"A brief history of drug‑fuelled combatants" Topic

"My friend Luke used to drink a pint of beer before a game of rugby. I don't know whether he thought that it might reduce pain or improve performance, but the idea of taking drugs before "going into battle" goes back to the beginning of recorded history.

Indeed, we find frequent mentions of mead drinking by the warriors in Edinburgh in the seventh-century epic poem The Goddodin. These warriors feasted and drank mead for a year before riding out to their certain deaths in a hopelessly one-sided battle in Yorkshire. Similarly, Anglo-Saxon warriors were very fond of their mead-halls – think Beowolf.

These ancient warriors probably used alcohol to reduce anxiety and blunt the horrors they would face on the battlefield.

Other ancient cultures turned to psychoactive substances before doing battle. The berserkers were a gang of Viking warriors renowned for going into battle in a frenzied state, almost fighting friend and foe indiscriminately. They are believed to have used hallucinogenic mushrooms to achieve this state. Probably the red-capped Amanita muscaria or possibly a plant called Hyoscyamus niger – a member of the nightshade family. Although there would undoubtedly also have been a religious or spiritual element to their mental state…"

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Armand