BLACK HENBANE...THE DRUG OF THE BERSERKER?

He no longer hears anything around him, only the beating of his own heart. His gaze seems lost but it is really fixed on his target. His pulse quickens, the moment has come. People say they are "mad as dogs" and "as strong as a bear", they bite their shields, fight without armor, walk through fire.... Some studies say that the anger of the berserker, called berserkergang, was produced by consuming Amanita Muscaria, but there are investigations that speak of black henbane ( Hyoscyamus niger ) as the cause of their trance state. Henbane has been found in excavations and tombs from Viking times and was used as a sedative and hallucinogen. Inhaling the vapor from the hot seeds produces a narcotic effect and produces an aggressiveness in the organism that Amanita does not. The "immunity to pain" and side effects days later is another feature of henbane. But if the berserker had been drugged...would they have been able to fight so fiercely and effectively? Some say no. I guess we'll never really know. Berseker in Old Norse comes from the words berr and serkr, meaning "bear shirt" or "bear skin". This could refer to the bearskin clothing worn by Norse warriors. Although we may never know the whole truth, and I think it must be so. It must be buried on the battlefield, under the bodies of fallen, under the dust, sweat and spilled blood. And so it must remain until Ragnarök...

Pic by @bluecypressbotanicals

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