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berserker
Sign in to saveIn the Old Norse written corpus, berserkers () were Scandinavian warriors who were said to have fought in a trance-like fury, a characteristic which later gave rise to the modern English adjective berserk . Berserkers are attested to in numerous Old Norse sources.
Article
16 sectionsContents
- Etymology
- Early beginnings
- Germanic mercenaries in the Roman army
- Migration Period depictions
- Types
- Berserkers – bear warriors{{anchor|Berserkers}}
- Ulfheðnar – wolf warriors{{anchor|Ulfheðnar}}
- "Jǫfurr" – proposed boar warriors{{anchor|Jǫfurr}}
- Attestations
- Theories
- In popular culture
- Speculative recreations gallery
- See also
- References
- Bibliography
- External links
In the Old Norse written corpus, berserkers () were Scandinavian warriors who were said to have fought in a trance-like fury, a characteristic which later gave rise to the modern English adjective berserk . Berserkers are attested to in numerous Old Norse sources.
== Etymology == The Old Norse form of the word was (plural ), a compound word of ber and serkr. The second part, serkr, means (also found in Middle English, see ). The first part, ber, on the other hand, can mean several things, but is assumed to have most likely meant , with the full word, berserkr, meaning just , as in .