Animal warrior
As animal warriors are men called that deal with dangerous animals , especially predators such as bears , wolves , leopards identify and from special forces to combat related.
Written sources
Saxo Grammaticus reports that a man killed a bear with his spear and then drank its blood to gain its powers. Such men are sometimes equated with the berserkers . The sources are not uniform. In connection with the battle of King Hårfagres at Hafrsfjord , it is said:
"Þá var með honum Rögnvaldur af Mæri og margir aðrir stórir Höfðingjar og þeir berserkir er úlfhéðnar voru kallaðir. Þeir Höfðu vargstakka fyrir brynjur og vörðu framstafn á konungsskipinu ... "
“There stood Rögnwald von Möre and many other great chiefs, as well as berserkers who were called wolf pelts; they wore wolf skins instead of / before the Brünnen , shielding the bow of the vessel King ... "
The word “fyrir” usually means “before”, but it can also mean “instead of”. So it is often translated for this position. More likely, however, is the basic meaning “before”, so that the wolf's skin was worn on the well. However, it is not about the start of the battle, but about the king's troop display, so that it may also have been a kind of parade uniform that was not worn in battle, where it would have been more of a hindrance.
The fact that Sigurd eats Fafnir's heart after defeating the dragon belongs in the context of gaining strength by using the blood or heart of the conquered to increase one's own strength.
Adam von Bremen reports from the coast of the Baltic Sea that there are islands there on which militant Amazons lived. Her daughters are beautiful girls, but her sons are men with dog heads on their chests. Dogs were also possible identification figures, so that this should also be news about special warriors.
In the 16th century, Olaus Magnus turned in his work Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus (History of the Northern Peoples) against the view of Pliny the Elder in his work Naturalis historia that werewolves are pure fantasy. There are people in the north who turn into wolves, especially on July night. Your real home is Lithuania.
Archaeological evidence
The examinations of textiles in the Högom graves have given indications of such warriors. In a grave of a noble warrior, possibly even a chief, the skeleton was found clad in a red tunic, on the inside of which a ribbon was sewn down, which was made of horsehair using a very elaborate tablet weaving technique. The pattern depicted animals that are interpreted as lions, bears or wolves. In between there are human figures in adorant position, but in Scandinavian countries this can also mean a god who reveals himself. There are one-eyed and two-eyed figures. The man's head lay on a folded green tunic. This is interpreted to mean that the green tunic was worn in times of peace, but the red in times of war. The man, dressed in the red tunic, lay on a bearskin that was missing the head, but the claws remained. Perhaps the fur had a magical meaning.
The wolf skin is traced back to the influence of Roman standard-bearers ( signifer ), who wore a wolf's head over their foreheads. In the mystical connection between God, man and animal, this motif was adopted in the Nordic culture as a terrifying revelation of aggressiveness.
In Björnhovda on Öland, plates were found that come from the same world of imagination as the ornaments on the scabbard of Gutenstein and Obrigheim . A man with a wolf's head draws his sword. At his side is a dancing man with a spear. On another plaque a man is fighting with two bears, on a third a man puts a wolf or a bear in chains, on a fourth two men can be seen wearing a helmet with a wild boar. All of these images have in common that they show men performing a ritual dance that is nowhere mentioned in the written sources. It is possible that this ritual dance was already out of use by the time it was written down. After all, Livy reports about the Celts that they tried to terrify the enemy with screams, the terrible noise of weapons and the tripudium weapon dance . Näsström also provides the rune man from Källby. She interprets the man's mask as a wolf or bear mask.
As Warwolf men are called, which in Scandinavian representations from the migration period are depicted with wolf heads. Analogous to this, there are also bear warriors .
See also
literature
- Lise Bender Jørgensen: Krigerdragten i folkevandringstiden. In: Perry Rolfsen, Frans-Arne Stylegar (ed.): Snartemofunnene i Nytt Lys (= Universitetets Kulturhistoriske Museer. Skrifter. Volume 2). Kulturhistoriske Museer, Oslo 2003, ISBN 82-8084-006-0 , pp. 53–79.
- Britt-Mari Näsström: Bärsärkarna. Vikingatiden's elite soldiers. Norstedt, Stockholm 2006, ISBN 91-1-301511-7 .
- Michael P. Speidel : Ancient Germanic Warriors. Warrior Styles from Trajan's Column to Icelandic Sagas. Routledge, London / New York 2004, ISBN 0-415-31199-3 .
- Walter H. Vogt, Frank Fischer: The story of the people from the Seetal. In: Same (ed.): Five stories from the western north country (= Thule. Volume 10). New edition. Diederichs, Düsseldorf a. a. 1964, ZDB -ID 516164-2 , pp. 21-125.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Saxo Grammaticus: Gesta Danorum, 2nd book chap. 6, 11.
- ^ Translation by Vogt and Fischer.
- ↑ Eg by Vogt and Fischer.
- ↑ a b Näsström p. 159
- ^ Adam of Bremen, Episcopal History of the Hamburg Church IV, 19.
- ↑ Näsström pp. 120/121.
- ↑ Näsström p. 125.
- ^ Livy, Ab urbe condita 38, 17.
- ↑ Runic Man from Källby
- ↑ Näsström p. 128.