{"product_id":"berserker-rage-poster","title":"Berserker Rage Poster","description":"“I’ll ask of the berserkers, you tasters of blood,\u003cbr\u003e\nThose intrepid heroes, how are they treated,\u003cbr\u003e\nThose who wade out into battle? Wolf-skinned are they called. In battle\u003cbr\u003e\nThey bear bloody shields.\u003cbr\u003e\nRed with blood are their spears when they come to fight.\u003cbr\u003e\nThey form a closed group.\u003cbr\u003e\nThe prince in his wisdom puts trust in such men\u003cbr\u003e\nWho hack through enemy shields.” - Haraldskvæði, circa 9th century\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\nThe Haraldskvæði is a skaldic poem written by the Norwegian skald Þorbjörn Hornklofi during the 9th century. It is supposed to play out as a conversation between a raven and a valkyrie, talking about how brave and amazing Harald Fairhair was during his ruling. From this fragmented poem we find out about the berserkers and their character.\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\nBerserkers are usually referenced to as “bear warriors”, since their name comes from the old Norse words for bear and shirt. It is also a reference to “going berserk” which is a mental state of going absolutely violently-war-crazy. Going so crazy that you wouldn’t care getting hit by an arrow or a spear, but just pushed on. Which can also be seen in Hornklofi’s poem, where the berserkers protecting the kings, princes and jarls is said to even before battle having blood on their armour and weapons, and having a reliable mentality where they would hack though shields of the enemy. The berserkers are usually also connected to animistic and shapeshifting rituals, where the lines between human and animal is theorised to have become blurred. There are also old sagas with examples of warriors turning into bears, as is the case with the saga hero Bödvar Bjarki. They are also sometimes depicted as biting their shields in a way of psychologically terrify their enemies, as with the depiction of berserkers in the Lewis chessmen find, dating to the 1100’s.","brand":"Valhyr","offers":[{"title":"Small (5×7 in | 12.7×17.8 cm)","offer_id":55969925300564,"sku":"4220905","price":11.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Medium (8.2×11.8 inch | 21×30 cm)","offer_id":55499504386388,"sku":"3860765_8947","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Large (11.8×15.7 in | 30×40 cm)","offer_id":55499504419156,"sku":"3860765_8948","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Giant (16.5×23.3 in | 42×59.4 cm)","offer_id":55499504353620,"sku":"3860765_19516","price":31.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Jötunn (27.5×39.3 in | 70×100 cm)","offer_id":55499504451924,"sku":"3860765_8954","price":45.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0106\/6565\/6416\/files\/Berserker-Rage_Poster.jpg?v=1780084347","url":"https:\/\/valhyr.com\/products\/berserker-rage-poster","provider":"Valhyr","version":"1.0","type":"link"}