the unsafety dance.
NorsePlay wants to put forth the original & doctorate-worthy observation that there could be a historical throughline betwixt medieval Scottish Sword Dances, Viking Age Berserker Rituals, and the Vendel Period Spear Dancers. Our NorsePlay hypothesis runs thus visually, backtracking with the Scottish Sword Dances (15th c. CE): [ Go, lassies, go! ] In this tradition there's also the halberd-like Lochaber Axe used in a dance, and a Dirk Dance, the latter termed a "battle dance" with "dueling" performers. The sword dance is done without touching the crossed swords before battle, which if successful is an indicator of imminent victory ... or death if not. Further back, we have tentative guesses that the Viking Bersærkergang was a ritually evoked religious ecstatic state reached via a frenzied dance , either pre-battle or done just before battle in front of assembled enemies, which would double as a psychological warfare technique. And at earliest, the Odinic ...