The meaning of the berserk tattoo on the shoulder. Berserkers are the violent Viking special forces. Pets for Bers

Word to him: And maybe about the berserker wars? I wonder if I did it or not :)”

Succeeded, you can. An interesting topic of ancient legends, let's find out more...

The history of mankind is full of legends and myths. Each epoch inscribes a new page in this volume covered with the dust of time. Many of them have sunk into oblivion, never surviving to this day. But there are traditions over which centuries have no power. Tales of warriors possessing inhuman abilities - immune to physical pain and unafraid in the face of death - are among this number. References to super-soldiers can be found in almost every nation. But berserkers stand apart in this row - the heroes of the Scandinavian sagas and epics, whose very name has become a household name. And here's an interesting piece of legend. Sometimes truth and fiction are so intertwined in them that it is hardly possible to separate one from the other.

For several centuries, the Vikings were the worst nightmare in Europe. When the snake-headed boats of brutal aliens appeared on the horizon, the population of the surrounding lands, seized with chilling horror, sought salvation in the forests. The scope of the devastating campaigns of the Normans is amazing even today, after almost a thousand years. In the east, they paved the famous path "from the Varangians to the Greeks", gave rise to the princely dynasty of Rurikovich, and for more than two centuries took an active part in the life of Kievan Rus and Byzantium. In the west, the Vikings, since the 8th century. having settled Iceland and the south of Greenland, they kept the Irish and Scottish coasts in constant fear.

And from the 9th century. moved the boundaries of their raids not only far south - to the Mediterranean Sea, but also deep into European lands, ruining London (787), Bordeaux (840), Paris (885) and Orleans (895) . Red-bearded foreigners seized entire estates, sometimes not inferior in size to the possessions of many monarchs: in the north-west of France they founded the duchy of Normandy, and in Italy - the Kingdom of Sicily, from where they made campaigns to Palestine long before the crusaders. Terrorizing the population of European cities, warlike Scandinavians even had the honor of being mentioned in prayers: "God, deliver us from the Normans!". But there were warriors among the northern barbarians, before whom the Vikings themselves experienced mystical awe. They knew perfectly well that falling under the hot hand of a berserker tribesman was like death, and therefore they always tried to stay away from these brothers in arms.

WITH ONE IN THE FIELD WARRIORS

The ancient Scandinavian sagas brought to us legends about invincible warriors who, overwhelmed by fighting fury, burst into the ranks of enemies with one sword or ax, crushing everything in their path. Modern scientists do not doubt their reality, but much of the history of berserkers remains an unsolved mystery today.

Following the established tradition, we will call them berserkers (although a more accurate term is bjorsjörk, that is, “bear-like”). Along with the bear warrior, there was also an ulfhedner - "wolf-headed", wolf warrior. Probably, these were different incarnations of the same phenomenon: many of those who are called berserkers were nicknamed “Wolf” (ulf), “Wolf skin”, “Wolf mouth”, etc. However, the name “Bear” (bjorn) is no less common.

It is believed that for the first time berserkers are mentioned in a drape (long poem) by the skald Thorbjorn Hornklovi, an Old Norse literary monument. We are talking about the victory of King Harald the Fair-Haired, the founder of the Kingdom of Norway, in the battle of Havrsfjord, which took place presumably in 872. “Berserkers, dressed in bear skins, growled, shook their swords, bit the edge of their shield in rage and rushed at their enemies. They were possessed and felt no pain even if they were hit by a spear. When the battle was won, the warriors fell exhausted and fell into a deep sleep” – this is how an eyewitness and participant in those events described the entry into battle of the legendary warriors.

Most of the references to berserkers are in the sagas of the 9th-11th centuries, when the Vikings (Normans) on their high-speed dragon ships terrified the peoples of Europe. It seemed that nothing could resist them. Under the blows of the Vikings, such large cities as London, Bordeaux, Paris, Orleans fell already in the VIII-IX centuries. What can we say about small towns and villages, the Normans devastated them in a matter of hours. Often, in the occupied territories, they created their own states, for example, the Duchy of Normandy and the Kingdom of Sicily.

Who were these fighters? Berserkers or berserkers were called the Vikings, who from an early age devoted themselves to serving Odin - the supreme Scandinavian deity, the lord of the wonderful hall of Valhalla, where, after death, the souls of warriors who heroically fell on the battlefield and deserved the favor of heaven allegedly went to an eternal feast. Before the battle, the berserkers introduced themselves into a special kind of combat trance, due to which they were distinguished by great strength, endurance, quick reactions, insensitivity to pain and increased aggressiveness. By the way, the etymology of the word "berserk" is still controversial in scientific circles. Most likely, it is formed from the Old Norse "berserkr", which translates either as "bear skin" or "shirtless" (the root ber can mean both "bear" and "naked", and serkr - "skin", "shirt "). Supporters of the first interpretation point to a direct connection between the berserkers, who wore clothes made of bearskins, and the cult of this totem animal. The “naked shirts”, on the other hand, emphasize the fact that the berserkers went into battle without chain mail, naked to the waist.

Bronze plate of the 8th century. Thorslund, Fr. Öland, Sweden

Fragmentary information about the berserkers can also be gleaned from the Younger Edda, a collection of Old Norse mythical tales written by Snorri Sturluson. The Ynglinga Saga says the following: “The men of Odin rushed into battle without chain mail, but raged like mad dogs or wolves. In anticipation of a fight, from the impatience and rage that bubbled in them, they gnawed their shields and hands with their teeth until they bled. They were strong, like bears or bulls. With an animal roar they smashed the enemy, and neither fire nor iron harmed them ... ". An Old Norse poet claimed that "Odin could make his enemies go blind or deaf in battle, or be overcome with fear, or their swords become no sharper than sticks." The connection of berserkers with the cult of the main god of the Scandinavian pantheon has other confirmations. Even the translation of Odin's numerous names indicates his insane and furious nature: Wotan ("possessed"), Ygg ("terrible"), Heryan ("militant"), Hnikar ("sower of discord"), Belverk ("villain"). To match their heavenly patron were the nicknames of the berserkers, who gave the "lord of wrath" a vow of fearlessness. For example, Harold the Merciless, who got involved in battle earlier than others, or the Norman leader John defeated in 1171 near Dublin, who had the nickname Wode, that is, “The Madman”.

It is no coincidence that berserkers were a privileged part of the military class, a kind of "special forces" of the Vikings. And it was not at all spontaneous violence or sacrificial folly on the lists that made them such. It’s just that they always opened the battle, conducting a demonstration, and in most cases a winning duel in full view of the entire army. In one of the chapters of Germania, the ancient Roman writer Tacitus wrote about berserkers: “As soon as they reached adulthood, they were allowed to grow their hair and beard, and only after killing the first enemy they could style them ... Cowards and others walked with loose hair. In addition, the most daring wore an iron ring, and only the death of the enemy freed them from wearing it. Their task was to anticipate every battle; they always formed the front line." A squad of berserkers with their very appearance made the enemies tremble. Storming cities as a fighting vanguard, they left behind only mountains of corpses of defeated enemies. And after the berserkers, well-armed, armored infantry advanced, completing the rout. If you believe the literary monuments, then the Old Norse kings often used berserkers as personal guards, which once again confirms their military elitism. One of the sagas says that the Danish king Hrolf Krake had 12 berserkers in his bodyguards at once.

FROM THE DOSSIER. “Berserk is a mechanism exploded by ferocious passion, adrenaline, ideological attitude, breathing techniques, sound vibrations and a mechanical program of action. He does not fight for anything, but only to win. Berserker does not have to prove that he will survive. He must pay for his life many times over. Berserker not only goes to die, he goes to get furious pleasure from this process. By the way, that's why he stays alive most of the time."

“There is a rapture in battle…”

EVERYTHING of the evidence depicts the berserkers as ferocious fighters who fought with a wild, downright magical passion. So what is the secret of the fury of the berserkers, as well as their insensitivity to injury and pain: was it the result of drug intoxication, a hereditary disease, or special psychophysical training?

Currently, there are several versions explaining this phenomenon. The first is the possession of the "animal spirit". Ethnographers confirm that something similar was noted among many peoples. In moments when the “spirit” takes possession of a person, he does not feel pain or fatigue. But as soon as this state ends, the obsessed almost instantly falls asleep, as if turned off. In general, werewolf as a military practice was widespread in antiquity and the Middle Ages. Traces of "turning into a beast", of course, not in a literal sense, but in a ritual and psycho-behavioral sense, can be found in modern military lexicons and heraldic symbols. The custom of assigning the names of predatory animals to special forces in order to emphasize their elitism also originates in the deep past. The ancient Germans imitated the beast, he played the role of a mentor during initiation, when a young man, joining the ranks of adult warriors, demonstrated his combat skills, dexterity, courage and bravery. The victory of man over the totemic animal, which was considered the ancestor and patron of this tribe, meant the transfer of the most valuable animal qualities to the warrior. It was believed that in the end the beast did not die, but was embodied in the hero who defeated him. Modern psychology has long ago revealed the mechanisms by which a person "gets used" to the image of the being whose role he is playing at the moment. Berserkers, growling and putting on bear skins, seemed to actually become bears. Of course, the bestial masquerade was by no means the know-how of the Normans.

The well-known Munich ethnologist Professor Hans-Joachim Paprot is sure that the cult of the bear appeared much earlier and was more widespread. “Already in the Stone Age drawings, for example in the cave of Trois-Freret in Southern France, we find images of dancers in bearskins. And the Swedish and Norwegian Laplanders celebrated the annual bear festival until the last century, ”says the scientist. The Austrian Germanist Professor Otto Höfler believes that a deep meaning was laid in animal disguise. “It was understood as a transformation not only by the audience, but also by those who change clothes. If a dancer or a warrior dressed in a bearskin, then the strength of a wild animal, of course, in a figurative sense, passed into it. He acted and felt like a bear. Echoes of this cult can still be seen today, for example, in the bearskin hats of the English Royal Guards guarding the Tower of London,” he says. And in Danish folklore, there is still a certainty that anyone who puts on an iron collar can turn into a werebear.

Modern science knows that the human nervous system can produce substances that are similar in composition and action to drugs. They act directly on the "pleasure centers" of the brain. It can be assumed that the berserkers were, as it were, hostages of their own rage. They were forced to look for dangerous situations to engage in a fight, if not provoke them at all. One of the Scandinavian sagas speaks of a man who had 12 sons. All of them were berserkers: “It has become their custom, being among their own and feeling a fit of rage, to go from the ship to the shore and throw big stones there, uproot trees, otherwise in their rage they would cripple or kill relatives and friends.” The phrase "there is rapture in battle" took on a literal meaning. Later Vikings, for the most part, still managed to control such attacks. Sometimes they even entered a state that in the East is called "enlightened consciousness." Those who mastered this art became truly phenomenal warriors.

During the attack, the berserker seemed to “become” the corresponding beast. At the same time, he threw away a defensive weapon (or acted with it not for its intended purpose: for example, he bit into his shield with his teeth, plunging the enemy into shock), and in some cases - offensive; all Scandinavian Vikings were able to fight with their hands, but the berserkers clearly stood out even at their level.

Many paramilitary strata considered unarmed combat shameful. Among the Vikings, this postulate took the following form: it is a shame not to be able to fight with a weapon, but there is nothing shameful in the ability to conduct an unarmed battle. It is curious that as an auxiliary (and sometimes the main - if he fought without a sword) weapon, the berserker used stones, a stick picked up from the ground or a club stocked up in advance.

This is partly due to the deliberate entry into the image: it is not appropriate for the beast to use weapons (stone and stick are natural weapons). But, probably, archaism is also manifested in this, following the ancient schools of martial arts. The sword entered Scandinavia rather late, and even after its widespread use, it was for some time not in honor of the berserkers, who preferred a club and an ax, with which they struck circular blows from the shoulder, without connecting the brush. The technique is quite primitive, but the degree of mastery of it was very high.

On Trajan's column in Rome, we see a "shock squad" of such animal warriors (not yet berserkers). They are included in the Roman army and are partly forced to follow customs, but only a few have helmets (and no one has shells), some are dressed in animal skins, others are half-naked and clutch a club instead of a sword ... One must think that this did not reduce their combat effectiveness, otherwise the emperor Trajan, whose guard they were, would have been able to insist on rearmament.

Usually, it was the berserkers who started each battle, terrifying enemies with their very appearance. According to the sagas, they did not use armor, preferring a bearskin to them. In some cases, a shield is mentioned, the edges of which they gnawed in fury before the battle. The main weapons of the berserkers were a battle ax and a sword, which they owned to perfection. One of the first references to invincible warriors that has come down to us was left by the skald Thorbjorn Hornklovi, who at the end of the 9th century composed a saga about the victory in the battle of Havrsfjord of King Harald the Fair-Haired, the creator of the Norwegian kingdom. It is highly likely that his description is documented: “The berserkers, dressed in bearskins, growled, shook their swords, bit the edge of their shield in rage and rushed at their enemies. They were possessed and felt no pain even if they were hit by a spear. When the battle was won, the warriors fell exhausted and fell into a deep sleep. Similar descriptions of the actions of berserkers in battle can be found in other authors.

For example, in the Ynglinga saga: “The men of Odin rushed into battle without chain mail, but raged like mad dogs or wolves. In anticipation of a fight, from the impatience and rage that bubbled in them, they gnawed their shields and hands with their teeth until they bled. They were strong, like bears or bulls. With an animal roar they smashed the enemy, and neither fire nor iron harmed them ... ". We noticed that this time it is mentioned that they were warriors of Odin, the supreme deity of the Scandinavians, to whom, after death in battle, the souls of great warriors go to feast with the same brave men and enjoy the love of heavenly maidens. Apparently, berserkers were representatives of a special group (caste) of professional warriors who were trained for battles from childhood, devoting not only the subtleties of military skill, but also teaching the art of entering a combat trance, which sharpened all the senses of a fighter and allowed the hidden capabilities of the human body to manifest. Naturally, it was extremely difficult to defeat such fighters in battle. Fear, as they say, has big eyes, which is why similar lines appeared in the sagas: “One knew how to make his enemies go blind or deaf in battle, or they were seized with fear, or their swords became no sharper than sticks.”

Traditionally, berserkers were the vanguard that started the fight. They could not fight for a long time (a combat trance cannot last long), breaking through the ranks of enemies and laying the foundation for a common victory, they left the battlefield to ordinary warriors who completed the defeat of the enemy. Apparently, bringing oneself to a state of trance was not complete without taking certain psychotropic drugs, which allowed the berserkers, as it were, to “turn” into powerful and invincible bears. Werewolves are known among many peoples, when, as a result of an illness or taking special drugs, a person identified himself with an animal and even copied certain features of his behavior. In the sagas, it is not in vain that the emphasis is on the invulnerability of berserkers. In battle, they were guided not so much by consciousness as by the subconscious, which allowed them to “turn on” qualities that were not characteristic of a person in everyday life - a heightened reaction, expanded peripheral vision, insensitivity to pain, and possibly some kind of extrasensory abilities. In battle, the berserker literally felt the arrows and spears flying at him, foresaw where the blows of swords and axes would come from, which means he could repel the blow, hide behind him with a shield or evade. These were truly universal warriors, but these were needed only for the period of fighting.

The Normans fought often, which means that the berserkers often had to reincarnate. Apparently, the rapture of battle became for them something similar to drug addiction, and perhaps it was almost like that. Consequently, berserkers were, in principle, not adapted to peaceful life, becoming dangerous to society, since they needed dangers and thrills. And if there is no war, then you can always provoke a fight or engage in robbery. As soon as the Normans, having had enough of the seizures of foreign lands, began to move on to a settled quiet life, the berserkers turned out to be superfluous. This was clearly manifested in the sagas, in which, from the end of the 11th century, berserkers from former heroes turn into robbers and villains, who are declared a merciless war. It is curious that it was recommended to kill berserkers with wooden stakes, since "they are invulnerable" against iron. At the beginning of the XII century, special laws were even adopted in the Scandinavian countries aimed at combating berserkers, who were expelled or ruthlessly destroyed. Some of the former invulnerable warriors were able to join a new life, it was believed that for this they must be baptized, then faith in Christ would save them from fighting frenzy. The rest, perhaps they made up the majority of the former military elite, were forced to flee to other lands or were simply killed.

FELLIA MADNESS

Other attempts were made to explain the inhuman fury of the berserkers. In 1784, S. Edman, referring to the customs of some East Siberian tribes, suggested that the berserkers drugged themselves with an infusion of fly agaric. The peoples of the Far North - Tungus, Lamuts or Kamchadals - until recently, in the practice of rituals (fortune-telling) used powder from dried fly agarics, licking which from the palm of the hand, shamans fell into a trance. The behavior of berserkers in battle really resembles the state of intoxication with muscarine - the poison of fly agaric: dope, outbursts of rage, insensitivity to pain and cold, and then incredible fatigue and deep sleep, about which they wrote that "Vikings fall to the ground from fatigue, not from wounds" . It was precisely this picture that the saga of the battle near the Norwegian city of Stavanger in 872, when the berserkers fell ashore after the victory and slept like a dead sleep for more than a day, was impassively recorded. The action of muscarine, like any other hallucinogen, is based on a change in the speed of impulses of nerve endings, which causes a feeling of euphoria. And an excessive dose of it can lead to death. But something else is interesting here: the state caused by the poison in one individual soon spreads to all those around him. Some historians believe that the berserkers knew about this technique, and therefore only the leaders of the detachments or the elite used fly agaric doping. However, reliable evidence of the "mushroom" theory still does not exist. Some ethnographers still assume that the berserkers belonged to certain sacred unions or families in which knowledge of the mysterious properties of plants was passed down from generation to generation. But in the Old Norse sagas there is no mention of psychotropic drugs at all. Therefore, the discussion on the topic “berserkers and fly agarics” is a waste of time, no matter how attractive this version may seem.

Now about one more semi-mythical property of berserkers - invulnerability. A variety of sources unanimously claim that the beast warrior could not actually be slain in battle. A kind of "wisdom of madness" protected the berserkers from throwing and impact weapons. Disinhibited consciousness included extreme responsiveness, sharpened peripheral vision, and probably provided some extrasensory skills. The berserker saw, and even predicted any blow, managing to repel it or bounce from the line of attack. Belief in the invulnerability of berserkers survived the heroic age and was reflected in Scandinavian folklore. Berserkers XI and XII centuries. skillfully used the image inherited from their ancestors. Yes, and they themselves, to the best of their ability, refined their image. For example, in every possible way fueling rumors that they can dull any sword with one glance. The sagas, with their love of the supernatural, easily absorbed such colorful details.

Doctors also made their contribution to unraveling the mystery of the furious warriors. “The legendary power of the berserkers had nothing to do with spirits, drugs, or magical rituals, but was just a disease that was inherited,” says Professor Jesse L. Bayok. They are ordinary psychopaths who lose control of themselves at the slightest attempt to contradict them. Over time, the berserkers learned to play a well-rehearsed performance, one of the elements of which was the biting of the shield. It is well known that the exhaustion that occurs after a fit of rage is characteristic of people with mental disabilities. Tantrums easily cross the line separating pretense from reality, and the learned technique becomes a symptom of a real illness. Moreover, the psychoses that engulfed medieval society were often of an epidemic nature: it is enough to recall the dance of St. Vitus or the movement of the flagellants. As a vivid example, Jesse L. Bayok cites the unbridled in anger, cruel and greedy Viking, and concurrently the famous Icelandic poet Egil, who lived in the 10th century. So, according to the Egil Saga, he had all the features of a berserker who adopted his wild temper from his ancestors. Moreover, his head was so massive that even after death it was impossible to split it with an ax. Analysis of the text of the Old Norse literary monument also allowed Bayok to conclude that Egil's family suffered from Paget's syndrome, a hereditary disease in which uncontrolled bone growth occurs. Human bones renew themselves gradually and this usually happens within 8 years. However, the disease so accelerates the rate of destruction and neoplasm of bones that they become much larger and uglier than before. Particularly noticeable are the effects of Paget's syndrome on the head, where the bones become thicker. According to statistics in England today, from 3 to 5 percent of men over 40 years old are affected by this disease. It is very difficult to confirm or refute an exotic hypothesis due to historical remoteness.

HEROES OR VILLAINS?

FROM CHILDHOOD, we learned the immutable law of fairy tales and myths: all the characters acting in them are divided into “good” and “bad”. There are no halftones here, with rare exceptions - this is the specificity of the genre. To what category can berserkers be classified?

No matter how strange it may sound, but furious warriors were most likely anti-heroes for their contemporaries. If in the early sagas berserkers were portrayed as elite warriors, bodyguards of the king, then in later tribal tales they are marauders and rapists. In The Circle of the Earth, a collection of stories compiled by Snorri Sturluson in the thirteenth century, there are many such testimonies. Most episodes are stereotypical in content and composition. Shortly before Christmas, someone of great stature and endowed with extraordinary strength, often accompanied by eleven people, appears as an uninvited guest on the farm with the intention of taking everything of value and forcing women to cohabitate. If the farmer is at home, he is either sick or weak and cannot fight back the villains. But more often he is many miles from home, in a remote province of Norway. The leader of the aliens is a berserker, ready to prove in a duel his right to dispose of someone else's economy. There are no people who want to fight a strong man who has become adept at such fights (and all his previous opponents are dead). But just at that time, a courageous Icelander accidentally turns up on the farm, who either accepts the challenge or defeats the villains with cunning. The result is always the same: the berserkers are killed, including those who hoped to flee. When the troubles are over, the owner returns and generously endows the savior, and he composes a visu in memory of what happened - a skaldic poem of eight lines - thanks to which his feat becomes widely known.

It is quite natural that for such "actions" berserkers, to put it mildly, were disliked. Reliable historical evidence has survived that in 1012 Jarl Eirik Hakonarson outlawed berserkers in Norway, and they apparently began to seek their fortune in other parts, including Iceland. Most likely berserk marauders are gangs of homeless warriors left out of work. They were born for battles: they wielded superb weapons, were psychologically prepared, knew how to intimidate the enemy with a growl, aggressive behavior and defend themselves from slashing blows with a dense bearskin. But when the berserkers were no longer needed, they suffered the fate of any forgotten army - moral degradation.

The end of the era of the Norman campaigns, Christianization and the formation of early feudal statehood in the Scandinavian lands eventually led to a complete rethinking of the image of the berserker. Since the 11th century this word takes on an exclusively negative connotation. Moreover, under the influence of the church, berserkers are credited with pronounced demonic features. The "Saga of Vatisdol" says that in connection with the arrival of Bishop Fridrek in Iceland, they declared war on the "obsessed". Their description is given in a completely traditional spirit: berserkers create violence and arbitrariness, their anger knows no bounds, they bark and growl, biting into the edge of their shield, walk on hot coals with bare feet and do not even try to control their behavior. On the advice of a newly arrived clergyman, those possessed by evil spirits were scared away by fire, beaten to death with wooden stakes, because it was believed that “iron does not sting berserkers,” and the bodies were thrown into a ravine without burial. Other texts noted that the baptized berserker forever lost the ability to reincarnate. Persecuted and persecuted from all sides, turned out to be dangerous outcasts and criminals in the new social conditions, accustomed to live only by raids and robbery, the berserkers became a real disaster. They broke into settlements, killed local residents, ambushed travelers. And the law of ancient Scandinavia outlawed the bloodthirsty madmen, making it the duty of every inhabitant to destroy the berserkers. A law issued in Iceland in 1123 stated: “A berserker seen in a rage will be imprisoned for 3 years of exile.” Since then, the warriors in bear skins have disappeared without a trace, and with them the gray-haired pagan antiquity has sunk into oblivion.

NOBODY knows where and when the last berserk died: history jealously guards this secret. Only heroic tales and mossy runic stones scattered along the slopes of the Scandinavian hills are reminiscent of the former glory of the furious Vikings today...

On the INFO EYE the article turned out to be a little more complete, so those who are especially interested can read it there - http://infoglaz.ru/?p=24429

sources

Roman SHKURLATOV http://bratishka.ru/archiv/2007/10/2007_10_17.php http://slavs.org.ua/berserki
http://shkolazhizni.ru/archive/0/n-29472/

Let me remind you who they are and how interesting The original article is on the website InfoGlaz.rf Link to the article from which this copy is made -

1. Introduction

Berserk (berserker)- a warrior who dedicated himself to the god Odin before the battle, leading himself into a rage. In battle, he was distinguished by great strength, quick reaction, insensitivity to pain, and madness. They did not recognize the shield and chain mail, fighting in the same shirts, or naked to the waist.

2.Skills

Melee Strike Skills

A fairly strong blow is weaker than Crushing Pain by 2 times, but the cooldown is quite fast. Mp consumption is not large, which allows you to constantly use it to finish off mobs.

Cooldown: 3 seconds
Power: 3653 (no enchant at level 74)
Sharpening: Darkness. PVP. MP consumption.

Utility. One of the main skills in PVP. Since I recommend swinging on wigs, in this case it is practically unnecessary. In solo quality on single mobs is required.

Power: 7635.
Cooldown: 6 seconds.
Sharpening: Earth. Power. PVP. Decreased MP.

Utility.

A blow comparable to Crushing Pain, unfortunately it requires the target to have a bleed effect in order to use it. So to use it is necessary to have a skill

Power: 7635.

Cooldown: 6 seconds.
Sharpening: Earth. Power. PVP. Decreased MP.
Utility. As in PVP and PVE, the main striking power.

Another skill for pvp swings at 3 pros. But very interesting. I attack all enemies ahead in a radius of 45 degrees.

Power: 6060.
Cooldown: 6 seconds.
Sharpening: ?

This skill feeds brsa very tasty. It is he who, up to level 61, gives us the opportunity to solo on wigs (a bunch of mobs). When used, it attacks all enemies around you at a distance of 200. I advise you to pump up to 62 further is not needed almost in order to save SP points

Power: 2740
Cooldown: 3 seconds
Sharpening: Earth. PVP. MP consumption.

Utility. In the quality on wigs (heaps) is our most important skill. In PvP, it can be used for additional damage to the enemy. In mass PVP, I consider it useless because the demagoguery is small

In grace, the final, when used, deals damage to all enemies in the circle. I advise you to download up to 62 further is not needed almost in order to save SP points

Cooldown: 3 seconds.

Utility. In the quality on wigs (heaps) is our 2-degree skill. In PVP, not usable. Eats a lot and little sense.

Onslaught

Cooldown: 3 seconds.
Sharpening: Chance of passing. MP consumption. Land.
Utility. For many, this is one of the main skills in PVE and PVP. The tactic of many caught a combo, then ran back and stunned in a new way. In quality on mobs, I personally advise you not to use it, there is no one to stun on wigs, and in solo quality, mobs die from one skill.

Power: 2192.
Rollback: No.
Sharpened: Decrease MP. Land. PVP. Power.
Utility. Some people use it on wigs (bunches). Personally, I think this is a waste of MP. On singles, I really like to quickly collect 3-4 mobs. In pvp, sometimes it's better to start with him, since he deals good damage. In mass PVP, it also looks nice, subject to very fast control.

Power. Not specified.
Cooldown: 3 seconds.
Tochitsya: Passage. Decreased MP. Power.

Power. 4040
Rollback: ?
Sharpening: ?

Self Buffs/Auras

Utility. Collecting souls in the city without tension.

Cooldown: 3 minutes 45 seconds.
Utility. Use at the beginning of the battle with the mage. In pvp, 1 minute should be enough for you to kill the enemy.

Rollback. 15 minutes.
Sharpened. Decreased reload time.
Utility. In a one-time PvP, consider that you have an ace of trumps.

Cooldown: 15 minutes.
Utility. Thanks to this skill, we can easily kill all opponents in light armor. Required in PVP.

Cooldown: 1 minute 15 seconds.
Utility. Useful because we are frail and extra HP will not hurt us ...

Cooldown: 1 minute 15 seconds.
Utility. Due to the strong defense reduction of the skills, it is very dangerous to use if you are swinging solo. On RB, use it to your heart's content. In PVP, I strongly advise against using it. Can be used in the party.

Cooldown: 45 seconds.
Utility. Use at the start of combat with archers and mages. Ten seconds is enough to fly to the magician or lukar.

Rollback. 15 seconds.

Utility. If you didn’t forget to turn it on, if you forgot, then figs with him))

Utility. It is mandatory to use melee against all types.

Utility. Turn on if you need to run away or vice versa to catch up with the enemy.

Cooldown: Turns on and consumes mana. 3 MP every 5 seconds.
Sharpened: For reinforcement. To reduce MP consumption.
Utility. On RB (Raid bosses) it looks nice. I do not advise you to use it as a quality, since the MP will end very quickly and as a result you will be forced to sit out. In PVP, if you don't like running back tactics, but want to fight point-blank, then turn it on.

Debuffs

Chance: I have 50%. It's impossible to say exactly.
Sharpening: For a chance. To Decrease MP.
Utility. The main skill in PVP. In the quality with mobs is not needed.

Cooldown: 1 second.
Sharpening: Chance. MP consumption.
Utility. In PVP, the main skill. Can be used on x2 mobs in PVE. When passing from x2, a mob turns out to be x1)) It is also very nice to use this skill to aggro mobs on yourself, which in turn reduces movement and, as a result, increases% of experience per hour.

3.Weapon\Armor

I want to remind you that we carry two-handed swords.

And not simple but ancient. In order to turn an ordinary two-handed sword into an Ancient Weapon, we need to use our skill

D grade:

price in giran 81,975(store)

C grade:

price in giran 349,250(shop)

because we only swing up to 74+ with skills, the main thing for us is def!

B grade:

we make an ancient sword from it and insert SA into HP - price in giran (store) 10kk-12kk clean and 14kk-15kk with SA

or we run in the same C-gride costs 5kk-6kk in the store

A grade:

I do not advise buying weapons for this grade. Great Sword (SA on HP) is enough for downloading, but you can, in principle, put drugs.

best set for pvp against old opponents we have very little horse so it couldn't be better

S grade:

the price depends on the server, but it's better to either knock out from the RB or craft (which is more profitable, sometimes faster). And also collect Attribute stones to insert into HD and get HD + 150 of the attribute, which will give a huge boost to damage, provided that the skills are sharpened for the same attribute.

collect it in any way. you can insert attribute stones that will give a not frail increase in protection.

4. Tattoo

We don't need a tattoo until level 62. And then in my opinion there is one option
-4str +4vy
-1str +1vy
-4str +4lvk

5. Hunting (PVE)

1-20
- I will not describe actually all the quests from the Novice Assistant
20-28
- Let's go do the quest Way of Destiny here we are lvl 21. We also go through the Dangerous Temptation, which will give us another + 20% and 100k
- We go to Gludio and in the number of 2 people we pass the Hall of the Abyss 23ur (Kamaloka)
- We register in Kata. We go to the Sacrificial Necropolis (below Gludin).
28-40
- I chose Fortify guerrilla mobs x2 and herbs are falling.
- You can go to the Heretic Catacombs (near Dion)
- We begin to pass quests for 2 professions and also perform such quests ** Temple Preacher, Temple Executioner, Temple Warrior - 1, Temple Warrior - 2, ** Gloomy Fox - 1, Gloomy Fox - 2, Gloomy Fox - 3, Fallen Angel - **Sunset's Order.
40-46
- The perfect place for us is Alligator Island or you can go to Cruma Tower.
46-52
- This is where the wig race begins and the best place at this level is Tanor Canyon. **First on Harpies up to 49 and then up to 52 on Silenos.
52-62
- Here, the most ideal place for us is near Oren. We leave from the main gate and immediately slide down the mountain to the bottom. So, going down to the bottom, we find many small packs. so you can up to 55~
61-76
- There are many places to download here. I chose the Outskirts of Godart. Directly from the central exit in front of us are two slides. We go left or right. We kill Antelopes and Wolves. I want to draw your attention to the fact that as soon as they have half of their HP left, the wolves begin to cast STAN.
- As soon as you feel the strength in yourself, start climbing up and in the same way we swing on Bears and Buffaloes. They cast stun just like Wolves.
66-75
- Great place Swamp of Screams. Paired with another 1 bers.

Here or clan or on Parnassus. The choice is yours. Parnassus can be reached by swimming through Alligator Island.

6. Pets for Bers

For Bers, I think there is one pet and this is Chicken, And I don’t care that she buffs Mage buffs. The main thing is that she pours Mana, and this will greatly simplify the life of a berserker.

Video games per class

© 2008-2019, Linedia - knowledge base and encyclopedia of the Lineage 2 game in Russian: quests and descriptions, walkthroughs and articles, items and monsters, classes and races, manuals and guides, skills and abilities.

"... Thorolf was so furious that he threw his shield behind his back and took a spear with both hands. He rushed forward and chopped and stabbed enemies to the right and left. People fled from him in different directions, but he managed to kill many ..."

("The Saga of Egil").

Berserkers or berserkers are the rarest and most terrible of warriors, who are feared throughout the world for their inhuman strength, cruel nature and complete lack of fear. The essence of this phenomenon was the conditional "reincarnation" of a person into a ferocious beast - a bear or a wolf with a human face. Bestial incarnations were considered the highest form of combat rage in many military traditions. These were suicide warriors, striving not to save their lives in battle, but to sell it as expensive as possible, taking more enemies to the next world. Berserk is typical of many European nations.
We can judge what the image of a warrior-beast was like, first of all, according to Scandinavian sources, because in Scandinavia such warriors existed until the XII-XIII centuries. Ber is “bear” (in Old Norse - “bersi”), and "serk" can mean "shirt". Most often this term is interpreted in this way - “bear shirt”, in a literal translation from Old Norse “berserk” means “one who is in the skin of a bear”. However, bad luck, the totem of the berserkers was a wolf, and they had nothing to do with the bear, sometimes they were also called "Ulfheadners", that is, wolfheads. Probably, these were different incarnations of the same phenomenon: many of those who are called berserkers were nicknamed "Wolf" (ulf), "Wolf skin", "Wolf mouth", etc. However, the name "Bear" (bjorn) is no less common. The shirt is also not all right, because among the features of the berserker is his revealingly naked torso, they usually fought half-naked - dressed to the waist, or in bear or wolf skins. Berserkers decorated their body with a red or black tattoo, which had a magical meaning. There is another interpretation of the meaning of the roots of the word "berserk". The old German "berserker" can be translated in different ways, "Berr" in translation from Old Low German means ... "naked"! Thus, no “bears”, “shirts”, have nothing to do with the berserk. This concept is literally translated - a naked grunt. In the "Saga of the Tomsk Knights" the root "serker" is used, which comes from the concept of "axe". From here, a not quite correct version of the name has been preserved - “berserker”. In Russian tradition, the "berserk" variant is more often used. The form "berserk" originated as a borrowing from English; English berserk means "violent, furious".
The only documented evidence of their existence is the poetic images preserved in the Scandinavian sagas about invincible warriors who, overwhelmed by fighting fury, burst into the ranks of enemies with one sword or ax, crushing everything in their path. Modern scientists do not doubt their reality, but much of the history of berserkers remains an unsolved mystery today.

In written sources, berserkers were first mentioned by the skald Thorbjorn Hornklovi, in a song about the victory of King Harald the Fair-Haired, in the battle of Hafsfjord, which allegedly took place in 872. It is highly likely that his description is documented: more than a thousand years ago, Harald the Fair-Haired founded the Kingdom of Norway, this was far from a peaceful enterprise, since the noble families did not want to lose their lands. He needed an army. For the front battle formations, he chose especially strong, determined and young men, those same berserkers. They dedicated their lives to Odin, the God of War, and in the decisive battle of Boksfjord, dressed in bearskins, stood at the bow of the ship, “ Berserkers clad in bearskins snarled, brandished their swords, bit the edge of their shields in rage, and charged at their enemies. They were possessed and felt no pain even if they were hit by a spear. When the battle was won, the warriors fell exhausted and fell into a deep sleep.". Similar descriptions of the actions of berserkers in battle can be found in other authors. For example, in the Ynglinga saga by the famous Icelandic poet Snorri Sturlusson: The men of Odin rushed into battle without chain mail, but raged like mad dogs or wolves. In anticipation of a fight, from the impatience and rage that bubbled in them, they gnawed their shields and hands with their teeth until they bled. They were strong, like bears or bulls. With a bestial roar, they smashed the enemy, and neither fire nor iron harmed them, and, like rabid animals, foam flowed from their mouths ...". In battle, the berserkers entered into a state of combat trance, they fell into an uncontrollable rage (amok) which the Vikings called fighting spirit, and showed a complete disregard for death. The berserker could draw a spear from a wound and throw it at an enemy. Or continue to fight with a severed limb - without an arm or leg. Probably, in this we should look for an analogy with the invulnerability of werewolves, who could not be killed with ordinary weapons, but only with a silver bullet or an aspen stake. From a physiological point of view, this can be explained by the release of excess adrenaline into the blood. Then a person can endure pain for a long time and not feel tired.

During the attack, the berserker, as it were, "became" the corresponding beast. At the same time, he threw away defensive weapons, and in some cases offensive ones; all Scandinavian Vikings knew how to fight with their bare hands, but the berserkers clearly stood out even at their level. Many paramilitary strata considered unarmed combat shameful. Among the Vikings, this postulate took the following form: it is a shame not to be able to fight with a weapon, but there is nothing shameful in the ability to conduct an unarmed battle. It is curious that as an auxiliary (and sometimes main - if he fought without a sword) weapon, the berserker used stones, a stick picked up from the ground or a club stocked up in advance. This is partly due to the deliberate entry into the image: it is not appropriate for the beast to use weapons (stone and stick are natural, natural weapons). But, probably, archaism is also manifested in this, following the ancient schools of martial arts. The sword entered Scandinavia quite late, and even after its widespread use, it was for some time not in honor among the berserkers, who preferred a club and an ax, with which they struck circular blows from the shoulder, without connecting the brush. The technique is quite primitive, but the degree of mastery of it was very high. In chapter 31 of Germania, the Roman writer Tacitus writes: As soon as they reached adulthood, they were allowed to grow their hair and beard, and only after killing the first enemy they could style them ... Cowards and others walked with loose hair, in addition, they wore iron ring, and only the death of the enemy freed them from wearing it. Their task was to anticipate every battle; they always formed the front line. Tacitus mentions a special caste of warriors, which he calls "Harier" and who bear all the signs of berserkers (800 years before the battle of Hafsfjord):" … they are stubborn warriors. They have a natural wildness. Black shields, painted bodies, choose dark nights for battle and instill fear in opponents. No one can resist the unusual and, as it were, hellish appearance of their". "Harier" means "Warrior" and Odin was called among them "Herjan", "Lord of the Warriors". None of them had their own house or field, any care. They came to anyone, they were treated, they used someone else's , they were careless in their affairs, and only the weakness of old age made them unsuitable for military life.They considered it a shame to die in their own beds from decrepitude, and when death was near, they were stabbed with a spear.At the Celts, for example, the Sequan tribe, which in the East Slavic tradition could sound like "Vyatichi berserkers", plunged the ancient Romans into panic horror by the sight of the wild fury of their naked warriors. It was in 385 BC, when the Celts took Rome. It is likely that the old songs were somewhat embellished. Nevertheless, it is striking that all the descriptions depict ferocious warriors who fought with a wild, downright magical passion.
In literature, berserkers often appear in pairs, often twelve at once. They were considered the personal guards of the Old Norse kings. This indicates the elitist nature of this warrior caste. Unwavering loyalty to one's ruler is found in several places in the old sagas. In one of the sagas, the king of the Danes, Hrolf Krake, had 12 berserkers who were his personal guards: “Bödvar, Bjarki, Hjalti, Hochgemuth, Zvitserk, Kün, Wörth, Veseti, Baygud and the Svipdag brothers.”

Berserkers originate from the mysterious male unions of animal warriors that existed among many peoples of the world. The training of berserkers took place most of all in peculiar pagan monasteries. Future animal warriors took a vow of celibacy and devoted themselves entirely to the god Odin, their heavenly patron. It was the word Odin (or Wotan) that meant "mad, merciless, evil." It was no coincidence that this god of wolf warriors was depicted in a wolf mask, feeding two sacred wolves on a throne under the tree of peace. Some ethnographers suggest that the berserkers belonged to certain secret alliances or families in which the knowledge of mysterious forces or "plants of power" was passed down from generation to generation. Others believe that there were berserker associations "male unions", and that the display of berserk rage was a test of courage that was required for every young male to enter into an adult union. Many primitive peoples could observe such rituals with masked dances and ecstatic states. What remains inexplicable in this theory, however, is that nothing of the kind exists in any of the Scandinavian sources. After the adoption of Christianity in Scandinavia, the old pagan customs were banned, in particular, fighters in animal skins. A law issued in Iceland in 1123 reads: marked in a berserk frenzy will be imprisoned for 3 years of exile". Since then, the berserk warriors have disappeared without a trace.

And what is known about Russian berserkers? Berserk is not a Slavic word. Our ancestors have their own sound of this word - borsek. There is another curious term - "rykar", that is, a screaming warrior. And they say that a knight is an unconventional concept for us, as if it came from the German "reiter" - "rider". I wonder what is phonetically closer to the modern Russian word "knight" - the German "reytor", the English "knight", the French "chevalier" or the old Russian "rykar"? I think the answer is obvious. East Slavic Russia has always coped with a small professional military contingent. The squad, consisting of the younger (later formed a social stratum - "children of the boyars") and the eldest, even in the Grand Duchies of Russia rarely reached 2000 people. Let me remind you that not only the massacre in the open field fell on her shoulders, but also the defense of strategically important objects, the throne, the collection of tribute containing the treasury, the formation of rati in subject territories, etc. Of course, in such an army, the individual qualities of each . With a sudden raid, you can’t gather an army - it takes time. In addition, the military arsenal is also under the prince's castle, and therefore, the peasants in the estates are armed with anything and have no armor. Organization of troops is a complex matter. It is not enough to gather people, from them it is necessary to form fighting groups. And where is this to be done, when the throne camp is already lined with nomads from everywhere. That's when the decisive word was for a lone suicide bomber, capable of neutralizing the enemy for some time.

Oh, how hard it is to admit to our "independent" historians that East Slavic Russia had its own berserkers. But you have to admit, where can you go, sources are a stubborn thing. The Byzantine writer Leo the Deacon wrote about the Russians, who, with huge shields, before going on the attack, growled, shouting something incomprehensible. The historian Klyuchevsky wrote: Demyan Kudenevich went to the Polovtsian army “without a helmet and armor”, the naked choirs of Svyatoslav the Great are also eloquently described in the annals: “ Olbeg Ratiborich, take your bow and lay an arrow, and hit Itlar in the heart with dung, and his squad will be beaten ...» . The Nikon chronicle about Ragdai speaks no less eloquently: “ And this man went to three hundred warriors". What is this, hero worship? Where there! The chronicler is sickened by the “god-resistance” of the bloody squabbles. Barbaric beauty is not at all his path. This is the real essence. Remember Evpatiy Kolovrat. With one regiment, he liberated the Ryazan region from the Tatars for six months, at the very height of the invasion. And Evpatiy did not give up his last fight. The Tatars were never able to take his soldiers in hand-to-hand combat. They were simply thrown with stones from throwing weapons. A gesture of desperation and at the same time resourcefulness of Batu. This beast was so amazed by what he saw that, having won, he ordered to dig up the living and set them free, and bury the dead with honors. In "The Tale of the Devastation of Ryazan by Batu", written by the medieval writer Evstafiy from Zaraysk, it is said that for each of these soldiers of the "desperate regiment" there were up to a thousand Tatar-Mongols. Let's restore the true picture of the events of those days. In the autumn of 1237 Evpaty Kolovrat had to stay in Chernigov. The Tatar-Mongols have already trampled Ryazan. Yevpaty returned in December to the ashes. Instead of Ryazan - charred firebrands. He did not look for a job for himself for a long time, gathered 1700 people ready to tear the enemy with their teeth. There was no time to prepare for battles. But his people could not be called beginners in the martial art. The Regiment of the Desperate chased the retreating hordes. " And they began to flog without mercy, and all the Tatar regiments mixed up. It seemed to the Tatars that the dead had risen..."- so says the chronicler. There was no Eurasian policy in Russia yet, and Kolovrat did what he had to do. The frightened Batu assigned the best regiments under the command of his brother-in-law Khostovrul. The great slaughter took place on Suzdal land. The commanders themselves began the battle. They converged in front of the frozen regiments. The spears broke on the “chute”, but neither the horses nor the riders flinched. We went to the course of the saber. And then Kolovrat cut Khostovrul “in half”, to the saddle. The Horde trembled, they ran. But the Russian success was temporary. Batu surrounded the "desperate". They fought off all attacks, and then Batu ordered to shoot them with stone throwers. The soldiers were covered with stones. Only five survived. Batu ordered to dig up the body of Kolovrat. The words of Batu over a dead berserker are known: “ If such a man served me, I would keep him close to my heart!» Batu gave the body of Kolovrat to the five surviving Ryazans and demanded that the knight be buried with proper honors. He let them go, which he had never done with enemies before. The number of the Tatar army is not officially indicated anywhere and it is generally accepted that there were up to half a million of them. But the fact itself remains a fact. It is well known that such an event took place. Only one thing is absolutely clear that a simple person could not do such a thing, no matter how furious he possessed, there is a limit to human strength (physical).

And what, exactly, is "kolovrat"? Kolovorot, that is, "revolving in a circle." It's the name of a berserker. Space, as you know, is organized according to the principle of a circle. The zone of motor comfort for an ordinary person is the half-radius of a circle in front of him. To build movement in other directions, a person involves more complex and even constructively dangerous evolutions of the musculoskeletal system. For example, with an improperly organized movement behind the back, the menisci of the knee joints often “crumble” to turn the body, the vertebral discs are pinched, etc. This happens mainly for two reasons. Firstly, a person evolves in frontally directed walking, and, secondly, he also does not have a special motor skill when constructing an atypical action. That is, not only is this method of movement not structurally justified, it has not yet been mastered. The human body has a large margin of safety, but it must be exploited, of course, meaningfully. For a berserker, in this case, the concept of back does not exist. Otherwise, he could not fight in the thick of the battle, surrounded on all sides by the enemy. Half the radius of action "before the eyes" is the usual, combatant army. For him, no matter how you turn around, the idea of \u200b\u200bthe inconvenient reflection of attacks from behind and the usual frontal onslaught will remain. The movements of the berserker are built in such a way that he slides over the blows all the time, shifting the blow and shifting himself. As a result, not a single blow goes into a penetrating defeat. The reflexes of the berserker do not react to the blow as a whole, but to its individual phases! This is a very important circumstance. For example, if you are cut with a sword from year to year, you first begin to suppress the panic fear in yourself caused by the instinct of self-preservation, and then you notice that there are some patterns in the actions of the enemy. And really; once you learn how to use them, it becomes not scary at all. The body itself carries a gigantic action potential. Of course, motor abilities, like abilities in general, are developed differently for each person.

Berserk is a mechanism exploded by ferocious passion, adrenaline, ideological attitude, breathing techniques, sound vibrations and a mechanical program of action. A berserker does not have to prove that he will survive at all. He must pay for his life many times over. Berserker not only goes to die, he goes to get furious pleasure from this process. By the way, that is why he most often remains alive. Is he a berserker fanatic? Yes. But only not religious, killing himself "for the sake of Allah." No one has yet proven that Allah exists at all. God exists as long as there is faith in him. A berserker does not perform a spiritual feat. For him, the highest application of spiritual forces is the norm of behavior. How to shave for you. He experiences death and rebirth dozens of times, but a fanatic only once. But this is precisely one of the amazing manifestations of barbaric superhumanity. I am ready to agree that berserkers are an exceptional phenomenon. But isn't it the deformation of the barbarian's personality, largely tamed by Christian doctrine, that makes such phenomena exceptional? Berserk is a necessity, it is the imprint of the struggle of the northern European peoples for survival. If the East is able to put "under arms" tens, thousands of people, then the barbarian squads of Europe numbered only hundreds of soldiers. Hence the military principle in barbarism is always a problem of the Personality. Something that the East never knew, completely devaluing the very concept of human life. " The filthy ones had 9 hundred mines, and Russia had ninety copies. Hoping for strength, the abominations of the pondosh, and ours are against them ... And the wallpaper was removed, and the slaughter of evil was, and the Polovtsy ran away, and ours were driven by them, ovs secant ..."That's the whole story for you. The essence of the barbaric lies in the fact that never, under any circumstances, "do not run away" by yourself. Then the enemy will run. Because he won't have a choice.
What can make us doubt the chronicle line? Ability. The ability to do so. ability in general. The fact that the Lord God so unevenly divided among people. It is surprising that no one questions the composer's gift, which blows up the silence of the world with a storm of sounds of rushing passions. Or the gift of a sculptor who gnaws at a stone to delight us with the impossibility of the living in the dead. What about the art of combat? Or is it not art at all, but only a routine of mutual self-mutilation? Not at all! It would be wrong to think that a berserker is just a psychopath with a weapon in his hands. Freedom is a precious thing. In freedom and asked in full. Berserkers are not accidentally a privileged part of the military class. The complex mechanism of military labor gives them not at all spontaneous violence and sacrificial folly on the lists, but a well-defined, developed role. It is she who makes berserkers an elite. Berserk opens the fight! It was specially created in order to hold a demonstration duel in full view of the entire army.
Another curious moment - berserkers, introducing themselves into an insane state, freeing themselves from clothes, simply tore it on themselves. Such behavior in the language of prisoners now means: "ready for murder." So that's why they lose their heads in a Russian fight. This fight is called "hunting" and is symbolized by wolves tearing each other apart. For the first time, their image is found on a ritual goblet-rhyton from a kurgan of the 10th century, called the Black Grave. They lose their heads because they set in motion a complex physiological mechanism that changes the course of the nervous reactions of the body. In this state, the speed of motor reflexes significantly increases in the berserker. His movements are jerky and light, the activity of peripheral receptors is inhibited, which is why the berserker does not experience pain, for example, if he is injured at this moment. The detail may be secondary, but it left its own special imprint on the mystified mind of the ancients. For example, fighting with an arrow in the back and not experiencing pain is unlikely to cause superstitious fear in the enemy. And what about the wild strength of a berserker, capable of tearing apart an enemy who has turned up with his hands at these moments? This is where the well-known from the annals "chopping into floors", that is, in half, comes from. Let me remind you that Evpatiy Kolovrat cut his enemy to the saddle in the ritual battle - the Horde warrior Hostavrul.
Modern science knows that the human nervous system - including those parts of it that are subject to conscious control - is capable of producing substances that are similar in composition and action to drugs. They act directly on the "pleasure centers" of the brain. If these substances are released when a person falls into a certain state of consciousness, then in this state he experiences a complete analogue of "high", and when he leaves it, "breaking" begins.

"Professional" berserkers became, as it were, hostages of their own rage. They were forced to look for dangerous situations to engage in a fight, and even provoke them. Hence - the berserker asociality, causing alertness even among those who admired their courage and combat readiness. And from here - this very combat capability, manifested in the condition of "opening the floodgates". Later berserkers, for the most part, still managed to control such attacks. Sometimes they even entered a state that in the East is called "enlightened consciousness" (although they usually went to it not through detachment, not through meditation, but through fighting rage; such a path is sometimes fraught with the fact that the "beast" will prevail over the person) . This made them phenomenal warriors. A variety of sources unanimously claim that the warrior-beast could not actually be slain in battle. True, the details of this invulnerability are described in different ways. It was supposedly impossible to kill or injure a berserker with military weapons (from which it followed that non-combat weapons should be used against him: a wooden club, a hammer with a stone pommel, etc.); sometimes he was invulnerable only against throwing weapons (arrows and darts); in some cases, it was clarified that with skillful possession of weapons, he could still be wounded, and even mortally, but he would die only after the battle, and before that he would not seem to notice the wound. A kind of "wisdom of madness" protected the berserkers from throwing (and also from shock) weapons. The disinhibited consciousness included extreme responsiveness, sharpened peripheral vision, and probably provided some extrasensory skills. The berserker saw (or even predicted) any blow and managed to repel it or rebound. Berserking helped to repel dangerous blows, but if the blow was already missed, it allowed him to "not notice" him. It is hard to believe, but many independent sources report that the Viking to some extent retained combat effectiveness even after monstrous wounds, from which a modern person would instantly lose consciousness. With a cut off leg or arm, a cut open chest, a pierced stomach, he continued to fight for some time - and could take his killer with him to Valhalla. And yet, descriptions of cases have been preserved when a berserker not only avoided a wound, and even not just endured it, but, having received a blow, remained exactly unharmed! Is that also an exaggeration? Maybe... But it's very similar to the oriental "iron shirt method", in which the hardening of bones and muscles, and most importantly, the ability to concentrate internal energy, in certain cases makes the body hard to hit even by a blade. But the blades of the Vikings are not like the eastern ones: no matter how the northern warriors admire them, this admiration comes from a lack of material for comparison. At least in the days of the berserkers, the tempering of the blade was only superficial and it was far from the sharpness of the samurai katana. In addition, even "energy" did not always save the berserker. Sometimes a missed sword blow did not really cut through the body, but caused such a serious bruise that it could provide the final fight. After all, the opponents of the berserkers were a match for them. And not every berserker knew how to correctly use internal energy. Sometimes they spent it too extensively - and then, after the battle, the warrior fell into a state of "berserk impotence" for a long time, not explained only by physical fatigue. The attacks of this impotence were so severe that the warrior-beast could sometimes die after the battle, even without being wounded in it!

Other attempts have been made to explain the "rage of the berserker", where the source of such power is not transcendental forces. The state of intoxication, bouts of rabies, hallucinations and subsequent fatigue could be caused by chemical substances, namely muscarine, fly agaric poison. Today we know that people, when poisoned by fly agaric, fight wildly around themselves, they are excited, they are visited by delusional thoughts. In others and doctors, they see fabulous creatures, gods, spirits. The toxic effect wears off after 20 hours, and then people fall into a deep sleep, from which, in most cases, they wake up only after 30 hours. Researchers know why people become like this after eating fly agarics: chemical processes occur due to hallucinogens similar to LSD, muscarine is one of them, changes the speed of nerve ending impulses, causes a feeling of euphoria. But there may be an opposite effect, due to its large amount, bad trip (literally "bad trip"), which can end in death. However, the coming changes due to this substance are surprising, which initially occur only in one person, and then spread to all. At any techno party, you can observe a similar effect. The behavior of a person who has taken a hallucinogen, rhythmic music, monotonous clapping, and footsteps lead others to the same state. This "synchronization" is carried out by the activation of the neurotransmission system inherent in the body, the action of which is similar to the action of drugs. Thus, a dynamic emerges that can be called "collective ecstasy". It is assumed that the berserkers knew this and only a few leaders "cheered themselves up with doping" from fly agaric. It's certain that they knew what effect it had on a person. Göttingen professor of psychiatry Hanscarl Leuner: " Amanita has been playing an exceptional role as a mythological remedy in the subarctic and arctic spaces since the earliest times. It was used by the tribes living here for ecstatic practices.". However, there is still no exact evidence of such a theory. No sources mention such a rise in strength. But this does not interfere with some historians. They believe: "Precisely because only the northern warriors knew the action of the fly agaric, they hid this knowledge, keeping the fearlessness and invulnerability of the Gods." But is it so?
Doctors also contributed to the issue of berserkers: " The legendary power of berserkers has nothing to do with spirits, drugs, or magical rituals, but was a disease that was inherited", thinks Professor Jesse L. Bayok. The Icelandic poet Egil was quick-tempered, angry, invincible just like his father and grandfather. Stubborn character, and his head was so massive that even after Egil's death it was impossible to split it with an ax. So it is written in the saga about Egil. The descriptions given there allowed Bayok to learn that Egil's family suffered from Paget's syndrome, a hereditary disease in which there is an uncontrolled increase in bone. Professor Bayok: " Human bones renew themselves gradually and usually the structure of the bone is renewed in 8 years. However, the disease increases the rate of destruction and neoplasm so much that it changes the structure of the bone too much, ugly, and they become much larger than before."The consequences of Paget's syndrome are especially noticeable on the head, its bones become thicker. In England, from 3 to 5% of men over 40 years old are susceptible to this disease. But is it possible to attribute the myth around berserkers to only a hereditary disease?
The rampage of the berserkers is proverbial. People's speech accepted repeated evidence of "biting the top of the shield." Animals bare their teeth before attacking. Similarly, we "show someone our teeth" if we want to do something similar. Skillful fighters had the goal of "hardening up", but we also know about their bear skins. And this gives rise to all sorts of rumors. Were they half-savage young warriors who, to prove their courage, went into battle with an unprotected body? Are we talking about sacred male unions dedicated to the God of the Dead, Odin, and as warriors who served him? Were they just crazy, die-hard fanatics? Did they have supernatural powers that protected them from injury? Or was it a drug effect? Did they suffer from hereditary diseases?
So who are the berserkers?

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