What do we know about berserkers? That they fought like animals, bit shields and almost went into battle with their bare hands. So we were told about them. Meanwhile, scientists still argue about who the berserkers really were.
The word "berserk"
The ambiguities with berserkers begin already with their name. Where did this word come from? It is first mentioned in the Elder Edda, then it is used by Skald Thorbjorn.
For a long time, until the middle of the 19th century, none of the experts had any doubts that berserkr means “shirtless”. However, Swainbjörn Egilsson suggested in his dictionary that "berserk" means "bear shirt". The assumption was readily accepted, although there is no alliance between bears and berserkers in the generic Irish sagas. Since that time, confusion has begun.
The image of berserkers was influenced by pre-Christian ideas about werewolf, so the translation of "bear shirt" was greeted by mythologists even with enthusiasm. He gave them a lot of room for interpretation.
There is still no unity about where this word came from.
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Sources
Berserkers were first mentioned by Skald Thorbjørn Hornklovy in a poem about the victory of King Harald the Fair-Hair at the Battle of Havrsfjord (presumably 872). Skald wrote about them: "Berserkers roared, / the battle was in full swing, / dressed in wolf skins howled / and shook their swords."
Berserkers are also mentioned in the Edda. Twice. Both times they are like semi-legendary heroes. The wives of the berserkers who fight in Songs of Harbard with Thor himself are also semi-legendary. But here, probably, as often happens in mythology, there was an overlap of images, and the author means by the wives of the berserkers of the mythological giantess.
The main source of information about berserkers was the chapter dedicated to Odin from the "History of the Norse Kings" written by Snorri Sturluson: "One knew how to make his enemies blind or deaf in battle, or they were gripped 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 being compared by force with bears and bulls. They killed people, and they could not be taken by fire or iron. It's called berserk rage."
That is, here the berserkers act as "people of Odin", which is very remarkable, since nowhere else in the sagas and myths of Odin is accompanied by any retinue of warriors.
There are also Icelandic ancestral sagas. In them, berserkers are already quite real people, but, to put it mildly, unattractive. They come to the houses of ordinary people on the eve of Christmas and arrange destruction there, rob and rape women. A good hero in such stories is usually some brave Icelander who defeats berserkers either with a club (because they are de-invulnerable to fire and iron), or by cunning, because it is recognized as an axiom that berserkers are stupid.
In historical terms, it is this image of the berserker that is closest to the truth. The adoption of Christianity, centralization, "reorganization of the army", the collapse of the Viking squads - all these factors left a large group of former warriors without a source of food, who, except how to fight, could not do anything else. Therefore, they robbed and boozed until Iceland passed the "anti-berserker" law of 1123, in which it was written in black and white: "A berserker who is seen in a rage will be punished by 3 years of exile."
It is significant that the law speaks specifically of "berserker rage" as a special condition, and not a professional trait of soldiers. We will return to this later.
Did berserkers eat fly agarics?
Having figured out a little about where the berserkers came from, in principle, you need to answer the main question …
The "fly agaric theme" is constantly being discussed in conversations about berserkers. However, these ideas do not have any objective basis.
First, Snorri's Icelandic skald spoke about the intoxication of berserkers, he assured that berserkers drink the drink of trolls. There is not a single mention of anything like this in the berserker sagas.
Then, at the end of the 18th century, researcher S. Edman started talking about the berserkers intoxicating themselves with psychotropic drugs. At the same time, he connected the Viking religion with East Siberian shamanism. Why? Only he knew this … but the myth began to take root. Scientists, such as, for example, Rakeborn-Hiennerud, even though they admit that some of the berserkers really fought in a state of intoxication, indicate that this is not confirmed by any facts, so conversations on this topic are sheer nonsense.
If you think logically, it is highly doubtful that the king would surround himself with 12 drug addicts with swords and axes. Would you become?
Berserkers We Know
We owe the idea of berserkers that we have today to a medieval historian, one of the theorists of Nazism, a member of the NSDAP and an employee of Annenerbe, Otto Höfler.
It was he who developed the idea that the berserkers are the warriors of Odin himself, a certain male caste of chosen warriors who, for their fearlessness, end up straight after death to Valhalla, where they form an alliance and enjoy life. Meanwhile, according to mythological concepts, the warriors in Valhalla do not form any alliances. During the day they indulge in "military fun", that is, they fight and kill each other, and at night they indulge in fun. Such an "eternal battle".
It was the image of the berserker created by Höfler and his ideas about the state-forming function of male unions that became for the scientist a "pass" both to the National Socialist Party and to Annenerbe. This was the new mythology of Nazism, in which racially correct berserkers were recognized as real "dogs of war", not tied to life, recklessly following Odin. Such glorification was beneficial to the new German government, it fit well into the framework of propaganda.