Berserkergang, Part 3

[Gunnora Hallakarva]

Berserkergang
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Portions of this paper previously appeared in Tournaments Illuminated.  The
materials dealing with the berserker motif and how it illuminates the
character of Grendel in the Anglo-Saxon peom Beowulf won the CAES Paper
Prize for 1988.

Part III:  The Role of the Berserker in Viking Society
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        The berserker's place in society was limited by the terror and
violence that was associated with berserkergang.  As superb warriors, they
were due admiration.  However, their tendency to turn indicriminately upon
their friends while the madness was upon them went squarely against the
heroic ethic, which demanded loyalty and fidelity to one's friends.  The
berserk skirted the classification of *ni(dh)ingr*, one who was the lowest
of men and the object of hate and scorn.  An eleventh-century monument
raised in Soderby in Uppland, Sweden in memory of a brother reads: "And
Sassur killed him and did the deed of a *nidingr* --- he betrayed his
comrade" (Foote and Wilson, p. 426).

        The primary role of the berserk was as a warrior attacked to a
king's army.  Both King Harald and King Halfdan had berserker shock-troops.
Aside from their military value, the berserker's ties to Odhinn would have
been welcome in a royal army, since Odhinn also had a particular association
with rulership, being venerated in Anglo-Saxon England as the ancestor of
chieftains, and throughout the North as god of kings and protector of their
royal power (Dumezil, Gods of the Ancient Northmen, p. 26).  Outside of this
role, however, the berserker became the stock villain of the sagas, typified
as murderous, stupid brutes, or as one modern critic has it, "a predatory
group of brawlers and killers who disrupted the peace of the Viking
community repeatedly" (Fabing, p. 232).  Saxo Grammaticus speaks of such a
band in his Gesta Danorum:

        The young warriors would harry and pillage the neighborhood, 
        and frequently spilt great quantities of blood.  They considered 
        it manly and proper to devastate homes, cut down cattle, rifle 
        everything and take away vast hauls of booty, burn to the ground 
        houses they had sacked, and butcher men and women 
        indicriminately" (Saxo, Vol. I, p. 163).

        In addition to their warlike activities within their communities,
berserkers are characterized by their sexual excesses, carrying off wves,
daughters and betrothed maids who then must be rescued by the heroes of the
sagas.  Saxo was particularly upset by this behavior:

        So outrageous and unrestrained were their ways that they 
        ravished other men's wives and daughters; they seemed to 
        have outlawed chastity and driven it to the brothel.  Nor did 
        they stop at married women but also debauched the beds 
        of virgins.  No man's bridal-chamber was safe;  scarcely 
        any place in the land was free from the imprints of their lust" 
        (Saxo, Vol. I, p. 118).

        It was no doubt due to these excesses of the berserker that resulted
in their demise.  In 1015 King Erik outlawed berserks, along with
*holmganga* or duels (Fabing, p. 235):  it had become a common practice for
a berserker to challenge men of property to holmgang, and upon slaying the
unfortunate victim, to take possession of his goods, wealth, and women.
This was a difficult tactic to counter, since a man so challenged had to
appear, have a champion fight for him, or else be named *ni(dh)ingr* and
coward.  Egils saga Skallagrimsonar records one such encounter:

        there's a man called Ljot, a berserker and duel-fighter, hated by
everyone.  he came here and asked to marry my daughter, but we gave him a
short answer and said no to his offer.  After that Ljot challenged my son
Fridgeir to single combat, so he has to go and fight the duel tomorrow on
the isle of Valdero" (Palsson and Edwards, Egil's Saga, p. 169).  

        In 1123, the Icelandic Christian Law stated, "If someone goes
berserk, he is punished with lesser outlawry and the men who are present are
also banished if they do not bind him."  Lesser outlawry (*fjorbaugsgard*)
was a sentence of three years' banishment from the country.  Berserkergang
was thus classed with other heathen and magical practices, all unacceptable
in a Christian society (Foote and Wilson, p. 285).  Certainly where
berserkers were associated with the cult of Odhinn, and such spellcasting as
was associated with their immunity to weapons or shape-changing, this
activity would appropriately be classed as "heathen and magical."  By the
twelfth century, the berserker with his Odhinnic religion, animalistic
appearance, his inhuman frenzy upon the battlefield, and terrorism within
the Scandinavian community disappeared.  The berserk, like his patron deity
Odhinn, was forced to yeild to the dissolution of pagan society and the
advent of the White Christ.


===================================================
See Part IV:  Grendel and Berserkergang
in the next post.

If you wish to print any or all of this paper in a newsletter for the S.C.A.
or Asatru, please contact me for permission first.  In general, I will grant
permission so long as a copy of the publication that my work appears in is
mailed to me for my files. 

::GUNNORA::



Gunnora Hallakarva
Herskerinde
===========================================
Ek eigi visa (th)ik hversu o(dh)lask Lofstirrlauf-Kruna
heldr hversu na Hersis-A(dh)al