Berserkers: myth, propaganda, beautiful legend. Rituals and symbols of initiation: berserkers and heroes

His word: “ Can we talk about the berserker warriors? I wonder if I made it or not :)"

We made it, we can. An interesting topic of ancient legends, let's find out more...

The history of mankind is full of legends and myths. Each era writes a new page into this volume covered with the dust of time. Many of them have sunk into oblivion without living to this day. But there are legends over which centuries have no power. Stories about warriors with superhuman abilities - impervious to physical pain and not knowing the fear of death - are from this number. Mentions of supersoldiers can be found in almost every nation. But berserkers stand apart in this series - heroes of Scandinavian sagas and epics, whose very name has become a household word. And this is what an interesting thing about a legend is. Sometimes truth and fiction are so intertwined in them that it is hardly possible to separate one from the other.

For several centuries, the Vikings were Europe's worst nightmare. When the snake-headed boats of brutal aliens appeared on the horizon, the population of the surrounding lands, gripped by chilling horror, sought salvation in the forests. The scale of the devastating campaigns of the Normans is amazing even today, almost a thousand years later. In the east, they paved the famous path “from the Varangians to the Greeks”, gave rise to the princely Rurik dynasty and for more than two centuries took an active part in the life of Kievan Rus and Byzantium. In the west, the Vikings, since the 8th century. having settled Iceland and southern Greenland, they kept the Irish and Scottish coasts in constant fear.

And from the 9th century. moved the boundaries of their raids not only far to the south - to Mediterranean Sea, but also into the interior of European lands, ravaging London (787), Bordeaux (840), Paris (885) and Orleans (895). Red-bearded strangers captured entire fiefdoms, sometimes not inferior in size to the possessions of many monarchs: in the north-west of France they founded the Duchy of Normandy, and in Italy - the Kingdom of Sicily, from where they made campaigns in Palestine long before the Crusaders. Terrorizing the population of European cities, the warlike Scandinavians even received the honor of being mentioned in prayers: “God, deliver us from the Normans!” But among the northern barbarians there were warriors, before whom the Vikings themselves felt mystical awe. They knew very well that falling under the hot hand of a berserker tribesman was like death, and therefore they always tried to stay away from these brothers in arms.

WITH ALONE IN THE FIELD WARRIORS

Ancient Scandinavian sagas brought to us legends about invincible warriors who, overwhelmed by battle rage, with one sword or ax burst into the ranks of enemies, crushing everything in their path. Modern scientists do not doubt their reality, but much of the history of berserkers remains an unsolved mystery today.

Following established tradition, we will call them berserkers (although a more accurate term is bjorsjork, that is, “bear-like”). Along with the bear warrior, there was also an ulfhedner - “wolf-headed”, wolf warrior. Probably, these were different incarnations of the same phenomenon: many of those called berserkers bore the nickname “Wolf” (ulf), “Wolf’s skin”, “Wolf’s mouth”, etc. However, the name “Bear” (bjorn) is no less common.

It is believed that berserkers were first mentioned in a drape (long poem) by the skald Thorbjörn Hornklovi, an Old Norse literary monument. It talks about the victory of King Harald Fairhair, the founder of the Kingdom of Norway, in the Battle of Havrsfjord, which supposedly took place in 872. “The berserkers, dressed in bearskins, growled, shook their swords, bit the edge of their shield in rage and rushed at their enemies. They were possessed and did not feel pain, even if they were hit by a spear. When the battle was won, the warriors fell exhausted and fell into a deep sleep,” this is how an eyewitness and participant in those events described the entry into battle of the legendary warriors.

Most of the mentions of berserkers are in the sagas of the 9th-11th centuries, when the Vikings (Normans) terrified the peoples of Europe on their fast drake ships. It seemed that nothing could resist them. Such large cities as London, Bordeaux, Paris, and Orleans fell under the blows of the Vikings already in the 8th-9th centuries. What can we say about small towns and villages, the Normans devastated them in a matter of hours. They often created their own states in the territories they captured, for example, the Duchy of Normandy and the Kingdom of Sicily.

Who were these fighters? The Vikings were called berserkers or berserkers, with early years who dedicated themselves to serving Odin - the supreme Scandinavian deity, the ruler of the wonderful palace of Valhalla, where after death the souls of warriors who heroically fell on the battlefield and earned the favor of heaven supposedly went to an eternal feast. Before the battle, berserkers put themselves into a special kind of combat trance, due to which they were distinguished by enormous strength, endurance, quick reaction, insensitivity to pain and increased aggressiveness. By the way, the etymology of the word “berserker” still causes controversy in scientific circles. It is most likely derived from the Old Norse "berserkr", which translates either as "bearskin" or "shirtless" (the root ber can mean either "bear" or "naked", and serkr - "skin", "shirt" "). Supporters of the first interpretation point to a direct connection between the berserkers, who wore clothes made of bear skins, and the cult of this totem animal. The “Holo Shirts” focus on the fact that berserkers went into battle without chain mail, naked to the waist.

Bronze plate of the 8th century. Thorslunda, Fr. Öland, Sweden

Fragmentary information about berserkers can also be gleaned from the Prose Edda, a collection of Old Icelandic mythical tales written by Snorri Sturluson. The Ynglinga Saga says the following: “The men of Odin rushed into battle without chain mail, but raged as if mad Dogs or wolves. In anticipation of the fight, from the impatience and rage bubbling within them, they gnawed their shields and hands with their teeth until they bled. They were strong, like bears or bulls. With an animal roar they struck the enemy, and neither fire nor iron harmed them...” The Old Norse poet claimed that “Odin knew how to make his enemies go blind or deaf in battle, or be overcome by fear, or their swords become no sharper than sticks.” The connection of berserkers with the cult of the main god of the Scandinavian pantheon has other confirmations. Even the translation of Odin's many names indicates his mad and furious nature: Wotan ("possessed"), Ygg ("terrible"), Heryan ("militant"), Hnikar ("sower of discord"), Belverk ("villain"). The nicknames of the berserkers, who gave the “lord of wrath” a vow of fearlessness, also matched their heavenly patron. For example, Harold the Merciless, who got involved in battle before others, or the Norman leader John, who was defeated in 1171 near Dublin, who had the nickname Wode, that is, “Madman.”

It was no coincidence that berserkers were a privileged part of the military class, a kind of “special forces” of the Vikings. And it was not spontaneous rioting or sacrificial extravagance on the lists that made them so. They just always opened the battle, conducting a demonstration, and in most cases, a victorious duel in full view of the entire army. In one of the chapters of “Germany,” the ancient Roman writer Tacitus wrote about berserkers: “As soon as they reached adulthood, they were allowed to grow hair and a beard, and only after killing the first enemy could they style them... Cowards and others walked around with their hair flowing. In addition, the bravest wore an iron ring, and only the death of the enemy freed them from wearing it. Their task was to anticipate each battle; they always formed the front line.” A squad of berserkers made their enemies tremble with their very appearance. Storming cities as a combat vanguard, they left behind only mountains of corpses of defeated enemies. And behind the berserkers, well-armed infantry protected by armor advanced, completing the rout. If you believe the literary monuments, the Old Scandinavian kings often used berserkers as personal guards, which once again confirms their military elitism. One of the sagas says that the Danish king Hrolf Krake had 12 berserkers as his bodyguards.

FROM THE DOSSIER. “Berserk is a mechanism exploded by ferocious passion, adrenaline, ideological attitude, breathing techniques, sound vibrations and a mechanical program of action. He doesn't fight for anything, but only to win. The berserker does not have to prove that he will survive. He must pay back his life many times over. The berserker not only goes to die, he goes to receive furious pleasure from this process. By the way, that’s why he most often stays alive.”

“THERE IS A DROP IN BATTLE...”

EVERY SINGLE piece of evidence portrays berserkers as ferocious fighters who fought with a wild, almost magical passion. So what is the secret of the rage of berserkers, as well as their insensitivity to injury and pain: was it a consequence of drug intoxication, a hereditary disease or special psychophysical training?

Currently, there are several versions explaining this phenomenon. The first is possession by an “animal spirit.” Ethnographers confirm that something similar was observed among many peoples. At the moments when the “spirit” takes possession of a person, he does not feel any pain or fatigue. But as soon as this state ends, the possessed person almost instantly falls asleep, as if he is turned off. In general, werewolfism as a military practice was widespread in antiquity and the Middle Ages. Traces of “transformation into a beast,” of course, not in a literal sense, but in a ritual and psycho-behavioral sense, can be found in modern military lexicons and heraldic symbols. The custom of naming special forces after predatory animals in order to emphasize their elitism also dates back to the deep past. The ancient Germans imitated the beast; it played the role of a mentor during initiation, when a young man, joining the ranks of adult warriors, demonstrated his fighting skills, dexterity, courage and bravery. The victory of a person over a totem animal, considered the ancestor and patron of a given tribe, meant the transfer of the most valuable animal qualities to the warrior. It was believed that in the end the beast did not die, but was embodied in the hero who defeated it. Modern psychology has long identified the mechanisms by which a person “gets used to” the image of the creature whose role he is currently playing. Berserkers who growled and put on bear skins seemed to actually become bears. Of course, the animal masquerade was by no means the know-how of the Normans.

The famous Munich ethnologist Professor Hans-Joachim Paprot is confident that the cult of the bear appeared much earlier and was more widespread. “Already in Stone Age paintings, for example in the Trois-Frerets cave in Southern France, we find images of dancers in bearskins. And Swedish and Norwegian Laplanders celebrated an annual bear festival until the last century,” says the scientist. The Austrian Germanist Professor Otto Hoefler believes that there was a deep meaning in animal disguise. “It was understood as a transformation not only by the audience, but also by the person changing clothes themselves. If a dancer or warrior dressed in a bearskin, then the strength of the wild animal, of course, in a figurative sense, passed into him. He acted and felt like a bear. Echoes of this cult can still be seen today, for example in the bearskin caps of the English Royal Guards guarding the Tower of London,” he states. And in Danish folklore there is still a belief that anyone who puts on an iron collar can turn into a werebear.

Modern science knows that nervous system in humans can produce substances that are similar in composition and action to drugs. They act directly on the “pleasure centers” of the brain. It can be assumed that the berserkers were, as it were, hostages of their own rage. They were forced to look for dangerous situations that would allow them to engage in combat, or even provoke them. One of the Scandinavian sagas talks about a man who had 12 sons. All of them were berserkers: “It became their custom, when they were among their own people and felt a fit of rage, to go from the ship to the shore and throw large stones there, uproot trees, otherwise in their rage they would have maimed or killed their relatives and friends.” The phrase “there is ecstasy in battle” took on a literal meaning. Later, the Vikings, for the most part, still managed to control such attacks. Sometimes they even entered a state that in the East is called “enlightened consciousness.” Those who mastered this art became truly phenomenal warriors.

During the attack, the berserker seemed to “become” the corresponding beast. At the same time, he threw away defensive weapons (or did things with them that were not intended: for example, he bit into his shield with his teeth, plunging the enemy into shock), and in some cases, offensive ones; all Scandinavian Vikings knew how to fight with their hands, but berserkers clearly stood out even at their level.

Many paramilitary groups considered unarmed combat shameful. Among the Vikings, this postulate took the following form: it is shameful not to be able to fight with weapons, but there is nothing shameful in the ability to fight unarmedly. It is curious that as an auxiliary (and sometimes main - if he fought without a sword) weapon, the berserker used stones, a stick picked up from the ground, or a club stored in advance.

This is partly due to the deliberate entry into the image: it is not appropriate for an animal to use weapons (a stone and a stick are natural, natural weapons). But, probably, archaism is also manifested in this, following the ancient schools of martial arts. The sword entered Scandinavia quite late, and even after widespread use, it was for some time out of favor with berserkers, who preferred the club and ax, with which they struck in a circular manner from the shoulder, without connecting the hand. The technique is quite primitive, but the degree of mastery of it was very high.

On Trajan's Column in Rome we see a “strike force” of such animal warriors (not yet berserkers). They are included in the Roman army and are partly forced to follow customs, but only a few have helmets (and no one has armor), some are dressed in animal skin, others are half naked and clutch a club instead of a sword... One must think that this did not reduce their combat effectiveness, otherwise Emperor Trajan, whose guard they were part of, would have been able to insist on rearmament.

Usually it was the berserkers who started each battle, terrifying their enemies with their very appearance. According to the sagas, they did not use armor, preferring bearskin instead. In some cases, a shield is mentioned, the edges of which they gnawed furiously before the battle. The main weapons of the berserkers were a battle ax and a sword, which they wielded to perfection. One of the first references to us about invincible warriors was left by the skald Thorbjörn Hornklovi, who at the end of the 9th century wrote a saga about the victory in the battle of Havrsfjord of King Harald Fairhair, the creator of the Norwegian kingdom. There is a high probability that his description is documented: “The berserkers, dressed in bearskins, growled, shook their swords, bit the edge of their shield in rage and rushed at their enemies. They were possessed and did not feel pain, even if they were hit by a spear. When the battle was won, the warriors fell exhausted and fell into deep sleep.” Similar descriptions of the actions of berserkers in battle can be found in other authors.

For example, in the saga of the Ynglings: “The men of Odin rushed into battle without chain mail, but raged like mad dogs or wolves. In anticipation of the fight, from the impatience and rage bubbling within them, they gnawed their shields and hands with their teeth until they bled. They were strong, like bears or bulls. With an animal roar they struck the enemy, and neither fire nor iron harmed them...” Notice that this time it is mentioned that they were warriors of Odin, the supreme deity of the Scandinavians, to whom, after death in battle, the souls of great warriors go to feast with brave men like them and enjoy the love of heavenly maidens. Apparently, berserkers were representatives of a special group (caste) of professional warriors, who were trained for battles from childhood, devoting them not only to the intricacies of military skill, but also teaching the art of entering into a combat trance, which heightened all the fighter’s feelings and allowed him to manifest hidden possibilities human body. Naturally, it was extremely difficult to defeat such fighters in battle. Fear, as they say, has big eyes, which is why similar lines appeared in the sagas: “One knew how to make his enemies go blind or deaf in battle, or they were overcome by fear, or their swords became no sharper than sticks.”

Traditionally, berserkers formed the vanguard of the battle. They could not fight for long (the combat trance cannot last long), having broken the ranks of the enemies and laid the foundation for a common victory, they left the battlefield to ordinary warriors who completed the defeat of the enemy. Apparently, bringing oneself to a state of trance could not be done without taking certain psychotropic drugs, which allowed berserkers to “transform” into powerful and invincible bears. Werewolfism is known among many nations, when, as a result of illness or taking special drugs, a person identified himself with the beast and even copied certain features of its behavior. It is not for nothing that the emphasis is placed on the invulnerability of berserkers in the sagas. In battle, they were guided not so much by consciousness as by the subconscious, which allowed them to “turn on” qualities that are not characteristic of humans in everyday life - heightened reaction, expanded peripheral vision, insensitivity to pain, and perhaps some psychic abilities. In battle, the berserker literally felt the arrows and spears flying at him, foresaw where the blows of swords and axes would come from, which means he could parry the blow, cover himself with a shield or dodge it. These were truly universal warriors, but they were needed only for the period of fighting.

The Normans fought often, which means that berserkers often had to reincarnate. Apparently, the ecstasy of battle became for them something similar to drug addiction, and perhaps it practically was. Consequently, berserkers were, in principle, not adapted to peaceful life, becoming dangerous to society, since they needed danger and thrills. And if there is no war, then you can always provoke a fight or engage in robbery. As soon as the Normans, fed up with the seizure of foreign lands, began to move on to a settled, quiet life, the berserkers turned out to be superfluous. This was clearly manifested in the sagas, in which, from the end of the 11th century, berserkers from former heroes turn into robbers and villains, to whom a merciless war is declared. It is curious that it was recommended to kill berserkers wooden stakes, since “they are invulnerable” against iron. At the beginning of the 12th century, the Scandinavian countries even adopted special laws aimed at combating berserkers, who were expelled or mercilessly destroyed. Some of the former invulnerable warriors were able to join new life, it was believed that for this they must be baptized, then faith in Christ will save them from combat madness. The rest, perhaps they made up the majority of the former military elite, were forced to flee to other lands or were simply killed.

FLY ASMIC MADNESS

There have been other attempts to explain the inhuman rage of berserkers. In 1784, S. Edman, referring to the customs of some East Siberian tribes, suggested that berserkers also stupefied themselves with an infusion of fly agarics. The peoples of the Far North - the Tungus, Lamut or Kamchadal - until recently, in the practice of rituals (fortune telling), they used powder from dried fly agaric mushrooms, licking which from the palm of their hand, the shamans fell into a trance. The behavior of berserkers in battle really resembles a state of intoxication with muscarine - the poison of the fly agaric: stupefaction, outbursts of rage, insensitivity to pain and cold, and then incredible fatigue and deep sleep, about which they wrote that “Vikings fall to the ground from fatigue, and not from wounds” . This is precisely the picture dispassionately recorded by the saga of the battle near the Norwegian city of Stavanger in 872, when the berserkers, after the victory, fell ashore and slept for more than a day dead asleep. The action of muscarine, like any other hallucinogen, is based on a change in the speed of impulses of nerve endings, which causes a feeling of euphoria. And an excessive dose can be fatal. But something else is interesting here: the condition caused by poison in one individual soon spreads to everyone around him. Some historians believe that the berserkers knew about this technique, and therefore only the leaders of the squads or a select few used fly agaric doping. However, there is still no reliable evidence of the “mushroom” theory. Some ethnographers still suggest that berserkers belonged to certain sacred unions or families in which knowledge about the mysterious properties of plants was passed on from generation to generation. But in the Old Norse sagas there is no mention of psychotropic drugs at all. Therefore, a discussion on the topic of “berserkers and fly agarics” is a waste of time, no matter how attractive this version may seem.

Now about another semi-mythical property of berserkers - invulnerability. A variety of sources unanimously claim that the beast warrior could not actually be killed in battle. The berserkers were protected from throwing and striking weapons by a kind of “wisdom of madness.” Disinhibited consciousness enabled extreme responsiveness, sharpened peripheral vision, and likely enabled some extrasensory skills. The berserker saw, or even predicted, any blow, managing to parry it or jump away from the line of attack. The belief in the invulnerability of berserkers survived the heroic age and was reflected in Scandinavian folklore. Berserkers of the 11th and 12th centuries. skillfully took advantage of the image inherited from their ancestors. And they themselves, to the best of their ability, refined their image. For example, fueling rumors in every possible way that they can dull any sword with one glance. The sagas, with their love of all things supernatural, easily absorbed such colorful details.

Doctors also made their contribution to solving the mystery of the frantic warriors. “The legendary power of the berserkers had nothing to do with spirits, drugs, or magical rituals, but was just a disease that was inherited,” says Professor Jesse L. Byock. They are ordinary psychopaths who lost control of themselves at the slightest attempt to contradict them. Over time, the berserkers learned to perform a well-rehearsed performance, one of the elements of which was biting the shield. It is well known that exhaustion that occurs after an attack of rage is typical for people with mental disorders. Hysterics easily cross the line separating pretense from reality, and the learned technique becomes a symptom of a real illness. Moreover, the psychoses that engulfed medieval society were often epidemic in nature: just remember the dance of St. Vitus or the flagellant movement. As a striking example, Jesse L. Bayok cites the unbridled in anger, cruel and greedy Viking, and also the famous Icelandic poet Egil, who lived in the 10th century. So, if you believe the “Saga of Egil,” he possessed all the traits of a berserker who adopted his wild disposition from his ancestors. Moreover, his head was so massive that even after death it could not be split with an ax. Analysis of the text of the Old Norse literary monument also allowed Bayok to conclude that Egil's family suffered from Paget's syndrome - hereditary disease, in which uncontrolled bone enlargement occurs. Human bones renew themselves gradually, usually within 8 years. However, the disease increases the rate of bone destruction and new formation so much that they become significantly larger and uglier than before. The effects of Paget's syndrome are especially noticeable on the head, where the bones become thicker. According to statistics, in England today this disease affects from 3 to 5 percent of men over 40 years of age. It is very difficult to confirm or refute an exotic hypothesis due to historical remoteness.

HEROES OR VILLAINS?

FROM CHILDHOOD we have learned the immutable law of fairy tales and myths: all the characters in them are divided into “good” and “bad”. There are no halftones here, with rare exceptions - this is the specificity of the genre. What category can berserkers be classified into?

No matter how strange it may sound, the frantic warriors were most likely anti-heroes for their contemporaries. If in early sagas berserkers were portrayed as selected warriors, bodyguards of the king, then in later family legends they are marauders and rapists. The Earthly Circle, a collection of stories compiled by Snorri Sturluson in the 13th century, contains many such evidence. Most of the episodes are stereotypical in content and composition. Shortly before Christmas, someone of enormous stature and endowed with extraordinary strength, often accompanied by eleven people, appears as an uninvited guest on a farm with the intention of taking everything of value and forcing the women into cohabitation. If the farmer is at home, he is either sick or infirm and cannot fight back the villains. But more often he is many miles from home, in a distant province of Norway. The leader of the aliens is a berserker, ready to prove in a duel his right to dispose of someone else's household. There are no people willing to fight the strongman, skilled in such fights (and all his previous opponents are dead). But just at this time, a courageous Icelander accidentally turns up on the farm, who either accepts the challenge or defeats the villains with cunning. The result is always the same: the berserkers are killed, including those who hoped to escape. When the troubles are over, the owner returns and generously rewards the savior, who, in memory of what happened, composes a visa - a skaldic poem of eight lines - thanks to which his feat becomes widely known.

It is quite natural that berserkers, to put it mildly, were disliked for such “actions”. Reliable historical evidence has been preserved that in 1012, Earl Eirik Hakonarson outlawed berserkers in Norway, and they apparently began to seek their fortune in other places, including Iceland. Most likely, berserker marauders are gangs of homeless warriors left out of work. They were born for battles: they were excellent with weapons, psychologically prepared, they knew how to intimidate the enemy with growls, aggressive behavior and protect themselves from slashing blows with thick bear skin. But when the berserkers were no longer needed, they suffered the fate of any forgotten army - moral degradation.

The end of the era of the Norman campaigns, Christianization and the formation of early feudal statehood in the Scandinavian lands ultimately led to a complete rethinking of the image of the berserker. Already from the 11th century. this word takes on an exclusively negative connotation. Moreover, berserkers under the influence of the church are credited with pronounced demonic traits. The Saga of Vatisdola tells that in connection with the arrival of Bishop Fridrek in Iceland, war was declared “possessed”. Their description is given in a completely traditional spirit: berserkers commit violence and arbitrariness, their anger knows no bounds, they bark and growl, gnawing at the edge of their shield, walk on hot coals barefoot and do not even try to control their behavior. On the advice of a newly arrived priest of the possessed evil spirits they scared them away with fire, beat them to death with wooden stakes, because it was believed that “iron does not hurt berserkers,” and the bodies were thrown into a ravine without burial. Other texts noted that the baptized berserker forever lost the ability to transform. Pursued and persecuted from all sides, finding themselves in the new social conditions as dangerous outcasts and criminals, accustomed to living only by raids and robbery, berserkers became a real disaster. They broke into settlements, killed local residents, and ambushed travelers. And the law of ancient Scandinavia outlawed bloodthirsty madmen, making it obligatory for every resident to destroy berserkers. A law issued in Iceland in 1123 stated: “A berserker caught in a rage will be sentenced to 3 years of exile.” Since then, the warriors in bearskins disappeared without a trace, and with them the hoary pagan antiquity sank into oblivion.

NO ONE knows where and when the last berserker died: history jealously guards this secret. The only reminders of the former glory of the fierce Vikings today are heroic tales and mossy rune stones scattered along the slopes of the Scandinavian hills...

On INFOGLASE The article turned out to be a little more complete, so those who are especially interested can read it there - http://infoglaz.ru/?p=24429

sources

Roman SHKURLATOV http://bratishka.ru/archiv/2007/10/2007_10_17.php http://slavs.org.ua/berserki
http://shkolazhizni.ru/archive/0/n-29472/