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Berserks and Wolfcoats

In the pagan era, before Scandinavia was converted to Christianity, the berserkir were looked upon as possessing supernatural powers attributed to the Vikings' chief god, Odin. Ynglinga Saga records how in battle they 'rushed forward without armour, were as mad as dogs or wolves, bit their shields and were as strong as bears or wild boars, and killed people at a single blow, while neither fire nor iron could hurt them. This was called the berserk fury.' Today, we still refer to someone in a mad rage as having 'gone berserk'.

In reality this berserk fury was probably a form of paranoia, possibly related to a belief in lycanthropy, while in some cases it may even have been prompted by an epileptic attack. Whatever it was, it was clearly an hereditary condition rather than something that could be learnt. One account actually tells us that a particular man's 12 sons were all berserks: 'It was their custom, if they were with their own men when they felt the berserk fury coming on, to go ashore and wrestle with large stones or trees; otherwise in their rage they would have slain their friends.'

Evidence for belief in lycanthropy can be found in Volsunga Saga, wherein we are told that Sigmund and his son Sinfjotli donned wolfskins, used the speech of wolves and howled when attacked; and in the legend of Hrolf Kraki, whose berserk champion, Bothvar Bjarki, reputedly fought in the likeness of a huge bear. Certainly wolves and bears are the animals most frequently associated with berserks, for whom an alternative name was in fact ulfhednar ('wolfcoats' or 'wolfskin-clad ones'). This would seem to confirm beyond reasonable doubt that berserkir originally meant 'bear-shirt', and not 'bare-shirt' as has so often been suggested.

The Hrafnsmal describes berserks as men of great valour who never flinched in battle. This, along with the special favour with which Odin clearly regarded them, meant that they were to be found among the bodyguards of most pagan Viking kings, a troop of 12 being most commonly encountered in the sources. They fought in the forefront of every land-battle and from the forecastle of the king's ship at sea. Harald Fairhair's Saga relates how on his ship 'the forecastle men were picked men for they had the king's banner. From the stem to the mid-hold was called the rausn, or the fore-defence; and there the berserks were to be found. Such men only were received into King Harald's house-troop as were remarkable for strength, courage, and all kinds of dexterity; and they alone got a place in his ship.' It was probably berserks to whom Snorri Sturlusson was referring in his description of the Battle of Svöldr in 1000, where some men on King Olaf's ship forgot they were not fighting on land and 'rushed madly at the enemy, fell overboard and were drowned'.

In later, Christian Iceland the berserk fury was actually outlawed, and berserks were regarded as some sort of ungodly fiend, whom the sagas represented as mindless bullies fit only to be cut down by an appropriate hero. It is possible that this attitude was also adopted in Christian Scandinavia.



The Raven standard

From the outset Viking armies had probably been accompanied by war-flags (gunnefanes) bearing devices such as fanged, winged monsters: so at least we may suppose from the Fulda Annals' description of their standards as signia hombilia; and we know that even the Christian king Olaf Tryggvasson had a white standard bearing a serpent. However, the most widely-recorded Viking standards were those bearing raven devices. Cnut, for instance, had a raven-embroidered white silk flag at the Battle of Ashingdon in 1016, while the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records the capture of a standard actually called Reafan ('Raven') as early as 878. According to the Annals of St Neots, if 'Reafan' fluttered it signified a Viking victory, but if it drooped it meant a defeat.

Similar magical properties were attributed to the raven standard of Earl Sigurd of Orkney. It had been made for him by his mother, who was reputedly a sorceress, and is described as 'very cleverly embroidered in the shape of a raven, and when the banner fluttered in the breeze it seemed as if the raven spread its wings'. According to Orkneyinga Saga Sigurd's mother gave it to him with the warning that 'it will bring victory to the man it's carried before, but death to the one who carries it'. Sure enough, in the very first engagement in which it was carried Sigurd's standard-bearer was killed as soon as battle commenced: 'The earl told another man to pick up the banner but before long he was killed too. The earl lost three standard-bearers, but he won the battle.'

Some years later the same standard actually accompanied Earl Sigurd at the Battle of Clontarf. Njal's Saga records how Kerthjalfad, a foster-son of the Irish High King Brian Boru, 'burst through Earl Sigurd's ranks right up to the banner, and killed the standard-bearer. The earl ordered someone else to carry the standard, and the fighting flared up again. Kerthjalfad at once killed the new standard-bearer and all those who were near him. Earl Sigurd ordered Thorstein Hallsson to carry the standard, and Thorstein was about to take it when Amundi the White said, "Don't take the banner, Thorstein. All those who bear it get killed." "Hrafn the Red," said the earl, "you take the standard." "Carry your own devil yourself," said Hrafn. The earl then said, "A beggar should carry his own bundle", and he ripped the flag from its staff and tucked it under his clothing. A little later Amundi the White was killed, and then the earl himself died with a spear through him.'

In the same way that Sigurd's raven standard was woven by his mother, the 'Reafan' standard captured by the Saxons in 878 is recorded to have been woven for the Danish commander there—a son of Ragnar Lodbrok (probably Ubbi)—by his own sisters. The undisguised implication was that they too must have been sorceresses, responsible for imbuing it with its victory-bringing powers. Indeed, the ability of a raven standard to impart victory was deep-rooted in pagan Scandinavian religion, since the raven was the bird of Odin, the god of war, and was associated with battlefield slaughter throughout the Germanic world. It therefore seems likely that Harald Hardrada's flag Landeythan ('Landwaster') similarly bore a raven, since it 'was said to bring victory to the man before whom it was borne in battle—and that had been so ever since he got it'. Even as late as King Sverri of Norway's reign (1184-1202) we read, in Sverri's Saga, of a lenderman saying: 'Let us hoist the standard before the king . . . and let us hew a sacrifice beneath the raven's talons.'

The Plates


Date: 2015-12-11; view: 738


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