NORDIC WARRIORS SYMBOLS PLUS

When this fever abated, they were weak and tame. According to belief, during these fits, they were immune to steel and fire, and made great havoc in the ranks of the enemy. They would howl like wild beasts, foam at the mouth, and gnaw the rims of their shields. In battle, the berserkers were subject to fits of frenzy. The bear-warrior symbolism survives to this day in the form of the bearskin caps worn by the guards of the Danish monarchs. The bodies of dead berserkers were laid out in bearskins prior to their funeral rites. The berserkers maintained their religious observances despite their fighting prowess, as the Svarfdæla saga tells of a challenge to single-combat that was postponed by a berserker until three days after Yule. It is proposed by some authors that the berserkers drew their power from the bear and were devoted to the bear cult, which was once widespread across the northern hemisphere. Berserkers – bear warriors The runestone Vg 56 at Källby in Västergötland, which may show a berserker in animal skin. In the spring of 1870, four cast-bronze dies, the Torslunda plates, were found by Erik Gustaf Pettersson and Anders Petter Nilsson in a cairn on the lands of the farm No 5 Björnhovda in Torslunda parish, Öland, Sweden, one of them showing what appears to be a berserker ritual. Nowhere else in history are Germanic bear-warriors and wolf-warriors fighting together recorded until 872 AD with Thórbiörn Hornklofi's description of the battle of Hafrsfjord when they fought together for King Harald Fairhair of Norway. Scene 36 on the column shows some of these warriors standing together, with some wearing bearhoods and some wearing wolfhoods. There are warriors depicted as barefoot, bare-chested, bearing weapons and helmets that are associated with the Germani.

NORDIC WARRIORS SYMBOLS PLUS

The scenes show his Roman soldiers plus auxiliaries and allies from Rome's border regions, including tribal warriors from both sides of the Rhine. The bas relief carvings on Trajan's column in Rome depict scenes of Trajan's conquest of Dacia in 101–106 AD. Three main animal cults appeared: the cult of the bear, the wolf, and the wild boar. It is proposed by some authors that the northern warrior tradition originated from hunting magic. Thirteenth-century historian Snorri Sturluson interpreted the meaning as 'bare-shirt', that is to say that the warriors went into battle without armour, but that view has largely been abandoned. It likely means ' bear-shirt' (compare the Middle English word ' serk, meaning 'shirt'), 'someone who wears a coat made out of a bear's skin'. The Old Norse form of the word was berserkr (plural berserkir). Berserkers are attested to in numerous Old Norse sources.Įtymology A modern reenactor in Germany In the Old Norse written corpus, berserker were those who were said to have fought in a trance-like fury, a characteristic which later gave rise to the modern English word berserk (meaning 'furiously violent or out of control'). It probably depicts one-eyed Odin guiding a Berserker. One of the Vendel era Torslunda plates found on Öland, Sweden. For other uses, see Berserker (disambiguation) and Zerker (disambiguation).

Nordic warriors symbols