By Keith Williams, Ph.D. - Business Manager, Analytical Standards Europe, Cayman Chemical

Many individuals’ modern perception of Vikings is fueled by television, film, and modern-day events such as Shetland’s famous fire festival, Up Helly Aa. As with many other historical depictions, this has allowed people to develop a distorted view of Viking society and led to the idea that all Viking males were large-bearded individuals who wore helmets with wings or horns and entered battle in an aggressive mental and physical state.

Is there any evidence that Viking rituals and practices were drug fueled?

Vikings lived within a martial culture, yet when it came to raiding and wars, they observed a structure unique to their society. This was structured like many others, with roles for farmers, fishermen, local rulers (Jarls), and the Jarl’s own guard—Huskarls. There were also defined groups of warriors outside of this typical society. The most commonly known were the Berserkers, which literally means "bear shirt" in Old Norse. Berserkers were a class of shock troops who got their name from wearing hollowed-out bear head pelts in battle. Many are claimed to have chewed dried mushrooms pre-battle for the frenzy effect and to dull pain should they get injured. They are the famed “Shield Chewers” as depicted in Viking art such as the Lewis Chessmen.¹ Archaeological evidence points to Berserkers using mushrooms with little evidence to support other drug use. For example, mushrooms from Scandic and non-Scandic regions were found in their belongings. Dried mushrooms were likely easily acquired via trade.

Medieval chess piece from the Scottish island of Lewis of a Berserker depicted as a 

“Shield Chewer” on display at the Museum of Scotland https://www.nms.ac.uk/lewischesspieces.

While anyone could be a Berserker, the same was not true with Ulfhednar. Ulfhednar (plural; Ulfhedinn, singular), whose name means "wolf hide," refers to a shamanistic class of warriors—the elite of the elite. Ulfhednar were secretive and operated in small groups—a warrior had to be invited to join them whereupon they would learn a new level of fighting skills from an older Ulfhedinn. In contrast, Berserkers numbered in the hundreds and openly lived and served a King/Jarl/Chieftain. Ulfhednar also stand apart from Berserkers because they painted their bodies black and went tunic-less (shirtless) into battle. They did not use shields, nor did they even have armor. Berserkers typically fought with the Viking norm, an axe and shield. Some fought without their tunic on, but it wasn't a set standard as with Ulfhednar. There are numerous written records of Berserkers in battle, but only one of Ulfhednar fighting alongside Berserkers in an epic ninth-century battle to unify Norway. Ulfhednar usually worked in the shadows like special forces today. Little else is known about the Ulfhednar because they were so secretive, but one thing is certain. They were prolific drug users undertaking shamanistic forest rituals (i.e., consuming drugs/herbals) over a lifetime of worship practices.

Sources appear to agree that Viking warriors probably ingested one of two mushroom species: Amanita muscaria (fly agaric) or Amanita pantherina (panther cap). In both cases, the primary psychoactive ingredient is muscimol.

Amanita muscaria (fly agaric; left) and Amanita pantherina (panther cap; middle) 

both contain the psychoactive compound muscimol (right).

Ibotenic acid, also present in these species, can act as a prodrug and be decarboxylated to the main psychoactive compound.

Chemical structure of ibotenic acid.

Muscimol is a full GABA_A agonist.² As to be expected, the effects caused by muscimol are typical of GABA_A agonists and include euphoria, out-of-body experiences, and synesthesia with an onset of symptoms 20-120 minutes after ingestion. Muscimol also allegedly produces a sensation called micropsy, a perception that objects are actually smaller than they are. Simplistically put, micropsy makes the world appear smaller and far less threatening, giving the user a feeling of omnipotence, inflating self-confidence while fighting against what appears to be a weak and feeble foe. The user feels invincible, and their performance is nominally boosted in battle. It may be for this effect that the military use of drugs was tolerated or potentially even encouraged in the Vikings. This may well be one of the earliest examples of a performance-enhancing drug.

Paradoxically, muscimol can also produce macropsy, a perception that objects appear to be unnaturally large. These two are suggested to have influenced literature as well, from fairy tales of Gulliver’s interactions with Lilliputians and Brobdingnagians and Lewis Carroll’s shrinking and growing potions in the Alice stories.

Fly agaric and panther cap are not the only mushrooms or plants to cause psychedelic effects. Psilocybin mushrooms, also known as magic or psychedelic mushrooms, are well known for their effects associated with the substituted tryptamines psilocybin and psilocin. Tryptamines are also well established in traditional shamanic medicine.

So yes, there is sound physical, archaeological evidence and a logical scientific foundation based on the mechanism of action of muscimol to support the use of Amanita species of mushrooms by Vikings in conflicts. The Vikings are not the only group to have used these mushrooms. Wasson and Wasson report the presentation of a paper in 1918 at the Royal Scientific Society in Upsala that stated Swedish soldiers of the Värmland Regiment:

“were seized by a raging madness, foaming at the mouth. On inquiry it was learned that the soldiers had eaten of the fly amanita, to whip up their courage to a fighting pitch.”³

Kamieński in his book Shooting Up: A History of Drugs in Warfare highlights a report from Sroka about a similar incident in 1945 where Soviet troops, possibly from Siberia, allegedly ingested mushrooms prior to the Battle of Székesfehérvár in Hungary.^4,5 Cayman continually produces high-quality receptor agonists and antagonists to allow research, forensic, clinical, and other scientists to investigate the scientific basis of such stories and develop a new and better understanding of the various mechanisms of action.

View Cayman’s extensive portfolio of Receptor Pharmacology products and Analytical Standards.

Acknowledgement

Thanks to Gina Conkle, an author of both Viking and Georgian fiction, for the discussions and information on Viking society and history.

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References

1. National Museums Scotland. (2019). Lewis Chess Piece: Berserker or Warder H.NS 29. Retrieved from https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/lewis-chess-piece-berserker-or-warder-hns-29-00f08ef1188e42df89b5b5c014351614

2. Dunn, S.M. and Thuynsma, R.P. Reconstitution of purified GABA_A receptors: Ligand binding and chloride transporting properties. Biochemistry 33(3), 755-763 (1994).

3. Wasson, V.P. and Wasson, R.G. The Flies in the Amanita. Mushrooms Russia and History. 1, Pantheon Books (1957).

4. Kamieński, Ł. Shooting Up: A History of Drugs in Warfare. Hurst (2017).

5. Sroka, A. Teologia narkotyku. Eneteia (2008) (in Polish).