“There was a man named Ulf, son of Bjalf… Ulf was a man so tall and strong that none could match him and in his youth he roved the seas as a freebooter….he was a berserker.” Egil’s Saga.
In The Serpentine Key, and the two books following, the Norse mercenary, Sven Thorvaldson and his son struggle with being ulfhednar, wolf berserkers, something they were born to and that have shaped who they are.
Most people have at one point in their lives used the word berserk. But what does it mean? In our culture it is someone who flies off the handle, becomes irrationally angry. The berserk shows up in the role playing game Dungeons and Dragons as a playable class alongside Runemasters and Skalds. They have magic abilities and special roles. In European legends, the werewolf has much in common with the ulfhedinn, the berserk who identifies with the wolf, including his tremendous strength. In Russia, colonized in the ninth century by the Norse, the werewolf is called the oberot or bodark which translates into “one transformed”.
Nor are such accounts isolated to Norse society. The Celtic Cuchulain’s Riastradh of Irish myth shared many of the same characteristics as berserkers. Both berserkers and members of the Riastradh were known to go into a battle frenzy seemingly unaffected by injury and take sometimes days to come down from it, during which time they would be weak and defenseless. Perhaps this was even what was described for the Irish warriors of Ulster who are cursed by the goddess Macha when they refused to help her as she went into labor. She cursed them to be as weak as a woman upon whom labor pains have come when they would be in their greatest hour of need. Those who fought Norse berserkers regularly knew about this “Kryptonite” of theirs and knew to engage the berserkers just long enough until the gangr would wear off and then they would be weak, diminished and unable to fight. For this reason, their use was as shock troops, often to break through shield walls. A berserker was reputed to be the one who, single-handed, held off a portion of the Saxon army at Stanford Bridge in 1066 until reinforcements could arrive.
From Egil’s Saga: “So it is said of those men who were shape-strong or on any of them on whom was the berserk-gang that for so long as they held, they were so strong there was no holding against the, but forthwith when that was passed over, then they were unmighter than of wont. And so it was with Kveldulf that as soon as the berserk rage was gone from him, then he knew he his weariness of those onslaughts he had made and he was altogether without might, so that he laid down in his bed.”
Romans spoke of crazed Celtic warriors who went into battle naked, unafraid of death. They called them Furor Celticus. The triple goddess Morrigan was said the be the one who inspired this battle frenzy, possibly brought about by deep mediation. She had much in common with Freyja, both being deities of death and transformation as well as the battle frenzy. There are also stories of the Maylasian warriors who “ran amok” and the African “leopard men” with similar proclivities.
The etymology of the word berserker differs depending on who you talk to. Some say it means “bare of shirt” for the practice of these men fighting without the protection of either leather armor of ring-mail shirts. Others insist that it referred to to the “bear nature” of some berserkers or perhaps wearing the skin of the bear. Those who embraced the spirit of the wolf in the almost shamanic practice of their warrior tradition were known as ulfhednar. In The Serpentine Key, Sven Thorvaldson is ulfhedninn, as is his son. For him, it is a curse as much as it is a gift of Odin. Like many modern day sufferers of IED, he has a tendency to alcoholism. Suicidal tendencies also seem to be a mark of a man afflicted this way. Egil Skallgrimson tended to deep depressions. Prone to volatile emotions, he keeps himself so tightly restrained as to appear withdrawn and devoid of emotion. Years have training have taught Sven to school and control the gangr. With training, the berserk can deliberately induce the state, as well as hold it off when necessary. Most weren’t so disciplined. In the sagas, it was said to be brought on at unexpected times, including even by hard labor. Yet the berserker state cannot be chalked up to only an explosion of rage, or even excess of adrenalin, though the latter two do seem to factor in the wiring and neural impulses of these men. The berserker was and is perhaps the man who takes the IED to another level due to the spiritual mechanics of meditation and shamanic trance. He becomes one with Odin or perhaps with the wolf or bear with which he identifies himself. The greater strength with which the berserker seems to be granted, is only one side affect. Perhaps it is the unitary state into which he enters that also grants him an almost sixth sense. In The Serpentine Key, Sven is able to sense an enemy’s next move before he makes it. His movements are sure and coordinated, hardly the result of a man drunk on alcohol or slowed by hallucinogens.
Next time we will examine a medical angle on the berserks. If so, do they still exist today? Share your thoughts below.
Sources:
Germanic Warriors: Warrior Styles from Trajan’s Column to Icelandic Sagas by Michael P. Speidel
Egil’s Saga
Ynglinga Saga