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Berserkers: Violent Viking Villains, Unverified · Ridiculous History

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  Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: the show, fellow Ridiculous Historians. We are following up with
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: what has become a warrior week here at Ridiculous History. Yeah,
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: let's give a big shout out to our super producer,
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  Speaker 1: mister Max Williams, Max.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: King. What's that thing where they pull your lungs out
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  Speaker 2: your back?
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  Speaker 1: Uh?
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  Speaker 3: An eagle, blood Eagle, Blood Eagle, Max the Blood Eagle Williams.
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, uh yeah, that's great.
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  Speaker 1: If uh, if you're like us, us being Nold Brown
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  Speaker 1: out in Ben Bullen, you're a fan of historical propaganda
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  Speaker 1: prestige television like the creatively named amazing show Vikings or
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  Speaker 1: countless Films.
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  Speaker 2: Which I think depicts the blood already a certain it does?
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  Speaker 2: It does?
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  Speaker 1: We already know the typical image of these reavers, right
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  Speaker 1: and all. They're big, they're hairy, they're smelly maniacs, they
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  Speaker 1: have horned helmets. They just want to wage war on
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  Speaker 1: the civilized world at large. They overwhelm people like a
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  Speaker 1: blitzkrieg force, and they kill their enslave everybody. They take
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  Speaker 1: whatever they can carry back on their ships. They go
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  Speaker 1: back to their own settlement to resupply, They party hard,
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  Speaker 1: they do strange rituals like a blood eagle, and then
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  Speaker 1: they question their surviving victims for information to help them
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  Speaker 1: plan the next raid, like where's the next closest village
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  Speaker 1: to you?
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  Speaker 3: Dark stuff, but you know, exciting the stuff of legend,
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  Speaker 3: the stuff of lore, and often what's that movie with
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  Speaker 3: a scar our guard recently that was did a fine
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  Speaker 3: job of depicting normand.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, indeed, yes beautiful.
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  Speaker 1: Just rewatch that actually in preparation for this, and no,
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  Speaker 1: there's something that stood out to us so much that
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  Speaker 1: we did an episode similar to this on our sister shows.
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  Speaker 1: Stuff they don't want you to know, So check that
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  Speaker 1: out if you want a different take on this. Dude,
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  Speaker 1: can you imagine us be Vikings and in our crew
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  Speaker 1: we're all hard cases, right, but in our crew we
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  Speaker 1: have this one group of fighters that even frighten us.
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  Speaker 1: They're dangerous, they're unhinged. Even when we're just hanging out
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  Speaker 1: at home. They are as likely to assault and murder
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  Speaker 1: us as they are to raid a village. We wonder
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  Speaker 1: if they're touched by gods. We wonder if they're possessed
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  Speaker 1: by evil spirits. We wonder whether they are even human
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  Speaker 1: at all. These are the berserkers.
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  Speaker 2: My love for you is like a truck berserk.
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  Speaker 3: In the next line, I can't say on the pot,
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  Speaker 3: but the following line is my love for you is
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  Speaker 3: ticking clock berserk.
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  Speaker 2: Would you like to some pot berserk?
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  Speaker 3: Sorry as Kevin's a fictional fictional song from Clerks, but
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  Speaker 3: the berserk bend. First of all, let's just get this
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  Speaker 3: out of the way. Were these big burley naked guys
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  Speaker 3: that ate a lot of drugs and scared people on
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  Speaker 3: the battlefield, Let's get to it.
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  Speaker 1: The answer is maybe, Okay, we'll see there were pelts
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  Speaker 1: involved too, right, I think there were some animal pelts
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  Speaker 1: involved too. That's what the historians are still arguing about
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  Speaker 1: thousands of years after the fact. We know that Viking,
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  Speaker 1: yeah right, and congrats to everybody writing their dissertation. So
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  Speaker 1: the Vikings, we know were a seafaring culture from the
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  Speaker 1: area of the world that is present day Denmark, Norway
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  Speaker 1: and Sweden on your map. But no, we don't really
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  Speaker 1: know where the word Viking comes from.
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  Speaker 3: That's true, which is odd. You know, we're such etymology fans.
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  Speaker 3: But the old Norse word the king gear usually was
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  Speaker 3: translated to pirate or raider. That is one of the
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  Speaker 3: theories of the etymology, but we have numerous ones, and
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  Speaker 3: one of our favorites suggests that the words origin is
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  Speaker 3: actually from Old English vising or weissing and the Old
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  Speaker 3: Frisian word whizzing.
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  Speaker 2: It makes me think of wizard powers, it makes me
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  Speaker 2: think of piek. Wait a minute, it makes on the
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  Speaker 2: electric fence. Don't do it, don't do it? And who
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  Speaker 2: are the Frisians?
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  Speaker 4: Man?
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  Speaker 2: They sound fun.
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  Speaker 1: I'm sure everybody back then was super fun and smelled
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  Speaker 1: super great. The reason we like vc or wheezing or
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  Speaker 1: vzing is because both of those words are almost three
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  Speaker 1: hundred years older than the Old Norse word viking gear.
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  Speaker 1: And those two words, the Frisian and the Old English,
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  Speaker 1: they derive from vic spelled wic, relating to the Latin
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  Speaker 1: vicus meaning village or habitation. So we have decided on
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  Speaker 1: ridiculous history that Viking as a word means the village people.
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  Speaker 1: It's fine the way at the y MCA.
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  Speaker 2: That's amazing, the village people.
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  Speaker 3: Oh Ben, And I was doing a little digging into
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  Speaker 3: so good, Yes, so good.
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  Speaker 2: I was doing a little.
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  Speaker 3: Digging into the Frisian people and They had a codex
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  Speaker 3: of law called the Lex Frisonium, which I just think
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  Speaker 3: is fun beautiful. We should get They were master fishermen.
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  Speaker 3: They were really good at dyke building.
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  Speaker 4: Uh.
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  Speaker 3: And they were also really good at like land reclamation
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  Speaker 3: and other like you know, sustainable farming techniques. So them,
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  Speaker 3: along with many other seafaring folks from the region where
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  Speaker 3: we're super innovative.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, especially when they weren't getting raided by these mad
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  Speaker 1: Max level monstrous warships down It's weird because, as our
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  Speaker 1: pal Jabbari pointed out in some previous episodes, history happens concurrently,
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  Speaker 1: not necessarily as a series of isolated distinct events. So
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  Speaker 1: at the same time that the Crusades are coming into
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  Speaker 1: play in the eighth century to about the late one
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  Speaker 1: thousands or so, the Vikings are a huge expansion force.
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  Speaker 1: They travel all the way from the Mediterranean to North Africa,
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  Speaker 1: the Middle East and Newfoundland in Canada, which they called Venland.
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  Speaker 1: That makes them, by the way, so far as history knows,
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  Speaker 1: the first Europeans to reach North America. It's weird because
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  Speaker 1: they were raiding a lot, that's what they're most well
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  Speaker 1: known for. But sometimes they would just peacefully trade with
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  Speaker 1: other cultures, especially, I think if they looked at the
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  Speaker 1: other cultures, army and bruisers said, we're gonna get our
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  Speaker 1: butts kicked if we try to fight these guys that
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  Speaker 1: particular bear. Yeah, yeah, that's not to poke, that particular berserker.
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  Speaker 1: And then they would settle in places with better weather.
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  Speaker 1: They were pretty misunderstood. They're portrayed as illiterate, uncultured, barbaric.
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  Speaker 1: At least some of this has to be trash talking
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  Speaker 1: from their regional rivals.
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  Speaker 3: Oh yeah, as is often the case, you know, when
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  Speaker 3: different cultures are depicted by the cultures who were not
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  Speaker 3: fond of them. So much of the prevailing history about
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  Speaker 3: Vikings was written century later by, as we pointed out,
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  Speaker 3: descendants of their victims, rivals and blood enemies, so similar
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  Speaker 3: stories about the Knights, Templar and the Hashishim. They were
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  Speaker 3: maligned oftentimes, but that doesn't mean that there wasn't a
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  Speaker 3: seed of truth to some of these more outland distales.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, their haters wrote the history and embellished and exaggerated
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  Speaker 1: it just like a cod piece. But but yeah, there
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  Speaker 1: was there was a country there.
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  Speaker 2: They're always it.
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  Speaker 1: All right, we'll keep it. Typologies to all the substitute
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  Speaker 1: teachers touting in. So we know that the Vikings did
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  Speaker 1: have literacy. They did make inscriptions via runs, but literacy
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  Speaker 1: was late to their cultural game, and a lot of
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  Speaker 1: what we think of as that popular Viking appearance is
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  Speaker 1: misinfo and propaganda or disinfo. Actually, the horned helmets, they
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  Speaker 1: don't make a lot of sense in realistic combat. And
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  Speaker 1: I think you, as a former wee German boy, would
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  Speaker 1: love that we we found why horned helmets became a thing.
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  Speaker 2: That's right.
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  Speaker 3: They probably started based around an illustration from an eighteen
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  Speaker 3: twenty five edition of a piece of Nordic lore. Fro
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  Speaker 3: Jesus is a tough one, Frith the Off sounds like
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  Speaker 3: I got a list, but that's how it's sled Frith
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  Speaker 3: the Off's saga. And then of course this myth and
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: this tale and collection of myths was interpreted and injected
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  Speaker 3: into the neck of popular culture through Recard Wagner's ring cycle,
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  Speaker 3: and of course the fat Ladies what sang with their
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  Speaker 3: horned helmets, the valkyries that are depicted, and my mom actually,
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  Speaker 3: as a metso soprano, played one of the valkyries in
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  Speaker 3: several multiple.
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  Speaker 1: Ways, that's awesome, dude, Toyota, that's awesome. We know that
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  Speaker 1: when we see Wagner's ring cycle get interpreted over and
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  Speaker 1: over again. There is one person responsible for this horned
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  Speaker 1: helmet idea. It's Carl Ebel Doppler. This is a costume
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  Speaker 1: designer from eighteen seventy six and had a flair for
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  Speaker 1: the dramatic way more than a flair for his oracle accuracy.
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  Speaker 1: So that's where it comes from. Another stereotype. No, were
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  Speaker 1: these guys just sewing chaos for the for the hall
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  Speaker 1: of it, for the heck of it.
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  Speaker 3: Just for the get, just for the smell of it. Well,
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  Speaker 3: I mean you already kind of addressed this, Ben, I mean,
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  Speaker 3: they were in many cases just trying to survive and
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  Speaker 3: you know, be functional and move to places where they
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  Speaker 3: could have community. But they certainly there were bands of
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  Speaker 3: bad apples I imagine within the vikings. Sure they didn't
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  Speaker 3: just wake up though, No, huh, exactly to your point, Ben,
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  Speaker 3: They didn't just wake up one day and randomly decide
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  Speaker 3: that they were going to be the agents of chaos.
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  Speaker 3: There were multiple factors that led to the spread of
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  Speaker 3: this kind of behavior. Yeah, yeah, just conquering pillaging, at
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  Speaker 3: least you know a version of it.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, Because Vikings were also farmers, they weren't always outrating,
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  Speaker 1: but the problem often came down to their home turf,
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  Speaker 1: very punishing weather, not great soil, very poor soil that
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  Speaker 1: necessitated them looking outward for sustenance. Otherwise they would and
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  Speaker 1: in several cases did, starved to death, like entire areas.
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  Speaker 1: So not every Norse person is a Viking, like not
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  Speaker 1: every puzzle is amazed. Most Vikings were more like young
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  Speaker 1: college bros on their gap year, and they were trying
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  Speaker 1: to get rich before they settled down. But as he
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  Speaker 1: said earlier, there's a grain of truth to every story,
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  Speaker 1: even the trash talking. So yes, some of these guys
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  Speaker 1: were indeed career killers. And those career killers didn't actually
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  Speaker 1: have a long work life. Their careers were pretty short.
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  Speaker 1: They met with a brutal end. And the most infamous
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  Speaker 1: of the killers are the berserker.
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  Speaker 4: The berserkers, the old Norse berserkers, the legend of the
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  Speaker 4: Old Norse berserkers, a word that roughly translates to bear
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  Speaker 4: shirt and now.
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  Speaker 3: Just means going wild. You're berserk, But not everybody agrees.
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  Speaker 3: Much like Viking, you will often also hear instead of
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  Speaker 3: And just to be clear, my initial spelling would.
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  Speaker 2: Be bear like like the creature.
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  Speaker 3: Others thought that it meant bear as in no shirt
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  Speaker 3: at all, bare or bear chested.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, tops off, party time. And it's it's weird because,
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  Speaker 1: like you were teasier earlier in the stories, these strange, implacable,
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  Speaker 1: unstoppable warriors are running into battle naked save for like
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  Speaker 1: a bear skin cloak, and they're howling like beasts. They're
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  Speaker 1: attacking not just their victims or their foes, but also
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  Speaker 1: anybody who's in their way. So, if you believe the legends,
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  Speaker 1: these are early versions of things like suicide bombers or
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  Speaker 1: Kama case divine wind. They're living weapons. They have no
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  Speaker 1: regard for their own personal safety, let alone anybody else's.
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  Speaker 5: I mean, come on right, no way, yeah, but way,
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  Speaker 5: but yes, way yeah, yeah, I'm picturing Sampson from the
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  Speaker 5: twenty eight Years Later movies, just like you know, big
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  Speaker 5: giant hanging dong and just running ats, just screaming and
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  Speaker 5: then ripping off heads. I like, twenty eight years Maybe
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  Speaker 5: not that, maybe that is a little bit, you know,
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  Speaker 5: it's a fun to think about, but now not quite
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  Speaker 5: that but of course quite something.
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  Speaker 3: Berserkers were very much a real thing, as in there
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  Speaker 3: were definitely Viking warriors. Of course, when we get to
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  Speaker 3: the Berserkers, we are hitting a boundary between fantasy and fact.
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  Speaker 3: Not everyone agrees that these guys actually ran around in
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  Speaker 3: their skivvies or under well, maybe no skivies at.
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  Speaker 2: All, commando, or under some sort of pelt a bear skin.
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  Speaker 3: Even if we think they can consider that that might
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  Speaker 3: be true, people also can't quite agree on whether it
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  Speaker 3: was a bear skin, a wolf skin, or some other
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  Speaker 3: type of animal hide. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, maybe it's propaganda because bears are scary, but the
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  Speaker 1: Vikings could have I love your point about wolves because
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  Speaker 1: the Vikings could have been wearing the skin of wolves,
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  Speaker 1: which are also common in the area, and that gives
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: us an interesting bit about speculation to resurg and so
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: wear wolf legends in Europe. By the way, if you
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: haven't seen Brotherhood of the Wolf, check it out. No spoilers.
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah, unrelated to this story, but we definitely did an
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: episode on the Beast of govel Down.
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  Speaker 2: I believe that that was based on we did, didn't we?
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  Speaker 2: We sure did. Yeah, there was.
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: Some sort of mythical beasts plaguing the French countryside and
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: it had to be stuff. But this movie definitely goes
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: way farther with that concept, and it's a hoot somehow,
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: like a kung fu movie mixed with a historical kind
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: of intrigue period piece. And then it also has like
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: some kind of sci fi kind of elements too.
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: It's really really cool, some mortal combat elements. Next up,
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  Speaker 1: we've got those rumors of super strength, because berserkers are
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: always depicted kind of like Bucky in Marvel's Winter Soldier.
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: Did you see that one? It was one of the
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: best ones of that time.
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: You like that one? Yeah? No, I remember Bucky's the
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: one with like the robot arm right.
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, Captain America's sidekick who gets
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: spoilers folks three to one, kidnapped by the Soviets and
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: then turned into a brainwashed It's like a Manurian candidate almost, right,
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  Speaker 1: Just so, yeah, So the berserkers are depicted as having
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: almost superhuman levels of physical ability but definitely not mental ability. Well,
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  Speaker 1: and that comes from or at least some speculation around
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: that that I think is also represented in that movie
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  Speaker 1: The Northmen. Is this idea that they were taking some
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: psychoactive substances to make them, you know, kind of unhinged,
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: and we've got to get to that part. We also
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  Speaker 1: have to let you know that even in the provable
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  Speaker 1: literature of the time, not written by enemies the North Sagas,
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  Speaker 1: the characters that are often interpreted as Vikings are also
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: depicted as villains in their own hometowns because they will
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  Speaker 1: assault and murder people in their own host communities during
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  Speaker 1: peacetime between raids. So what about the rumors that we're
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: teasing here about what makes them so beastly? No, we
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: got to go to Peter Pence, the curator of Danish
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: prehistory at the National Museum of Denmark. Pete breaks down
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: the pickle of this in a great interview from a
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: few years back with Millilitary History.
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  Speaker 3: According to Pens, Berserkers are mainly known from written medieval
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  Speaker 3: accounts and not from the Vikings themselves. So again we
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: kind of maybe have another slightly is there an agenda here,
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: unreliable narrator kind of thing. Pence does make a note
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  Speaker 3: at the primary written source of information on berserkers capital
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: B the real ones, not the legends, does come from
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: a guy with a fabulous name.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, fabulous name. His name is Snorri Sterlson.
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: But I would I would love it only slightly more
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: if it was Snorri Snirlsen. But it is Snorri Sterlson,
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: an Icelandic historian who lived around twelve hundred CE, which
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: is just after the golden age of vikingdom.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and our buddy Snory thinks of the berserkers. Yeah,
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: we got to go first name on that, which I just.
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  Speaker 2: Think he sounds like us.
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  Speaker 3: It's like a sleepy boy with a candle, you know,
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  Speaker 3: like and like a little sleep hat kind of clunk
• 17:56
  Speaker 3: shoeing his way through research.
• 17:58
  Speaker 6: It sounds like a Nordic knockoff of Winnie the Pooh
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  Speaker 6: A little bit.
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  Speaker 1: There it is, Uh so, Snory, we're gonna use your
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: first name for this right in. If you have a
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: problem with.
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  Speaker 2: That, uh yeah, we'll berserk. You will perserk.
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  Speaker 1: The uh berserkers in Snorri's writing are a kind of
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: holy warrior. He writes that Odin's own men went into
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  Speaker 1: battle without coats of mail and acted like mad dogs
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: or wolves. They bit their shields and were as strong
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  Speaker 1: as bears of bulls. They killed people and neither fire
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  Speaker 1: nor iron affected them. This is called berserker rage.
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  Speaker 2: Oh yes, he's hulking out. Yeah, we're going to keep
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  Speaker 2: in the in the marbledom of it all. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: So okay, So if we go back to modern day
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  Speaker 1: Pence over at the museum, we'll see that, he says,
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  Speaker 1: Snorri is going with two interpretations of berserker. You're either
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: a fighter who goes to battle like you were saying
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  Speaker 1: Nolan animal skins without armor, or you might be as
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: strong as a bearer, if not actually a bear yourself.
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  Speaker 1: So the question that becomes, why on earth would anybody
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  Speaker 1: go into battle but naked to.
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  Speaker 2: Freak out the enemy? Man?
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: Right right, you daaled it. You should work with the
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: National Museum of Denmark because that is one of their guesses.
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: They thought maybe it was a psyop man. Maybe you
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: see him running while they're hanging dong and you both
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  Speaker 1: these guys are bonkerstras.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah they are, indeed they are.
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  Speaker 3: Indeed, the museum knows that the nudity might have exactly
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: been what you said, been a psyop showing disregard for
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: their own personal safety, like those people that play Skyrim
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: with naked characters, you know or not not not Sky
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: elden Ring. But also you could do it with Skyrim.
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: But yeah, it is. It is definitely a flex, right.
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  Speaker 3: It's saying like I either think I am so such
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  Speaker 3: a badass that no one can touch me, or I'm
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: an insane person.
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: Or maybe they were.
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: Some some ven diagram of those two things as well.
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, or maybe they were thinking that they would be
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: ordering a god of war so they would be willing
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: sacrifices in the battle.
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: Now, even Kratos wore some gear though.
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: Man, that's true, that's true. That's how we got through
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: so many video games.
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: Also true. Yeah, I think you know what if you
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: heard all the hubbub with all these like internet nerds
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: that are upset that the next God of War is
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: a woman? No, why are they because they're jerks.
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: There's so many real world things to be upset about.
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: I know, Man, it's so weird.
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: Okay, well, guys, do your best.
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: I guess now, you know what, Ben, I'm gonna one
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: up beyond that one. Do better, do better?
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I agree with that. So we we also know,
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: especially if you've already checked out our episode on Nights
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: in Shining Armor, we know that there were probably horrid
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: ekin making practical issues at play, because first, armor is expensive,
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: it takes so much time from highly skilled laborers, especially
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: metal armor. And Second, honestly, folks, wearing a bunch of
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: armor slows you way down. It doesn't fit Viking rating tactics.
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: So those are about speed and overwhelming force. These are
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: hit and run jobs. Armor is not great for running,
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: so maybe it doesn't make sense for him.
• 21:25
  Speaker 3: No, and to the point we actually both made in
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: the Knights and Armor episode that we published earlier this week,
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: there is a world where the less armor you have,
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: technically you're you've got a bit of an advantage on
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: your more heavily armored opponents.
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: Potentially, Yeah, because you're nimble and they're not. You want
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: to you, I mean, it's it's like fighting a really
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: big slow dude. Do you want to wait, make him
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: slower for them to clank over to you. Yeah?
• 21:59
  Speaker 3: Right, I mean the these berserkers would largely be the
• 22:03
  Speaker 3: beefiest of the boys too, which means that they would
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: be even more expensive to armor up.
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that's a great point too. Uh, here's the
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: part we've all been righted. Do we talk to drugs
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: ban Yeah, we got to figure out how they got.
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: A rage so they do it, how they get into
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: hulk moon.
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: I don't want to put you on the spot too much,
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: but uh, you don't have to answer this, but what's
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: the most bloodthirsty and pissed that.
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: You have ever been? At one time? I took PCP?
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: No, I'm kidd I've never done that, but you do
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: hear that is a drug that comes to mind when
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: you're thinking about this kind of behavior because there have
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: been stories of it, like giving people super strength, or
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: like you know, getting hit by a car and then.
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: Jumping back up, showing away out of a three story
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: window from the cops and a ducat of rolling and
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: then sca dadling on your broken ankle.
• 23:02
  Speaker 3: Ooh skadatdling Indeed, And Ben, I don't do blood thirsty really.
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: I really only get mad when.
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: Other people are being messed with. Frankly, But I can't
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: think of an exact example. But they didn't have PCP
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: back then, so what would they have potentially been ingesting,
• 23:17
  Speaker 3: Ben that would have caused them to hulk out in
• 23:20
  Speaker 3: this fashion.
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we've got three ideas. We're going to save the
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: fun one for last. The first is religious zeal. Oh, yeah,
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: hell of a drug on its own, right, Yeah. Yeah,
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: Like in the beginning, the idea of these kinds of
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: warriors was linked to some sort of mysterious cult, an
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: inner circle of people worshiping Odin.
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: Being imbued with superpowers.
• 23:44
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: Just so, it is possible that this famous rage was
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: a result of intense religious indoctrination in the beginning, and
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: we see that unfortunately, even today, members of modern cultic
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: organizations can be manipulately into acts they wouldn't commit otherwise,
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: like you know, suicide, Bobby, I mean, the more controversial one,
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: that is my opinion, the least fun We do have
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: to mention it, nol. What if these guys were bugging
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: out and hulking out because of mental health issues.
• 24:18
  Speaker 3: M entirely possible they could have been identified and as such,
• 24:22
  Speaker 3: and they're commanding officers, let's call them, looked.
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: At it as a feature, not a bug.
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and also a way that they would potentially be
• 24:30
  Speaker 3: able to use them as cannon fodder because they lacked
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: the self awareness to literally safeguard themselves.
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: Exactly. Yeah, It's it's more piece of well thought out speculation.
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: There isn't much in the way of proofd for this
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: because obviously we didn't have like the DSM five at
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: the time, but maybe they were, as you were saying,
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: hand selected based on recognition of schizotypal conditions. So instead
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: of executing them for witchcraft or like anthropy like other
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: societies were doing. This theory argues exactly what you just said.
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: Viking authorities may have gone, hell, yeah, you're an animal.
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: We got the perfect job for you.
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: Ye put you right out in the front.
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: You know how you like running and you're always angry,
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: hop on the boat. Try not to kill any of
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: us on the boat, but you know, one or two
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: is fired.
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: That's a good point.
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: But I wonder if there was any friendly berserker behavior
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: tons apparently.
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: To this parent if you depending on the legends, you.
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: Know what I mean, friendly fire, yeah, without fire, friendly smash.
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: And they were like, well, that's what he got for
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: standing in front of us.
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: Ven, that's why don't stand in front of you. Don't
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: do it.
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: So we got to get to the third most exciting theory,
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: which I know we are privately the personally the most
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: excited about drugs. Okay, noelque break down the drug theory
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: for us for sure.
• 25:57
  Speaker 3: I mean, I think we've we've probably trickled a little
• 26:00
  Speaker 3: bit of it throughout the episode, but the idea was
• 26:03
  Speaker 3: that berserkers were often just regular folks, regular Viking warrior
• 26:08
  Speaker 3: raider types, which we know wouldn't be compared to a
• 26:11
  Speaker 3: normal citizen regular at all, But their ferocity really only
• 26:16
  Speaker 3: came into play once they ingested a particular kind of
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: hallucinogen or a psychoactive substance, often described as a combination
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: of herbs and mushrooms that to this day a lot
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: of speculation about and I know we've talked about this
• 26:29
  Speaker 3: on stuff they don't want you to know, and got
• 26:31
  Speaker 3: into some specifics about what these substances might have been.
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, what they could have been, right, because it's not
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: plausible by any means, but it is just possible because
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: we know, like in the excellent film of the north Man,
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: we know that there were rituals involving ingesting substances, right,
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: the shamanistic vulva did that. So there's historical precedent in
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: Viking communities. But in a way, is that not like
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: is that not similar to say, twentieth century Americans had
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: access to LSD and cocaine. Therefore all marines were always
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: on acid and cocaine.
• 27:12
  Speaker 3: Well, for sure, it's definitely a bit of a leap.
• 27:14
  Speaker 3: But you know, we do, of course have examples of
• 27:19
  Speaker 3: military use of stimulants. For example, it is something that
• 27:25
  Speaker 3: can give folks an edge, whether it be for sleep
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: deprivation or just making you more aggressive. You know, we
• 27:33
  Speaker 3: know that the Nazis were quite fond of their their stimulants.
• 27:37
  Speaker 6: Well, to jump in here real quick, I'm keeping this,
• 27:40
  Speaker 6: going to keep this very anonymous, but I have a
• 27:43
  Speaker 6: I have a friend of mine who was who has
• 27:46
  Speaker 6: done you know, sensitive military operations, and he was an officer,
• 27:50
  Speaker 6: and he talked about me about the presence of how
• 27:53
  Speaker 6: prevalent methmphetamines are in special operations, and he's just kind
• 27:57
  Speaker 6: of like, part of me is like, man, this is
• 28:00
  Speaker 6: with part of me is like, these guys are pretty terrifying.
• 28:03
  Speaker 6: They want to be like raised or focused while they're
• 28:05
  Speaker 6: doing this stuff.
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, like, yeah, absolutely, the use of stimulants is as
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: old as war, you know.
• 28:14
  Speaker 3: But at the same time, to Max's point, you would
• 28:17
  Speaker 3: want it to sharpen you up, not make you an
• 28:19
  Speaker 3: unhinged you know, madman.
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: You'd still want to be an asset, right because otherwise
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: you're useless to the operations. So with all this stuff
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: in mind, honestly, in our opinion, religious fervor seems to
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: be the most plausible consideration, primarily because fighting berserker style
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: might have been a one off thing for some of
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: these combatants. It may have been more like what we
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: could call an audition or a gang initiation. Because if
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: you survive and people are singing your praises and they're like,
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: this guy was awesome, running point, you've earned your stripe.
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: You become kind of a special forces or elite person.
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: So you get better job opportunities, right, you get better
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: going gigs. You can maybe become a bodyguard for the
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: political class. That's why things like, Okay, I don't love
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: this name, but there was a dude named King Harold
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: fine hair.
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: That's a fun one. That's a weird one, Like, what
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: is it King Harold receding hairline.
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know if it meant that he was
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: balding or his hair was thinning, or if it meant
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: that he just had really great claireal herbal Essence's hair.
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, lustrous and voluminous.
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, maybe he was just always kind of in the wind.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: Shaking his long hair. Maybe, but what seems most likely
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: is that something like Baserka exists or existed, we should say.
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: And they were mainly young men seeking wealth and status.
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: And if they could survive a dangerous raid, they were
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: get out of the game, you know what I mean.
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: They would buy the.
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: Farm, they would marry the girl. They would have a peaceful, much.
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: Longer life for sure.
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: And this is where we're gonna leave it today, folks. Again,
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: if you want a different look at this, check out
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: our episode on stuff they don't want you to know.
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: If you haven't checked out our episode on Knights and
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: Shining Armor, please do give that a gander on your
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: podcast platform of choice. I've been our research associate for today.
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: Big thanks to our super producer mister Max Williams, as
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: well as his anonymous and very experienced friend.
• 30:34
  Speaker 3: Indeed, huge thanks to Christopher Hasciotis and Eve's Jeffcoates here
• 30:38
  Speaker 3: in spirit, Alex Williams who composed our.
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: Theme, Jonathan Strickland aka the quist A, j Bahamas, Jacob's Doctor,
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: Rachel big Spinach, Lance and Ben.
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: You know what. I've said it before and I'll say
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: it again.
• 30:52
  Speaker 3: Huge thanks to you and an excellent job on the
• 30:54
  Speaker 3: berserk research you did.
• 30:56
  Speaker 5: On this one.
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: Thanks Man, and I thought we did a really good
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: job navigating that sensitive drug conversation.
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: I think so too.
• 31:04
  Speaker 3: Not so much with the DOM conversation, but Reord, we
• 31:07
  Speaker 3: do our level best.
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I can't win the wall.
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: We'll see you next, Tie Polks.
• 31:17
  Speaker 3: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
• 31:21
  Speaker 3: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.