Were Viking Berserkers Fueled By Drugs?
Recent research shows they may have been ingesting henbane.
A common misconception says that the fearsome warriors loaded up on magic mushrooms before battle, recent research shows they may have been ingesting henbane.
The Vikings were a formidable seafaring people who traversed the vast expanses of Northern Europe.
They were renowned for their fierce battlefield prowess and held much of coastal Europe in fear during their years of exploration.
Viking Berserkers
Most fearsome of all though were the berserkers. These were Viking fighters who fought in a trance-like fury with heightened aggression and what seems like superhuman strength. They were said to exhibit incredible endurance and immunity to pain, seemingly oblivious to injuries and driven by an unyielding bloodlust.
Knowing that warriors who died heroically in combat were rewarded in Valhalla they bounded into battle.
The origins of berserker rage have long intrigued historians. A persistent hypothesis has suggested that these fighters harnessed the power of hallucinogenic substances to induce their furious state.
Amanita Muscaria
One such substance that has been suggested is Amanita Muscaria, commonly known as fly agaric or fly amanita, a bright red and white mushroom. If you’ve ever played any of the Super Mario games, you know what it looks like.
This mushroom has a long history in Norse folklore because of its perceived connection to the spirit world. The fly amanita is a magic mushroom but not quite the same as the more commonly known breeds like Golden Caps and Liberty Caps.
Amanita muscaria, if ingested, can be fatal and will certainly make a person feel ill. It can be prepared in a few specific ways for its hallucinogenic effects to work. We don’t need to go into them here however, although one of the methods involves drinking the urine of someone who has ingested it. Some have even suggested they’d feed them mushroom to reindeer and drink their urine. So, thanks but no thanks on that one lads.
It has been suggested by the historian Karsten Fatur that the Vikings may have consumed the mushroom, not in its entirety, but in a controlled manner to induce a state of heightened awareness and spiritual connection.
In his research on ethnobotany, he proposed a more direct link between fly agaric and berserker rage. He argues that the mushroom’s psychoactive compounds, such as muscimol and ibotenic acid, can produce heightened sensory perception and disinhibition.
While Fatur suggests that amanita muscaria may have been used, he makes the claim in his paper that the mushroom doesn’t induce a sense of rage in people who take it. Basically, if the vikings had been taking amanita they’d have been hallucinating but wouldn’t be in the rage they were known for.
He looked instead at a common herb found in Scandinavia called henbane (Hyoscyamus Niger).
Henbane will also induce hallucinations, just like magic mushrooms but can also cause delirium. This might be the thing that caused the fury of the berserkers.
His paper doesn’t prove that berserkers used henbane, or amanita muscaria but it’s an interesting take on the riddle of what was it that gave these blood-lusting warriors they’re fierce prowess in battle.
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