Berserker: Encyclopedia - Berserker

Berserker

Berserkers (or Berserks) were Norse warriors who had sworn allegiance to the sky god Odin and worked themselves into a frenzy before a battle.

Berserker - Etymology

The term berserker comes from Norse "berserkr", meaning literally "bear shirt" or "bare shirt", alluding either to wearing the "clothes" of a bear, i.e. to be bear-like in rage and strength, usually in battle, or to the habit of berserkers going into battle unarmored, or often, completely naked. Some berserks also took names with björn or biôrn in them in reference to a bear. This is likely to be the source of names such as Beowulf and Bödvar Bjarki.

Another theory about berserkers is that wearing bear or wolf skins served as a symbol of their proclivity for worshipping the spirit of the bear. Siberian and Sámi peoples venerated the bear (see bear worship), although there is no direct evidence of similar veneration in Viking Age Norse culture. Some scholars think that the berserker believed he was "possessed" by the spirit of the bear, having its strength and ferociousness, and some sagas even suggest that the berserker could take on the animal's shape and force. In that respect, they are the basis of fantasy characters like Beorn in The Hobbit.

Dr. Hilda Ellis-Davidson draws a parallel between berserkers and the mention by the Byzantine emperor Constantine VII 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 (Hilda R. Ellis-Davidson. Pagan Scandinavia. NY: Frederick A. Praeger. 1967. p. 100).

Berserker - Literary references

The earliest surviving reference to the term berserker is in Haraldskvæði, a skaldic poem written by Thórbiôrn Hornklofi in the late ninth century in honour of King Haraldr Fair-Hair, the infamous ruler of Norway. The poem was preserved by Snorri Sturluson. In this poem, Harald's army includes a warrior gang of berserkers fighting under his name at the battle of Hafrsfiord. In it, they are described as Ulfheðnar = "men clad in wolf skins". This grounds a connection between bears and wolves in Norse warrior culture and the common assumption that the word "berserker" itself originates from men wearing the skin of the bear. Snorri Sturluson goes on to mention berserkers in the Ynglinga saga: "his [Odin's] men rushed forward without armor, were as mad as dogs or wolves, bit their shields, and were as strong as bears or wild bulls, and killed people at a blow, but neither fire nor iron told upon themselves" (Ch. 6). Berserkers appear prominently in a multitude of other sagas and poems including The Saga of Hrólf Kraki, many of which describe berserkers as ravenous barbarians who loot, plunder, and kill indiscriminately.

Much can be derived about berserkers from Egil's Saga. Egil's grandfather was named Kveld-Ulf meaning "evening wolf". Kveld-Ulf's son referred to as Skalla-Grimm was a berserker. Kveld-Ulf and Skalla-Grimm are both depicted as irascible and violent throughout. One commits suicide and the latter kills his offspring. Violence and gruesome tragedies permeate the berserker ethos described in Icelandic sagas such as this one.

Berserkers fought with crazed or drugged strength, heedless of danger. They worked themselves up into a bloodlust – berserker rage – before battles, banging their helmets with their weapons, biting their shields, and howling. They were said to be immune to pain (or even immune to weapons) in battle. In their fury they would attack their enemies but also everything else in their path, sometimes even their own people and allies.

Allies to the raging Norsemen were wary of berserkers. Fearing that their own homesteads and families might be targeted by the berserkers' violent instability, friendly Norsemen kept women and children at bay.

In 1015 King Eirik Bloodaxe (Eric I) of Norway outlawed berserkers. Grágás, the medieval Icelandic law-code, sentences berserker warriors to outlawry. By the 1100s organized berserker warbands had disappeared.

King Haraldr Fair-Hair's use of berserker "shock troops" became a sphere of influence. Other Scandinavian kings used berserkers as part of their army of hirðmen and sometimes ranked them as equivalent to a royal bodyguard. It may be that at least some of those warriors just adopted the organization or rituals of berserk warbands or used the name as a deterrent or claim of their ferocity, as it is doubtful any king would have accepted a band of maniacs as his closest men.

Still, some scholars consider the frenzied and indomitable berserker and his bear-skin coat to stand right alongside horned Viking helmets as a "feature of later literary [works] rather than contemporary historical ones", placing the legitimacy of Norse sagas as historical records into question.

Berserker - Theories regarding the causes of berserker behavior

Theories about what causes berserker behavior include spiritual possession, ingestion of materials with psychoactive properties, psychological processes, and medical conditions.

According to a theory of spirit possession, the berserk rage was achieved through possession by the animal spirit of either a bear or a wolf. Berserkers would cultivate an ability to allow the animal spirit to take over their body during a fight. This is seen as a somewhat peculiar application of animal totemism.

Botanists have suggested the behavior might be tied to ingestion of bog myrtle (Myrica gale syn: Gale palustris), a plant that was one of the main spices in alcoholic beverages in Scandinavia. The drawback is that it increases the hangover headache afterwards. Drinking alcoholic beverages spiced with bog myrtle the night before going to battle might have resulted in unusually aggressive behavior.

Proponents of the drug theory favor ergotism or the use of the fly agaric mushroom. Another theory suggests the use of the Fleinsopp, a mushroom native to Norway that contains psilocybin.

A UK television programme in 2004 tested the possible use of fly agaric and alcohol by training a healthy volunteer in the use of Viking weapons, then evaluating his performance under the influence of fly agaric or alcohol compared to no influence. It was shown that use of fly agaric or alcohol severely reduced his fighting ability, and the tentative conclusion drawn was that berserk state was achieved psychologically; otherwise, berserkers would have been too easy to kill.

A simple theory attributes the behavior to drunken rage. It is also possible that berserkers worked themselves into their frenzy through purely psychological processes, perhaps using frenzied rituals and dances. According to Saxo Grammaticus they also drank bear or wolf blood.

U.S. professor Jesse L. Byock claims (in Scientific American, 1995) that berserker rage could have been a symptom of Paget's disease. Uncontrolled skull bone growth could have caused painful pressure in the head. He mentions the unattractive and large head of Egill Skallagrímsson in Egilssaga. Other possibilities are mild epilepsy, rabies, and hysteria.

Going berserk — berserksgangr or berserkergang — could also happen in the middle of daily work. It began with shivering, chattering of the teeth, and a chill in the body. The face swelled and changed its color. Next came great rage, howling, and indiscriminate brawling. When the rage quelled, the berserker was exhausted and dull of mind for up to several days. According to sagas, many enemies of berserkers exploited this stage to get rid of them.

The word "berserker" today applies to anyone who fights with reckless abandon and disregard to even his own life, a concept used ad nauseam during the Vietnam War and in Vietnam-inspired literature (Michael Herr's Dispatches) and film (Oliver Stone's Platoon). "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 raging fearlessness 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 - Berserkers in popular culture

• Fred Saberhagen wrote a number of stories about robotic self-replicating spaceships which seek to destroy all organic life, which he called Berserkers, in reference to their violence and singleness of purpose.
• A tribe of Berserkers appear in the movie The 13th Warrior based on the book The Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton. (In the original book, the Berserkers are hinted to be Neanderthals.)
• The Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual gave statistics to battle Berserkers in the game and later manuals added the Barbarian as a player class with a berserk rage ability.
• In many video games, particularly console RPGs, a Berserker character class exists. These include several Final Fantasy games and Fire Emblem, as well as the MMORPG Dark Age of Camelot. World of Warcraft has a Warrior ability called "Berserker Stance."
• Several strategy games include berserker units, such as Age of Empires II,Heroes of Might and Magic IV, the Total War series (Viking berserkers in Viking Invasion and units from several Germanic tribes in Rome: Total War and Barbarian Invasion. Barbarian Invasion also featured Celtic units similar to the Norse berserkers, as do Myth: The Fallen Lords and Myth II: Soulblighter, where Berserks are a fictional highbred of Scottish and Norse warrior traditions.
• A couple of Berserkers are featured in the Norse mythology parody film, Erik The Viking.
• Berserker was the title of an album by Gary Numan in 1984. The title track was also a Top 30 UK hit single.
• In the anime Record of Lodoss War, the character Orson is a berserker.
• There is an anime/manga series entitled Berserk.
• The Berzerker is the name of an Australian death metal band.
• In the game Warhammer 40,000, those Chaos Space Marines dedicated to the fictional god of war and destruction, Khorne, are known as Berserkers.
• The Marvel Comics character Wolverine is known to go into "berserker rages". In combination with his adamantium claws and his healing factor, he is known to be an unstoppable, unkillable killing machine. Marvel also has a character known as Berzerker, who has a quick temper and possesses powers over electricity.
• Zakk Wylde's Black Label Society wear patches on the front of their leather vests that say "BERSERKER" which is an indication that they are either a member of the band, a member of the road crew or one of Zakk's inner circle. Black Label Society released a song by the name of "Berserkers" on both the album 1919 Eternal, and on the Ozzfest CD from the 2002 tour.
• Beorn in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit seems to be modelled on legends of berserkers; in the Battle of Five Armies, he goes into a berserker rage, and can literally turn into a bear. His name also hints to this.
• Gundam Seed's Kira Yamato is called a berserker and in battles is completely ruthless and his skills increase. In the series it says that berserkers are peaceful and good-natured until they get into battle and then become war-like, vicious, and lose sight of everything outside of the battle.

See also

• amok
• werewolf
• Björn the Pale
• Cúchulainn
• warp spasm
• Category:Fictional berserkers

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Berserker", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki