Human bones renew themselves gradually and usually the bone structure is renewed within 8 years. However, the disease increases the rate of destruction and new formation so much that it changes the structure of the bones too much, and they become much larger than before."The effects of Paget's syndrome are especially noticeable on the head; its bones become thicker. In England, 3 to 5% of men over 40 years of age are susceptible to this disease. But can the myth around berserkers be attributed only to a hereditary disease?
The rampage of berserkers is proverbial. Popular speech has received repeated evidence of "biting the top of the shield." Animals bare their teeth before attacking. In the same way, we “show our teeth to someone” if we want to do something similar. Skilled fighters pursued the goal of “hardening”, but we also know about their bearskins. And this gives rise to all sorts of talk. Were they half-wild young warriors who went into battle with their bodies unprotected to prove their courage? Are we talking about sacred male unions dedicated to the God of the Dead Odin, and serving him as warriors? Were they just crazy, fighting-to-the-death fanatics? Did they have supernatural powers that protected them from injury? Or was it a drug effect? Did they suffer from hereditary diseases?
So who are the berserkers?
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Among the ancient Germans and Vikings, a berserker was a warrior whose distinguishing features were impeccable martial art, lack of armor, a ritual bearskin on his shoulders and, probably, the ability to put himself into a state of altered perception (battle trance). Berserkers wore exclusively bear skins, warriors dressed in wolf skins were called ulvhendars (or wolfhendars), this is a fundamentally different military cult, which also existed in Northern Europe in the early Middle Ages.
The word "berserker" (sometimes - berserker) comes from the Old Norse form "berserkr", which is obtained by merging the stems of "ber" (which means "bear", in fact, in Ancient Rus' the bear was also called ber) and "serkr", which translates as "skin" " or "fabric". Some linguists have suggested that "ber" in Old Norse can also mean "naked".
Thus, the word "berserker" literally means "bearskin" or "without clothes." Both options perfectly describe the Viking berserkers, because according to historical evidence that has come down to us, they did not wear armor and often even shirts, covering their shoulders and head with bear skin. In traditional English, the form "berserkr" became "berserk", which today is translated as "furious".
It is believed that before the battle the Viking berserker (photos of images from archaeological finds are presented below) praised Odin and received his blessing. There is not a single unambiguously proven hypothesis about whether the Norman berserkers used any pharmacological drugs. Many researchers believe that we are talking about decoctions and tinctures of hallucinogenic mushrooms, or herbs and rhizomes, which could act as powerful stimulants.
Historical evidence of berserkers
Many researchers agree that skaldic poetry significantly embellishes the image of the berserker, and here it should be noted that in traditional Eddic texts there is no mention of these frantic warriors. The berserker first appears in the Glimdrapa saga, which was written by the famous skald Thorbjorn Hornklovi, who lived in Norway in the 9th century. This epic work tells about the military campaigns of the Norwegian king Harold I Fairhair, and the very mention of the Viking berserker is found in the description of the legendary Battle of Hafsfjord (872).
In The Circle of the Earth, Snorri Sturluson's epic collection of sagas, the expression "fall into a berserk rage" is also found. Snorri uses this phrase when describing the Scandinavian warriors who “flew into a rage, bit their shields and the layer could be compared to bears.” Snorii further points out that “such a Viking could not be defeated by either steel or fire.”
The most important and very interesting description of the Viking berserker is given in Tacitus’s “Germania”. In Chapter XXXI, he writes that berserker warriors prepared for their role from childhood; they were not allowed to grow hair or beard until adulthood. Then future berserkers had to walk with their hair down until they defeated their first enemy. Also, each of the “warriors of Odin” wore an iron ring, which he could remove only after the first murder, and only then he was recognized as a berserker. Tacitus also mentions that among the Normans, berserkers always formed the first row of the attacking formation.
At the same time, Tacitus does not use the word “berserker” itself; he replaces it with the form “harier” (the etymology is unclear), which, in general, is understandable, because “Germany” was written in the 1st century AD, when the forms “berserkr” could still does not exist in the Scandinavian language. Tacitus, describing the frantic Germanic warriors, says that they were “stubborn and wild”, wore black shields, and their bodies were “artfully painted.” According to Tacitus, berserkers attacked enemies with lightning speed and surprise, choosing the darkest nights to instill fear in them.
The semi-mythical Danish king Hrolf Kraki, the hero of many Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon sagas, repeatedly appears on the pages of works surrounded by his berserker bodyguards. In general, the motive of the elitism of the Viking berserkers can be traced in many sagas; they often act as something like the king’s personal guard. A.N. also mentions this. Tolstoy, in his epic “Peter the Great,” in particular, writes that berserker means “possessed by rage.” Tolstoy explains that berserkers are warriors who drank a tincture of fly agaric and became so cruel and ferocious that even the Scandinavians themselves began to fear them, and therefore in the army of King Canute the berserkers had their own ship.
It is important to note that the Norman berserkers, apparently, could not adapt to peaceful life. “The Saga of Egil”, “The Saga of Gisla”, “The Saga of Njal” and many other skaldic works tell how, outside the military circle, berserkers became murderers, maniacs, robbers and rapists.
In the 12th century, after the final Christianization of Scandinavia, the cult of berserkers began to decline and references to frantic warriors gradually disappeared. This is probably due, among other things, to a legislative act that was adopted in Iceland in 1123. This law prohibited the wearing of bear skins, and it also stated that a person who was seen “in a berserker frenzy” would be punished by three years of exile.
Versions about the “battle rage” of berserkers and common myths
As already mentioned, the main hypothesis accepted today in the scientific community is the version that the Viking berserkers (pictures based on this image are presented above) used psychotropic tinctures, in particular those based on fly agarics. In this regard, some researchers have expressed the opinion that after taking such a tincture, berserkers literally went crazy, feeling invincible, but when the effect of the drug wore off, the warriors quite obviously experienced severe withdrawal symptoms. In order to minimize negative sensations, only one of the berserkers drank the tincture, and the rest then drank his urine, which also contained the active substances, but in a lower concentration and without toxins.
There are also versions according to which the Viking berserkers did not use any drugs, and their “battle rage” is the result of a congenital disease, possibly mental and inherited. According to this hypothesis, berserkers could be subject to severe forms of hysteria.
There are other versions according to which the special state of berserkers is explained by directed meditation. Warriors could consciously put themselves into a combat trance through special psychological and spiritual practices. In this sense, the closest analogue is the combat trance of Muay Thai fighters; this practice is called “ram muay” and has ancient roots.
However, you need to understand that all of these are just hypotheses, and none of them has clear confirmation. In the same way, some researchers suggest that a warrior who wanted to become a berserker had to defeat a wild bear in a duel. And although this assumption is quite epic and generally corresponds to the spirit of the Viking warriors, there is not a single historical fact or evidence that could confirm this.
Thus, we don’t know much about the Viking cult of berserkers, although this image is very popular in popular culture. We do not know whether berserkers used any special weapons, whether they performed any rituals, and whether it was a full-fledged military subculture or whether the concept of a “professional berserker” actually did not exist. One thing we know for sure is that these were great warriors who possessed exceptional courage and were excellent in the art of war.
And here it is enough to cite just one fact: according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, in the Battle of Stamford Bridge (1066), during the crossing of the English army across the bridge, their onslaught was held back for several hours by only one warrior. As a result, the Scandinavian was killed, but he gave King Harald enough time to form an army into battle formation, and in doing so managed to kill 40 Englishmen. Despite the fact that the information about this warrior and the course of the battle itself varies, many researchers are inclined to believe that we were talking about a berserker. Probably about the last berserker, because with the defeat of Harold the Severe at Stamford Bridge, the “Viking Age” actually ended.
Berserkers were first mentioned by the skald Thorbjörn Hornklovi in a drape (long poem) about the victory of King Harald Fairhair at the Battle of Havrsfjord, which supposedly took place in 872.
A little history. It is a mistake to assume that battle madness was the lot of the Norman Vikings. This art was everywhere where people were. And that means warriors. But the methods differed. So in Europe, during the Norman Campaigns, Berserkers were either by birth, or such qualities manifested themselves spontaneously during battle. Berserkers were feared not only by all of Europe and half of Asia, but also by the Normans themselves. The fact is that the attacks of combat madness were uncontrollable. A berserker could fall into a combat trance from any little thing: a cut, an insult, a great emotional load. And a bleak fate was in store for him: far from populated areas, as a rule, without a family. Only a few lived to be 30 years old. They were also not in danger of dying from old age. But giving birth to a berserker child was considered a very good sign. it was believed that Father Druzhin himself marked him with his mercy, and that means the family where he was born would not bypass his Horn of Plenty. In general, this is true, the Berserkers received prey second after the king. No one smiled at a quarrel with a berserker. Gradually, this ancient fighting custom died out - the fact is that a boy showing signs of being marked by Odin was given to be raised by a berserker, who accepted a successor. But the Vikings had a custom of incest, and therefore there were fewer and fewer successors and mentors. It's doping time.
The Nazis almost approached industrial production, modifying the original. German chemists developed a whole family of stimulants: from simple amphetamines to “combat cocktails” that were practically put into production.
I can’t help but say a few words about the East. As far as I know, such techniques were not practiced either in Tibet or China. But again, they are most likely secret, kept in the Great Secret. The Asians' passion for secrecy is known far beyond Asia itself. The only thing I know for sure is that Battle Madness was practiced in the ranks of assassins. Moreover, a rather unusual technique was practiced: Students were smoked with hashish (hence their other name: hashashins), and students prepared in this way were subjected to various suggestions, from blocking ones to removing all fears, even contempt for death. By the way, they practiced a special test ritual: the test subject is smoked with various potions until he falls into an artificial coma. After a certain time, he was revived using a special technique. Unfortunately, I don’t know the details (it’s unlikely that anyone knows them at all), but just general outlines. I can say that the Ritual of passing through Death, looking beyond the “Border,” was practiced everywhere, from Indian tribes in North America to shinobi clans in the Japanese mountains. But this is a separate topic. Let's talk about the “Shadow Warriors”. These are practically the only warriors who have developed in detail and developed the Art of Combat Madness. The ninja gained their main knowledge from the yamabushi - mountain warriors; according to legend, these were samurai who were defeated in battle, but did not commit ritual suicide - seppuku. In the mountains they continued to develop their martial arts. Most likely, they discovered and developed this type of Art of Combat. Ninjas identified 7 types of state changes. each type corresponded to the god-personification of the quality that was needed by the shinobi at the right moment. Each such “entry into the image” was accompanied by a magical formula and a special interlacing of fingers into a magical figure (the art of interlacing fingers with magical signs is called “fyukkë”). With this use of signs and formulas, the entry is almost 100%. By the way, modern intelligence services train their own precisely according to the method “hidden in the foliage”, but according to a simplified scheme, only 1 type, namely cold rage. (Don’t think, there are no fools sitting there, and they keep secret the basic principles of entry, and psychosomatic techniques, the well-known notorious non-contact battle.)
If someone thinks that there were no such fighters in Rus', then this is a delusion. Were. And the most interesting thing is that they trained this Art. I can’t say that this is the ultimate truth, but there are arguments that it was practiced by the Magi. (Battle Madness and Shamanic Kamlania are very similar in sensations, and the state is approximately the same). And they achieved considerable success. So one of the rituals was as follows: In winter, a half-naked warrior sat on the ground, cross-legged, performed a concert I Live in the Spring Womb (solar plexus), he was covered with snow up to his neck, and he had to melt the snow with his inner strength. Judge for yourself: this is a very severe test. And the warriors who passed such tests (there were a great many of them) bore the nickname: Ardent, which emphasized their high skill. It is enough to remember the words where the root “Yar” is used. Fury, Bright (then its meaning was different, it meant courage and fearlessness in battle).
They were distinguished by great strength, quick reaction, insensitivity to pain and some insanity. They could not be taken either by fire or by iron. This is called going into a berserker rage. Who are berserkers and what is their secret?
“One knew how to make his enemies go blind or deaf in battle, or they were overcome by fear, or their swords became no sharper than sticks, and his people went into battle without armor and were like mad dogs and wolves, biting shields and comparing force with bears and bulls. They killed people, and they could not be taken with either fire or iron. This is called going into a berserker rage" (Snorri Sturluson).
Who are berserkers (berserkers)?
Berserker (berserker) - a Viking who dedicated himself to the god Odin, and before the battle he became enraged. In battle he was distinguished by great strength, quick reaction, insensitivity to pain, and madness. They did not recognize the shield and chain mail, fighting in only shirts, or naked to the waist. The sons of King Canute - berserkers - sailed on a separate drakkar, because... The Vikings themselves were afraid of them.
The word berserk is derived from the Old Norse berserkr, which means either "bearskin" or "shirtless" (the root ber- can mean either "bear" or "naked"; -serkr means "skin", "shirt"). Berserkers were first mentioned by the skald Thorbjörn Hornklovi in a poem about the victory of Harald Fairhair at the Battle of Havrsfjord, which supposedly took place in 872.
In the Russian tradition, the “berserker” option is more often used. “Berserker” arose as a borrowing from the English language.
More than a thousand years ago, Harald Fairhair founded the Kingdom of Norway. This was far from a peaceful enterprise, since noble families did not want to lose their lands. He needed an army. He chose especially strong, determined and young men, those very berserkers, for the front battle formations. They dedicated their lives to Odin, the God of War, and at the decisive battle of Boxfjord, dressed in bearskins, they stood on the bow of the kor***, “biting the edge of their shield in rage and rushing at their enemies. They were possessed and did not feel pain, even if they were hit by a spear. When the battle was won, the warriors fell exhausted and fell into deep sleep.” This is what one of the participants in that battle, Thorbjorn Hornklofi, said; This is also confirmed by lines from the Norwegian and Icelandic sagas.
They appear in the Ynglinga Saga of the famous Icelandic poet Snorri Sturlusson: “The men of Odin went into battle without mail, and they were wild like wolves. They bit their shields and were as strong as bears or bulls. They killed enemies when neither fire nor sword could take them; it was the rage of fierce warriors.”
It is likely that the old songs were somewhat embellished. However, it is striking that all the descriptions depict ferocious warriors who fought with a wild, downright magical passion. In chapter 31 of Germania, the Roman writer Tacitus writes: “As soon as they reached adulthood, they were allowed to grow hair and a beard, and only after killing the first enemy could they style it... Cowards and others walked around with their hair flowing. In addition, the bravest wore an iron ring, and only the death of the enemy freed them from wearing it. Their task was to anticipate each battle; they always formed the front line.” Only such warriors could continue the tradition of berserkers.
The rampage of berserkers is proverbial. Popular speech has received repeated evidence of “biting the top of the shield.” Animals bare their teeth before attacking. In the same way, we “show our teeth to someone” if we want to do something similar. Skilled fighters pursued the goal of “hardening”, but we also know about their bearskins. And this gives rise to all sorts of talk. Were they half-wild young warriors who went into battle with their bodies unprotected to prove their courage? Are we talking about sacred male unions dedicated to the God of the Dead Odin, and serving him as warriors? Were they just crazy, fighting-to-the-death fanatics? Did they have supernatural powers that protected them from injury? Or was it a drug effect? Did they suffer from hereditary diseases?
Professor Kurt Schier, head of Scandinavian philology at the University of Munich: “In principle, everything is possible, but you cannot prove everything only with written sources. They do not date from the time of Harald Fairhair, but were written down much later. The oral testimony of eyewitness Thorbjörn Hornklofi became the first to use the word "berserker" in the 12th century, only 300 years after the Battle of Boxfjord. Historical sources are rare and not 100% reliable. It is impossible to even say for sure about the origin of this word. "Serkr" means "shirt" in Old Norse, from which Swedish, Norwegian and Icelandic later developed. The syllable "Ber" can come from "Bersi" (bear) or from "berr" (uncovered). Depending on how you look at the word berserk, its meaning is either “dressed in a bearskin” or “going into battle naked.” It's a small difference, but a very important one. If they really went into battle naked, then there would be nothing strange about it. Tacitus even reports that the soldiers of the German auxiliary units traditionally fought with their upper torso uncovered. If berserkers dressed in animal skins, which is what most researchers suggest, then this was already a feature typical only of Norway and Iceland.”
Of course, the Icelanders and Norwegians did not invent this kind of dressing up. “Previously, the bear cult was more widespread,” explains Munich ethnologist Professor Hans-Joachim Paprot. “Already in the drawings of Stone Age rocks, for example, the Trois-Freres cave in Southern France, we find images of dancers in bearskins. Both Swedish and Norwegian Laplanders celebrated their bear festival until the last century." The old Viennese Germanist Professor Otto Hoefler says: “There is something mysterious in this bestial disguise. It was understood as a transformation, not only by the audience, but also by the person changing clothes themselves. If a dancer or warrior dressed in a bearskin, then the strength of the wild animal, of course, in a figurative sense, passed into him. He acted and felt like a bear. This can be perceived as a special northern development of a custom that is rooted in the ancient cult of animal faces.” In the bearskin caps of the English guards guarding the Tower, one can see the remnants of this cult.
Dressing in bear skins may have been the reason why warriors were considered wild and invulnerable while wearing these skins. But why did they become furious and rage like berserkers? It is possible that they were overcome by something like magical ecstasy and felt that they were possessed by a furious animal spirit. This assumption is supported by the description of the berserker's rage from the Ynglinga saga. There the wild warriors are called "Men of Odin." One (among the southern Germans Wotan) is in many ways similar to these warriors. One of his aspects is the God of War, "Lord of Fury." He awakens military courage, courage, endurance in German fighters, and makes sure that the best warriors are in his squad in the decisive battle of the end of the world. Like Wotan, he leads the wild hunt (wilde Jagd), which roars with night storms and which no one can stop. Another aspect of him is that he is the wisest of the Gods, gifted with powers that no one is initiated into and dares to wield as skillfully as he. Shaman, keeper of knowledge, religious and secret mysteries. Master of magic served by animal spirits, master of wolves and ravens - animals of the battlefields. If he sits in Asgard, then at his feet sit the wolves Geri and Freki, the ravens Hugin and Munin, who inform him of all the events of the world.
The supposed belief of berserkers in animal possession, by "animal spirits", is quite common. Ethnographers confirmed that similar things happened in other countries. If the “spirit” takes possession of a person, then he does not feel pain or fatigue. But when this state ends, the possessed person falls into a deep sleep.
Other attempts have been made to explain the “berserker rage”, where the source of such power is not transcendental forces. The state of intoxication, attacks of rage, hallucinations and subsequent fatigue could be caused by chemical substances, namely muscarine, fly agaric poison. Today we know that when people are poisoned by fly agaric, they beat wildly around themselves, they are excited, and they are visited by delusional thoughts. In others and doctors, they see fairy-tale creatures, gods, spirits. The toxic effect stops after 20 hours, and then people fall into deep sleep, from which in most cases they wake up only after 30 hours. Researchers know why people become like this after consuming fly agarics: chemical processes arise due to hallucinogens similar to LSD, muscarine is one of them, changes the speed of impulses of nerve endings, causing a feeling of euphoria. But there may also be the opposite effect, due to its large amount, a bad trip (literally “bad trip”), which can end in death. However, the ongoing changes caused by this substance are surprising, which initially occur in only one person, and then spread to everyone. At any techno party you can observe a similar effect. The behavior of a person who has taken a hallucinogen, rhythmic music, monotonous clapping, stomping, lead others to the same state. This “synchronization” is carried out by activating the body’s neurotrans system, the action of which is similar to the actions of drugs. Thus, a dynamic arises that can be called “collective ecstasy.” It is believed that the berserkers knew this and only a few leaders “encouraged themselves with doping” from fly agaric. It is certain that they knew what effect it has on a person. Göttingen professor of psychiatry Hanskarl Leuner: “Fly agaric has played since early times an exceptional role as a mythological remedy in the subarctic and arctic spaces. It was used by the tribes living here for ecstatic practices.” However, there is still no exact evidence for such a theory. There is no mention of such an increase in strength in any sources. But this does not stop some historians. They believe: “Precisely because only the northern warriors knew the effect of the fly agaric, they hid this knowledge, preserving the fearlessness and invulnerability of the Gods.” But is it?
Modern science knows that the human nervous system - including those parts of it that are subject to conscious control - is capable of producing substances that are similar in composition and action to drugs. They act directly on the “pleasure centers” of the brain. If these substances are released when a person falls into a certain state of consciousness, then in this state he experiences a complete analogue of a “high,” and when he leaves it, “withdrawal” begins.
“Professional” berserkers became hostages of their own rage. They were forced to look for dangerous situations that would allow them to engage in combat, or even provoke them. Hence the berserker asociality, which arouses wariness even among those who admired their courage and combat effectiveness. And from here comes this very combat capability, which manifests itself in the condition of “opening the floodgates.”
The phrase: “There is ecstasy in battle” took on a literal meaning...
Later, the Vikings, for the most part, still managed to control such attacks. Sometimes they even entered a state that in the East is called “enlightened consciousness” (although they usually went to it not through detachment, not through meditation, but through fighting rage; such a path is sometimes fraught with the fact that the “beast” will prevail over a person) . This made them phenomenal warriors
Some ethnographers suggest that berserkers belonged to certain secret unions or families in which knowledge of mysterious forces or “plants of power” was passed down from generation to generation. Others believe that there were berserker "male unions" and that the display of berserker rage was a test of courage required of every young man upon entering an adult union. Among many primitive peoples, such rituals could be observed with dancing in masks and ecstatic states. What remains inexplicable in this theory, however, is that nothing like this exists in any of the Scandinavian sources.
Doctors also contributed to the issue of berserkers: “The legendary power of berserkers has nothing to do with spirits, drugs, or magical rituals, but was a disease transmitted by inheritance,” thinks Professor Jesse L. Bayock. The Icelandic poet Egil was hot-tempered, angry, invincible just like his father and grandfather. He had a stubborn character, and his head was so massive that even after Egil’s death it was impossible to split it with an ax. So it is written in the saga of Egil. The descriptions therein allowed Bayok to learn that Egil's family suffered from Paget's syndrome, a hereditary disease in which uncontrolled bone enlargement occurs. Professor Bayok: “Human bones renew themselves gradually and usually the bone structure is renewed in 8 years. However, the disease increases the rate of destruction and new formation so much that it changes the structure of the bones too much, and they become much larger than before.” The effects of Paget's syndrome are especially noticeable on the head; its bones become thicker. In England, between 3 and 5% of men over 40 are affected by the disease. But can the myth surrounding berserkers be attributed only to a hereditary disease?
History still mysteriously and stubbornly resists solution. Consider all of the above and imagine yourself in the place of King Haarld Fairhair: you want to conquer Norway, found a kingdom, a significant number of ships are at your disposal, many good, brave and experienced warriors, but your opponents also have the same capabilities. You can only improve your chances when your opponents are unable to do anything against you. These could be elite units, berserkers. They occupy special places on the ship, where the first collisions will occur. And now think about what this elite should be like. Hysterically possessed? Inexperienced young drug addicts? Pumped up with fly agaric doping? Probably, most likely, it was the members of the “male union” who devoted themselves to Odin. The best were placed at the bow of the ship, and they were trained not only in excellent use of weapons, but were also psychologically prepared for such a role. And the elite warriors knew how to intimidate the enemy with growls, aggressive behavior and how to protect themselves from slashing blows with thick bear skin, and only with the highest tension, undiminished “bitterness,” could they in most cases win victory. This elite was convinced of the greatness of the task they were solving, they were motivated, their nature was in agreement with the goal. And the personal devotion of these warriors finds parallels with our recent past. And perhaps this is why the French researcher J. Dumezil did not pay attention, and completely in vain, to German paramilitary organizations before 1945, such as the SA and SS, as social and psychological phenomena.
Now, it’s time to talk about another semi-mythical property of the berserker: his invulnerability. A variety of sources unanimously claim that the beast warrior could not actually be killed in battle. True, the details of this invulnerability are described differently. A berserker supposedly could neither be killed nor wounded with a military weapon (from which it followed that a non-combat weapon had to be used against him: a wooden club, a hammer with a stone top, etc.); sometimes he was invulnerable only against throwing weapons (arrows and darts); in some cases it was clarified that with skillful use of weapons he could still be wounded, even fatally, but he would die only after the battle, and before that he would not seem to notice the wound.
Everywhere and always, legends have formed around high-level martial art. But I think here we can get to the bottom of the truth. The easiest way to resolve the issue of invulnerability with military weapons: while the sword remained among the Scandinavians the weapon of a small elite (somewhere before the 8th-9th centuries), such “elite” warriors very often could not cope with their competitors - animal warriors, who used ancient techniques of club fighting. Eventually, the two fencing techniques merged: many berserkers became the “elite”, and many of the “elite” mastered berserker skills.
Berserkers were protected from throwing (and also from striking) weapons by a kind of “wisdom of madness.” Disinhibited consciousness enabled extreme responsiveness, sharpened peripheral vision, and likely enabled some extrasensory skills. The berserker saw (or even predicted) any blow and managed to parry it or bounce away.
King Harald, who first united Norway, had a “special forces” formed from berserkers who joined the military elite. By that time, there were no “wild” animal warriors who were not part of squads and similar formations left in Norway. One of the battles with their participation looked like this:
“The king’s twelve berserkers were on the bow of the kor***. The king's ship went forward, and there was a fierce battle. When they checked the army, many were killed and many had dangerous wounds... On the king’s ship there was no one who stood in front of the front mast and was not wounded, except those whom the iron did not take, and these were berserkers.”
One of the best warriors in Iceland, who by the way did not consider himself a berserker, describing his actions in battle against a numerically superior enemy, utters the following words: “Then I took a sword in one hand and a spear in the other and began to chop and stab. I didn’t cover myself with a shield, and I don’t even know what protected me” (“Njal’s Saga”). It was berserkerism that protected him - already “civilized” and therefore not considered as such. This is all the more remarkable since the Viking, who had mastered only “technique,” needed a shield: he could not fully fight back with offensive weapons. Berserkerism helped to fend off dangerous blows, but if the blow was missed, it made it possible to “not notice” it. It’s hard to believe, but many independent sources report: the Viking to some extent retained combat capability even after monstrous wounds, from which a modern person would instantly lose consciousness. With a cut off leg or arm, a cut chest, a pierced stomach, he continued to fight for some time - and could have taken his killer with him to Valhalla...
And yet, descriptions of cases have been preserved when a berserker not only avoided a wound, and not even just endured it, but, having received a blow, remained unharmed! Also an exaggeration? Maybe... But this is very similar to the eastern “iron shirt method”, in which hardening of bones and muscles, and most importantly, the ability to concentrate internal energy, in certain cases makes the body difficult to vulnerable even to a blade. But the Viking blades are no match for the eastern ones: no matter how much the northern warriors admired them, this admiration stems from a lack of material for comparison. At least in the time of the berserkers, the hardening of the blade was only superficial and it was far from the sharpness and elasticity of the samurai katana.
Moreover, even “energy” did not always save the berserker. Sometimes a missed blow with a sword did not actually cut the body, but caused such a serious bruise that it could ensure the end of the fight. After all, the berserkers’ opponents were a match for them...
And not every berserker knew how to competently use internal energy. Sometimes they spent it too extensively - and then after the battle the warrior fell into a state of “berserker impotence” for a long time, which could not be explained only by physical fatigue.
The attacks of this powerlessness were so severe that the beast warrior could sometimes die after the battle, without even being wounded in it!
Intuitive penetration into the depths of martial art clearly needed to be “polished” by creating a school that would provide a culture of movements, stances, combinations of techniques...
In literature, berserkers often appear in pairs, often twelve of them at once. They were considered the personal guard of the Old Scandinavian kings. This indicates the elitist nature of this warrior caste. Would rulers surround themselves with crazy, deranged warriors? Definitely not, only the most skilled were here. Unwavering loyalty to one's ruler is found in several places in the old sagas. In one of the sagas, the Danish king Hrolf Krake had 12 berserkers who were his personal guard: Bödvar Bjarki, Hjalti Hochgemut, Zvitserk Kün, Wörth, Veseti, Bajgud and the Svipdag brothers.
But only King Harald Fairhair could not have berserkers. Tacitus mentions a special caste of warriors, which he calls “Harier” and who bear all the signs of berserkers, this was 800 years before the Battle of Boxfjord: “... they are stubborn warriors. They are characterized by natural wildness. Black shields, painted bodies, choose dark nights for battle and instill fear in opponents. No one can resist their unusual and seemingly hellish appearance.” "Harier" means "Warrior" and Odin was called among them "Herjan", "Lord of Warriors". None of them had their own house or field, or any care. They came to anyone, they were treated to food, they took advantage of strangers, they were careless in their affairs, and only the weakness of old age made them unsuitable for military life. They considered it a shame to die in their own beds from decrepitude, and when death was imminent, they were stabbed to death with a spear.
Also, there is a theory that says that the concept of berserk is also associated with Greek mythology, where Hercules, Achilles, etc. possessed all the traits of “warriors of wrath.”
200 years after the Battle of Boxfjord, Christian missionaries descended on Scandinavia. Old pagan customs and lifestyles were prohibited, in particular, wrestlers wearing animal skins. A law issued in Iceland in 1123 states: “A berserker caught in a frenzy will be imprisoned for 3 years in exile.” Since then, the bearskin warriors have disappeared without a trace...
His word: “ Can we talk about the berserker warriors? I wonder if I made it or not :)"
We made it, we can. An interesting topic of ancient legends, let's find out more...
The history of mankind is full of legends and myths. Each era writes a new page into this volume covered with the dust of time. Many of them have sunk into oblivion without living to this day. But there are legends over which centuries have no power. Stories about warriors with superhuman abilities - impervious to physical pain and knowing no fear in the face of death - are from this number. Mentions of supersoldiers can be found in almost every nation. But berserkers stand apart in this series - heroes of Scandinavian sagas and epics, whose very name has become a household word. And this is what an interesting thing about a legend is. Sometimes truth and fiction are so intertwined in them that it is hardly possible to separate one from the other.
For several centuries, the Vikings were Europe's worst nightmare. When the snake-headed boats of brutal aliens appeared on the horizon, the population of the surrounding lands, gripped by chilling horror, sought salvation in the forests. The scale of the devastating campaigns of the Normans is amazing even today, almost a thousand years later. In the east, they paved the famous path “from the Varangians to the Greeks”, gave rise to the princely Rurik dynasty and for more than two centuries took an active part in the life of Kievan Rus and Byzantium. In the west, the Vikings, since the 8th century. having settled Iceland and southern Greenland, they kept the Irish and Scottish coasts in constant fear.
And from the 9th century. moved the boundaries of their raids not only far to the south - to the Mediterranean Sea, but also deep into European lands, ravaging London (787), Bordeaux (840), Paris (885) and Orleans (895) . Red-bearded strangers captured entire fiefdoms, sometimes not inferior in size to the possessions of many monarchs: in the north-west of France they founded the Duchy of Normandy, and in Italy - the Kingdom of Sicily, from where they made campaigns in Palestine long before the Crusaders. Terrorizing the population of European cities, the warlike Scandinavians even received the honor of being mentioned in prayers: “God, deliver us from the Normans!” But among the northern barbarians there were warriors, before whom the Vikings themselves felt mystical awe. They knew very well that falling under the hot hand of a berserker tribesman was like death, and therefore they always tried to stay away from these brothers in arms.
WITH ALONE IN THE FIELD WARRIORS
Ancient Scandinavian sagas brought to us legends about invincible warriors who, overwhelmed by battle rage, with one sword or ax burst into the ranks of enemies, crushing everything in their path. Modern scientists do not doubt their reality, but much of the history of berserkers remains an unsolved mystery today.
Following established tradition, we will call them berserkers (although a more accurate term is bjorsjork, that is, “bear-like”). Along with the bear warrior, there was also an ulfhedner - “wolf-headed”, wolf warrior. Probably, these were different incarnations of the same phenomenon: many of those called berserkers bore the nickname “Wolf” (ulf), “Wolf’s skin”, “Wolf’s mouth”, etc. However, the name “Bear” (bjorn) is no less common.
It is believed that berserkers were first mentioned in a drape (long poem) by the skald Thorbjörn Hornklovi, an Old Norse literary monument. It talks about the victory of King Harald Fairhair, the founder of the Kingdom of Norway, in the Battle of Havrsfjord, which supposedly took place in 872. “The berserkers, dressed in bearskins, growled, shook their swords, bit the edge of their shield in rage and rushed at their enemies. They were possessed and did not feel pain, even if they were hit by a spear. When the battle was won, the warriors fell exhausted and fell into a deep sleep,” this is how an eyewitness and participant in those events described the entry into battle of the legendary warriors.
Most of the mentions of berserkers are in the sagas of the 9th-11th centuries, when the Vikings (Normans) terrified the peoples of Europe on their fast drake ships. It seemed that nothing could resist them. Such large cities as London, Bordeaux, Paris, and Orleans fell under the blows of the Vikings already in the 8th-9th centuries. What can we say about small towns and villages, the Normans devastated them in a matter of hours. They often created their own states in the territories they captured, for example, the Duchy of Normandy and the Kingdom of Sicily.
Who were these fighters? Vikings were called berserkers or berserkers, who from an early age devoted themselves to serving Odin - the supreme Scandinavian deity, the ruler of the wonderful palace of Valhalla, where after death the souls of warriors who heroically fell on the battlefield and earned the favor of heaven were supposedly sent to an eternal feast. Before the battle, berserkers put themselves into a special kind of combat trance, due to which they were distinguished by enormous strength, endurance, quick reaction, insensitivity to pain and increased aggressiveness. By the way, the etymology of the word “berserker” still causes controversy in scientific circles. It is most likely derived from the Old Norse "berserkr", which translates either as "bearskin" or "shirtless" (the root ber can mean either "bear" or "naked", and serkr - "skin", "shirt" "). Supporters of the first interpretation point to a direct connection between the berserkers, who wore clothes made of bear skins, and the cult of this totem animal. The “Holo Shirts” focus on the fact that berserkers went into battle without chain mail, naked to the waist.
Bronze plate of the 8th century. Thorslunda, Fr. Öland, Sweden
Fragmentary information about berserkers can also be gleaned from the Prose Edda, a collection of Old Icelandic mythical tales written by Snorri Sturluson. The Saga of the Ynglings says the following: “The men of Odin rushed into battle without chain mail, but raged like mad dogs or wolves. In anticipation of the fight, from the impatience and rage bubbling within them, they gnawed their shields and hands with their teeth until they bled. They were strong, like bears or bulls. With an animal roar they struck the enemy, and neither fire nor iron harmed them...” The Old Norse poet claimed that “Odin knew how to make his enemies go blind or deaf in battle, or be overcome by fear, or their swords become no sharper than sticks.” The connection of berserkers with the cult of the main god of the Scandinavian pantheon has other confirmations. Even the translation of Odin's many names indicates his mad and furious nature: Wotan ("possessed"), Ygg ("terrible"), Heryan ("militant"), Hnikar ("sower of discord"), Belverk ("villain"). The nicknames of the berserkers, who gave the “lord of wrath” a vow of fearlessness, also matched their heavenly patron. For example, Harold the Merciless, who got involved in battle before others, or the Norman leader John, who was defeated in 1171 near Dublin, who had the nickname Wode, that is, “Madman.”
It was no coincidence that berserkers were a privileged part of the military class, a kind of “special forces” of the Vikings. And it was not spontaneous rioting or sacrificial extravagance on the lists that made them so. They just always opened the battle, conducting a demonstration, and in most cases, a victorious duel in full view of the entire army. In one of the chapters of “Germany,” the ancient Roman writer Tacitus wrote about berserkers: “As soon as they reached adulthood, they were allowed to grow hair and a beard, and only after killing the first enemy could they style them... Cowards and others walked around with their hair flowing. In addition, the bravest wore an iron ring, and only the death of the enemy freed them from wearing it. Their task was to anticipate each battle; they always formed the front line.” A squad of berserkers made their enemies tremble with their very appearance. Storming cities as a combat vanguard, they left behind only mountains of corpses of defeated enemies. And behind the berserkers, well-armed infantry protected by armor advanced, completing the rout. If you believe the literary monuments, the Old Scandinavian kings often used berserkers as personal guards, which once again confirms their military elitism. One of the sagas says that the Danish king Hrolf Krake had 12 berserkers as his bodyguards.
FROM THE DOSSIER. “Berserk is a mechanism exploded by ferocious passion, adrenaline, ideological attitude, breathing techniques, sound vibrations and a mechanical program of action. He doesn't fight for anything, but only to win. The berserker does not have to prove that he will survive. He must pay back his life many times over. The berserker not only goes to die, he goes to receive furious pleasure from this process. By the way, that’s why he most often stays alive.”
“THERE IS A DROP IN BATTLE...”
EVERY SINGLE piece of evidence portrays berserkers as ferocious fighters who fought with a wild, almost magical passion. So what is the secret of the rage of berserkers, as well as their insensitivity to injury and pain: was it a consequence of drug intoxication, a hereditary disease or special psychophysical training?
Currently, there are several versions explaining this phenomenon. The first is possession by an “animal spirit.” Ethnographers confirm that something similar was observed among many peoples. At the moments when the “spirit” takes possession of a person, he does not feel any pain or fatigue. But as soon as this state ends, the possessed person almost instantly falls asleep, as if he is turned off. In general, werewolfism as a military practice was widespread in antiquity and the Middle Ages. Traces of “transformation into a beast,” of course, not in a literal sense, but in a ritual and psycho-behavioral sense, can be found in modern military lexicons and heraldic symbols. The custom of naming special forces after predatory animals in order to emphasize their elitism also dates back to the deep past. The ancient Germans imitated the beast; it played the role of a mentor during initiation, when a young man, joining the ranks of adult warriors, demonstrated his fighting skills, dexterity, courage and bravery. The victory of a person over a totem animal, considered the ancestor and patron of a given tribe, meant the transfer of the most valuable animal qualities to the warrior. It was believed that in the end the beast did not die, but was embodied in the hero who defeated it. Modern psychology has long identified the mechanisms by which a person “gets used to” the image of the creature whose role he is currently playing. Berserkers who growled and put on bear skins seemed to actually become bears. Of course, the animal masquerade was by no means the know-how of the Normans.
The famous Munich ethnologist Professor Hans-Joachim Paprot is confident that the cult of the bear appeared much earlier and was more widespread. “Already in Stone Age paintings, for example in the Trois-Frerets cave in Southern France, we find images of dancers in bearskins. And Swedish and Norwegian Laplanders celebrated an annual bear festival until the last century,” says the scientist. The Austrian Germanist Professor Otto Hoefler believes that there was a deep meaning in animal disguise. “It was understood as a transformation not only by the audience, but also by the person changing clothes themselves. If a dancer or warrior dressed in a bearskin, then the strength of the wild animal, of course, in a figurative sense, passed into him. He acted and felt like a bear. Echoes of this cult can still be seen today, for example in the bearskin caps of the English Royal Guards guarding the Tower of London,” he states. And in Danish folklore there is still a belief that anyone who puts on an iron collar can turn into a werebear.
Modern science knows that the human nervous system can produce substances that are similar in composition and action to drugs. They act directly on the “pleasure centers” of the brain. It can be assumed that the berserkers were, as it were, hostages of their own rage. They were forced to look for dangerous situations that would allow them to engage in combat, or even provoke them. One of the Scandinavian sagas talks about a man who had 12 sons. All of them were berserkers: “It became their custom, when they were among their own people and felt a fit of rage, to go from the ship to the shore and throw large stones there, uproot trees, otherwise in their rage they would have maimed or killed their relatives and friends.” The phrase “there is ecstasy in battle” took on a literal meaning. Later, the Vikings, for the most part, still managed to control such attacks. Sometimes they even entered a state that in the East is called “enlightened consciousness.” Those who mastered this art became truly phenomenal warriors.
During the attack, the berserker seemed to “become” the corresponding beast. At the same time, he threw away defensive weapons (or did things with them that were not intended: for example, he bit into his shield with his teeth, plunging the enemy into shock), and in some cases, offensive ones; all Scandinavian Vikings knew how to fight with their hands, but berserkers clearly stood out even at their level.
Many paramilitary groups considered unarmed combat shameful. Among the Vikings, this postulate took the following form: it is shameful not to be able to fight with weapons, but there is nothing shameful in the ability to fight unarmedly. It is curious that as an auxiliary (and sometimes main - if he fought without a sword) weapon, the berserker used stones, a stick picked up from the ground, or a club stored in advance.
This is partly due to the deliberate entry into the image: it is not appropriate for an animal to use weapons (a stone and a stick are natural, natural weapons). But, probably, archaism is also manifested in this, following the ancient schools of martial arts. The sword entered Scandinavia quite late, and even after widespread use, it was for some time out of favor with berserkers, who preferred the club and ax, with which they struck in a circular manner from the shoulder, without connecting the hand. The technique is quite primitive, but the degree of mastery of it was very high.
On Trajan's Column in Rome we see a “strike force” of such animal warriors (not yet berserkers). They are included in the Roman army and are partly forced to follow customs, but only a few have helmets (and no one has armor), some are dressed in animal skin, others are half naked and clutch a club instead of a sword... One must think that this did not reduce their combat effectiveness, otherwise Emperor Trajan, whose guard they were part of, would have been able to insist on rearmament.
Usually it was the berserkers who started each battle, terrifying their enemies with their very appearance. According to the sagas, they did not use armor, preferring bearskin instead. In some cases, a shield is mentioned, the edges of which they gnawed furiously before the battle. The main weapons of the berserkers were a battle ax and a sword, which they wielded to perfection. One of the first references to us about invincible warriors was left by the skald Thorbjörn Hornklovi, who at the end of the 9th century wrote a saga about the victory in the battle of Havrsfjord of King Harald Fairhair, the creator of the Norwegian kingdom. There is a high probability that his description is documented: “The berserkers, dressed in bearskins, growled, shook their swords, bit the edge of their shield in rage and rushed at their enemies. They were possessed and did not feel pain, even if they were hit by a spear. When the battle was won, the warriors fell exhausted and fell into deep sleep.” Similar descriptions of the actions of berserkers in battle can be found in other authors.
For example, in the saga of the Ynglings: “The men of Odin rushed into battle without chain mail, but raged like mad dogs or wolves. In anticipation of the fight, from the impatience and rage bubbling within them, they gnawed their shields and hands with their teeth until they bled. They were strong, like bears or bulls. With an animal roar they struck the enemy, and neither fire nor iron harmed them...” Notice that this time it is mentioned that they were warriors of Odin, the supreme deity of the Scandinavians, to whom, after death in battle, the souls of great warriors go to feast with brave men like them and enjoy the love of heavenly maidens. Apparently, berserkers were representatives of a special group (caste) of professional warriors, who were trained for battles from childhood, devoting them not only to the intricacies of military skill, but also teaching the art of entering a combat trance, which heightened all the senses of the fighter and allowed the hidden capabilities of the human body to manifest themselves. Naturally, it was extremely difficult to defeat such fighters in battle. Fear, as they say, has big eyes, which is why similar lines appeared in the sagas: “One knew how to make his enemies go blind or deaf in battle, or they were overcome by fear, or their swords became no sharper than sticks.”
Traditionally, berserkers formed the vanguard of the battle. They could not fight for long (the combat trance cannot last long), having broken the ranks of the enemies and laid the foundation for a common victory, they left the battlefield to ordinary warriors who completed the defeat of the enemy. Apparently, bringing oneself to a state of trance could not be done without taking certain psychotropic drugs, which allowed berserkers to “transform” into powerful and invincible bears. Werewolfism is known among many nations, when, as a result of illness or taking special drugs, a person identified himself with the beast and even copied certain features of its behavior. It is not for nothing that the emphasis is placed on the invulnerability of berserkers in the sagas. In battle, they were guided not so much by consciousness as by the subconscious, which allowed them to “turn on” qualities that are not typical for humans in everyday life - heightened reaction, expanded peripheral vision, insensitivity to pain, and possibly some kind of extrasensory abilities. In battle, the berserker literally felt arrows and spears flying at him, foresaw where the blows of swords and axes would come from, which means he could parry the blow, cover himself with a shield or dodge it. These were truly universal warriors, but they were needed only for the period of fighting.
The Normans fought often, which means that berserkers often had to reincarnate. Apparently, the ecstasy of battle became for them something similar to drug addiction, and perhaps it practically was. Consequently, berserkers were, in principle, not adapted to peaceful life, becoming dangerous to society, since they needed danger and thrills. And if there is no war, then you can always provoke a fight or engage in robbery. As soon as the Normans, fed up with the seizure of foreign lands, began to move on to a settled, quiet life, the berserkers turned out to be superfluous. This was clearly manifested in the sagas, in which, from the end of the 11th century, berserkers from former heroes turn into robbers and villains, to whom a merciless war is declared. It is curious that it was recommended to kill berserkers with wooden stakes, since “they are invulnerable” against iron. At the beginning of the 12th century, the Scandinavian countries even adopted special laws aimed at combating berserkers, who were expelled or mercilessly destroyed. Some of the former invulnerable warriors were able to join a new life; it was believed that for this they must be baptized, then faith in Christ would save them from battle madness. The rest, perhaps they made up the majority of the former military elite, were forced to flee to other lands or were simply killed.
FLY ASMIC MADNESS
There have been other attempts to explain the inhuman rage of berserkers. In 1784, S. Edman, referring to the customs of some East Siberian tribes, suggested that berserkers also stupefied themselves with an infusion of fly agarics. The peoples of the Far North - the Tungus, Lamut or Kamchadal - until recently, in the practice of rituals (fortune telling), they used powder from dried fly agaric mushrooms, which, when licked from the palm of their hand, shamans fell into a trance. The behavior of berserkers in battle really resembles a state of intoxication with muscarine - the poison of the fly agaric: stupefaction, outbursts of rage, insensitivity to pain and cold, and then incredible fatigue and deep sleep, about which they wrote that “Vikings fall to the ground from fatigue, and not from wounds” . This is precisely the picture dispassionately recorded by the saga of the battle near the Norwegian city of Stavanger in 872, when the berserkers, after the victory, fell ashore and slept like a dead person for more than a day. The action of muscarine, like any other hallucinogen, is based on a change in the speed of impulses of nerve endings, which causes a feeling of euphoria. And an excessive dose can be fatal. But something else is interesting here: the condition caused by poison in one individual soon spreads to everyone around him. Some historians believe that the berserkers knew about this technique, and therefore only the leaders of the squads or a select few used fly agaric doping. However, there is still no reliable evidence of the “mushroom” theory. Some ethnographers still suggest that berserkers belonged to certain sacred unions or families in which knowledge about the mysterious properties of plants was passed on from generation to generation. But in the Old Norse sagas there is no mention of psychotropic drugs at all. Therefore, a discussion on the topic of “berserkers and fly agarics” is a waste of time, no matter how attractive this version may seem.
Now about another semi-mythical property of berserkers - invulnerability. A variety of sources unanimously claim that the beast warrior could not actually be killed in battle. The berserkers were protected from throwing and striking weapons by a kind of “wisdom of madness.” Disinhibited consciousness enabled extreme responsiveness, sharpened peripheral vision, and likely enabled some extrasensory skills. The berserker saw, or even predicted, any blow, managing to parry it or jump away from the line of attack. The belief in the invulnerability of berserkers survived the heroic age and was reflected in Scandinavian folklore. Berserkers of the 11th and 12th centuries. skillfully took advantage of the image inherited from their ancestors. And they themselves, to the best of their ability, refined their image. For example, fueling rumors in every possible way that they can dull any sword with one glance. The sagas, with their love of all things supernatural, easily absorbed such colorful details.
Doctors also made their contribution to solving the mystery of the frantic warriors. “The legendary power of the berserkers had nothing to do with spirits, drugs, or magical rituals, but was only a disease transmitted by inheritance,” says Professor Jesse L. Byock. They are ordinary psychopaths who lost control of themselves at the slightest attempt to contradict them. Over time, the berserkers learned to perform a well-rehearsed performance, one of the elements of which was biting the shield. It is well known that exhaustion that occurs after an attack of rage is typical for people with mental disorders. Hysterics easily cross the line separating pretense from reality, and the learned technique becomes a symptom of a real illness. Moreover, the psychoses that engulfed medieval society were often epidemic in nature: just remember the dance of St. Vitus or the flagellant movement. As a striking example, Jesse L. Bayok cites the unbridled in anger, cruel and greedy Viking, and also the famous Icelandic poet Egil, who lived in the 10th century. So, if you believe the “Saga of Egil,” he possessed all the traits of a berserker who adopted his wild disposition from his ancestors. Moreover, his head was so massive that even after death it could not be split with an ax. Analysis of the text of the Old Norse literary monument also allowed Bayok to conclude that Egil's family suffered from Paget's syndrome, a hereditary disease in which uncontrolled bone enlargement occurs. Human bones renew themselves gradually, usually within 8 years. However, the disease increases the rate of bone destruction and new formation so much that they become significantly larger and uglier than before. The effects of Paget's syndrome are especially noticeable on the head, where the bones become thicker. According to statistics, in England today this disease affects from 3 to 5 percent of men over 40 years of age. It is very difficult to confirm or refute an exotic hypothesis due to historical remoteness.
HEROES OR VILLAINS?
FROM CHILDHOOD we have learned the immutable law of fairy tales and myths: all the characters in them are divided into “good” and “bad”. There are no halftones here, with rare exceptions - this is the specificity of the genre. What category can berserkers be classified into?
No matter how strange it may sound, the frantic warriors were most likely anti-heroes for their contemporaries. If in early sagas berserkers were portrayed as selected warriors, bodyguards of the king, then in later family legends they are marauders and rapists. The Earthly Circle, a collection of stories compiled by Snorri Sturluson in the 13th century, contains many such evidence. Most of the episodes are stereotypical in content and composition. Shortly before Christmas, someone of enormous stature and endowed with extraordinary strength, often accompanied by eleven people, appears as an uninvited guest on a farm with the intention of taking everything of value and forcing the women into cohabitation. If the farmer is at home, he is either sick or infirm and cannot fight back the villains. But more often he is many miles from home, in a distant province of Norway. The leader of the aliens is a berserker, ready to prove in a duel his right to dispose of someone else's household. There are no people willing to fight the strongman, skilled in such fights (and all his previous opponents are dead). But just at this time, a courageous Icelander accidentally turns up on the farm, who either accepts the challenge or defeats the villains with cunning. The result is always the same: the berserkers are killed, including those who hoped to escape. When the troubles are over, the owner returns and generously rewards the savior, who, in memory of what happened, composes a visa - a skaldic poem of eight lines - thanks to which his feat becomes widely known.
It is quite natural that berserkers, to put it mildly, were disliked for such “actions”. Reliable historical evidence has been preserved that in 1012, Earl Eirik Hakonarson outlawed berserkers in Norway, and they apparently began to seek their fortune in other places, including Iceland. Most likely, berserker marauders are gangs of homeless warriors left out of work. They were born for battles: they were excellent with weapons, psychologically prepared, they knew how to intimidate the enemy with growls, aggressive behavior and protect themselves from slashing blows with thick bear skin. But when the berserkers were no longer needed, they suffered the fate of any forgotten army - moral degradation.
The end of the era of the Norman campaigns, Christianization and the formation of early feudal statehood in the Scandinavian lands ultimately led to a complete rethinking of the image of the berserker. Already from the 11th century. this word takes on an exclusively negative connotation. Moreover, berserkers under the influence of the church are credited with pronounced demonic traits. The Saga of Vatisdola tells that in connection with the arrival of Bishop Fridrek in Iceland, war was declared “possessed”. Their description is given in a completely traditional spirit: berserkers commit violence and arbitrariness, their anger knows no bounds, they bark and growl, gnawing at the edge of their shield, walk on hot coals barefoot and do not even try to control their behavior. On the advice of the newly arrived clergyman, those possessed by evil spirits were scared away with fire, beaten to death with wooden stakes, because it was believed that “iron does not hurt berserkers,” and the bodies were thrown into a ravine without burial. Other texts noted that the baptized berserker forever lost the ability to transform. Pursued and persecuted from all sides, finding themselves in the new social conditions as dangerous outcasts and criminals, accustomed to living only by raids and robbery, berserkers became a real disaster. They broke into settlements, killed local residents, and ambushed travelers. And the law of ancient Scandinavia outlawed bloodthirsty madmen, making it obligatory for every resident to destroy berserkers. A law issued in Iceland in 1123 stated: “A berserker caught in a rage will be sentenced to 3 years of exile.” Since then, the warriors in bearskins disappeared without a trace, and with them the hoary pagan antiquity sank into oblivion.
NO ONE knows where and when the last berserker died: history jealously guards this secret. The only reminders of the former glory of the fierce Vikings today are heroic tales and mossy rune stones scattered along the slopes of the Scandinavian hills...
On INFOGLASE The article turned out to be a little more complete, so those who are especially interested can read it there - http://infoglaz.ru/?p=24429
sources Roman SHKURLATOV http://bratishka.ru/archiv/2007/10/2007_10_17.php http://slavs.org.ua/berserki
http://shkolazhizni.ru/archive/0/n-29472/
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