Berserkers: The Vikings That Took Magic Mushrooms Before Battle | Ancient Black Ops | Chronicle

[Music] they're said to be the drug fueled Warriors who can turn into wild animals they're bloodthirsty Pagan Fanatics who ruthlessly lead the way into battle they're mad bad and dangerous to know that could not be trusted to do anything but kill everything in their PA striking Terror Into the Heart of peaceloving Christians across medieval Europe these are the Viking Berserkers they had almost superhuman strengths but it's one lone berserker's Last Stand on an English bridge in 1066 which has claimed their place in history as one of the most fearsome of all ancient Special [Music] [Music]

[Music] Forces just off England's Northeastern Coast in Northumberland lies the holy island of lindes far it's the holiest place in Dark Ages England and the scene of one of the bloodiest Encounters in the country's history home to the Linder fan monks the monastery there is filled with ornate beautiful and valuable religious Treasures people in Anglo-Saxon England early Medieval Europe they believed in the protection of the Saints so lindis van ought to have been [Music] invulnerable but what the monks don't know is out to seea a fleet of strange Wooden Ships is bearing down on them

bking long ships roll up on the beach at lindis Fern these Warriors jump out and the monks would have been utterly shocked horrified [Music] the Invaders overrun the [Music] monastery they ruthlessly cut down any man in their path smashing grabbing and looting anything that could pick up and take home gold silver jewels the monks desperately try to hide the monastery's precious artifact act s but they're helpless it seems like a lot of the monks had had taken Refuge by the altar some of them were definitely killed there because we're told about the altar being spattered

with [Music] blood the raid on Linda's fan is brutal and merciless for the holy men the arrival of these ax-wielding Maniacs feels like a punishment from God they would be utterly stunned and astounded that somebody would have the temerity to actually attack God's house those lucky enough to survive the blood bath are dragged away and taken prisoner among them are some of England's most respected religious leaders they'll be held for ransom the rest are destined for slavery what certainly happened was an unknown number of the monks were taken back to the long ships and taken

back to Norway which is where these particular Bunch came from slaves were big business British slaves who were sold as far a field as bizantium and Baghdad they would have taken all the slaves that they could the raid on Linda's F marks the beginning of the Viking [Music] age I spell I had a bath Only Yesterday Today the Vikings vicious assaults are a distant memory instead the Vikings have become figures of fascination and they're not always taken seriously you strike me down that little girl will cry with crazy names like Ragnar hary breaks Sven forkbeard

toen skull splitter and Eric blood ax their perfect fodder for enthusiastic historical reenactors but the reality is they were Intrepid explorers and fearless [Applause] Fighters their Story begins in the Frozen wastes of [Music] Scandinavia countries we now know as Norway Denmark and Sweden at home the Vikings face some of the most brutal living conditions on Earth with cold and unforgiving Winters and land that's often covered in snow and ice it can be difficult to grow food the Vikings quickly realize that if they want a good life they'll have to steal it the only way they

can do that is to take to the oceans from the late 700s Vikings begin attacking places like France England Ireland and Scotland from the sea you can certainly see them as entrepreneur who are taking what might be perceived as a business opportunity to create wealth for themselves pure capitalist thinking Central to their success is their raiding vessel the Viking longship Morton round is a curator at the Vikings ship Museum in Ros Kilda in Denmark what you should imine people sitting on each of these positions here which is marked by the floor timers and you would

imagine them sitting there and having an ore outside the or holes which you can also see here and row the ship and it will be 26 men on board a ship like this rowing uh 13 on each side clinker style wooden warships with their characteristic Hull shape can carry Crews of up to a 100 men out on the North Sea the Vikings face freezing cold conditions and vicious Waters as navigation is critical they use the Sun the Stars the wind direction and even the color and taste of the sea to help them find their way

but what makes the long ships particularly special is their speed with the use of the sail and ores they can reach speeds of up to 15 knots they light fast and with their shallow holes they're perfect raiding ships they didn't take that deep into the water the draft was not that big which means that you could land the ships but it needed obviously to be a Sandy Beach or something like that they're vessels that have the same qualities as those used by Special Forces today Viking ships are pretty low profile they' be able to beach

their craft and deploy it back into the sea to make a getaway with speed or [Music] haste cruising Europe Shores in their longships the Vikings are opportunists but they don't just attack at random what the Vikings are looking for is defenseless targets filled with valuable Treasures remote monasteries and small isolated Villages are rich pickings they're targeting the most vulnerable people with the most money which generally means the church like the very best Special Forces time is spent in reconnaissance it's quite possible that they would sailed up to the coast and spot a likely joint and

jump over the edge of their ship and attack it for people living near the sea raids that come out of the blue are difficult to guard against know it's impossible to defend an entire Coastline it's impossible to man such vast stretches of water you think the vastness of Most Coast lines it's extremely difficult always on the lookout for easy to plunder targets the Vikings develop their own special type of lightning assault it's a kind of R they called strand hog come to a village people are alert you move on find a bit further on you

find there's a village and it looks like everyone's asleep you run in grab what you can get out fast speed aggression and surprise you know it's essential to their success but but even when their target is identified the Raiders don't just attack recklessly the Vikings actually knew of course what they were doing when they went out on these uh raids they must have had some sort of intelligence knowing where to to strike and with what force you would probably either have Scouts ahead knowing where to land or you would maybe land your troops in not

so hostile areas the Vikings are careful to guard their backs and ensure that they can get in and away quickly with a raid on a monastery there's probably a certain amount of forethought has gone into that one you'd hit the beach you'd need to leave a few people to guard the ships you know ships can be burned and you don't want somebody to sneak around and set fire to them and you probably detail people to to go out and cover possible Escape Routes if the mission is going according to plan victims will have no idea

of what's going to [Music] happen they always have the Tactical advantage [Music] it's very very hard to get one step ahead of the Vikings because you don't know where they're going to go in some ways your modern piracy has some kind of parallels but I think in the Tactical sense it's got much more Akin really with [Applause] terrorism [Music] to make them all the more frightening they have a simple but brutal array of weapons the Vikings are famously associated with the axe the axe head of a typical Dane axe is made of Iron and Steel

carefully crafted to be lightweight fast and well balanced its blade can be forged to be as thin as just 2 mm giving it a devastating cutting capability Martin hman is a Danish ancient weapons expert this is a Dan ax it's a typical Viking weapon you would use this with two hands it's not really hard to lift at all it's it's surprisingly light and you can uh you can actually swing it back like this and then move your hands this way you gain a lot of momentum on the battlefield the Dan ax is used both tactically

I could take out this Axe and hook his leg and I could just draw him draw him out and it's also used to [Music] kill if you meet someone with this kind of weapon you better run but possibly the most terrifying and deadly weapon of all is the double-edged sword the most precious of all Viking weapons it's often passed down from father to son a Viking Warrior would learn technique from an early age Viking sword is made out of steel the typical weight is around 1 kg on the battlefield the Viking sword can Dole out

death in a number of vicious ways it's a definitely a a slashing weapon for cutting you can also be used for stabbing and if it doesn't kill the victim it's guaranteed to maim him this sword could definitely take off a leg and and a hand with these I mean this is I mean this is as brutal and as aggressive as Warfare can get you so up close and person on they using such heavy cumers and weapons which just been utterly brutal history hit is an award-winning streaming platform built by history fans for history fans enjoy

our Rich library of documentaries covering key events and locations of the medieval period history hits medieval offering features leading historians such as Dan Jones Elena yega and Kat jman not only that but we have a rich library of audio documentaries covering every period of History through our network of podcasts sign up now for a free trial and Chronicle fans get 50% off their first 3 months just be sure to use the code Chronicle at checkout the remains of Viking victims across Northern England show the damage inflicted by the Viking axe and the Viking sword their

weapons together with the Vikings sheer fighting prowess make them a terrifying Prospect for all who encounter them from the 8th Century through to the 11th century bands of Vikings launch larger and larger attacks on more and more communities and they don't just use brute force to seize land gold and slaves the Vikings have even more Sinister methods I'm quite sure that that people were murdered and tortured in order to get them to tell where they had hidden their valuables there probably was a lot of killing just for the sake of it simply to create the

kind of Terror to cow people to make them obedient it must have been a terrifying and and violent experience for the victims of of Viking but if the Vikings are the special forces of their day within their Warrior bands they have an even more elite team a Seal Team Six they're known as the Berserkers they were ruthless Warriors who would stop at nothing to to slaughter their opponents they were absolutely without fear of injury or [Music] death they were supposed to have chewed on their Shields howled horribly went berserk in battle and could not be

trusted to do anything but kill everything in their pa they're mad bad and dangerous to know oh I'm find the axe today Berserkers are objects of Fascination Children's Fantasy characters so much so the computer games are built around them they're depicted as Giants trolls and ferociously fighting ogres painted as superhumans they're big powerful the star of Legend he will have quite often a horned helmet because even though everybody knows that the Vikings didn't wear horned helmet it's a brand almost but Berserkers were real one of the strongest bits of evidence as to the existence of

Berserkers are these Chessmen discovered around 1831 found on the Scottish island of Lewis in the outer herdes they date from the 12th or 13th century and seem to portray Berserkers four of the Rooks actually depicted Warriors biting on the Shields and they've actually physically got their teeth sticking over the rim of the shield and what they really represent for us is a medieval Scandinavian idea of what a Berserker was they're also mentioned in poetry or scalc verse and in the sagas the Vikings ancient historical Tales written between the 9th and 14th centuries when you look

in Saga Traditions Berserkers turn up in ones or twos usually their brothers or maybe in numbers up to a dozen they're not common they were professional Warriors big guys the best of the best part of a Viking king or Lord's War band they're considered Elite members of society any boat sailing to England might contain Berserkers if it contains members of a king's War band serving as a kind of bodyguard they're at the Forefront of an attack they are the core around which an army might be [Applause] built they're the ones who will lead the way

into battle when they step forward everybody else is meant to go with them as the most terrifying of all Viking warriors there is every reason to believe they were even bigger and stronger than regular Vikings but it's their behavior which they are most renowned for spawning the English word Berserk once they fly off the handle then there can be dead people lying all over the place before they calm down however it's something else that really sets them [Music] apart the Berserkers have unusual ways of preparing for battle ancient depictions of Berserkers appear to show muscular

Warriors wearing these skins complete with the heads of wild animals B is thought to have derived from either the old nose word bear meaning bear or naked or an old nose word Berry meaning a bear so it either means bear of shirt or wearing a bear skin the Legends say that by wearing animal skins the Berserkers take on special powers that they can shapeshift and transform themselves into wild animals it's a sense of getting into the the spirit world in a sense and adopting the characteristics of the animal that uh you're trying to get in

touch with it is even claimed by some some that Berserkers are The Originators of the werewolf Berserkers were not werewolves let's start with that bit people have seen in the Berserker a werewolf somebody who physically changes shape into an animal what's more likely is that they took on the Persona of the animal they adopted the animals attributes to carry them into battle so they went in as strong as a bear or as Fierce as a wolf you aren't literally going to become a bear or a wolf but you want to have that strength that [Music]

ferocity by wearing animal skins and very little armor the Berserker not only lessens the division between him self and the animal he's trying to emulate it also gives him mystical Powers they were perceived as invulnerable or able to blunt swords they couldn't be wounded anywhere that they were wearing these [Music] coats but the Berserker has another secret weapon to help him prepare and it may very well help him believe in his animalistic abilities magic mushrooms their proper name is amonita muscaria they're very common I mean they're widespread all over the Northern Hemisphere and up into

the sort of subarctic um they're your classic fairy tale mushroom the bright red with white spots they're commonly called The Fly mushroom or the flyer Garrick because they're reputed to kill insects but the mushrooms also have another effect which could help a warrior get into the right mental state for a fight they have a psychoactive drug inside which will give you depending on the dosage uh a [Music] trip the idea that someone could use drugs to prepare for battle is not that far-fetched there were cases in World War II where where German forces were were

given amphetamines the Nazis developed an early form of crystal meth to help their troops stay alert in Vietnam soldiers were issued with amphetamines by the US Army to heighten their senses on missions but for Berserkers their drug of choice is so toxic it has to be prepared in a certain way the mushroom caps are dried ground up and made into a hot drink to Aid the process they're mixed with alcohol presumably in those days it would have been something that me something just to wash it down and quickly dissolve the chemicals into the liquid it's

this practice of stewing the caps in liquid which acts as a catalyst lead in the body's absorption of the drug the alcohol will also affect the reaction alcohol will of course help the condition I mean one of the things we think we don't realize is the the mood affects the results immensely and we've known this for years with other psychoactive drugs the mood that the person is in when they take the mushroom has an enormous effect on what sort of result they get from it around 30 minutes after the Berserker takes his mushroom potion it's

supposed to kick [Music] in there's a whole host of effects that can be encountered uh common ones are muscle twitching sweating salivating increased production of saliva the Berserker starts to literally froth at the [Music] mouth of course one of the problems as with all drugs is they have side effects can get amnesia and fainting in with large doses nausea is is commonly recorded that's one of the most common side effects peruse vomiting faal flushing often one sense of balance apparently goes AR these side effects are so bad that some suggest that the idea that Vikings

took magic mushrooms is a myth the one scientific study that's been done in the late 50s suggested that if they had taken magic mushrooms they probably wouldn't have been fit to fight however some experts disagree they've been in use 2 3,000 years probably something on that order so it's it's very unlikely the Vikings would not have known of the mushroom and it seems Berserkers may have found an ingenious way to avoid any nasty re reactions when the mushroom is passed through the body it's stripped of some of its toxins we know that drinking the urine

is one of the commonest ways of diluting the the unpleasant side effects and increasing the potency of the of the chemical it means that only one Berserker needs to experience the bad reactions brought on by the mushrooms the other Berserkers simply need to drink his urine this appears to remove the toxic side effects but leaves the hallucinogenic ones I read one report where they thought one would eat it past urine someone else would eat it someone would drink their urine and so on up to five times it maybe that one ingestion of the mushroom would

actually serve quite a few people afterwards it's because of this that mushroom experts are convinced by the use of magic mushrooms as a means of reaching battle Fury I'd be very surprised if they didn't use them in some of their ceremonies my own feeling is that may not have been this the sole cause of their enormous strength and aggression but it I I suspect it was a was a a definite means of accelerating this this process punt full of adrenaline uh anger and I suspect that the mushroom would have been the just added extra so

wearing his wild animal skin and strung out on drugs the Berserker is almost ready but there's one final thing he needs to prepare him for battle like all Vikings the Berserkers are religious Fanatics they're utterly devoted to one particular Pagan god Odin Odin is the the Norse high God he's the god of war and Berserkers had the idea that really they were chosen by Odin that they didn't really choose to be a Berserker that it was Odin who chose them eager to please Odin an opportunity to fight for him and die for him is a

privilege for a Berserker you honored Odin if you killed someone in battle and you honored him by dying in battle so battle was win-win what they Most Wanted Was death in battle was a guarantee that you would go to Valhalla Valhalla is the Warrior's Paradise in the afterlife like 21st century jihadists the Berserker imagines that by giving his life In the Heat of battle he'll guarantee great glory and rewards there Valhalla is a giant Lord's Hall in which they feast all night and then they go out of it during the day and they fight all

day preparing themselves for Ragnarok the final day when all the gods will die Ragnarok marks the end of the universe but for Vikings being at Odin's side for the greatest battle of all is the ultimate honor it's the positive welcoming of death that makes the Berserker the most fearsome of all medieval [Music] Warriors so assisted by alcohol with hallucinogens pumping through his body with the characteristics of a wild animal entering his psyche and fully prepared to die in glory the Berserker reaches berserk gang the battle Fury with teeth bared howling and growling he faces his

opposition the how in might well have been chanting of spells behind that Shield getting themselves really stoked up one of the best modern analogies for it might well be the All Blacks doing a [Applause] hacker it's designed to be frightening it's designed to make you feel strong and [Applause] Invincible Berserkers have a tremendous psychological effect effect on their enemy I think it would have been very intimidating for ordinary peasants like the Anglo-Saxons reluctantly pulled together to fight it's horrifying they may have probably never been in the battle before in their lives they really want to

live and they go back and look after the cows and and see their families again 100 yards away on the other side there they are howling and biting their Shields they just want to run at you and hack you to pieces they got into this very intense and angry worked up state where they had almost superhuman strengths and if they were injured they didn't feel it they just carried on off their heads with this big dosage of the mushroom they may not really know what's going on except that they just attack anyone that's in front

of them like a loose cannon you just pointed in the right direction and you let them get on with it Viking raids across Europe increase attacking small towns and Villages raping and pillaging they raise peasant homes to the ground and Slaughter entire [Music] communities eventually the Vikings bring over their own families to settle in their conquered lands around about 8:40 this is the point when vikings actually do start making permanent bases instead of going home for the winter you pull your ships up inside the protection of a rampart you spend the winter there and as

soon as spring comes you can get back to raiding nice and early so it extends your raiding season to about 9 months of the year instead of 3 months of the year in the Summer with the Berserkers at their heart the Vikings managed to cultivate a vast trading empire by the 11th century their conquests stretch from Iceland in the North to the Mediterranean Sea in the South and from Newland in the west to Constantinople and the Caspian Sea in the East but it's one event on an autumnal English day in 1066 that will go down

in history as the berserker's finest hour more than 300 Viking ships carrying as many as 14,000 men approach the northeastern coast of England leading them is Norwegian King Harold hardrada hardrada is an outstanding Warrior he's fought in the bulans and across the baz antine Empire and has gone on to seize the Norwegian Crown now he's hungry for more he's got a very clear political ambition and that is to make good a claim to the English Throne his Target is the greatest City in northern England [Music] York the actual Viking Army first lands at scabra and

sacks the to Burns it to the ground to show local people that resistance is futile they're moving to the Humber Ester and then up the river oo to capture The Greatest Prize of all the capital of the North York or in nor yorvik york is under English control but critically the Vikings had conquered the city exactly 200 years before and they regard it as their own for the Vikings it's home so now they're back to claim what they class as their city and for hrada York is just the beginning he believes that if he takes

it the rest of the country will fall to [Music] him after a major victory on the outskirts of the city York surrenders to him [Music] hadr thinks the war is [Music] won that the English crown is [Music] his he's so confident he's even sent a third of his army back to the Viking Fleet 12 Mi up River but what hrada doesn't know is his Nemesis is coming the newly crowned Anglo-Saxon King Harold godwinson has heard about the Viking King's intentions he's hot footed it from London with an army of some 15,000 hr's Vikings on the

other hand are bathing in their Victory if you could imagine a was hot de the troops have walked 12 M probably had headaches from the night before from the revin I should imagine quite a few would just lay down on the grassy Banks there's a relaxed atmosphere in the air it's warm sunny probably sunbathing at the time we understand that they initially they caught a glimpse of some dust on the horizon which would indicate a coming of a party hrada had been expecting the arrival of some dignitaries from York for a simple hostage transfer securing

the city's surrender what he sees is King Harold and his vast Anglo-Saxon Army hardrada realizes he's made a terrible mistake he's completely dumfounded and in shock he didn't expect this at all and the worst problem he faces now he has an army outnumbered and also unarmed and under armored with his troops straddling both sides of the river durent hrada needs to regroup the only way to do this is to get all his men over onto the Eastern side of the river via the one and only Crossing Point a narrow wooden bridge so that he can

form a defensive line the majority make it across but then the Anglo-Saxons appear it's now that hrada turns to one of his special forces he calls on one Viking Berserker his task to buy his King time it's an extraordinary situation just one man against an entire Army first he evokes the spirit of a wild animal he consumes the stewed amantia muscaria mushrooms and starts to feel the empowering effects of the hallucinogen he believes he has the strength of a wild bear that with his bare skin as armor his body will repel the Anglo-Saxon weapons that

he will be invulnerable frothing at the moue in soll to Odin and dreaming of his place at the feasting table in Valhalla the great warrior reaches the height of his berserk [Music] gang and steps out onto the bridge oh [Music] no this one Berserker armed with his danx confronts King Harold's 15 ,000 men you can imagine a kind of standoff he was buying time giving his life to buy time for the rest of the army one by one brave soldiers from King Harold's army take on the great Viking Warrior on the bridge [Applause] and one

by one they are cut down on a narrow front probably only one or two men would have been able to attack him at a time you can imagine that even if he was dispatching people at the rate of one every 30 seconds he might have held them up for 10 minutes quarter of an hour or more the English body count Mount up according to the anglosaxon chronicle every person who tries to cross the bridge over 40 Anglo-Saxon soldiers killed by this one Berserker but finally he succumbs the count say was finally killed by an Englishman

who went down under the bridge with a spear and and got him from from [Music] underneath [Music] with his death the Vikings are beaten Harold hrada will die with an arrow to the throat despite the defeat the actions of this great warrior are celebrated in the history books of the day but there's an irony the contest at Stamford Bridge may be regarded as the berserker's greatest stand but it also marks the beginning of the end for the Viking age by the early 11th century and certainly by 1066 Berserkers are becoming a Dying Breed there's a

more powerful force at work than that of the pagan gods many Vikings have converted from paganism to a more widely held belief system the demise of the Pagan Berserker comes with the Advent of Christianity ity Christianity probably had some kind of neutralizing effect once you're all part of the same Club then you tend not to attack each other quite the same way years of Viking tradition are slowly eroded the Scandinavians begin converting to Christianity in the 10th Century you know Denmark's the first Sweden is the last but even by the end of of the 11th

century Sweden is mainly [Music] Christian some Berserkers cling on to their paganism but gradually the purity of their military and magical might [Music] weakens eventually they will disappear altogether in the Icelandic law codes going berserk is outlawed in the 12th century finally berserk gang and the rituals which induce it are deemed so degenerate that they're unacceptable in moderate [Music] society today the Endeavors of the Norse men still Captivate and entertain [Music] us it may be that the Vikings no longer evoke fear and horror as they did 1200 years ago but their elite special unit the

Berserkers do continue to enthrall us thanks to a 250e reign of terror we can't help but admire their heroism their iconic fantasy likee image and their animalistic frenzied Brilliance on the battlefield [Music] [Music] oh that