The Vikings firmly established themselves as one of the most ferocious tribes of their time. They were hated, feared, cursed, frightened by the invasions of children. But among the Normans themselves there were warriors who aroused superstitious fear even in their own ranks. We are talking, of course, about berserkers - legendary madmen who revel in battle rage.
SUN BY SCALDES
The ancient Scandinavians left to descendants, frankly, not too many texts. For them, it was often done by the peoples affected by the attacks. Nevertheless, the berserkers managed to get into the “native” sources in the first place, being mentioned at once by two trusted skalds. The first is from the 9th century, Thorbjørn Hornklovy, court singer of the first king of Norway, Harald the Fair-haired. Praising his overlord in The Song of Harald, Thorbjörn casually described the roaring berserkers fighting at his side. Another skald is Snorri Sturluson, one of the most famous Old Icelandic prose writers, the author of the Younger Edda. His berserkers appear on the pages of the Earth's Circle, the largest monument of Scandinavian literature of the 13th century. Snorri did not limit himself to just mentioning, describing in detail the incredible power of the mad warriors. Here is the strength of bears and wolves,and gnawed shields, and battle without armor, and invulnerability to fire and iron, and the divine protection of Odin, who blind and stun the enemies of the Normans. A complete set, as ordered, no one could have come up with better. Considering the well-deserved fame of Snorri Sturluson, all future generations believed him. The rest of the historical descriptions either confirm this mighty image, or fade against its background.
This is not to say that the skalds were lying - the berserkers were absolutely real. But the sagas were not without guile, and historians have broken many copies on this topic.
NAKED BEAR WARRIORS
The controversy surrounding berserkers starts with their name. The root ber- in Old Icelandic could mean both "bear" and "naked", -serkr also meant "cloth", "skin", "shirt". That is, there are two main options - "bearskin" or "no shirt". The aforementioned Snorri Sturluson leaned towards the second option, emphasizing the valor of the berserkers rushing naked into battle. But the "animal" translation also had a lot of fans. There is ample evidence of elite Viking warriors wearing predator skins, with the earliest dating back to 113 CE! On the famous Trajan's Column, erected in honor of the victory of the Romans over the Dacians, one of the scenes depicts some northern warriors, dressed in bears and wolf skins. The confirmation is indirect, but it is seriously considered as evidence of the attitude of berserkers to the animal principle. Finally,companions of the supreme god Odin were two wolves - Geri and Freki, and in the names of the ancient Scandinavians, "wolf" and "bear" motives were often seen. Finally, the third option - from the word "ber-skjaldaðr", "without a shield" hinted that after finishing gnawing on the shield, the berserkers threw it aside, rushing at the enemy without any protection. Bear warriors, beast warriors fighting without armor - how could they even survive?
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ANGER MANAGEMENT
Any mention of berserkers speaks as one - an unimaginable rage allowed them to gain victory over and over again, and only after the battle they fell unconscious to the ground. Researchers, again, interpret the origins of this anger in different ways - and there are more discrepancies here than about the name. Some believe that berserkers reached "condition" by eating dried amanita before battle or taking them in the form of infusion. Muscarine, an alkaloid found in fly agarics, can indeed cause outbreaks of aggression, increased salivation, and numbness to pain. As, however, and a more commonplace option - mental illness, which could even be inherited. Not without a magic theory. Animal skins and fervent worship of Odin secured the glory of werewolves for berserkers, who let in the spirit of a wolf or a bear before the battle,who gave them strength and invulnerability.
Finally, the chest could open in a completely different way - the most experienced berserkers did not need fly agarics or madness to enter a combat trance. Strange as it may seem, but in this hypothesis the legendary Viking warriors unexpectedly relate in philosophy to … samurai. Bushido, the samurai's code, says that a warrior must live every day, remembering imminent death. That he must go into battle, ready for it, and only then can he survive. Remember - the armor of the samurai could not be compared with the European ones in strength, and they did not have shields either. In this case, the fierce frenzy of the berserkers could only be a mask behind which was hidden true composure and perfect calculation. Entering the battle, they left both protection and fear of death, which allowed them to thrive where heavily armored fighters died.
BODYGUARDS AND Marauders
There is a good chance that at different times and in different clans, berserkers used separate approaches to maintain their fearsome reputation. And it worked with a bang - they were not only feared by the enemies, but also noble persons were willingly taken as bodyguards. On the same column of Trajan, the warriors in animal skins do not fight against the Romans, but enter the retinue of the emperor himself. The habit of hiring a detachment of berserkers for protection has been preserved for many centuries - the peace of the Danish king of the 6th century Hrolf Kraki, according to the saga, was protected by twelve berserkers at once.
But times have changed, and with them priorities. The era of the formidable Vikings, the sons of Odin, who could not live a week without a bloody battle, has come to an end. Already in 1000 Iceland became Christian, in 1012 Jarl Erik Hakonsson outlawed berserkers in Norway. Sagas praising the fervor of battle madness have been replaced by ironic stories of worthless berserk marauders trying to rob Icelandic and Norwegian farmers and failing in the process. Christianity did not get along with berserkers in any way. Because what else, if not the infusion of demons and the sale of their souls to the devil, explain their incredible fighting qualities? Soon, the "bear warriors" were outlawed throughout the Scandinavian lands, the remaining gangs of berserkers were hunted down, hunted down like wild animals and ruthlessly destroyed.
INHABITANTS OF LEGENDS
Less than a century later, the berserkers were left to live only on the pages of the chronicles. But they settled on them for a long time, and nowadays they surface both in historical and artistic works. The ancient Scandinavian madmen were especially fond of the Nazis - the medieval historian Otto Hefler, an employee of the Ahnenerbe, did a great deal of work on the modern image of berserkers. The caste of Odin's chosen servants, who cannot imagine their life without massacre, ideally fit into the mythology of National Socialism and took its place in military propaganda.
The history of mankind, ancient and not so, is so densely dotted with wars that it is sometimes difficult to find a gap. And the fact that the berserkers found a place only in very gray antiquity speaks only of one thing - there they belong. An irrepressible lust for blood or its skillful imitation has long ceased to be associated with valor. But the memory of the beast-like powerful northern warriors, who do not know pain and do not know fear, most likely will remain with our civilization forever.
Sergey Evtushenko