List of Figures
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations and Explanatory Notes
Introduction
Chapter 1 Defining the berserkr
Chapter 2 The monstrous berserkr
Chapter 3 Berserksgangr: fit or frenzy?
Chapter 4 The etymology and meaning of berserkr
Chapter 5 The Viking Age reality of berserkir
Chapter 6 Towards new paradigms for berserkir
Appendix 1 Incidence of names of berserkir and where to find them in Old Norse literature
Appendix 2 Haraldskvæði: the earliest reference to berserkir
Bibliography
Biography
Roderick Dale has worked as an archaeologist throughout the United Kingdom and in research roles at University College Cork and the University of Nottingham. He currently works at the University of Stavanger. His research interests include Old Norse literature, Viking Age history and the reception of vikings in popular culture.
This is a fascinating, authoritative analysis of one of the most widespread images of the Viking world.
- James Holloway, Fortean Times.
This is an outstanding and much-needed study of a Viking Age and medieval figure that is well-known but widely misunderstood, both in popular imagination but also within scholarship. Dale’s work is exemplary in the way in its interdisciplinary approach to the sources, how it brings archaeological and anthropomorphic evidence into conversation with written sources ranging from saga literature and mythological texts to law codes and historical records, and, most importantly, how it recognized nuance, complexity, and the need to consider individual examples within their specific contexts. This will certainly be a foundational study for any scholarship on or related to not only the figure of the berserkr, but Viking Age and Old Norse society more generally.
- Natalie M. Van Deusen, University of Alberta. Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture.
