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Viking Berserkers: What Did They Drink?

MrRING

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Going on the assumption that the phenomenon of Berserkers in Viking raiding parties were real - what potion did they drink to make them "impervious" to pain? A hallucinagen of some kind? A numbing drink?

Is there any archeological or socialogical evidence in existance as to what they were?
 
Mr. R.I.N.G. said:
Going on the assumption that the phenomenon of Berserkers in Viking raiding parties were real - what potion did they drink to make them "impervious" to pain? A hallucinagen of some kind? A numbing drink?

Is there any archeological or socialogical evidence in existance as to what they were?

Mr. R.I.N.G. , you always ask the best questions, and I rarely have any good answers! I am looking forward to reading some good answers.
 
The area they inhabited has forms of hallucinogenic mushrooms around. And there's always alcohol. My guess would be a combination of the two in some form.

I have absolutely no evidence to back this up, mind. Just an idea based on what I do know.

As always, I will defer to anyone who actually knows what they are talking about.
 
Berserker simply means, "bare shirted". There was a programme on channel 5 a while back exploring the myth of berserkers on mushrooms where they tested the martial skills of someone before and after taking fly agaric. The conclusion was.... taking mushies doesn't turn you into a berserker killing machine. My own view is that the berserkers (if they were more than just a myth to promote the Viking warriors) were probably drunk and a just a little mentally unhinged (perhaps due to taking magic mushrooms in their spare time?)
 
IIRC the archaeological view is that they were out their heads on alcohol and a lot of howling tends to psych anyone up!

Not to say there was nothing else but watching modern day foottie hoolies explore their sectarian side, there is no /need/ for there to have been anything else :(

Kath
 
There's an excellent collection of messages on berserkers HERE
 
An interesting article looking at the Vikings poor reputation:

Vikings' Barbaric Bad Rap Beginning to Fade

Stefan Lovgren in Stockholm, Sweden
for National Geographic News
February 17, 2004

"Never before has such terror appeared in Britain as we have now suffered from a pagan race. … Behold, the church of St. Cuthbert, spattered with the blood of the priests of God, despoiled of all its ornaments; a place more venerable than all in Britain is given as a prey to pagan peoples."

So wrote religious scholar Alcuin of York in the late eighth century in a letter to Ethelred, king of Northumbria in England. He was describing a violent raid by Vikings on a monastery in present-day Scotland.

It is no wonder that the Vikings have a reputation for mindless savagery. Since the Vikings were unable to write, much of their history was recorded by British and French clergy—the very people who fell victim to the Viking raids.

Viking jewelry and crafts, such as the crucifix pictured above, were important to Viking culture. They offer evidence that Vikings were not merely barbarians, but also farmers, artists, shipbuilders, and innovators, according to researchers.

But were the Vikings merely primitive plunderers?

Far from it, say scholars. Using archaeological and other evidence, researchers have in recent years been piecing together a more complex picture of the Vikings that sharply contradicts the stereotype of the Vikings as mere barbarians.

"The Norsemen were not just warriors, they were farmers, artists, shipbuilders, and innovators," said Ingmar Jansson, a professor of archaeology at Stockholm University in Sweden. "More than anything, they were excellent traders who connected peoples from Baghdad to Scandinavia to the mainland of North America."

Exaggerating Atrocities

The origin of the word "Viking" is highly disputed. Some experts say it means "pirate." Others believe it refers to people coming from the region of the Viken (the old name for Norway's Oslo Fjord).

Today, the word "Viking" is used to refer to the people who lived in Scandinavia—Sweden, Norway, and Denmark—from around A.D. 750 to 1100. However, not everyone was a Viking.

"Viking is misused as an ethnic term," Jansson said. "The Vikings belonged to the upper class. They were the sea warriors. But most people were just Scandinavians. For them, the normal life was to stay home and be a farmer."

Still, the Vikings are best known for their sea voyages. Along the coasts of Western Europe, they traveled to the Mediterranean and North Africa. By way of the Russian rivers, they reached Constantinople (present-day Istanbul) and beyond to Baghdad in Asia.

The Vikings quickly developed a fierce reputation. In letters to their bishops, Christian priests in Britain and France chronicled the violent deeds of the Vikings, which included attacking wealthy monasteries and killing women and children. (Many churchmen believed the Viking raids were God's punishment on the Anglo-Saxons for their sins.)

But it was also in the interest of the churchmen to exaggerate the atrocities of the Vikings in their reports. Many of the Christian rulers at the time behaved equally unpleasantly, without being condemned on religious grounds.

"This was a ruthless age," said William Fitzhugh, the director of the Arctic Studies Center at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. He was the curator of a major Viking exhibit at the museum in 2000. "There were constant battles in the British Isles and mainland Europe between rival princes vying for kingship and control of local regions."

Reconnecting Humanity

Scholars say the Viking raids were about survival, not conquest, and were prompted primarily by a shortage of land. In most cases individual Viking chieftains gathered followers and set off on raids. Wherever they went, the Vikings lived off the land, often driving the locals out and taking whatever valuables they could get their hands on.

But the Vikings were also driven by a pioneering spirit. Their most spectacular trek took them across the Atlantic Ocean to Iceland, Greenland, and eventually North America. Around A.D. 1000, hundreds of years before Christopher Columbus arrived in the New World, the Vikings landed in Newfoundland, Canada, a land they reportedly named Vinland.

"The Vikings reconnected humanity and made the world a smaller place by traveling huge distances," Fitzhugh said. "We look back to the Vikings as the origin of this kind of human endeavor to find new horizons, use new technology, meet new people, and think new thoughts."

The only written monuments of the Vikings themselves are runic inscriptions. In Sweden there are some 3,500 inscriptions, mostly written on stone. They are often brief and laconic, and not very informative.

Instead, archaeological excavations have made the most important contribution to the understanding of the Viking world. Funeral sites are usually fragmentary—the Vikings followed the heathen practice of burning the dead—but some large, unburned ship burials have provided archaeologists with invaluable insight into the lives of the Vikings.

"Archaeology, not medieval texts, is beginning to set the record straight about the Viking history and achievements," said Fitzhugh, whose exhibit "Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga" highlighted the Viking discovery of North America.

Reconstructed Viking villages have become popular tourist attractions. In Birka, Sweden's first trading town, located near present-day Stockholm, large-scale models recreate a Viking harbor, life in craftsmen's quarters, and the splendor of the king's power. Birka has Scandinavia's largest Viking-age cemetery, with 3,000 graves.

Dualism

A tour of the Viking exhibition at the History Museum in Stockholm underlines the importance of trade to the Vikings.

The Viking's most important weapon was his sword. The best blades were imported from continental Europe and brought back to Scandinavia, where they were equipped with exquisitely ornamented handles, symbols of their owner's high status and wealth.

Viking art found its expression in everyday objects—in swords, belts, horse harnesses. But most Vikings probably also walked around with a pound of jewelry around their necks. The Scandinavian craftsmen borrowed motifs from continental Europe as well as Arabia, then made their artwork to fit their own traditions and needs.

"There is a dualism that prevailed in Viking art," said Kent Andersson, a senior curator at the History Museum. "We see strong influences both from the East and from the West."

Viking society was extremely unequal. Slavery was a fundamental contributor to the wealth of the upper class. Vikings participated actively in the lucrative slave trade abroad. The slaves had no rights and were owned like cattle.

But the Scandinavians also had a highly developed legal system, perhaps the most democratic in the known world. Decisions were reached by voting at open meetings where all free men had the right to speak.

Women also had substantial powers. They could own land, inherit, and get divorced. Keys have been found in graves of women, which suggest that women controlled farms and property. There are even legends that tell of women warriors.

The Viking culture was a heathen and rich in mythology. The Viking gods, all with human characteristics, directed and dominated everyday life. The supreme god was Odin, whose two ravens, Hugin (Thought) and Munin (Memory), flew everywhere and spied on everyone.

The end of the Viking age corresponded with the arrival of Christianity in Scandinavia. But scholars say Christianity probably did not finish the Vikings. At the time, many Vikings had become citizens of Europe. Well traveled, the Vikings assimilated into the new cultures, abandoning many of their own practices.

http://subs2.nationalgeographic.com/subs/iframe/news/iframe_news_include.html

Not really answering the question but...........

Emps
 
Yonks ago, I was in a Dark-age re-enactment group and found that the tension before a battle, especially one so physical, made one feel the cold less and the adrenaline rush. This would be nothing like an ancient warrior knowing that it was kill or be killed. Combine that a faith which encouraged bravery in battle with a lust for spoils and it would only need the natural psychopaths to give us berserkers!

If you were dressed in any form of armour and were being rushed at in guys who'd be armourless (or naked) who seemed to be laughing and keen to wallop you, you'd think they were possessed or had drunk some potion to give them added bravery. Even the Romans respected the (practically) unarmoured Britons who threw themselves against the shields ... even after slaughtering them.

Take one bunch of foreigners, with ways, motives, language, and religion utterly different from your own. Make them gibber, scream and laugh as they swing bloody great blades at you. Holy Crapola! Beserkers!
 
When I was involved with the re-enactment I read a fair amount and IIRC Berserkers tended to run in families. I wondered at the time if there was some genetic mental illness (mania, schizophrenia) involved
 
Perhaps in the film "Eric the Viking" starring Tim Robbins, they had a germ of fact in their silly (but fun) fiction ...
Tim McInnery (of Blackadder fame) played a warrior who's Grandad and Dad before him were beserkers ... but he didn't feel up to it! The ghost of his Dad was constantly pissing him off and winding him up!
 
Just to have something to compare with.... a guy in my SCA group fought for about two hours last week, without realizing he had a broken rib and a shredded nervecapsule in his elbow... Those endorphines and adrenaline can really put you over the egde.
 
What did they drink?, probably anything they could lay their hands on!.
 
Stormkhan said:
Yonks ago, I was in a Dark-age re-enactment group and found that the tension before a battle, especially one so physical, made one feel the cold less and the adrenaline rush.

and i dont i know it :D (i was with the silures (iron age celts)), even just practicing the prescribed moves using sword and shield, with a partner, but that usually broke down into just hacking at each other with just swords raised my adrenaline and brought a red haze down over my eyes
 
I think theres evidence from mainland europe that warriors would drink vast quantities of alcohol before going into battle (some residue was found in a huge cauldrony thing IIRC). This had the effect of not only charging them up with adrenaline(or whatever) but also the blood is supposed to pump slower around the body when drunk so when you are wounded you don't bleed out as much and can continue fighting for ages longer. Or something along those lines!
 
I knew I had read about this very recently but it took me a while to
pin down the reference. It turns out to be very close to home -
FT.180 in fact.

The article entitled Psychedelica Victoriana by Mike Jay traces the
notion of drug-intoxicated berserkers back to 1784 when Samuel
Ödman speculated about it. Later writers cited him as an authority
and a legend was born. :cool:
 
In the Tain there is a reference to Cuchuclain being given a "poison" which made him battle mad. And a BBC documentary on the Zulus said that the snuff taken by the warriors before battle turned their eyes red and gave a degree of battle madness.

For myself I found that a good inventive dose of invective raised my skills in the combat groups
 
The Wikipedia entry, while in need to a bit of sprucing up, gives a range of opinions on this:

Theories to explain berserker behavior

One explanation behind beserker rage, suggested by botanists, is that in Scandinavia, one of the main spices in alcoholic beverages was the plant bog myrtle (Gale palustris). 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.

Those who believe in the existence of spirit possession favor a theory that the berserk rage was brought on by possession by an animal spirit of either a bear or a wolf. According to this theory, berserkers were those who had cultivated an ability to allow the spirit of a bear or wolf to take over their body during a fight. This is seen as a somewhat peculiar application of animal totemism.

Proponents of the drug theory favor ergotism or the use of the fly agaric mushroom. Drunken rage would do as well. It is also possible that berserkers worked themselves into their frenzy through purely psychological processes, i.e., frenzied rituals and dances. According to Saxo Grammaticus they also drank bear or wolf blood.

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 obvious 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.

Going berserk – berserksgangr or berserkergang – could also happen in a 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.

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 and hysteria.

Today the word "berserker" applies to anyone who fights with reckless abandon and disregard to even his own life, i.e., "goes berserk".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berserkers

And Viking Answer Lady (your source for all the best Viking info) has this to say:

Modern scholars believe that certain examples of berserker rage to have been induced coluntarily by the consumption of drugs such as the hallucinogenic mushroom Amanita muscaria (Howard D. Fabing. "On Going Berserk: A Neurochemical Inquiry." Scientific Monthly. 83 [Nov. 1956] p. 232), or massive quantities of alcohol (Robert Wernick. The Vikings. Alexandria VA: Time-Life Books. 1979. p. 285). While such practices would fit in with ritual usages, other explanations for the berserker's madness have been put forward, including self-induced hysteria, epilepsy, mental illness or genetic flaws (Peter G. Foote and David M. Wilson. The Viking Achievement. London: Sidgewick & Jackson. 1970. p. 285).

There are a lot of other details and quotes from various sources but the idea that it can come on outside of battle is an intereting clue:

The actual fit or madness the berserk experienced was known as berserkergang. This condition is described as follows:

This fury, which was called berserkergang, occurred not only in the heat of battle, but also during laborious work. Men who were thus seized performed things which otherwise seemed impossible for human power. This condition is said to have begun with shivering, chattering of the teeth, and chill in the body, and then the face swelled and changed its color. With this was connected a great hot-headedness, which at last gave over into a great rage, under which they howled as wild animals, bit the edge of their shields, and cut down everything they met without discriminating between friend or foe. When this condition ceased, a great dulling of the mind and feeble- ness followed, which could last for one or several days (Fabing, p. 234).

www.vikinganswerlady.com/berserke.htm
 
Didn't the Magyars drink bull's blood mixed with some strong alcohol?
Maybe the Berserkers drank something similar?
 
What was the berserkers's fave tipple? Mead and ergot cocktails perhaps?

Quote:

"While we really don.t know a great deal about how the ancients
viewed mead, other than as an intoxicant, we do have a few clues.
One interesting item to start with is that mead was apparently
sometimes strained through rye, which contains the hallucinogenic
chemical ergot. This may offer some insights into Seidhr, a Nordic
shamanic practice, and the frenzy of the berserkers. Another
interesting item is that Frey, a God of farming and harvest, was said
to have two close companions, Bygvir and Beyla. Bygvir was the
spirit of the barley and Beyla of the honey . both important Gods to
brewers and appropriate companions for the God of fertility."

http://www.sacred-texts.com/bos/bos589.htm
 
iirc its down to bright red mushrooms with white/yellow spots
no really....
 
IIRC it has been postulated, i heard the theory on time commanders, that berserkers where suffering from some form of post traumatic stress, and as to drinking, don't forget that beer was usually drunk in preference to water.
 
Recently read a book that suggested two alternative theories;

-That the word bärsärk doesn't have to mean "bare of tunic" (barsärkad" in modern swedish) but may have meant "one who wears a tunic" (en som bär särk" in m. swedish). This beause the men known to go berserk, which not all warriors did, would wear special tunics made from the skin of bears and wolfes. The berserks were thought to channel the spirits of these beasts or at least become like them. There was elements of werewolf-ism/shapeshifting involved in the stories about them.

-The second theory is that the berseks were a special kind of warrior in viking society, which were thought to have some kind of supernatural connection. The authour suggest that these men may actually have been mentally ill and thus unable to contain their rage/feel pain in battle. There was, according to the author, a difference to just being able to rage and ignore pain in battle, which you were SUPPOSED to do, and being a "true" berserk.

The book I'm refering to is "Vikingarnas stridskonst" (the fighting arts of the vikings) by Lars Magnar Enoksen.
 
Here's a review of berserker lore and a new candidate for a berserker drug - henbane.
How Vikings Went Into a Trancelike Rage Before Battle

The legendary Viking warriors known as berserkers were renowned for their ferocity in battle, purportedly fighting in a trancelike state of blind rage (berserkergang), howling like wild animals, biting their shields, and often unable to distinguish between friend and foe in the heat of battle. But historians know very little about the berserkers apart from scattered Old Norse myths and epic sagas. One intriguing hypothesis as to the source of their behavior is that the berserkers ingested a specific kind of mushroom with psychoactive properties. Now an ethnobotanist is challenging that hypothesis, suggesting in a recent paper in The Journal of Ethnopharmacology that henbane is a more likely candidate.

Accounts of the berserkers date back to a late ninth-century poem to honor King Harald Fairhair. The 13th-century Icelandic historian/poet Snorri Sturluson described Odin's berserkers as being "mad as dogs or wolves" and "strong as bears or wild oxen," killing people with a single blow. Specific attributes can vary widely among the accounts, often veering into magic or mysticism. There are claims that berserkers were not affected by edged weapons or fire, but they could be killed with clubs. Other claims say they could blunt the blades of their enemies with spells or just by giving them the evil eye. Most accounts at least agree on the primary defining characteristic: a blind ferocious rage.

The onset of berserkergang purportedly began with bodily chills, shivering, and teeth chattering, followed by swelling and reddening of the face. Then the rage broke out, and once it abated, the berserker would experience both physical fatigue and emotional numbness for a few days. Several hypotheses have been proposed for why the warriors would have behaved this way, including self-induced hysteria—aided by biting their shields and howling—epilepsy, ergot poisoning, or mental illness. One of the more hotly contested hypotheses is that the berserkers ingested a hallucinogenic mushroom (Amanita muscaria), commonly known as fly agaric, just before battle to induce their trancelike state.

... The 'shroom typically induces a drunken state with auditory illusions and shifts in color vision. It can also induce vomiting, hyperthermia, sweating, reddening of the face, twitching and trembling, dilated pupils, increased muscle tone, delirium, and seizures.

Much of that is consistent with accounts of berserker behavior. But according to Karsten Fatur, an ethnobotanist at the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia, henbane (Hyoscyamus niger) is a much better candidate. It's been around since ancient Greece and has been used in various cultures throughout history as a narcotic, painkiller, cure for insomnia, and anesthetic. It's a common treatment for motion sickness and can produce short-term memory loss. It can knock out someone for 24 hours, and in rare cases henbane can lead to respiratory failure. It's also been investigated as a possible truth serum. Henbane even found its way into early European beers, gradually being replaced with hops after the passage of the Bavarian Purity Law in 1516. ...

FULL STORY: https://www.wired.com/story/how-vikings-went-into-trancelike-rage-before-battle/
 
Going on the assumption that the phenomenon of Berserkers in Viking raiding parties were real - what potion did they drink to make them "impervious" to pain? A hallucinagen of some kind? A numbing drink?

Is there any archeological or socialogical evidence in existance as to what they were?

Scandinavian scrumpy? Or maybe Fly Agaric mushroom absinthe? Perhaps both...?

Maybe it was even worse - blue WKD :wide:
 
I have my doubts that any hallucinogenic mushroom/plant would aid in combat. The US military would've been on to it & tried it by now.

Henbane has been used in various cultures throughout history as a narcotic, painkiller, cure for insomnia, and anesthetic. It's a common treatment for motion sickness and can produce short-term memory loss. It can knock out someone for 24 hours, and in rare cases henbane can lead to respiratory failure.
So it can be used both for insomnia & can also knock someone out for 24 hours. Dosage dependent I suppose.
 
Imagine you are a Viking, you have two options after death.

A) Hel, cold and dark and dull.

B) Vallhalla, a big party for the rest of eternity, plus a chance to take part in Raganok...you will lose, of course,it is preordained, but you will have fought on the side of right.

You get to B by dying in battle. What are yo doing to do in life?
 
I have my doubts that any hallucinogenic mushroom/plant would aid in combat. The US military would've been on to it & tried it by now.


So it can be used both for insomnia & can also knock someone out for 24 hours. Dosage dependent I suppose.

The US government conducted LSD based experiments on GI's during the 50's - 60's. The unfortunate soldiers never new that they were being subjected to potentially dangerous drugs, "quite unethical".
http://healthland.time.com/2012/03/23/the-legacy-of-the-cias-secret-lsd-experiments-on-america/
 
Imagine you are a Viking, you have two options after death.

A) Hel, cold and dark and dull.

B) Vallhalla, a big party for the rest of eternity, plus a chance to take part in Raganok...you will lose, of course,it is preordained, but you will have fought on the side of right.

You get to B by dying in battle. What are yo doing to do in life?
Similar beliefs - mindsets have resurfaced in the modern era, The German SS, Japanese army WW2, Islamic State and al-Qaeda come to mind.
 
I have my doubts that any hallucinogenic mushroom/plant would aid in combat. The US military would've been on to it & tried it by now.
I also have my doubts about shrooms inducing a murderous rage (though fly agaric probably has a very different, more deliriant effect than the psychedelic psylocibes) but the Aztecs did used to commit ritual suicide under the influence of shrooms.
 
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