Hmm...well, the thing about being "lunatic" might also be a more common thing among high-quality troops. The Russians thought the British cavalrymen who participated in the Charge of the Light Brigade were drunk, while the Indian opponents of Arthur Wellesley (later to be Duke of Wellington) were scared out of their wits when a Scottish regiment continued advancing in spite of having lost about 85% of their number--they thought the Scots were either crazy or not human at all.

[quote=\"Alex Oster\"]Its just the records of the trembling and other symptoms before the fight and the long term suffering afterwards that perked my thoughts.[/quote]

This might have come from intense religious rituals that were eradicated by christianism: people who try to reconstruct seriously the ancient nordic religion would probably have to say interesting things on such matters.

Such rites are being replicated by modern odinists, possibly with a certain level of arbitrariety due to christian damnatio memoriae, as far as I know the matter this should be the state of things.

You should be careful when checking odinists websites since some of such organizations are a bit on the quirk side, but the religious inspiration of berserkers and ulfhednars is recognized by serious scholars.

The stories I've heard about Berserkrs remind me some-what of some stories of special forces Operations detachment-Delta. They are known for an insane love of combat, going into situations most people would think insane with a Cowboy esk manor. If you've seen Black Hawk Down, you will have an idea of what I mean. It has also been reported the the "Delta-Force" (I realy hate that term) have used clean-meth (meth that doesn't contain the toxins the stuf on the streat has.) on some missions where they won't have time to eat and will need as much streangth as they can get.

Though this has nothing to do with history, I think the simularities betwean the two are interesting.

[quote=\"A. Jake Storey II\"]The stories I\'ve heard about Berserkrs remind me some-what of some stories of special forces Operations detachment-Delta. They are known for an insane love of combat, going into situations most people would think insane with a Cowboy esk manor. If you\'ve seen Black Hawk Down, you will have an idea of what I mean. It has also been reported the the \"Delta-Force\" (I realy hate that term) have used clean-meth (meth that doesn\'t contain the toxins the stuf on the streat has.) on some missions where they won\'t have time to eat and will need as much streangth as they can get.

Though this has nothing to do with history, I think the simularities betwean the two are interesting.[/quote]

Doping of soldiers has been going on in modern times at least since ww1.

Italian soldier\'s spirits were reinforced in the trenches with abundant and well encouraged shots of cordiale, a powerful and intoxicant alchoolic beverage (could italians get high in battle with anything but alchool ..).

Still generously offered with modern italian K rations.

On the german side scientists were experimenting with chemicals, creating the first synthetic drugst that today have become a social plague as much as heavy drinking.

Such substances were briefly experimented and abandoned quickly for their toxicity.

It is attested in diaries that many italian soldiers refused to drink since it turned out that bayonet assaults required soldiers having the highest command of their brain.

To be drunk meant to lose precious reflexes, getting stabbed very quickly by a more responsive opponent.

I want to thank you all for your replys on this topic!
:)

Skål!

[quote=\"Gene Green\"][quote=\"Lafayette C Curtis\"]Hmm...well, the thing about being \"lunatic\" might also be a more common thing among high-quality troops. The Russians thought the British cavalrymen who participated in the Charge of the Light Brigade were drunk, while the Indian opponents of Arthur Wellesley (later to be Duke of Wellington) were scared out of their wits when a Scottish regiment continued advancing in spite of having lost about 85% of their number--they thought the Scots were either crazy or not human at all.[/quote]

Well, the Russians thought the cavalrymen of the Light Brigade to be drunk not because of their unnatural bravery, but because of an apparent suicidal stupidity of their action, which they couldn\'t explain otherwise (in reality, the British upper command simply issued an order to attack the Russian artillery position in a wonderfully vague and non-specific way, so the Light Brigade ended up attacking a wrong position altogether, and getting slaughtered in the process).

I read that Berserk warriors were getting high on hallucinogens found in mushrooms (Amanita muscaria, or Fly Agaric), and that the practice was actually banned in XI century. However I only found this in Russian sources. Apparently some of the native peoples of Siberia and Ural in later centuries (XIV-XVII) were also known to use mushrooms (actually the boiled extracts) before the battle. If I find a scientific source for this claim I\'ll post it.[/quote]

I have also read of amanita muscaria being used by \"witches\" in historical christian times in the italian Alpine range.

Be aware that amanita muscaria is a deadly mushroom, until a few decades ago when mushroom picking became a new sport of the italian vacationeers, all unaware city dwellers, many cases of mortal or serious poisoning where registered.

The active part is the red upper \"skin\".

Locals know it well and told me of its association to witchcraft in ancient times.

Anecdotal evidence re: woad follows.

I had a friend, a very quiet and gentle scholarly guy, who used psychoactive drugs extensively in his teens and early twenties. He had long stopped by the time I met him, but he did relate the story of finding and mail ordering woad, grinding the root down to a blue paste, and smearing it on his skin. He said that he ran about like crazy for a few hours and compared the experience to a huge adrenaline rush and "mushrooms combined with crank". He also said that he noticed that at some point he must have run into something sharp, because he had a big gash in his forearm and didn't remember how he got it.

Not much imagination required as to why someone might use it in tribal warfare, which was a series of individual fights more than an organized battle.