What where Berserkers (Vikings) Like ?

Question

Please provide a source.

Answer 1

Berserkers?

Answer 2

The beserkers trod a thin line between beasts and men (it's for that reason they're often mentioned when discussing the history of werewolves; they seem to be a part of some historical precedent for later stories).

They would get so enraged and ready for battle, there are stories of them biting through their own shields in preparation for battle. They looked wild; wearing animal skins, wielding clubs, with a crazed, war-starved look in their eyes! Certainly not an easy foe to contend with.

Their lovers often ended up dead, because they'd get a fit of bloodlust/ rage and kill them, only to realise later what they'd done. It was a sad life, really.

Answer 3

Only a tiny minority of Viking warriors became berserkir (the Old Norse word means "bear-shirts" and the singular form is berserkr).

Such men worked themselves up into a frenzy during battle, some even chewing their own shield-edges in their savage disregard for pain or normal behaviour. Some are described in sagas as fighting bare-chested, others wore the skins of bears: all fought without armour or helmets.

The frenzy may have been induced by large quantities of mead and these men treated the bear as a kind of totem animal, since its natural instinct is to attack, no matter what the odds. They dedicated themselves to Odin, god of war - they believed that enemy swords would be blunted and javelins would rebound from them. They howled savagely as they went into battle.

They appear in many Norse sagas as heroic but essentially stupid warriors, with only one thought - to attack, fight and die.

Answer 4

The were like bar fighters in modern times.