Editing Vikings (section)

==Viking Berserkers==
There's lot of bullshit about these guys on the internet and in general beliefs. Hell, the word itself had became the synonym of uncontrollable rage in many languages. The truth, however, is quite boring - berserkers (which comes from the Old Norse for "bear hide", as it was their signature piece of clothes they wore above armor, or sometimes instead of it) were equivalents of champions in the Norse culture with a pitch of warrior-priest flavor added - i.e. the guys who fought in duels on behalf of the tribe or some wealthy noble. And Norse culture had a fuckton of things settled with duels. As best of the best professional warriors among already brutally strong vikings they kicked all kinds of asses, and were rightfully feared for their skill and bravery. As you may guess, they where quite rare, so no "hordes" or even "squads" of berserkers for you - at best you'd have two or three per raid, and most often only one. As for uncontrollable rage... well, sagas mention a total of ZERO berserkers going into what we now call "[[Khorne|berserker]] rage" - there are mentions of jarls and ordinary warriors going to battle biting shields, foaming with mad anger and killing friend and foe alike, but never berserkers. WRONG:

{{topquote|-And as the foemen's ships drew near,<br>The dreadful din you well might hear<br>Savage berserks roaring mad,<br>And champions fierce in wolf-skins clad,<br>Howling like wolves; and clanking jar.|Harald Fairhair Saga ch 19.}} 

...so yeah as can be gleamed from this own article, knowing what's true from the many-myths on the berserkers has been difficult for historians and a true concensus on them hasn't occurred yet, especially since the practice seems to have believed in by contemporary Norsemen themselves with the Norwegian "Gray Goose Laws" outlawing berserkers while of course medieval law and culture in Norway still used champions themselves to settle disputes like the rest of medieval Europe (and so the prosaic explanation of berserkers simply being the Norse synonym for champions meaning none of the crazy tales associated with them have a single grain of truth to them doesn't completely fit).

It's been said their prowess was explained by taking a mushroom brew painkiller allowing them to fight despite heavy or even fatal wounds though this has never been confirmed or replicated in anyway so if this theory was at all true, the proof of it seems to have been quite lost.