![]() Old sources tell the berserkers had a sudden spike in energy. According to the Cambridge Dictionary the word means ‘not in control, extremely excited, or crazy’. Their wildness on the battlefield was such that it gave way to the adjective berserk in the English language. ![]() They wore bearskins so that everyone knew who they were. They ignored their wounds and had only one goal - to hack another human being into pieces.ĭuring their frenzy, the berserkers didn’t differentiate between an enemy and a friend. They fought without armor, in a trance-like state. The berserkers were the most feared of all Viking warriors. The Berserkers wore bearskins into the battle (Image: Kopinski) Richard Wagner used the horned helmets for the Viking characters in his operas. The stereotype of the Vikings with horns on their helmets was born in the 1870s. For sure, the Vikings didn’t wear horned helmets. Only the richest warriors wore chain mail and helmets. The Vikings made the shield from softwood, which was more flexible and made enemy weapons jam into it. They were a status symbol and warriors took them into their graves.įor protection, they used a round shield that measured one meter in diameter. The ax was a useful tool during peacetime and a formidable weapon during war. The most experienced Viking warriors could catch a spear in the air and throw it back into the enemy.Īnother weapon used by the Vikings was a battle-ax. They would use spears for thrusting (three meters long) or for throwing (two meters long spears). These raids culminated in the Siege of Paris in 845. For example, they attacked defenseless coastal monasteries on the British Isles and raided France during the Frankish civil war (840–843). True to their pirate nature, they didn’t announce a place and time for the battle.Īdditionally, they were masters of reconnaissance work, they knew their opponents very well, especially their weaknesses. They appeared out of nowhere, attacked, and sailed away. Their raids across Europe were notorious for their speed and timing aided by the fact that their longships were fast and could sail across the ocean or in the shallow river waters. The members of the bear cult called themselves the berserkers (meaning a bear shirt). The Vikings cultivated warrior cults of the wolf and of the bear. This was a splendid palace, where warriors fought each other every day. In Norse mythology, if you died during combat and you truly enjoyed fighting, you would receive a place in Valhalla. The Viking warriors excelled in hand-to-hand combat and learned to fight at an early age. Vikings had a strong warrior culture, which made violence a common feature of their daily life. The Valhalla is the Viking version of heaven (Image: ) A Viking warrior - an artistic depiction from a computer game Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla.
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