Berserker

Berserkers (or berserks) were Norse warriors who are reported in the Old Norse literature to have fought in a nearly uncontrollable, trance-like fury, a characteristic which later gave rise to the English word berserk. Berserkers are attested to in numerous Old Norse sources. Most historians believe that berserkers worked themselves into a rage before battle, but some think that they might have consumed drugged foods.

The Úlfhéðnar (singular Úlfhéðinn), mentioned in the Vatnsdœla saga, Haraldskvæði and the Völsunga saga, were said to wear the pelt of a wolf when they entered battle. Úlfhéðnar are sometimes described as Odin's special warriors, with the pelt from a wolf and a spear as distinguishing features.

Vendel era bronze plate found on Öland, Sweden.

Etymology

The name berserker arose from their reputed habit of wearing a kind of shirt or coat (Old Norse: serkr) made from the pelt of a bear (Old Norse: ber-) during battle.

The term comes from old Norwegian berserkr (plural berserkir), meaning bear shirt and suggests a robe. In earlier studies, the element ber- was often misinterpreted as berr-, meaning "bare", understood as indicating that the berserkers fought naked. This view has since been largely abandoned.

Attestations

Battle of the Storm Hjørungavåg
Illustration for Olav Tryggvasons saga
Gerhard Munthe (1899)

Berserkers appear prominently in a multitude of other sagas and poems, many of which describe berserkers as ravenous men who loot, plunder, and kill indiscriminately.

The earliest surviving reference to the term "berserker" is in Haraldskvæði, a skaldic poem composed by Thórbiörn Hornklofi in the late 9th century in honour of King Harald Fairhair, as ulfheðnar ("men clad in wolf skins"). This translation from the Haraldskvæði saga describes Harald's berserkers:

I'll ask of the berserks, you tasters of blood,

Those intrepid heroes, how are they treated,
Those who wade out into battle?
Wolf-skinned they are called. In battle
They bear bloody shields.
Red with blood are their spears when they come to fight.
They form a closed group.
The prince in his wisdom puts trust in such men

Who hack through enemy shields.

The Icelandic historian and poet Snorri Sturluson (1179–1241) wrote the following description of berserkers in his Ynglinga saga:

His (Odin's) men rushed forwards without armour, were as mad as dogs or wolves, bit their shields, and were strong as bears or wild oxen, and killed people at a blow, but neither fire nor iron told upon them. This was called Berserkergang.

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

Emphasis has been placed on the frenzied nature of the berserkers, hence the modern sense of the word 'berserk.' However, the sources describe several other characteristics that have been ignored or neglected by modern commentators. Snorri's assertion that 'neither fire nor iron told upon them' is reiterated time after time, and the sources frequently state that neither edged weapons nor fire affected the berserks, although they were not immune to clubs or other blunt instruments. For example:

...men asked Halfdan to attack Hardbeen and his champions man by man; and he not only promised to fight, but assured himself the victory with most confident words. When Hardbeen heard this, a demoniacal frenzy suddenly took him; he furiously bit and devoured the edges of his shield; he kept gulping down fiery coals; he snatched live embers in his mouth and let them pass down into his entrails; he rushed through the perils of crackling fires; and at last, when he had raved through every sort of madness, he turned his sword with raging hand against the hearts of six of his champions. It is doubtful whether this madness came from thirst for battle or natural ferocity. Then with the remaining band of his champions he attacked Halfdan, who crushed him with a hammer of wondrous size, so that he lost both victory and life; paying the penalty both to Halfdan, whom he had challenged, and to the kings whose offspring he had violently ravished...

Similarly, Hrolf Kraki's champions refuse to retreat 'from fire or iron.' Another frequent motif refers to berserkers blunting their enemy's blades with spells, or a glance from their evil eyes. This appears as early as Beowulf where it is a characteristic attributed to Grendel. Both the fire eating and the immunity to edged weapons are reminiscent of tricks popularly ascribed to Hindu fakirs.

In 1015, Jarl Eiríkr Hákonarson of Norway outlawed berserkers. Grágás, the medieval Icelandic law code, sentenced berserker warriors to outlawry. By the 12th century, organised berserker war-bands had disappeared.

The Lewis Chessmen, found on the Isle of Lewis (Outer Hebrides, Scotland) but thought to be of Norse manufacture, include Berserkers depicted biting their shields.

Theories

Scholar Hilda Ellis-Davidson draws a parallel between berserkers and the mention by the Byzantine emperor Constantine VII (AD 905–959) in his book De cerimoniis aulae byzantinae ("Book of Ceremonies of the Byzantine court") of a "Gothic Dance" performed by members of his Varangian Guard (Norse warriors working in the service of the Byzantine Empire), who took part wearing animal skins and masks: she believes this may have been connected with berserker rites.

The actual fit of madness the berserker experienced was referred to as berserkergang ("going berserk"). This condition has been described as follows:

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

Theories about what caused berserker behaviour include ingestion of materials with psychoactive properties, psychological processes, and medical conditions.

Some scholars believe certain examples of berserker rage to have been induced voluntarily by the consumption of drugs such as the hallucinogenic mushroom Amanita muscaria. or massive amounts of alcohol. While such practices would fit in with ritual usages, other explanations for the berserker's madness have been put forward, including self-induced hysteria, epilepsy, mental illness or genetics.

Jonathan Shay, MD, makes an explicit connection between the berserker rage of soldiers and the hyperarousal of post-traumatic stress disorder. In Achilles in Vietnam he writes:

If a soldier survives the berserk state, it imparts emotional deadness and vulnerability to explosive rage to his psychology and permanent hyperarousal to his physiology — hallmarks of post-traumatic stress disorder in combat veterans. My clinical experience with Vietnam combat veterans prompts me to place the berserk state at the heart of their most severe psychological and psychophysiological injuries.

Modern context

The word "berserker" today applies to anyone who fights with reckless abandon and disregard to even his own life, a concept used during the Vietnam War and in Vietnam-inspired literature (Michael Herr's Dispatches) and film (Oliver Stone's Platoon and Adrian Lyne's Jacob's Ladder). "Going berserk" in this context refers to an overdose of adrenaline-induced opioids in the human body and brain leading a soldier to fight with fearless rage and indifference, a state strikingly similar to that of the 9th century berserkers observed in this article.

"Going berserk" is also used colloquially to describe a person who is acting in a wild rage or in an uncontrolled and irrational manner. "Berserker" is also a well known character archetype and status in video games and other media.

In popular culture

• Berserkers as depicted in the Beowulf epic are incorporated as mysterious and fearsome enemies in Michael Crichton's Eaters of the Dead novel (1976), and in its film adaptation The 13th Warrior (1999).
• In 1990 Clive Barker's film, Nightbreed, Berserkers are depicted as monstrous and feral breed that were imprisoned deep in Midian due to their sheer insanity. They were released at the end of the film by Lylesburg (the leader of Midian's society) and Aaron Boone to attack the humans furiously and win the battle against them.
• In 1991 and 1992, John Nord wrestled in the World Wrestling Federation under the name The Berserker.
• Berserkers are depicted in the Warhammer 40,000 universe as warriors in service to the Chaos god of blood, Khorne.
• Fred Saberhagen's Berserker Saga of machines bent on the eradication of all organic life in the universe is likely based on the Berserkers, as well as providing the inspiration for the Cylons of the Battlestar Galactica entertainment franchise.
• In the 1999 Karen Marie Moning novel To Tame a Highland Warrior main character Grimm Roderick, whose real name is Gavrael McIllioch, is a berserker who discovers he is descended from a long line of the famous warriors.
• The film version of "Lord of the Rings" by Peter Jackson divides the Uruk army into four categories, including the berserker, depicted as particularly fierce and empowered by pouring human blood over their bodies.
• In the video game series Fire Emblem, Berserk is a staff: if a character is hit by this staff, he will attack the nearest unit, whether it is an enemy or an ally. There is also a job class named Berserker, which are depicted wielding giant axes and a high critical hit rate.
• The Final Fantasy video game series has incorporated a variety of abilities, job classes and status changes that are based on the concept of being in a 'berserk' state. Most of these involve the character attacking without any input from the player.
• In the RPG game Baldur's Gate, the character Minsc, goes into a berserk rage either deliberately, as a special power (to increase speed and strength) or when seriously wounded, during which time he will attack members of his own party. When the berserk state ends, his own health is damaged and he is exhausted, requiring rest for his full strength to return. There is also a "cursed" sword which sends the wielder into a berserk state in the presence of enemies.
• The band Black Label Society and more specifically lead singer Zakk Wylde often make reference to the term Berserker. In some instances fans of Black Label Society are referred to as Berserker's.
• In Duel Masters, the Berserkers are a mass-produced race of alloy pieces connected by an energy force field. They can vary in size from tanks to battleships.
• In Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters (which is the reimaging of the Duel Masters franchise), the Berserkers are human-based monsters that are associated with the Fire Civilization.
• The protagonists of the comic series Berserker, Aaron and Farris, are both Berserkers.
• In the video game Borderlands, the character Brick is classed as a berserker. In the sequel Borderlands 2, the character Salvador is classed as a "Gunzerker"-- a berserker who fights with guns.
• In the video game Gears of War, Berserker's are blind reckless creatures with armor-like skin.
• In the video game World of Warcraft, the warrior class has several berserker abilities (berserker stance, berserker rage), which grant substantial improvements to offensive moves.
• In the video game Nox, the warrior class has an attack ability called the 'Berserker charge'.

See also

• Battle trance
• Running amok
• Going postal
• Harii, a Germanic tribe
• Trance
• Warp spasm

Bibliography

• Steinsland, Gro Norrøn religion. Myter, riter, samfunn (Oslo 2005).
• Stephan Grundy, "Shapeshifting and Berserkergang", in Translation, Transformation, and Transubstantiation, ed. Carol Poster and Richard Utz (Evanston: IL: Northwestern University Press, 1998), pp. 104–22.
• Davidson, Hilda R. E. "Shape-Changing in Old Norse Sagas." In Animals in Folklore, Ed. Joshua R. Porter and William M. S. Russell. Cambridge: Brewer; Totowa: Rowman and Littlefield, 1978, pp. 126–42.
• Elton, Oliver (1905) The Nine Books of the Danish History of Saxo Grammaticus. New York: Norroena Society.
• Fabing, Howard D. "On Going Berserk: A Neurochemical Inquiry." Scientific Monthly, 83 [Nov. 1956].
• Laing, Samuel (1889). The Heimskringla or the Sagas of the Norse Kings. London: John. C. Nimo.
• Simek, Rudolf (1995). Lexicon der germanischen Mythologie. Stuttgart: Alfred Kröner. ISBN 3-20-36802-1. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: length (help)

External links

• Berserkene – hva gikk det av dem? (Jon Geir Høyersten: Journal of the Norwegian Medical Association)
• Berserkergang (Viking Answer Lady)
• Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Berserker" . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.