Beserkers (or beserks) were norse wariors 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 beserk. Most historians believe that beserkers worked themselves into a rage before battle, but some think they might have consumed drugged foods.
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, meaning bear shirt.
The earliest surviving reference to the term “beserker” is in Haraldskvæði, a skaldic poem composed by Thórbiörn Hornklofi in the late 9th Century in honour of King Harald Fairhair as ulfheðnar. However King Harald Fairnair was not the only king who made use of these berserker shock troops. Other Scandinavian kings used berserkers as part of their army and even occasionally ranked them to the equivalence of a royal bodyguard.
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| King Harald, in an illustration from the 14th century Flateyjarbók |
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
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
Other sources have been found to describe several other characteristics, such as Snorri’s assertion that “neither fire nor iron told upon them”, as well as by other sources who state that neither edged weapons nor fire affected these berserkers, although they were not immune to clubs or other blunt objects, as can be seen in the following extract:
...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...
