The word "berserkr" in Old Norse had several meanings and translations. The root "ber" can be translated as both "bear" and "naked", "serkr" meant skin. The first and most frequent mentions of berserkers are found in the Scandinavian sagas of the 9-11 centuries. In those days, the Vikings on their Drakar ships captured and ravaged European cities and states. Among the cities that fell under their onslaught were London, Bordeaux, Paris, Orleans. Often on the occupied lands, they created their colonies, for example, in Normandy and Sicily.
Berserkers were the main striking force of the Scandinavians. They went into battle in the forefront, in a matter of minutes achieving military superiority, crushing and demoralizing the enemy with their monstrous strength and fury. But they did not fight for long. After completing their bloody work, the berserkers fell to the ground, falling into a dream that overtook them after the battle trance. They were carried away from the battlefield, and the rout was completed by ordinary Vikings. It is noteworthy that not only the opponents of berserkers were horrified at the sight of warriors dressed only in bearskin or completely naked to the waist, fiercely, in a fit of animal rage, gnawing into their own shields. The Vikings themselves feared them, treating them with a strange mixture of admiration, fear and contempt. But the berserkers really were the elite, it was not for nothing that many Danish kings (kings) had these soldiers in their personal protection,usually 12 people. Why are there Danes, even the Roman Emperor Trajan considered it an honor to have them in his personal guard. Despite the fact that they were armed with violations of all Roman military codes - with clubs and axes. Trajan's column in Rome tells us about all this.
But what was the secret of the superhuman strength, endurance, fearlessness and rage of berserkers? To answer this question, you need to plunge deeper into history. The Inling saga describes the following actions of the berserkers: “The sons of Odin rushed into battle without chain mail, they fought like mad dogs or wolves. Eagerly awaiting battle, they bitterly into their own shields. They were as strong as bears. They threw themselves at the enemy with an animal roar, and neither fire nor iron could hurt them, and pain and fear were unknown to them."
In other sagas, it is said that even a mortally wounded warrior of Odin, even with a severed leg, arm, or a cut chest, could continue the battle, taking a couple of his rivals to Valhalla, and dying only after the battle. Berserker was seriously convinced that he was possessed by the "spirit of the beast", identifying himself with one or another animal - most often with a wolf or a bear, and even imitating him in his movements (which, by the way, resembles Eastern combat systems). In this state, he was practically invulnerable: a truly animal reaction awakened in him, moreover, he practically had a presentiment of blows. What was it that so transformed the berserker before the battle that woke his subconscious mind, revealing almost psychic abilities?
It is generally accepted that the point here is in the banal natural drugs that they used. But is it only in them? It must be understood that the trance of bestial warriors was deeper than the trivial drug one. Here it is more a matter of "internal drug addiction" than "external". It is no secret that the human nervous system is capable of creating substances close to narcotic, acting directly on the "pleasure centers" of the brain. So, most likely the main drug of the berserkers was the fight, they fell into combat ecstasy from the blood and fear of the enemy, which made them ideal warriors. But this also became the main obstacle to socialization. They did not fit well into society, becoming hostages of their own rage and cruelty. Off the battlefield, they became dangerous even for the Vikings themselves.
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Imagine a trained warrior capable of killing another person with an ordinary stick or even with his bare hand, thirsty for blood and looking for an outlet for his own rage.
Unsurprisingly, they tried to control them as much as possible. While the Normans fought often, there were no particular problems with this, although even then cases of attacks and murders by berserkers of each other and ordinary Vikings were not uncommon. And after the transition to a calm sedentary life, berserkers became a burden at all. This can be clearly seen in the later sagas of the 11th century. By that time, they began to be exterminated, laws were introduced to ban them as a class and expel them from society. Moreover, it was recommended to kill them with wooden stakes, since iron "had no power over them."