A single poem survives by the Icelandic skald Thorbjorn Hornklofi, “The Raven's Tale.” The dark bird was dear to the Vikings. It was the great god Odin's bird. And it was known to delight in the flesh of the battle- slain. At one point in his poem, Thorbjorn addresses the ravens:

The question would be rhetorical. Viking berserks were known for entering battle in a state of utter, savage abandon— battle madness. Those who fought berserks were likely to make close acquaintance with ravens. Berserks, the poet continues, are called “Wolfskinned”: “They bear bloody shields. / Red with blood are their spears when they come to fight” (in Page 1995: 108– 9).

Berserks are frequently mentioned in Norse literature. Their name comes perhaps from “bare sark,” that is to say, shirtless. So heedless were they, so full of abandon, that they entered into battle without mail, without even the Viking's leather shirt1 (just as Red Lance rode into battle naked, Figure 4.5). Or the name comes from “bear shirt,” which would associate them with the ferocious animals they became in battle (Brønsted 1965: 124). Not all Viking warriors were berserks, but it is easy to understand why Viking kings liked to have a cadre of berserks close at hand. According to Sturluson's Egil's Saga, when King Harald sailed off on his raids “amidships were the King's twelve berserks” (9).

Battle-madness was not limited to such recognized berserks. Other Vikings could, with sufficient provocation, enter battle “in a state of frenzy,” as the saga remembers Kveldulf to have done when he and his men killed 50 of King Harald's men in revenge for the killing of his son (Egil's Saga: 27).