Book Review
Dale, Roderick, The Myths and Realities of the Viking Berserkr (London: Routledge, 2022), 208 pp., $54.99 (pbk), IBSN: 9781032164205.
The word berserk has taken on a number of meanings in the modern English language. Its use calls to mind the image of a frenzied, violent, and animal-like warrior on the battlefield who is immune to any attacks against him. In contemporary consciousness and usage, the word has become synonymous with a fit of insanity, and ‘going berserk’ means losing one’s senses or becoming in some way out of control. In addition to this, berserkers feature prominently in popular culture reimaginings of the Viking Age. Such understandings inform how the figure of the Viking Age berserkr (pl. berserkir) is read in primary source materials, and for popular and scholarly audiences alike have painted a somewhat one-dimensional picture of this figure and his relationship to society.
In this monograph, which is a development of his PhD thesis, Roderick Dale revisits the Viking Age berserkr and rexamines the place of the berserkir in Viking Age and medieval anthropological, archaeological, and literary sources in an effort to present a better and more nuanced understanding of how people living in Scandinavia during the Viking Age and Middle Ages understood this figure and what he represented. The study comprises six chapters, which are prefaced by an introduction and which are followed by two appendices.
Chapter One aims at providing a working definition of the berserkr. Dale begins with the Old Norse literary sources in which berserkir feature, noting that they appear in 14 out of the 40 Icelandic family sagas (Íslendingasögur), with even greater representation when taking into consideration other literary genres and works (such as the fornaldarsögur [legendary sagas] and Saxo Grammaticus’ Gesta Danorum). Dale outlines previous scholarly interpretations of the berserkir before proposing and defining five broad and functional group types, into which all examples of berserkir in the Viking Age and medieval sources may be categorized: King’s berserkr; hall-challenging berserkr; Hólmgöngumaðr (duellist); viking berserkr; and Christian berserkr. Dale concludes that ‘what is missing from the literary descriptions of berserkir are descriptions of men stripping off their clothes in a frenzy or of men wearing bear or wolfskins’ (p. 21).
Chapter Two explores the central question of whether the berserkir were universally monstrous characters in Old Norse literature, as they tend to be in popular culture representations of them. Dale points out that in Old Norse literature, monstrosity did not mean animalistic or frenzied, but rather a threat to order and the status quo. In this way, berserkir of various types were monstrous—and may have been viewed as even more so in those instances in which they did adopt animalistic qualities. Ethnicity and names also were markers of alterity for berserkir in the literary sources, and several naming patterns may be identified in not only the Íslendingasögur and the fornaldarsögur, but also Norwegian charter evidence. The chapter concludes with considerations of the special powers attributed to the berserkir, as well as shapeshifting, which draws on both literary and image-based evidence, all of which makes clear each particular representation of a berserkr must be considered individually.
Chapter Three concentrates on the history of the iconic berserksgangr (berserkr fit or frenzy). Dale begins with the etymology of the word and a description of those physical signals that accompany the state. Early research on the berserkrsgangr is considered, which sought to explain how it was caused by demonic forces or black magic. A much longer section of the chapter focuses on the various substances, illnesses (physical and psychological), and religious practices that since the seventeenth century have been argued to have induced the berserksgangr. Dale concludes by examining saga examples and patterns, which suggest that medieval authors and audiences did not regard the berserksgangr state as one of uncontrollable frenzy.
The etymological focus continues in Chapter Four, which seeks to explain the etymology and meaning of not only berserkr, but also the related úlfheðinn (wolfskin, pl. úlfheðnar). It includes a discussion of the etymology of the Old Norse berserkr, which may mean either ‘bare-shirt’ or ‘wearing a bearskin’ but is best translated to modern English as ‘champion’. Dale also considers how medieval audiences understood the term berserkr, and what it meant to them. Chapter Five turns from the medieval literary sources to the sources available from Scandinavians during the Viking Age, to better understand what berserkir meant to people living in Scandinavia prior to the time of the sagas. Since no runic evidence includes references to berserkir, the Viking Age written evidence Dale relies upon is skaldic verse, as it would have changed very little in transmission due to its complex and rigid poetic diction, as well as law codes. He then links literary depictions of berserkr in initiation rituals to archaeological evidence that confirms such practices existed prior to the Middle Ages. The concept of the Odinnic warrior is also considered through artefactual evidence, which suggests that people in the Viking Age, too, would have seen berserkir as champions and as warriors closely linked to nobility.
In Chapter Six, Dale concludes that ‘by picking out and analysing only the episodes that feature berserkir and only from a limited range of texts, scholars have failed to address the full meaning of who and what a berserkr could be and are not presenting a complete picture’ (p. 157). Dale’s study takes a ‘holistic and medial approach’, which makes a distinction between the historical reality of the berserkr and his interpretations in Old Norse literature, and the various nuances and complexities within even these representations. Summaries of the preceding chapters are offered by way of conclusion, and are followed by two appendices. Appendix 1 is a list of names of berserkir in Old Norse literature and where they might be found, and indicates how common (or uncommon) these names are in Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. Appendix 2 presents in Old Norse and English translation those three strophes from Haraldskvæði, which contain the earliest known references to berserkir.
This is an outstanding and much-needed study of a Viking Age and medieval figure that is well-known but widely misunderstood, both in popular imagination but also within scholarship. Dale’s work is exemplary in the way in its interdisciplinary approach to the sources, how it brings archaeological and anthropomorphic evidence into conversation with written sources ranging from saga literature and mythological texts to law codes and historical records, and, most importantly, how it recognized nuance, complexity, and the need to consider individual examples within their specific contexts. This will certainly be a foundational study for any scholarship on or related to not only the figure of the berserkr, but Viking Age and Old Norse society more generally.
Natalie M. Van Deusen
University of Alberta