Berserker Mode

The Berserker of Stamford

This story was just one of many during the Norman Conquest and took place in Yorkshire England, September 25th 1066.

This particular battle has many interesting parts to take from it, but I will be focusing on an unnamed Berserker warrior whom was worthy enough to be mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon chronicles, though he was not on the side of the victors.

The Norse contingency was led by a Norse King, Harald Hardrada. He was directing his troops against the Anglo-Saxon army, and was well prepared, bringing approximately 300 longboats for this campaign.

The battle was not going as expected by the Norse and they were led into a trap.

King Harald requested one of his warriors to go and hold the enemy off at the crossing (Stamford Bridge) while waiting for reinforcements to arrive.

The story now starts to get interesting, and this is the part where the Chronicles reference the events that unfolded at the bridge.

One Norse warrior, a qualified Berserker by trade and by blood confronted a massive regiment of troops and was greatly outnumbered.

The Edda makes only minimal reference to this warrior, and no name was mentioned, only the fact he was asked to go and defend the bridge, that is basically it.

The Anglo-Saxon chronicles make reference in great detail that this one Norseman was basically unstoppable. In a berserker rage, he took down his opponents, one by one, sometimes two at a time, until there was a pile of corpses.

Approximately 35 Anglo-Saxons had been slaughtered by this single Norseman, in such a way, each new opponent to face this Berserker literally had to climb over a pile of corpses to get to him.

He was unstoppable, and the English had no way of busting through this guy, he was definitely battle ready and looking to shed more blood.

However, one soldier had an ingenious idea to stop the slaughter this individual was dishing out.

A single soldier grabbed a barrel to use as a flotation device because he would have sunk in his armour, and a spear in the other hand.

This one Anglo-Saxon had obviously decided that this Norseman had racked up a decent kill count and was certainly not in the mood for dying that day.

He hopped in the water with his barrel and spear, floated downstream till he was underneath the bridge, and speared the Norseman in his groin, and ended his life almost immediately.

The English were then able to storm the bridge and finish the job their other troops were participating in and becoming victorious shortly after.

King Harald had taken such massive losses, it is reported that only 24 of the 300 longships returned to Norway.

This is amazing for many reasons, the fact the Norse Edda makes very little reference to this Berserker, yet the Chronicles recognise the near supernatural feats he performed could very well played a big part in which way this battle could have gone. It also shows that the Norman Conquest was not as easy nor as glorious as some may think, and occasionally us Viking descendents had been beaten spectacularly on this "Conquest".

I hope you enjoyed this story, many more to come.

Author: Justin Ferry