In this history documentary we explore one of the most famous units of Viking History, the berserkers. We begin by describing the main traits of a Viking berserker. The first is their animalistic qualities. This is actually tied to the broad trend of animal-human hybrids which appear in civilizations across the world. The Berserkers appear to have emerged from the norse version of this tradition with their sagas being filled with many instances of norse gods, legendary figures, and mortals transforming into all kinds of animals. The berserkers were just a subset of this group.
One of the next qualities of a Berserker was their rage, known as the berserkergang. This involved the viking warrior devolving into a rage filled state which might see them begin to bite their teeth and howl. The norse saga tradition has many tales of how this berserker rage led to much bloodletting of friend and foe. This leads us to the next quality of the berserker, their rejection by the community. This is a result of the way their violence threatened cultural taboos of loyalty and honor.
With this established we then talk about the viking weapons and armor which would have been used by the berserkers. Berserker armor is usually described as consisting of nothing but a shield however we speculate that they likely wore better gear, especially if they served in a noble's retinue. We then talk about training, initiation rights, and battle tactics. Finally we conclude by looking at their service history in viking warfare across the years.
