WEBVTT - Berserkers: Violent Viking Villains, Unverified 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:27.600 Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to 0:00:27.640 --> 0:00:31.520 the show, fellow Ridiculous Historians. We are following up with 0:00:31.840 --> 0:00:36.800 what has become a warrior week here at Ridiculous History. Yeah, 0:00:36.920 --> 0:00:39.120 let's give a big shout out to our super producer, 0:00:39.280 --> 0:00:41.480 mister Max Williams, Max. 0:00:42.760 --> 0:00:46.400 King. What's that thing where they pull your lungs out 0:00:46.760 --> 0:00:47.240 your back? 0:00:48.159 --> 0:00:48.319 Uh? 0:00:48.400 --> 0:00:52.279 An eagle, blood Eagle, Blood Eagle, Max the Blood Eagle Williams. 0:00:53.920 --> 0:00:56.280 Yeah, uh yeah, that's great. 0:00:56.360 --> 0:00:59.960 If uh, if you're like us, us being Nold Brown 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:04.680 out in Ben Bullen, you're a fan of historical propaganda 0:01:04.880 --> 0:01:09.880 prestige television like the creatively named amazing show Vikings or 0:01:10.000 --> 0:01:11.240 countless Films. 0:01:11.240 --> 0:01:14.920 Which I think depicts the blood already a certain it does? 0:01:15.280 --> 0:01:15.720 It does? 0:01:16.440 --> 0:01:20.080 We already know the typical image of these reavers, right 0:01:20.120 --> 0:01:23.640 and all. They're big, they're hairy, they're smelly maniacs, they 0:01:23.640 --> 0:01:26.520 have horned helmets. They just want to wage war on 0:01:26.600 --> 0:01:31.240 the civilized world at large. They overwhelm people like a 0:01:31.400 --> 0:01:35.320 blitzkrieg force, and they kill their enslave everybody. They take 0:01:35.360 --> 0:01:38.000 whatever they can carry back on their ships. They go 0:01:38.080 --> 0:01:41.280 back to their own settlement to resupply, They party hard, 0:01:41.680 --> 0:01:44.759 they do strange rituals like a blood eagle, and then 0:01:44.800 --> 0:01:48.880 they question their surviving victims for information to help them 0:01:48.920 --> 0:01:52.440 plan the next raid, like where's the next closest village 0:01:52.480 --> 0:01:52.840 to you? 0:01:53.480 --> 0:01:56.360 Dark stuff, but you know, exciting the stuff of legend, 0:01:56.360 --> 0:01:59.440 the stuff of lore, and often what's that movie with 0:01:59.520 --> 0:02:02.720 a scar our guard recently that was did a fine 0:02:02.800 --> 0:02:04.440 job of depicting normand. 0:02:05.600 --> 0:02:08.040 Yes, indeed, yes beautiful. 0:02:08.160 --> 0:02:12.280 Just rewatch that actually in preparation for this, and no, 0:02:12.440 --> 0:02:14.560 there's something that stood out to us so much that 0:02:14.639 --> 0:02:18.959 we did an episode similar to this on our sister shows. 0:02:19.000 --> 0:02:21.120 Stuff they don't want you to know, So check that 0:02:21.200 --> 0:02:25.680 out if you want a different take on this. Dude, 0:02:26.160 --> 0:02:30.600 can you imagine us be Vikings and in our crew 0:02:30.919 --> 0:02:34.160 we're all hard cases, right, but in our crew we 0:02:34.240 --> 0:02:38.120 have this one group of fighters that even frighten us. 0:02:38.160 --> 0:02:42.639 They're dangerous, they're unhinged. Even when we're just hanging out 0:02:42.639 --> 0:02:46.320 at home. They are as likely to assault and murder 0:02:46.440 --> 0:02:49.560 us as they are to raid a village. We wonder 0:02:49.600 --> 0:02:51.920 if they're touched by gods. We wonder if they're possessed 0:02:51.919 --> 0:02:55.160 by evil spirits. We wonder whether they are even human 0:02:55.360 --> 0:02:59.360 at all. These are the berserkers. 0:03:05.520 --> 0:03:08.119 My love for you is like a truck berserk. 0:03:12.040 --> 0:03:13.680 In the next line, I can't say on the pot, 0:03:13.720 --> 0:03:16.720 but the following line is my love for you is 0:03:16.800 --> 0:03:18.079 ticking clock berserk. 0:03:19.240 --> 0:03:21.639 Would you like to some pot berserk? 0:03:22.480 --> 0:03:26.520 Sorry as Kevin's a fictional fictional song from Clerks, but 0:03:26.639 --> 0:03:28.560 the berserk bend. First of all, let's just get this 0:03:28.600 --> 0:03:31.320 out of the way. Were these big burley naked guys 0:03:31.360 --> 0:03:33.480 that ate a lot of drugs and scared people on 0:03:33.520 --> 0:03:35.720 the battlefield, Let's get to it. 0:03:35.840 --> 0:03:40.640 The answer is maybe, Okay, we'll see there were pelts 0:03:40.680 --> 0:03:43.040 involved too, right, I think there were some animal pelts 0:03:43.040 --> 0:03:47.400 involved too. That's what the historians are still arguing about 0:03:47.640 --> 0:03:51.400 thousands of years after the fact. We know that Viking, 0:03:52.040 --> 0:03:56.520 yeah right, and congrats to everybody writing their dissertation. So 0:03:56.720 --> 0:04:01.000 the Vikings, we know were a seafaring culture from the 0:04:01.040 --> 0:04:04.840 area of the world that is present day Denmark, Norway 0:04:04.840 --> 0:04:08.080 and Sweden on your map. But no, we don't really 0:04:08.240 --> 0:04:10.840 know where the word Viking comes from. 0:04:11.160 --> 0:04:15.840 That's true, which is odd. You know, we're such etymology fans. 0:04:15.880 --> 0:04:20.279 But the old Norse word the king gear usually was 0:04:20.320 --> 0:04:23.800 translated to pirate or raider. That is one of the 0:04:23.800 --> 0:04:27.279 theories of the etymology, but we have numerous ones, and 0:04:27.320 --> 0:04:29.760 one of our favorites suggests that the words origin is 0:04:29.800 --> 0:04:33.920 actually from Old English vising or weissing and the Old 0:04:34.120 --> 0:04:36.320 Frisian word whizzing. 0:04:36.880 --> 0:04:39.440 It makes me think of wizard powers, it makes me 0:04:39.480 --> 0:04:42.000 think of piek. Wait a minute, it makes on the 0:04:42.040 --> 0:04:45.520 electric fence. Don't do it, don't do it? And who 0:04:45.520 --> 0:04:46.360 are the Frisians? 0:04:46.400 --> 0:04:46.560 Man? 0:04:46.600 --> 0:04:47.320 They sound fun. 0:04:48.800 --> 0:04:52.159 I'm sure everybody back then was super fun and smelled 0:04:52.240 --> 0:04:56.720 super great. The reason we like vc or wheezing or 0:04:56.880 --> 0:05:00.200 vzing is because both of those words are almost three 0:05:00.279 --> 0:05:04.120 hundred years older than the Old Norse word viking gear. 0:05:04.560 --> 0:05:08.360 And those two words, the Frisian and the Old English, 0:05:08.480 --> 0:05:13.320 they derive from vic spelled wic, relating to the Latin 0:05:13.600 --> 0:05:18.479 vicus meaning village or habitation. So we have decided on 0:05:18.640 --> 0:05:23.240 ridiculous history that Viking as a word means the village people. 0:05:23.600 --> 0:05:28.120 It's fine the way at the y MCA. 0:05:27.240 --> 0:05:29.279 That's amazing, the village people. 0:05:29.440 --> 0:05:31.320 Oh Ben, And I was doing a little digging into 0:05:32.520 --> 0:05:33.599 so good, Yes, so good. 0:05:33.880 --> 0:05:34.920 I was doing a little. 0:05:34.680 --> 0:05:37.680 Digging into the Frisian people and They had a codex 0:05:37.760 --> 0:05:41.800 of law called the Lex Frisonium, which I just think 0:05:41.920 --> 0:05:45.280 is fun beautiful. We should get They were master fishermen. 0:05:45.520 --> 0:05:47.000 They were really good at dyke building. 0:05:47.440 --> 0:05:47.520 Uh. 0:05:47.680 --> 0:05:50.160 And they were also really good at like land reclamation 0:05:50.279 --> 0:05:53.520 and other like you know, sustainable farming techniques. So them, 0:05:53.560 --> 0:05:56.200 along with many other seafaring folks from the region where 0:05:56.360 --> 0:05:57.640 we're super innovative. 0:05:57.960 --> 0:06:01.520 Yeah, especially when they weren't getting raided by these mad 0:06:01.680 --> 0:06:07.400 Max level monstrous warships down It's weird because, as our 0:06:07.480 --> 0:06:13.360 pal Jabbari pointed out in some previous episodes, history happens concurrently, 0:06:13.480 --> 0:06:17.760 not necessarily as a series of isolated distinct events. So 0:06:17.800 --> 0:06:21.159 at the same time that the Crusades are coming into 0:06:21.240 --> 0:06:24.560 play in the eighth century to about the late one 0:06:24.560 --> 0:06:29.080 thousands or so, the Vikings are a huge expansion force. 0:06:29.160 --> 0:06:33.520 They travel all the way from the Mediterranean to North Africa, 0:06:33.640 --> 0:06:37.320 the Middle East and Newfoundland in Canada, which they called Venland. 0:06:38.480 --> 0:06:41.320 That makes them, by the way, so far as history knows, 0:06:41.440 --> 0:06:46.520 the first Europeans to reach North America. It's weird because 0:06:46.560 --> 0:06:49.920 they were raiding a lot, that's what they're most well 0:06:49.960 --> 0:06:53.880 known for. But sometimes they would just peacefully trade with 0:06:54.040 --> 0:06:57.240 other cultures, especially, I think if they looked at the 0:06:57.279 --> 0:07:01.600 other cultures, army and bruisers said, we're gonna get our 0:07:01.760 --> 0:07:04.800 butts kicked if we try to fight these guys that 0:07:04.839 --> 0:07:09.440 particular bear. Yeah, yeah, that's not to poke, that particular berserker. 0:07:10.080 --> 0:07:13.960 And then they would settle in places with better weather. 0:07:14.120 --> 0:07:19.680 They were pretty misunderstood. They're portrayed as illiterate, uncultured, barbaric. 0:07:20.440 --> 0:07:23.320 At least some of this has to be trash talking 0:07:23.480 --> 0:07:25.040 from their regional rivals. 0:07:25.480 --> 0:07:27.360 Oh yeah, as is often the case, you know, when 0:07:28.080 --> 0:07:30.720 different cultures are depicted by the cultures who were not 0:07:30.840 --> 0:07:33.840 fond of them. So much of the prevailing history about 0:07:33.920 --> 0:07:37.240 Vikings was written century later by, as we pointed out, 0:07:37.360 --> 0:07:42.800 descendants of their victims, rivals and blood enemies, so similar 0:07:42.920 --> 0:07:47.440 stories about the Knights, Templar and the Hashishim. They were 0:07:47.560 --> 0:07:50.640 maligned oftentimes, but that doesn't mean that there wasn't a 0:07:50.680 --> 0:07:54.040 seed of truth to some of these more outland distales. 0:07:54.640 --> 0:08:00.160 Yeah, their haters wrote the history and embellished and exaggerated 0:08:00.080 --> 0:08:04.320 it just like a cod piece. But but yeah, there 0:08:04.400 --> 0:08:05.840 was there was a country there. 0:08:07.760 --> 0:08:10.440 They're always it. 0:08:11.320 --> 0:08:14.560 All right, we'll keep it. Typologies to all the substitute 0:08:14.560 --> 0:08:18.440 teachers touting in. So we know that the Vikings did 0:08:18.720 --> 0:08:23.840 have literacy. They did make inscriptions via runs, but literacy 0:08:24.080 --> 0:08:26.680 was late to their cultural game, and a lot of 0:08:26.720 --> 0:08:30.400 what we think of as that popular Viking appearance is 0:08:30.840 --> 0:08:36.319 misinfo and propaganda or disinfo. Actually, the horned helmets, they 0:08:36.320 --> 0:08:39.480 don't make a lot of sense in realistic combat. And 0:08:39.559 --> 0:08:43.560 I think you, as a former wee German boy, would 0:08:43.640 --> 0:08:48.280 love that we we found why horned helmets became a thing. 0:08:48.760 --> 0:08:49.280 That's right. 0:08:49.720 --> 0:08:53.280 They probably started based around an illustration from an eighteen 0:08:53.320 --> 0:08:58.000 twenty five edition of a piece of Nordic lore. Fro 0:08:58.160 --> 0:09:00.480 Jesus is a tough one, Frith the Off sounds like 0:09:00.480 --> 0:09:03.079 I got a list, but that's how it's sled Frith 0:09:03.080 --> 0:09:07.200 the Off's saga. And then of course this myth and 0:09:07.280 --> 0:09:11.599 this tale and collection of myths was interpreted and injected 0:09:11.760 --> 0:09:16.720 into the neck of popular culture through Recard Wagner's ring cycle, 0:09:17.000 --> 0:09:20.720 and of course the fat Ladies what sang with their 0:09:20.720 --> 0:09:25.959 horned helmets, the valkyries that are depicted, and my mom actually, 0:09:26.000 --> 0:09:29.480 as a metso soprano, played one of the valkyries in 0:09:29.679 --> 0:09:30.880 several multiple. 0:09:30.760 --> 0:09:36.520 Ways, that's awesome, dude, Toyota, that's awesome. We know that 0:09:37.200 --> 0:09:42.880 when we see Wagner's ring cycle get interpreted over and 0:09:42.920 --> 0:09:47.720 over again. There is one person responsible for this horned 0:09:47.800 --> 0:09:53.120 helmet idea. It's Carl Ebel Doppler. This is a costume 0:09:53.200 --> 0:09:56.720 designer from eighteen seventy six and had a flair for 0:09:56.760 --> 0:10:01.040 the dramatic way more than a flair for his oracle accuracy. 0:10:01.160 --> 0:10:04.880 So that's where it comes from. Another stereotype. No, were 0:10:04.920 --> 0:10:09.040 these guys just sewing chaos for the for the hall 0:10:09.080 --> 0:10:10.440 of it, for the heck of it. 0:10:10.400 --> 0:10:19.520 Just for the get, just for the smell of it. Well, 0:10:19.559 --> 0:10:21.840 I mean you already kind of addressed this, Ben, I mean, 0:10:21.880 --> 0:10:26.240 they were in many cases just trying to survive and 0:10:26.440 --> 0:10:29.959 you know, be functional and move to places where they 0:10:30.000 --> 0:10:36.880 could have community. But they certainly there were bands of 0:10:37.000 --> 0:10:40.839 bad apples I imagine within the vikings. Sure they didn't 0:10:40.920 --> 0:10:43.880 just wake up though, No, huh, exactly to your point, Ben, 0:10:43.960 --> 0:10:46.320 They didn't just wake up one day and randomly decide 0:10:46.320 --> 0:10:48.640 that they were going to be the agents of chaos. 0:10:49.679 --> 0:10:55.200 There were multiple factors that led to the spread of 0:10:55.240 --> 0:11:00.120 this kind of behavior. Yeah, yeah, just conquering pillaging, at 0:11:00.200 --> 0:11:01.160 least you know a version of it. 0:11:01.320 --> 0:11:07.520 Yeah, absolutely, Because Vikings were also farmers, they weren't always outrating, 0:11:07.600 --> 0:11:11.120 but the problem often came down to their home turf, 0:11:11.840 --> 0:11:16.960 very punishing weather, not great soil, very poor soil that 0:11:17.240 --> 0:11:22.960 necessitated them looking outward for sustenance. Otherwise they would and 0:11:23.080 --> 0:11:27.240 in several cases did, starved to death, like entire areas. 0:11:27.240 --> 0:11:30.720 So not every Norse person is a Viking, like not 0:11:30.880 --> 0:11:36.880 every puzzle is amazed. Most Vikings were more like young 0:11:37.000 --> 0:11:39.760 college bros on their gap year, and they were trying 0:11:39.800 --> 0:11:42.480 to get rich before they settled down. But as he 0:11:42.559 --> 0:11:45.400 said earlier, there's a grain of truth to every story, 0:11:45.440 --> 0:11:48.880 even the trash talking. So yes, some of these guys 0:11:48.920 --> 0:11:54.840 were indeed career killers. And those career killers didn't actually 0:11:54.920 --> 0:11:58.640 have a long work life. Their careers were pretty short. 0:11:58.679 --> 0:12:02.679 They met with a brutal end. And the most infamous 0:12:02.720 --> 0:12:04.920 of the killers are the berserker. 0:12:04.800 --> 0:12:10.000 The berserkers, the old Norse berserkers, the legend of the 0:12:10.040 --> 0:12:13.559 Old Norse berserkers, a word that roughly translates to bear 0:12:13.679 --> 0:12:15.600 shirt and now. 0:12:15.520 --> 0:12:20.720 Just means going wild. You're berserk, But not everybody agrees. 0:12:21.080 --> 0:12:25.160 Much like Viking, you will often also hear instead of 0:12:25.200 --> 0:12:28.120 And just to be clear, my initial spelling would. 0:12:27.920 --> 0:12:30.400 Be bear like like the creature. 0:12:31.040 --> 0:12:34.680 Others thought that it meant bear as in no shirt 0:12:34.760 --> 0:12:38.559 at all, bare or bear chested. 0:12:39.200 --> 0:12:39.400 Yeah. 0:12:39.559 --> 0:12:43.160 Yeah, tops off, party time. And it's it's weird because, 0:12:43.400 --> 0:12:49.760 like you were teasier earlier in the stories, these strange, implacable, 0:12:49.920 --> 0:12:54.840 unstoppable warriors are running into battle naked save for like 0:12:54.880 --> 0:12:58.520 a bear skin cloak, and they're howling like beasts. They're 0:12:58.600 --> 0:13:02.880 attacking not just their victims or their foes, but also 0:13:03.080 --> 0:13:06.720 anybody who's in their way. So, if you believe the legends, 0:13:07.040 --> 0:13:11.000 these are early versions of things like suicide bombers or 0:13:11.040 --> 0:13:14.600 Kama case divine wind. They're living weapons. They have no 0:13:14.760 --> 0:13:19.560 regard for their own personal safety, let alone anybody else's. 0:13:20.240 --> 0:13:24.400 I mean, come on right, no way, yeah, but way, 0:13:24.559 --> 0:13:29.080 but yes, way yeah, yeah, I'm picturing Sampson from the 0:13:29.160 --> 0:13:32.199 twenty eight Years Later movies, just like you know, big 0:13:32.280 --> 0:13:35.400 giant hanging dong and just running ats, just screaming and 0:13:35.400 --> 0:13:38.200 then ripping off heads. I like, twenty eight years Maybe 0:13:38.200 --> 0:13:40.000 not that, maybe that is a little bit, you know, 0:13:40.320 --> 0:13:42.559 it's a fun to think about, but now not quite 0:13:42.559 --> 0:13:44.439 that but of course quite something. 0:13:45.480 --> 0:13:48.000 Berserkers were very much a real thing, as in there 0:13:48.040 --> 0:13:51.719 were definitely Viking warriors. Of course, when we get to 0:13:51.760 --> 0:13:55.200 the Berserkers, we are hitting a boundary between fantasy and fact. 0:13:55.960 --> 0:13:58.440 Not everyone agrees that these guys actually ran around in 0:13:58.480 --> 0:14:01.800 their skivvies or under well, maybe no skivies at. 0:14:01.679 --> 0:14:06.440 All, commando, or under some sort of pelt a bear skin. 0:14:08.480 --> 0:14:11.079 Even if we think they can consider that that might 0:14:11.120 --> 0:14:13.920 be true, people also can't quite agree on whether it 0:14:13.960 --> 0:14:16.560 was a bear skin, a wolf skin, or some other 0:14:16.760 --> 0:14:19.040 type of animal hide. Yeah. 0:14:19.280 --> 0:14:24.440 Yeah, maybe it's propaganda because bears are scary, but the 0:14:24.520 --> 0:14:27.440 Vikings could have I love your point about wolves because 0:14:27.480 --> 0:14:29.720 the Vikings could have been wearing the skin of wolves, 0:14:29.760 --> 0:14:32.400 which are also common in the area, and that gives 0:14:32.480 --> 0:14:36.800 us an interesting bit about speculation to resurg and so 0:14:37.000 --> 0:14:39.800 wear wolf legends in Europe. By the way, if you 0:14:39.840 --> 0:14:43.800 haven't seen Brotherhood of the Wolf, check it out. No spoilers. 0:14:44.000 --> 0:14:46.480 Yeah, unrelated to this story, but we definitely did an 0:14:46.480 --> 0:14:49.080 episode on the Beast of govel Down. 0:14:49.240 --> 0:14:52.320 I believe that that was based on we did, didn't we? 0:14:52.360 --> 0:14:55.080 We sure did. Yeah, there was. 0:14:55.640 --> 0:14:59.440 Some sort of mythical beasts plaguing the French countryside and 0:14:59.520 --> 0:15:02.240 it had to be stuff. But this movie definitely goes 0:15:02.440 --> 0:15:05.840 way farther with that concept, and it's a hoot somehow, 0:15:05.880 --> 0:15:08.680 like a kung fu movie mixed with a historical kind 0:15:08.680 --> 0:15:12.520 of intrigue period piece. And then it also has like 0:15:12.800 --> 0:15:15.120 some kind of sci fi kind of elements too. 0:15:15.120 --> 0:15:18.680 It's really really cool, some mortal combat elements. Next up, 0:15:18.800 --> 0:15:22.800 we've got those rumors of super strength, because berserkers are 0:15:22.840 --> 0:15:27.240 always depicted kind of like Bucky in Marvel's Winter Soldier. 0:15:27.360 --> 0:15:28.760 Did you see that one? It was one of the 0:15:28.800 --> 0:15:29.800 best ones of that time. 0:15:30.080 --> 0:15:33.080 You like that one? Yeah? No, I remember Bucky's the 0:15:33.080 --> 0:15:35.000 one with like the robot arm right. 0:15:35.000 --> 0:15:39.080 Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, Captain America's sidekick who gets 0:15:39.360 --> 0:15:43.360 spoilers folks three to one, kidnapped by the Soviets and 0:15:43.400 --> 0:15:48.680 then turned into a brainwashed It's like a Manurian candidate almost, right, 0:15:49.000 --> 0:15:53.000 Just so, yeah, So the berserkers are depicted as having 0:15:53.480 --> 0:15:59.360 almost superhuman levels of physical ability but definitely not mental ability. Well, 0:15:59.400 --> 0:16:02.440 and that comes from or at least some speculation around 0:16:02.480 --> 0:16:06.040 that that I think is also represented in that movie 0:16:06.120 --> 0:16:08.600 The Northmen. Is this idea that they were taking some 0:16:08.640 --> 0:16:13.720 psychoactive substances to make them, you know, kind of unhinged, 0:16:14.680 --> 0:16:16.560 and we've got to get to that part. We also 0:16:16.600 --> 0:16:20.000 have to let you know that even in the provable 0:16:20.200 --> 0:16:25.680 literature of the time, not written by enemies the North Sagas, 0:16:25.760 --> 0:16:29.720 the characters that are often interpreted as Vikings are also 0:16:29.880 --> 0:16:33.800 depicted as villains in their own hometowns because they will 0:16:33.800 --> 0:16:37.880 assault and murder people in their own host communities during 0:16:37.960 --> 0:16:43.400 peacetime between raids. So what about the rumors that we're 0:16:43.400 --> 0:16:47.800 teasing here about what makes them so beastly? No, we 0:16:47.880 --> 0:16:51.040 got to go to Peter Pence, the curator of Danish 0:16:51.080 --> 0:16:55.560 prehistory at the National Museum of Denmark. Pete breaks down 0:16:55.640 --> 0:16:58.720 the pickle of this in a great interview from a 0:16:58.720 --> 0:17:01.000 few years back with Millilitary History. 0:17:01.280 --> 0:17:05.679 According to Pens, Berserkers are mainly known from written medieval 0:17:05.760 --> 0:17:09.639 accounts and not from the Vikings themselves. So again we 0:17:09.760 --> 0:17:13.200 kind of maybe have another slightly is there an agenda here, 0:17:13.280 --> 0:17:16.000 unreliable narrator kind of thing. Pence does make a note 0:17:16.080 --> 0:17:19.920 at the primary written source of information on berserkers capital 0:17:19.960 --> 0:17:22.680 B the real ones, not the legends, does come from 0:17:22.680 --> 0:17:24.080 a guy with a fabulous name. 0:17:24.240 --> 0:17:27.920 Yeah, fabulous name. His name is Snorri Sterlson. 0:17:28.119 --> 0:17:30.400 But I would I would love it only slightly more 0:17:30.440 --> 0:17:34.480 if it was Snorri Snirlsen. But it is Snorri Sterlson, 0:17:34.760 --> 0:17:38.440 an Icelandic historian who lived around twelve hundred CE, which 0:17:38.480 --> 0:17:43.080 is just after the golden age of vikingdom. 0:17:43.160 --> 0:17:48.560 Yeah, and our buddy Snory thinks of the berserkers. Yeah, 0:17:48.560 --> 0:17:50.360 we got to go first name on that, which I just. 0:17:50.280 --> 0:17:51.040 Think he sounds like us. 0:17:51.040 --> 0:17:53.399 It's like a sleepy boy with a candle, you know, 0:17:53.800 --> 0:17:56.520 like and like a little sleep hat kind of clunk 0:17:56.560 --> 0:17:58.159 shoeing his way through research. 0:17:58.600 --> 0:18:02.399 It sounds like a Nordic knockoff of Winnie the Pooh 0:18:02.560 --> 0:18:03.200 A little bit. 0:18:03.119 --> 0:18:06.199 There it is, Uh so, Snory, we're gonna use your 0:18:06.200 --> 0:18:08.119 first name for this right in. If you have a 0:18:08.119 --> 0:18:08.640 problem with. 0:18:08.640 --> 0:18:13.520 That, uh yeah, we'll berserk. You will perserk. 0:18:13.640 --> 0:18:18.320 The uh berserkers in Snorri's writing are a kind of 0:18:18.400 --> 0:18:23.480 holy warrior. He writes that Odin's own men went into 0:18:23.520 --> 0:18:27.320 battle without coats of mail and acted like mad dogs 0:18:27.400 --> 0:18:30.400 or wolves. They bit their shields and were as strong 0:18:30.480 --> 0:18:33.879 as bears of bulls. They killed people and neither fire 0:18:34.000 --> 0:18:37.960 nor iron affected them. This is called berserker rage. 0:18:38.160 --> 0:18:41.640 Oh yes, he's hulking out. Yeah, we're going to keep 0:18:41.680 --> 0:18:44.680 in the in the marbledom of it all. Yeah. 0:18:44.720 --> 0:18:47.080 So okay, So if we go back to modern day 0:18:47.240 --> 0:18:50.760 Pence over at the museum, we'll see that, he says, 0:18:51.400 --> 0:18:55.800 Snorri is going with two interpretations of berserker. You're either 0:18:55.840 --> 0:18:58.120 a fighter who goes to battle like you were saying 0:18:58.160 --> 0:19:03.600 Nolan animal skins without armor, or you might be as 0:19:03.600 --> 0:19:06.480 strong as a bearer, if not actually a bear yourself. 0:19:06.960 --> 0:19:11.720 So the question that becomes, why on earth would anybody 0:19:11.800 --> 0:19:14.640 go into battle but naked to. 0:19:14.680 --> 0:19:16.160 Freak out the enemy? Man? 0:19:17.840 --> 0:19:20.359 Right right, you daaled it. You should work with the 0:19:20.480 --> 0:19:24.720 National Museum of Denmark because that is one of their guesses. 0:19:24.800 --> 0:19:29.520 They thought maybe it was a psyop man. Maybe you 0:19:29.560 --> 0:19:32.120 see him running while they're hanging dong and you both 0:19:32.200 --> 0:19:34.280 these guys are bonkerstras. 0:19:34.600 --> 0:19:37.280 Yeah they are, indeed they are. 0:19:37.400 --> 0:19:40.200 Indeed, the museum knows that the nudity might have exactly 0:19:40.200 --> 0:19:44.199 been what you said, been a psyop showing disregard for 0:19:44.240 --> 0:19:48.040 their own personal safety, like those people that play Skyrim 0:19:48.160 --> 0:19:51.680 with naked characters, you know or not not not Sky 0:19:52.520 --> 0:19:54.480 elden Ring. But also you could do it with Skyrim. 0:19:54.960 --> 0:19:57.040 But yeah, it is. It is definitely a flex, right. 0:19:57.080 --> 0:20:00.240 It's saying like I either think I am so such 0:20:00.240 --> 0:20:03.920 a badass that no one can touch me, or I'm 0:20:04.119 --> 0:20:05.159 an insane person. 0:20:05.720 --> 0:20:06.200 Yeah. 0:20:06.359 --> 0:20:07.400 Or maybe they were. 0:20:07.440 --> 0:20:09.520 Some some ven diagram of those two things as well. 0:20:09.760 --> 0:20:12.480 Yeah, or maybe they were thinking that they would be 0:20:12.720 --> 0:20:16.080 ordering a god of war so they would be willing 0:20:16.280 --> 0:20:18.080 sacrifices in the battle. 0:20:18.280 --> 0:20:20.240 Now, even Kratos wore some gear though. 0:20:20.280 --> 0:20:23.240 Man, that's true, that's true. That's how we got through 0:20:23.280 --> 0:20:24.520 so many video games. 0:20:24.640 --> 0:20:26.280 Also true. Yeah, I think you know what if you 0:20:26.280 --> 0:20:29.080 heard all the hubbub with all these like internet nerds 0:20:29.080 --> 0:20:31.320 that are upset that the next God of War is 0:20:31.359 --> 0:20:35.439 a woman? No, why are they because they're jerks. 0:20:36.119 --> 0:20:38.800 There's so many real world things to be upset about. 0:20:38.920 --> 0:20:40.560 I know, Man, it's so weird. 0:20:40.920 --> 0:20:43.200 Okay, well, guys, do your best. 0:20:43.240 --> 0:20:46.440 I guess now, you know what, Ben, I'm gonna one 0:20:46.520 --> 0:20:48.680 up beyond that one. Do better, do better? 0:20:48.840 --> 0:20:52.800 Yeah, no, I agree with that. So we we also know, 0:20:53.840 --> 0:20:56.440 especially if you've already checked out our episode on Nights 0:20:56.480 --> 0:20:59.600 in Shining Armor, we know that there were probably horrid 0:20:59.640 --> 0:21:03.760 ekin making practical issues at play, because first, armor is expensive, 0:21:03.840 --> 0:21:07.280 it takes so much time from highly skilled laborers, especially 0:21:07.320 --> 0:21:12.439 metal armor. And Second, honestly, folks, wearing a bunch of 0:21:12.600 --> 0:21:17.120 armor slows you way down. It doesn't fit Viking rating tactics. 0:21:17.119 --> 0:21:19.840 So those are about speed and overwhelming force. These are 0:21:20.400 --> 0:21:23.320 hit and run jobs. Armor is not great for running, 0:21:23.480 --> 0:21:25.199 so maybe it doesn't make sense for him. 0:21:25.640 --> 0:21:28.119 No, and to the point we actually both made in 0:21:28.359 --> 0:21:33.600 the Knights and Armor episode that we published earlier this week, 0:21:34.440 --> 0:21:37.040 there is a world where the less armor you have, 0:21:37.240 --> 0:21:40.760 technically you're you've got a bit of an advantage on 0:21:40.800 --> 0:21:42.560 your more heavily armored opponents. 0:21:42.560 --> 0:21:46.359 Potentially, Yeah, because you're nimble and they're not. You want 0:21:46.359 --> 0:21:52.399 to you, I mean, it's it's like fighting a really 0:21:52.400 --> 0:21:56.520 big slow dude. Do you want to wait, make him 0:21:56.560 --> 0:21:59.320 slower for them to clank over to you. Yeah? 0:21:59.480 --> 0:22:03.199 Right, I mean the these berserkers would largely be the 0:22:03.240 --> 0:22:05.840 beefiest of the boys too, which means that they would 0:22:05.840 --> 0:22:08.600 be even more expensive to armor up. 0:22:08.920 --> 0:22:11.960 Oh yeah, that's a great point too. Uh, here's the 0:22:12.000 --> 0:22:14.320 part we've all been righted. Do we talk to drugs 0:22:14.320 --> 0:22:17.639 ban Yeah, we got to figure out how they got. 0:22:17.520 --> 0:22:19.960 A rage so they do it, how they get into 0:22:20.040 --> 0:22:20.480 hulk moon. 0:22:27.320 --> 0:22:29.359 I don't want to put you on the spot too much, 0:22:29.480 --> 0:22:33.680 but uh, you don't have to answer this, but what's 0:22:33.720 --> 0:22:36.000 the most bloodthirsty and pissed that. 0:22:36.200 --> 0:22:39.280 You have ever been? At one time? I took PCP? 0:22:39.640 --> 0:22:41.879 No, I'm kidd I've never done that, but you do 0:22:42.000 --> 0:22:43.960 hear that is a drug that comes to mind when 0:22:43.960 --> 0:22:47.399 you're thinking about this kind of behavior because there have 0:22:47.480 --> 0:22:50.639 been stories of it, like giving people super strength, or 0:22:50.680 --> 0:22:52.439 like you know, getting hit by a car and then. 0:22:52.520 --> 0:22:56.679 Jumping back up, showing away out of a three story 0:22:56.720 --> 0:22:59.679 window from the cops and a ducat of rolling and 0:22:59.680 --> 0:23:02.040 then sca dadling on your broken ankle. 0:23:02.160 --> 0:23:05.800 Ooh skadatdling Indeed, And Ben, I don't do blood thirsty really. 0:23:06.880 --> 0:23:08.119 I really only get mad when. 0:23:07.960 --> 0:23:10.360 Other people are being messed with. Frankly, But I can't 0:23:10.359 --> 0:23:13.480 think of an exact example. But they didn't have PCP 0:23:13.680 --> 0:23:17.320 back then, so what would they have potentially been ingesting, 0:23:17.560 --> 0:23:20.040 Ben that would have caused them to hulk out in 0:23:20.119 --> 0:23:20.800 this fashion. 0:23:21.119 --> 0:23:23.880 Yeah, we've got three ideas. We're going to save the 0:23:23.880 --> 0:23:28.400 fun one for last. The first is religious zeal. Oh, yeah, 0:23:28.640 --> 0:23:30.920 hell of a drug on its own, right, Yeah. Yeah, 0:23:31.600 --> 0:23:35.560 Like in the beginning, the idea of these kinds of 0:23:35.600 --> 0:23:39.920 warriors was linked to some sort of mysterious cult, an 0:23:39.920 --> 0:23:42.640 inner circle of people worshiping Odin. 0:23:42.640 --> 0:23:44.440 Being imbued with superpowers. 0:23:44.680 --> 0:23:44.920 Yeah. 0:23:45.200 --> 0:23:48.880