Germanic warriors drank bear blood before combat

Pagan rituals of Germanic and Scandinavian peoples notably consisted of dressing up as bears, consuming their flesh and drinking their blood before battles. These practices, deemed demonic in the 8th century by the evangelizer Saint Boniface, aimed to symbolically transmit the power of the animal. Young Goths had to face a bear in hand-to-hand combat during their rites of passage into adulthood.