Berserkers: Violent Viking Villains, Unverified

Ridiculous History

iHeartPodcasts

History, Society & Culture

4.2 • 4.7K Ratings

🗓️ 25 June 2026

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | Apple Podcasts | RSS

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Summary

Vikings! Even centuries after their heyday, these seafaring Scandinavian raiders are the subject of countless works of fiction and film -- and some of the stories about them are true. And, legend has it, there was one sort of Viking even other Viking feared: the Berserker. If you believe the stories, these blood-crazed guys rushed into battle howling like beasts, wearing nothing but a bear skin, attacking friend and foe alike. So how much of this is fact, and how much just tall tales? In today's episode, Ben, Noel and Max try to find out.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Ridiculous History is a production of IHeart Radio. Welcome back to the show fellow ridiculous historians.
0:29.7	We are following up with what has become a warrior week here at Ridiculous History.
0:36.3	Yeah.
0:36.8	Let's give a big shout out to our super producer, Mr. Max Williams.
0:40.7	Max the Viking King.
0:43.8	Wait, hold on.
0:44.7	What's that thing where they pull your lungs out, your back?
0:48.0	The eagle, blood eagle.
0:49.8	Blood Eagle.
0:50.5	Blood Eagle. That was dark. Yeah.
0:55.4	That's great.
0:56.5	If you're like us, us being Noel Brown and Ben Bullen, you're a fan of historical propaganda, prestige television, like the creatively named Amazing Show Vikings, or countless films.
1:11.2	Which I think depicts a bloody at a certain point, if I'm not mistaken.
1:14.5	It does. It does. We already know the typical image of these Revers, right?
1:20.2	And all, they're big, they're hairy, they're smelly maniacs, they have horned helmets.
1:24.9	They just want to wage war on the civilized world at large.
1:29.0	They overwhelm people like a blitzkrieg force, and they kill or enslave everybody.
1:34.9	They take whatever they can carry back on their ships.
1:37.7	They go back to their own settlement to resupply.
1:40.4	They party hard.
1:41.6	They do strange rituals like a blood eagle.
1:46.5	And then they question their surviving victims for information to help them plan the next raid. Like, where's the next closest village to you?
	...

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