Berserkers

Hi. Welcome to True Creeps, where the stories are true and the creeps are real. We'll cover stories from grotesque gore to. The possibly plausible paranormal to horrifying history to tense and terrible true crime and. Everything else that goes bump in the night. We're your hosts, Amanda. And I'm Lindsay, and we want you to join us while we creep. We cover mature topics. Listener discretion is advised. Hey, everybody.

Today we're going to be talking about the infamous pagan Norse warriors, the Berserkers. And sometimes they're called the Berserks as well. We're going to call them the Berserkers. It slides off the tongue for me. It's what I think about it. Sounds more fun. Yeah, it does. It does. What we need is more syllables. Yes, of course. For us. You know, us. We just love. We love syllables. We do.

I had first heard about Berserkers in Teen Wolf, and I was so excited when they came up in our Shrooms episode when we were doing that research, that I was like. I was like, well, we'll need to come back to this. And I mentioned it to Ben. I was like, oh, we're going to do Berserkers. He's like, oh, like from Teen Wolf? Yes. Like, yeah, that's what this episode is like from MTV's Teen Wolf. Perfect, perfect. But had you heard of Berserkers before we did this? I feel like I saw the imagery.

Like, I've seen them in places but never really looked into them. Yeah, that's fair. But you might hear my sump pump. That's a new addition because it's been rainy, so there's like a steady trickle of water that you can hear, but hopefully you don't hear it. But just in case you're like, what's going on right now? Why does it sound like there's water dripping in your background? It's because there is. That is. I'm so sorry. But, you know, we're humans. That's fair. I have a fan on.

It's, you know, a nice, cool 104 today. So Amanda. Amanda loves a sizzle. She's a sizzle girl. Fucking hate it here. Such a dumb ho. Well, you know. Okay, so let's start with a little bit of history and context. In terms of time period, we're talking 870 to 1030 CE, you know, just a few years ago. Yeah. Pretty recent history.

This also, just as a note, in case you aren't a history person, this overlaps with the Viking period, but no shock there, but it's also considered the early Middle ages to the medieval times, which immediately made me think, Amanda, have you ever been to Medieval times? I feel like I'm going to upset a lot of people. No, I haven't because I. I just have no interest in going. We have one that opened here. What do you mean you have no interest in going? Do you not like dinner and a show?

Do you not want to be entertained? Okay. So we sat, my mother and father in law, for like an anniversary or something. Yeah. And just the food doesn't look appealing to me and just. I don't know, I just don't like it. Like, I've gone to like Renaissance fairs too. And I'm like, okay, it's just not my thing. Renaissance fairs, they're a fine time, but they're just. They're not my cup of tea. But eating in the dark with my hands while watching people do things with horses, I love it.

We're cheering. We don't know who will win. It sounds messy. No one can see you. Live a little. Live a little. And think about the food. I'm pretty sure the meat is on like the bone and like, mm, mm. It's just not my thing. It is meat on the bone, but I think you can order a vegetarian meal, I guess. And it's potato wedges. It's delicious. Love it. Potatoes, sure. But it's. It's a fun time. I like it. But anyway, we're talking about early Middle ages to Medieval times.

And at this point, history was recorded in the oral tradition, which is, you know exactly what it sounds like. Passing down stories from one generation to the other. Like Cryptids. Like Cryptids. So when do you think about an oral tradition? I guess in my head I always thought, I don't know, your grandma tells you a story and you pass that down through generations. Yeah, but it's more than that, right?

When that's your society's way of passing down history, it is actually a little bit more formal than just family passing down lore of the world. It's also poems or stories or heroic sagas, which are going to reference a lot today, which they capture more of what's happening in the world, and they're passed down. So you might have bards or court poets who. Part of what they do is they craft these narratives that are easier to remember.

Because if someone said to you, I want you to remember a hundred years of history, that's really difficult. They'd be fucked. But if somebody was like, hey, here's a song. If you've ever heard We Didn't Start the Fire, either original version or Fallout Boy version, then that would be a great example of history in a song. Right. Where you're like. You're much more able to remember a lot of facts because it's kind of catchy. So that's how they're passing down stuff.

And so given the age of the sources and the nature of how the history was recorded through literature, it's unclear whether berserkers actually exist, because that's how we heard about them. I like to think that they did. They're fun. I like to think that they did. And there's plenty of real stuff that existed in this form. It's not as though we've ruled out everything that's in this type of literature or sagas or things like that. There's real stuff mixed in with the mythological.

So what's real and what's not is confusing. And another example of this would be dragons. Exactly. That's what I was thinking. We're like mostly sure dragons didn't exist, but are we sure? Sure. I don't know. No, they're in a lot of imagery, they're in a lot of art, they're in stories. I don't know. Yeah. And across different cultures too. But anyway, so all that to say, just because it came from something that was fiction doesn't mean it's fictional.

Yes. Now we're talking about a time that's oral history. Right. So they're not writing down their own stories. Which means that none of the sources of the information about berserkers comes from berserkers. So they're not songs or poems that are written by berserkers that are later recorded. It's literature or songs or poems that are written by another person about berserkers that are then transcribed later. It's important to remember that.

And by the 12th century, Berserkers were no longer active. That means that by the time that the story started to be recorded, they weren't around to say, hey, that's actually not right. And unfortunately, the accounts were primarily written by Christians who were seeking to snuff out paganism, of course. And so they were certainly not going to write these lovely things about pagan warriors who were imbued with like, supernatural abilities by Odin, because that's not the God that they worship.

So there's a vested interest in the person who is writing most of this to not make this flowery and lovely and to either one, capture it in a not great way or two to make it seem so amazing that it's outside of the scope of reality of what could have actually happened. Make it seem fantastic so that you don't think it's actually real. Now, the earliest historical account of Berserkers was written in the 9th century, and that was written by a court poet, Porbjorn Hochloffli.

And they were describing the king's consolidation of Norway and his deployment of berserks as shock troops. And the king, by the way, was Harald Herfair. Now, I mentioned shock troops. What those are, are you're gonna go into battle. The shock troops, they would go in first and they were used to scare the other side and terrify them. They'd shock them, if you will. It's like the first set of people that are gonna go in, you're like, oh, fuck. Right? So that's our first writing about them.

And over the years, over and over, you'll hear about them in shock Troops. That's a pretty common trope with them. And when you're reading writings about berserkers, they're filled with stereotypes. And the stereotypes change over time and the attitude about them changes over time and by who's writing about them. So first they're revered as these fierce warriors, but ultimately they become these brute like villains.

Their whole purpose in the story is as the villain for the hero to go up against. So they'll describe them as kidnapping women so that the hero has the damsel in distress to rescue. So they kind of. They really paint them as not great folks. And originally berserkers were so highly revered because they were thought to have been blessed by Norse gods. And we'll explain more about that in a minute when we talk about who they were.

But specifically they were thought to be blessed by Freyja or Odin, but it's typically Odin. And as Christianity rose to power, their depictions made berserkers seem more and more monstrous or fantastic. And we'll talk about that more in a second too. Yeah. So let's back up a minute and talk about who they were.

The term berserk is believed to originate from Old Norse berserker, meaning either bearshirt, which was someone who wore a bear pelt into battle, or bear shirt, like B A R E, someone who fought without armor, therefore he was bare skinned, AKA Barsark, or sometimes bearshirt. Interesting. Yeah, yeah. If you think of lead and lead. Mm, read and red.

I love that when you're reading them too, like in like a Facebook post or something where someone's like you can say the difference in red and read and lead and lead as you're reading it, but it's the same word. But your mind knows. Yeah, it's silly anyways, so Berserkers were infamous Viking warriors who were known for their trance like fury and their superhuman battle abilities. Berserkers were associated with magic, shape shifting and Odin. So it's no surprise that Christianity was not a fan.

Yeah, before battles, they would hype themselves up to enter that trans like fury that we mentioned a minute ago. It's called Berserker Gang, by the way. And that just is such a fun word. Yeah, Berserker Gang is a fun word to say. You know what that means it's time for. It's time where I make you say Berserker Gang and then we give you a pause and then I say. No, I mean it. Say Berserker Gang and then we pause again. Okay, now we can continue. Now that we've made them say Berserker Gang.

Perfect. Early accounts of Berserkers described them as looking pretty similar to other Viking warriors before they entered Berserker Gang. But as time went on, Christian historians described them as being hideous and looking like trolls. Disrespectful. Anything they didn't like, they're like. They're bad. They're ugly. They're horrible. They were similarly described as thinking that cleanliness wasn't manly, so. So they didn't bathe often. No, thank you. They also referred to them as beastmen.

And you'll see why in a minute too. Accounts vary on how much physical transformation is visible during Berserker Gang. Prior to Berserker Gang, the berserkers would put on wolf or bear pelts, howl, scream or growl. Stomp their feet. Sounds like a tantrum. And then they would bite the edge of their shields and shake it in their mouth like my dog would. The idea of that, that feeling in my mouth makes me viscerally uncomfortable. Oh yeah? Yeah. Like I feel like it would break your teeth.

Mm. So exactly like how a dog shakes their toy when they're playing, but like more intimidating. Also, it's unclear whether they were wearing anything other than their bear or wolf pelts. Some accounts purposefully describe that they are pretty much nude. Other than their furs. The Berserkers are by no means the only flavor of battle band to get naked when they are about to get violent, which is interesting. I never really considered that. Like, it seems like it would be way more dangerous.

It does but then I also think of, like the whole, like, superhero, no capes thing. Right. Like, there must be a reason, but we'll go into it. So the Celts, for example, got naked before battles to intimidate their opponents. I mean, if you're thinking of a time when people are armored the fuck up because you're doing like hand to hand combat. Right. And you've got all your armor.

And when you think of the medieval time period, one of the things I really do think about is like, that full suit of armor. Yeah. It's like one of the first images I think of. So the opposite of that is truly like naked, but a fur coat. And I find it generally, like, a little bit humorous to be like, we're gonna fight, let's get naked. We're going to fight dicks out. That doesn't seem like a good strategy.

But it would be incredibly intimidating if the other person was so confident in their fighting abilities. They were like, I don't even need armor to beat you. I am that confident in my skills versus yours that I don't even need to worry about your weapons. So also when you mentioned the shock troops, like, that's shocking. Like, if you're not expecting it, that. Is in fact going to shock you. So I guess. And they're fighting at all different times of the year too. It's not always the warmest.

Yeah. They're just like, what the fuck is happening? And then it gives them that moment. Yeah. And sometimes they have a loincloth too. But like, either way, seeing the skin of your opponent so accessible and seeing them in such a vulnerable state. Yeah. And yet they are biting their shield and growling at you. I just don't see how that wouldn't be unnerving. Right, Exactly. Exactly. So the shift into Berserker Gang was said to include the following.

Shivering, teeth chattering, face swelling, and a change in their face color, which is interesting. Which also, like, some of that sounds like what would happen if you were angry. Think about how you feel hot and flush and your skin feels like even when it doesn't, it feels like it's kind of swollen. When you're so mad that your face is hot, like, and you have like, red in the face, it looks bigger. Yeah. So we're gonna shift to talk about shamanism for just a quick second.

But, like, we're in a business meeting. We're just going to put a pin in the effects of Berserker Gang. We'll circle back. We're going to. Yeah, we're Going to put a pin in the effects of berserker gang on warriors, and we're going to circle back to it. But it'll make sense. It'll make sense, I promise.

Okay. So per Dr. Roger Walsh of the University of California in Irvine, he described shamanism as a family of traditions whose practitioners focused on voluntarily entering alter states of consciousness in which they experience themselves or their spirits interacting with other entities, often by traveling to other realms in order to serve their community. Which I thought was really fascinating because when you think about magic, most of us have heard the term shaman.

It's not necessarily a new phrase, but I never had really thought about the dependency of the purpose being for your community so thoroughly. Most of us have heard about when we think of shaman, you think of healing magic. That's the first thing I think of. And while inherently the purpose of healing magic is to serve your community, I don't think I ever piece those two together.

And so if we're defining shamanism as having that magical component tied to your community, then there's another type that we don't often think about, and it's war magic. And that is pretty much what it sounds like. It's rituals and practices where the intention is to hinder your opponent, to weaken them.

And if you're thinking of examples of this, it could be with more traditionally woo woo, things like promoting disease on your opponent so they're weaker and they're easier to beat, or so that they just die from that. And that's, that's how you get it. And then this war magic could also be more concrete though. For example, making you a fierce fucking warrior that is invulnerable to magic and fire that everyone is terrified by. Of course, why not?

If you're thinking of how can you protect your community, I don't know, being fucking terrifying is, is one. One way of doing it, right? Yeah. So we see evidence of war magic throughout countless cultures. And whenever you hear about more than human capabilities used in battle, it's war magic. And we hadn't really thought about that in this context before, or even the idea of war magic.

But it's interesting because you might just notice that the ritual part of this isn't a lot of things that you wouldn't think it would be. So all war magic requires rituals, and rituals are inherent in that practice. But we can even take this one step further and say that rituals are inherent in war. Think about practices that organized warriors engage in, like battle cries, singing and other vocalizations, like drums, even two choreograph formations and drills.

Also war dances, face painting, and even the standardization of grooming practices. So think having long hair or alternatively having short hair and clean shaven faces with uniforms that all match, that have to be clean pressed, even that is a war ritual. Yeah. That blew my mind. The idea that there is so much ritual in the practice of war and therefore in the practice of military as a whole. Yeah. Now the rituals serve many purposes, magic and otherwise.

They build solidarity and they intimidate your enemies. So that's kind of a standard. Right. Like the opponents try to intimidate the other so that they forfeit before there's any confrontation that even begins. And whether it's in war negotiations, arguments, or even for sports. And I mean you see that with almost anything though, right? You're like, well, if I could stop it from getting any worse. That goes for like at a job even, you know, like that's a thing that you do.

Or even if the game isn't for them to literally forfeit, but to kind of give up before because they know they can't win. It makes me think of every single sports movie I've ever seen. Especially where there's little kids and there's always the other team that has beef. That is rude. Yeah. That's what it makes me think of is that like we do it all the time. It's so common. Yeah. Another purpose for ritual is preparing your body for battle.

Like loosening your muscles as a warmup or warmup exercises or something to get you ready. That's what the dances are doing or that's what the drills are doing. And then another purpose for rituals is just to hype everyone up. You want everyone like ready in every way, mentally and physically. Researchers have found that other cultures with pre fight rituals also go into purposeful battle trances.

Once an individual is in a battle trance, they are more fearless, more focused on the group goal rather than their individual survival, which is kind of sad, but makes sense. Imbued with what seems like superhuman strength. And they have analgesia which reduces pain. Plus the boost of endorphins and oxytocin from the life threatening situations can block pain and fear too.

And we've seen that with people that have gotten like severely hurt in like a car crash even or something like that where they, they don't really know how severe their injuries are until later when like all of that wears down. Exactly. We mentioned Berserker gang earlier. Berserker Gang is just another example of a battle trance. So Berserker gang is unique to Berserkers, but the practice of getting into a battle trance is not.

And since we have no firsthand accounts from berserkers, we don't know what parts of their pre fight rituals assisted in getting them into Berserker Gang. Some accounts suggest that there were also additional triggers like extreme heat or. Or strenuous labor. And I would just say that I also feel like I am in a fury like trance when I feel I am exposed to extreme heat. What did I tell you before we started recording that I'm in like a permanent bad mood now that summer has began.

Yeah, it's relatable. It's relatable. Yeah. It's also interesting too, because when you start adding these elements of, oh, there's other things that could get you into Berserker Gang. You remove it from the pool of battle trance into something that's more uncontrollable, which feels a lot like a werewolf. And that's just another way of a slight attitude shift that makes them seem less these mystical and amazing fearless warriors and more like brutes with no self control.

Okay, like I promised, we're going to circle back to our pin from earlier. And I remember our pin was the effects of berserker gangs on warriors. So now that we have a bit more context as to what exactly Berserker gang is a possibly magical battle trance that has been triggered by rituals, let's talk about what is happened in Berserker Gang. Yeah, a lot of this is wild.

Yeah. So once the Berserkers were vibing in Berserker Gang, they were also known to have glowing eyes and were perhaps foaming at the mouth. Again, very scary to come across, right? Yeah, shocking even. But more importantly, they had enhanced fighting and battle abilities. Let's talk about those abilities and what was going on. They would have uncontrollable rage that would assist them in fighting. Their drive to kill and win was insatiable.

So much so that they would sometimes kill allies during their fight. Like, they'd just be so into fighting. I guess. In one story, a man was so overcome with rage and bloodlust that he almost attacked his own son. A servant woman intervened on the son's behalf and she was killed instead. But the son survived. So that's a little scary that they get like so into it. Mm. They were impervious to fire and weapons. Pretty handy. They could walk through fire and swallow hot coals, I guess for fun.

Given that they were impervious to weapons. Sometimes they would drop their shields or sling them onto their backs. This is its own form of intimidation too. Like I don't even need to block you sometimes. This wasn't outrightly explained, but when a person is holding two swords or spears, there's not really another arm to be holding a shield. So perhaps it was that too. I almost think of like when superheroes get super mad too. Yeah, yeah.

Once you think about battle trances and pre fighting rituals, you just start to notice them everywhere and it's fascinating. So another ability they had was superhuman strength. Now, even though we're looking at descriptions of battles that were predominantly hand to hand combat, there are clear examples in the writings that show just how far outside of the range of normal human strength that they had.

Yeah. So the maximum amount of weight that an average person can continuously lift is about two thirds of their body weight. Although there are people who are like intense strength training people who spend, you know, all of their life trying to figure out how to lift more. And yes, of course that exists. Yeah, but that's a subset of people that's not warriors who are battling, that's people who they are purposely trying to lift. Right. So that's like a different subset of people.

And there's also adrenaline spikes where people have been known to push the bounds of what is typically possible. But this is happening on a regular basis. This is what they are known for, is the strength. So an example of the superhuman strength is captured in one saga where they described how the berserker attacked their opponent with an ax.

And so they swing the ax and not only does it go through that person's helmet, which is presumably metal, but it went so far through the opponent's head that the handle itself was sank into the person's head. So just think about how far down that is and just how hard that would have to be. Look, we looked up to try to find out what the strength of that would be. I don't even know how to search that. I don't know how to find that out. If you've got.

If you've got a way of figuring out human body strength to ax through the skull strength, let us know we don't have it, but we just know that that's not normal. Because when we've talked about ax murders before, it's gruesome, but it's from the blade itself, it's not from the strength of the strike. And so again, it's down far in their opponent's head. So they're holding the Handle. The front part of the handle is in the person's head.

They then use the handle to pick that person up and throw them like off of a ship. It's in there so far that they can use it to leverage that person off the ship no problem. That's not normal human strength. Yeah, yeah. And so in another saga, a Berserker is sent to fend off opposing forces on a bridge for hours. It's important to note that in this situation, the bridge is like four men wide. That's how it's described. Put it in our terms though. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

That would be about six 12 year old boys now. I can picture it. Okay, so they've got their six 12 year old boy wide bridge. The Berserker's there, and he fights an incoming stream of opponents on that bridge for hours. So it's not only incredibly strong, that's also impressive stamina. I'm exhausted thinking about it. And also as a note, the opposing forces realized that they were never going to be able to overpower the Berserker.

So what they did was they sent a boat under the bridge and they shoved a spear up through the boards of the bridge, up underneath the Berserker to kill them from like below. And they were successful, but they had to get a little weird about it. They weren't. They couldn't just fight him. They weren't gonna win. Yeah. They had to like outsmart him in a way. Yeah. So once the Berserker gang wore off, Berserkers were fatigued and weak again.

I think of like superheroes where they like fight too much and then they're like, oh, I have to rest forever. If you read any magic books, once you have an intense expenditure of magic, they're always very sleepy. Yeah. So they were so tired. So much so that sometimes opponents would purposefully try to wait it out, like their trance, so they'd have an easier time killing them after it wore off. That's a solid plan though, if you know that it's eventually going to wear off.

They're like, we'll let them wear themselves out and then we'll try to fight them like toddlers. Like. Yes, toddlers. They'll stop crying eventually. Yeah. And toddlers do have weird strength. Like, it makes sense they're based off of toddlers. They're freaks. Anyways, so Kings wanted to have at least a few Berserkers on their troops and as bodyguards, which makes sense, right? Kings would even gift them to one another, which is kind of weird. Don't like that.

No. They would be used to bolster their other Viking warriors. Whoever had more berserkers in a battle typically was the victor. So, yeah, you have the strongest people. You're probably gonna win. Is it bad that part of me is like, why don't you? Rather than just doing the whole fight, you walk up like, I got six berserkers. They're like, I've got five. And it's like, all right, done. We could do this, or you could just forfeit. I feel like it's like a insert card game.

It probably is a card game now. Yeah. It's just like, hey, we have six, you have five. Do you want to just. They're like, surrender, or do you want to try to go get another two berserkers so you can win here? Just feels like an easier, more pragmatic solution. But who am I? But which berserker would wear out first? Hmm. That's fair. Yeah, but I still think that it's a numbers game. Yeah, yeah. So berserkers were Odin's warriors, but sometimes Freya's warriors, Ulf Heldnar, we looked that up.

How to say it, like 50 times. Are also loved in with Berserkers. In literature, both are associated with Odin. There are stories where battles were delayed by berserkers to respect holidays like Yule, which is sacred to Odin. But both were known to wear animal pelts and then be able to fight in ways that were outside the norms of what humans could do. In battle, berserkers wore the bear pelts, while Ulfheldnar wore the wolf pelts. So it's just like what different animal they wore.

Now, Odin is a shape shifting God of magic, poetry, battle, and death. I like his broad repertoire. He has a lot. He dabbles in a lot. He is also the God of mental powers, fury, and spiritual awakening. Again, I just love this for him. He's a busy guy. That feels like a good pile of things to be the God of. Yeah, I like it. I like it. So let's talk about Odin's battle powers, which included clouding the mind with fear and confusion, bolstering courage or helping give mental clarity.

That's a useful one. Strengthening or awakening the body, restraining the body's movements, invulnerability to magic and breaking or strengthening weapons and armor. He uses powers to aid his warriors with courage, mental clarity, physical strength, invulnerability to weapons and fire, and the ability to blunt weapons.

So he helps in many ways berserkers are described as shapeshifters, but it's unclear whether it was, like, beastly form or if it was their current form and they shifted into, like, their superhuman abilities. Yeah. And it's different for, like, where you're seeing the berserker as well. Like in what literature? Or, you know, it's different. Yeah. Because when they're talking about them as more beast like, it's more beast like.

Or if they're talking about them, even if they're talking about them more favorably, but they want them to seem stronger, they still might describe them as shapeshifters because that's closer to Odin. Yeah. So as an interesting point, Amanda mentioned this just a moment ago that both warriors were associated with Odin. So they're all berserkers. It's just some of them are also classified as Freyja's warriors as well, because they're wearing wolf pelts.

But they all had typically the same stuff that we'll talk about. Yeah. The battle trance was the same. Yeah. Per Heemscringla Yinglingla saga. But Odin's own men went without armor and were mad like hounds or wolves, and bit their shields and were strong as bears or bulls. They slew men, but neither fire nor steel would deal with them. This was called the Berserkers gang. Okay. Okay. So fierce warriors. Scary. Yeah, yeah. And loved eating their shields, Loved biting them.

Just loved a chomp of it. So we've talked about a lot of things so far, but one of the things we haven't talked about yet is how did these men become berserkers? Because, by the way, nothing we saw suggested that there were women berserkers. They were in the same lore as Valkyries, which that's been on my list for a minute for us to talk about, which I think would be an excellent episode. Yeah. But how do these men become berserkers? Surprise, surprise.

There's no definitive narrative on how this happens. So we don't know whether men were born berserkers or if they became berserkers, and if they became them, how exactly that happened. There's a few different pieces of lore with different initiation processes, so we're going to get into those.

One common thread among all of these different theories, though, is that the warrior had to experience some sort of literal or symbolic death and rebirth, and then it's through that rebirth process, they would then develop those superhuman powers. But more specifically, here are some of the theories of that initiation process.

So some believe that they would spend a prolonged period of time living in the wilderness as their animal, so either the wolf or the bear, and that they would have to hunt, gather, or raid nearby towns to eat. Okay. In some situations, they believe that the warrior initiate had to fight a bear or another terrifying creature. And when they say terrifying creature, it's sometimes it's mythological creatures. Sometimes it's just a very big predator animal.

And I think I saw some situations where it's also the biggest and baddest of, like, that berserker band. And another one we. We hate this was that the warrior initiate had to drink the blood of a wolf or bear. Yeah. No, thank you. Yeah, I mean, I know that's. That happens in cultures all the time. It's just the idea that in order to do this, you. They're like, drink the blood of the thing that you want to, like, almost become. To have the power of. Yeah, yeah. It just. It's very fascinating.

Now, Berserkers were ultimately outlawed in Norway and Iceland in the early 1000s, and this was right after Christianity was mandated in Iceland in 1000 CE. King Eric of Norway outlawed Berserkers in 1015, and then they were outlawed in Iceland in 1123. And the way that it was written was if someone goes berserk, he is punished with lesser outlawry. And the men who are present are also banished if they don't bind him. And also I was like, what the fuck is lesser outlawry? Which is hard to say.

Yeah. And it's when you're banished from your country for three years, which I. All my brain goes, well, where do you go if your country is like, we're done with you. But this is a time before the officialness of, like, passport. So it's not quite the same as we're like, if somebody was like, hey, Lindsay, you're banished from the U.S. i'm like, what do I do? Can you give me next steps? What the fuck is that?

We're coming closer and closer to a time when the government is like, hey, we're gonna start banishing people. And we're like, wait, you can't fucking do that. You can't just send me to another country and tell me to deal with it. I can't do that. What do you want me to do? Ridiculous. That's all I was thinking of. Yeah. Like, did they read this? And they're like, oh, they let them do it in a thousand ce. They're like, you know what? We should just treat this as lesser outlaw.

He wouldn't be able to say the word either. No, it's. It's a difficult word to say. Look, you try to say it lesser outlawry. Lester's not the hard part. Outlawry. My mouth just jumbles over it, but. Okay, so let's sum up what a berserker is. Really quick before we start our next part. Berserkers are Odin favored Norse warriors who could enter berserker gang to imbue themselves with more than human battle capabilities that were eventually outlawed. Yeah, okay. Too powerful. Outlawed.

Yeah. Too powerful. Too cool. Again, going back to the Incredibles. Same thing. And it's also interesting though because there are so many cultures all over the world who had less structured, more just like barbaric. Hand to hand, like, I'm gonna take you down. Warriors who eventually changed their system of. Of military and moved to more regimented and strict kind of military formations or military how Formulations.

I don't know how to describe it, but it's just interesting that there is that progression through lots of cultures. Yeah. So let's move on to how the hell that they did this. How do they get into that Berserker gang? Yeah, Become this. And some theories include it being something psychological like excited delirium syndrome.

And symptoms of it are altered mental states, delirium, shouting, hyperactivity, extreme endurance and unusual strength, bizarre, violent and agitated behavior, combatedness and autonomic dysregulation, including hyperthermia, which is raised body temperature and sweating. This is all usually followed by sudden death. Contemporary cases of this can typically be attributed to drug use, sometimes paired with alcohol.

And these diagnosis are typically also done post mortem, which is very interesting. And it doesn't seem like after every battle they died though. No, it doesn't seem like that at all. Yeah. Unless someone was on a bridge. Yeah. And even then it's not like sudden death because of all of these symptoms, it's. They lost the battle. Exactly. Exactly. Another possibility is hypermania.

And symptoms include either elevated or irritable mood in the absence of hallucinations or delusions, increased involvement in goal directed activities. So specific, right? It is, yeah. Distractibility, talkativeness, like, do I have this? I. I mean like, look, I was reading it and I was like, oh, oh, okay. This is where it goes bad though. Inflated self esteem or grandiosity. We literally have a podcast, Amanda. We literally are like, you know what? People want to hear us talk.

No, we're like, I hope you want to hear us talk, but I understand if you don't. Me, I'm just a worm. Exactly. Exactly. And decreased need for sleep. All right, there I am again. I'm looking at you. I'm looking at you. I'm just saying. And it's like, I slept three hours last night, and I'm like, what? She's like, yeah, that's a lot. I'm sure other parents understand it. Like, when your kids go to bed, that's like, your time that you can do things or exist as your own person.

And so you want to eat up as much time as you can. Fair. So both hypomania and EDS are both involuntary states. So they aren't deliberately induced like Berserker Gang. Which makes sense. Like. Yeah. That you can't just decide all of a sudden, I have this, and now I can go battle. Yeah. I think another important distinction is that when we're thinking of contemporary cases of eds, it's often like, oh, hey, because of substances, this happened.

So the substance is also an underlying contributing factor in not death. Yeah. Another theory is that it's post traumatic stress disorder. And I'm pretty sure the main reason for this is because of that rage. Tr. Because people who experience PTSD when they're having a PTSD episode, a flashback, when that's happening and people are existing near you, you can react in explosive ways.

But, like, the difference is, is that one, the literature doesn't talk about the flashback component, and that's pretty essential in it. But also, when you have ptsd, you are often doing your fucking best to avoid triggering situations that would bring about a PTSD episode. You don't want do that at all. You wouldn't stay out of a PTSD episode. It's not a fucking fun time. You wouldn't purposely put yourself in that position.

Yeah. And if it was PTSD that was putting them in the situation, they wouldn't keep going into battle. It's also. I mean, I could probably purposely put myself into a PTSD episode. I just can't imagine why I would. So they wouldn't keep going into battle. And often PTSD episodes are involuntary. So unless you're purposefully triggering yourself, it does. It just doesn't match. It just doesn't match. Yeah. The only thing I feel like that matches is that rage, fury, you know?

So another theory is that there's some type of substance involved. And again, we talked about this before, that we've really heard about this in our research in the world as we do things when we were doing our mushroom episode and that the Flyagarch mushroom, a lot of people believed that that's what Berserkers took in order to go into Berserker gang. And this came about from a Christian priest named Samuel Lorenzo Oddman.

And he first wrote about his theory in 1784, which is a long fucking time ago. So 1 1784, that's what, at minimum 700 years later. So that's a long time after they existed to be like, maybe it was these mushrooms. But it became more legitimate when Howard Fabing published his study in 1956 on inmates at the Ohio State Penitentiary. And this study was on Bufatin. And it was just fucking rife with issues. So we're going to talk a little bit about it.

So first off, he didn't cite any Viking age sources when he talked about this. Interesting. Yeah. And then he referenced a character named Berserk that was in Sagas, but it actually wasn't. There wasn't a character in the sagas named Berserk. So it was like, what the fuck are you reading? Yeah. So then he also drew parallels between Berserkers and Siberian shamans who had had similar feats of strength when they were using mushrooms for healing. So it's two different applications.

So that's just strange. Yeah. Then if you're thinking about the symptoms of, like, what would make you battle ready? The symptoms of ingesting fly agaric are not what would make you battle ready. If anything, it would make you more ill because there's GI upset and weakness and a whole bunch of shit that's not going to make you feel better. Right. Right. So in his study, Fabing injected Bufetin into the faces of his subjects.

Okay. And I want to point out again that this is inmates at the Ohio State Penitentiary. Yeah. Horrific. Yeah. And we read the articles to see if we could figure out like the research methodology to see what type of consent was obtained. I would be shocked if these inmates had much of a choice in this study, which is extra fucking bad. So on top of him being questionable in terms of researchers, I'm like, are morally questionable as well. Yes, I think so.

So Fabian reported that his subjects faces darkened and relaxed after the chemical was injected and that they had impaired spatial perception. 1 why would you want to have impaired spatial perception? Right. That's not going to help you. That seems like a. A terrible idea if you're trying to fight someone. Yeah. But also if you're looking at this and you're like, this is how it could have happened. Berserkers weren't injecting themselves with that. They didn't have the means to do that.

So he concluded that this all mimicked Fly Garic. But what's even more confusing is that the underlying chemical that we're talking about is bufotinine, and that is found in poisonous toads and trees, none of which are related to fly agaric. And further, the natural sources of bufetonine aren't even native to Europe or Iceland. So not only is it not related to this mushroom at all, but also the natural sources of this aren't there. Squirrely.

Yeah. From my understanding, he was doing a study on people with schizophrenia, and then this article came about as an ancillary finding, quote, unquote, that came about from that. And also, thank you to Lexi for pulling articles for me that I couldn't get to, but it was just bizarre. And I was like, seems weird. I want to know more. And also, I dislike you so thoroughly. Yeah. Yeah. So another theory is that it was just copious amounts of alcohol. We've seen people get really drunk.

I don't think it's this, but Wernick suggested that they had ingested booze with bog myrtle in it, and that's a plant that was used to flavor beverages. But again, this doesn't really make sense because alcohol doesn't increase a person's ability to fight like they barely can stand. So I don't understand. And bog myrtle certainly wasn't going to make anyone battle ready. It can actually cause severe headaches and gastric upset when consumed in high doses.

So I feel like that would have the opposite effect of everything they're going for. Another theory is hyoscyamus niger. Dr. Carsten Futur, an ethnobotanist at the University of Vermont, suggests an alternate substance could have caused the berserkers. In his 2019 journal article, Dr. Futur concluded that the symptom profile matches Hyocerius niger more than fly agaric. They also note that there's not really any historical evidence that can prove or disprove their theory.

They note that the botanical family of Hyocereus niger, Solonyceae, is classified a bit differently than the psychedelic mushroom they've discussed. Many plants within this family are classified hallucinogens known as deliriums. From what we understand, delirians cause more intense hallucinations, the mind is more clouded, and hallucinations are more realistic. Some think that Salonisia is responsible for the psychoactive flying ointments of witches in Europe. Fascinating.

Also, just as a note, we include all our sources in the show notes. So we include the journal article that they wrote. But we're also going to link the list of their publications because they all sound so interesting to me and so specific, and I do love such specific information. For example, one of their articles is quite particularly Saps and Syrups, Tinctures and Teas, an analysis of medicinal plant usage in the coastal region of Primorska province in Slovenia. That's so specific. I love it.

And another. And then they have queer ethnobotany. Fuck yeah. I love this so much. And I see his interviews that he's done too. Like, they've talked about theories of berserkers. Yeah, yeah, that. The actual article that we read is called Sagas of Selenisia. Speculative Ethnobotanical Perspectives on the Norse Berserkers. So an article specifically on this, which is where we get the information about this section is from that article. Just so specific. And they. They talk about psychedelics.

It's fascinating. I just really, really like their research. But anyway. Okay, so our final theory is that maybe the Pelt are for realsies magic. And that is because there are no psychological, physical, or toxicological triggers that will result in the full breadth of the extraordinary abilities of the Berserkers.

And even taking this one step further, the Berserkers, while unique, are not nearly the only historical or mythical warriors that had the unique abilities and invulnerability that they had in battle. So not only do we not have any current theories that line up with everything for the Berserkers, but there's also these other cultures with similar kind of warriors, and no theory explains those either. So just interesting. Yeah, I like it. I go for the. The real magic. It was magic.

Yeah, I think Magic for realsies. I like it. So let's talk about where you might have seen berserkers before, because as Lindsay mentioned at the beginning, they've been in movies and tv. So let's start with the movies. The movie Northman from 2022 with Alexander Skarsgrd, he plays a berserker. There's also a Decepticon named Berserker in the Last Knight. That's actually what I thought of at first. I love it. There's another one called Hell Warrior, and it's a horror movie about berserkers.

Okay, okay. Like it. Now, they've been in a decent amount of TV shows as well. So as Lindsay mentioned earlier, Teen Wolf, Agents of SHIELD I've watched half that and then I got really bored. Same Sleepy Hollow, Vikings, obviously, Grimm, the Sarah Jane Adventure, Thundercats Roar. And that's from 2020. We really needed to get into this one. Oh yeah, yeah. So per IMDb the Cat's Lair is attacked by gold loving robot pirates, the Berserkers.

This is a good thing really, since it means Lion O and the Thunderkittens can ditch their chores and fight robo pirates instead. Just don't tell Tigra. Love it. So interesting. What a great episode. It sounds like. Yeah, it does. It sounds like a good one. Another TV show is the Innocents and then Archer. Love it. So as always, we want to know if you had heard of Berserkers and or what do you think was going on.

Why are there so many stories about superhuman warriors from all cultures all over the world? Amanda, do you think that Berserkers existed? We've already talked about our answers, but we're gonna go through them anyway. I feel like there were. Maybe it wasn't as much because again, like storytelling changes, like with person to person it's going to change or they're gonna make it more interesting or more scary, depending on their thoughts and feelings for what it was.

I think there was probably some like really hardcore fighters that were just like super good at battle. Yeah. And they were like this prestigious group of people. Perhaps they weren't superpower abled, I guess, but I think that they were just like very good warriors perhaps. I think that they had some superhuman shit going on. I think they entered their battle trance and something, something else happened. And the why of it? Was it because there was some God related?

Was it that interesting things can happen when you can go into a trance. That's true. More your brain being used maybe. Why did it happen? I don't know. But I do think that it was happening. Okay, so everything that they did, they're like foaming at the mouth and all of that. That was only in some accounts. And also maybe they were sometimes, who. Knows, carrying their shield with their teeth.

Yeah, I mean I think that that is one thing that all the accounts have is that they would bite their shield. Because it was also an intimidation tactic. Like yeah, I'm also broke your teeth. But yeah, who needs teeth? Not warriors. So like Lindsey said, we want to know what you think. Were they real? What are your thoughts on them? What. What did they do in your opinion? And then also we've gotten a few new reviews. So thank you to those that have done that. Yes, we appreciate you.

If you haven't already, please email us a screenshot of your review along with your mailing. Address. We'd love to send you a sticker as a thank you. And lastly, thank you again to our patrons. We do have a Patreon for anyone that's new joining us. We have tiers that start at just a dollar, and some of the tiers include various goodies. So there's stickers. Our yearly cart T shirts are a tote. There's jam, and it's great.

You also get invitations to our annual unknown party in our Patreon nights. So much fun. There's also occasional other surprises. And then you also get access to our Patreon only Discord, which is a fun time. Yeah, we were also just talking about Basilosaurus, which I know I'm saying wrong, but I'm not going to fix it, and puppies, so. Mm. Yeah. What a great chat. What else do you want to talk about? Never. And also, you've probably been seeing us.

If you follow us on Instagram, you've seen the fruits of our unknown party this year. Of our Cryptids. Oh, yeah, they were so good. So good. The JD Wentworth one made me cackle. Yeah. Lindsay posted that one and tagged JG Wentworth. Yeah. And they didn't accept our invitation to be a collaborator. But if you go to their tagged photos, now that we're in there. They'Re probably like, what the fuck is this? A lot of the stuff they post is weird.

And I'm like, look, are we in an age of corporations being like, no, we've got to post the weird. That's what. That's what people want, is the weird shit. Yeah, of course. But it is. It is what we want. That's marketing now. The weirder the better. Yeah, that's what we like. Also, speaking of we, we say it all the time, but it's just a reminder. We love when people give us episode ideas. You got something weird you want us to talk about? A little creepy. We like it. Send it our way.

Yep. We also accept creepy TikToks always. Yeah. Talk about, look into. Yeah. If you're like, what's happening here? We want to know, we'll look it up. Yeah. Oh, we have one coming up in the next couple weeks. Gorgeous. Love it. Yeah. And with that, have a great weekend. Thanks for creeping with us. Thanks for listening. And as always, a special thank you to our patrons who support us via Patreon. Please see the link in our show notes to learn more about how you.

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