Berserker

Lore & Background

Berserkers are attested in numerous Old Norse sources, including the Haraldskvæði, a skaldic poem composed by Thórbiörn Hornklofi in the late 9th century in honor of King Harald Fairhair. The poem describes ulfheðnar ('men clad in wolf skins') as part of Harald's forces. In battle, berserkers were subject to fits of frenzy: they would howl like wild beasts, foam at the mouth, and gnaw the rims of their shields. According to belief, during these fits they were immune to steel and fire, and when the fever abated, they were weak and tame.

Reader's Guide

Berserkers appear prominently in a multitude of sagas and poems. Many earlier sagas portrayed them as bodyguards, elite soldiers, and champions of kings. This image changed over time, and later sagas began to describe berserkers as boasters rather than heroes, and as ravenous men who loot, plunder, and kill indiscriminately. Within the sagas, berserkers can be narrowed down to four types: the King's Berserkr, the Hall-Challenging Berserkr, the Hólmgangumaðr, and the Viking Berserkr. Later, by Christian interpreters, the berserker was viewed as a 'heathen devil.' The term 'berserk' entered modern English from this tradition. The earliest surviving reference to the term 'berserker' is in Haraldskvæði, as ulfheðnar.

Did You Know?

• The Old Norse word berserkr likely means 'bear-shirt,' referring to a coat made of bear's skin.
• The thirteenth-century historian Snorri Sturluson interpreted berserkr as 'bare-shirt,' meaning warriors went into battle without armour, but this view has largely been abandoned.
• Scene 36 on Trajan's Column (completed 113 AD) shows Germanic warriors wearing bearhoods and wolfhoods, a potential record of bear- and wolf-warriors fighting together.
• The Torslunda plates, found in Öland, Sweden, show what appears to be a berserker ritual.