Berserkergang, Part 2

[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 II:  Going Berserk --- a Description of the Berserkergang
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           The actual fit or madness the berserk experienced was known as
*berserkergang*.  This condition is described as follows:

        This fury, which was called berserkergang, occurred not only
        in the heat of battle, but also during laborious work.  Men who
        were thus seized performed things which otherwise seemed
        impossible for human power.  This condition is said to have
        begun with shivering, chattering of the teeth, and chill in the 
        body, and then the face swelled and changed its color.  With 
        this was connected a great hot-headedness, which at last 
        gave over into a great rage, under which they howled as wild 
        animals, bit the edge of their shields, and cut down everything 
        they met without dicriminating bewteen friend or foe.  When 
        this condition ceased, a great dulling of the mind and feeble-
        ness followed, which could last for one or several days 
        (Fabing, p. 234).

        Hrolf's Saga speaks similarly of King Halfdan's berserks:

        On these giants fell sometimes such a fury that they could not 
        control themselves, but killed men or cattle, whatever came in 
        their way and did not take care of itself.  While this fury lasted 
        they were afraid of nothing, but when it left them they were so 
        powerless that they did not have half of their strength, and were 
        as feeble as if they had just come out of bed from a sickness.  
        This fury lasted about one day (Ibid.).

        During the berserkergang, the berserk seemed to lose all human
reason, a condition in which he could not distinguish between friend and
enemy, and which was marked by animalistic screaming.  In Arrow-Odd's Saga,
Odd remarks upon hearing a group of berserkers, "Sometimes I seem to hear a
bull bellowing or a dog howling, and sometimes it's like people screaming"
(Edwards and Palsson, Arrow-Odd, p. 40).  This lack of awareness is clearly
seen in Egils saga Skallagrimsonar, when the berserkergang came upon Egil's
father, Skallagrim, as he played a ball game with his son and another young boy:

        Skallagrim grew so powerful that he picked Thord up bodily 
        and dashed him down so hard that every bone in his body 
        was broken and he died on the spot.  Then Skallagrim 
        grabbed Egil.

Egil was saved by a servant woman, who was slain herself before Skallagrim
came out of his fit, but had she not intervened, Skallagrim would certainly
have killed his own son (Palsson and Edwards, Egil's Saga, pp. 94-95).  

        Another characteristic of berserkergang was the great strength
showed by the berserk.  This strength was sometimes expressed in the sagas
by describing the berserker as a giant or as a troll.  The berserker was
thought not only to have assumed the ferocity of an animal, but also to have
acquired the strength of the bear.  In token of this, the berserk might
assume a "bear name," that is, a name containing the element *bjorn* or
*biorn*, such as Gerbiorn, Gunbiorn, Arinbiorn, Esbiorn or Thorbiorn (Saxo
Grammaticus.  The History fo the Danes.  trans. Peter Fisher.  Totowa NJ:
Rowman and Littlefield.  1979.  Vol II, p. 95).  Bjarki, whose name means
"Little Bear," was said to actually take the shape of the bear in combat.

        To gain this bear-like strength, the berserk might drink the blood
of a bear or wolf (Ibid., p. 45):

        Straight away bring your throat to its steaming blood and devour
        the feast of its body with ravenous jaws.  Then new force will 
        enter your frame, an unlooked-for vigor will come to your muscles,
        accumulation of solid strength soak through every sinew" 
        (Saxo, Vol. I, p. 25).

        The aftermath of the berserkergang was characterized by complete
physical disability.  Egils saga Skallagrimssonar says:

        What peoplke say about shape-changers or those who go into 
        berserk fits is this:  that as long as they're in the frenzy they're 
        so strong that nothing is too much for them, but as soon as 
        they're out of it they become much weaker than normal.  That's 
        how it was with Kveldulf; as soon as the frenzy left him he felt 
        so worn out by the battle he'd been fighting, and grew so weak 
        as a result of it all that he had to take to his bed (Palsson and 
        Edwards, Egil's Saga, p. 72).

A common technique used by saga heroes to overcome berserks was to catch
them after their madness had left them, as Hjalmar and Arrow-Odd do in
Herverar Saga, and slay the berserkers while they lay in their enfeebled
state after their fury (Christopher Tolkein, trans.  The Saga of King
Heidrek the Wise.  NY:  Thomas Nelson & Sons.  1960. pp. 5-7).

===================================================
See Part III:  The Role of the Berserker in Viking Society
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
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