Berserkir

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A fierce warrior of Old Norse legend who fought in a wild, trance-like rage without regard for personal safety
2. An elite Scandinavian fighter from the Viking age described in sagas as entering a furious, frenzied battle state
3. A feared north-European combatant whose ecstatic fury in battle made him a legendary figure in medieval Norse tales

Etymology: Old Norse "berserkr" is a compound of "ber-" (bear) and "serkr" (shirt or coat), so the word most likely means "bear-shirt," a warrior who wore a bear's hide. The earliest sense is debated, however. Some scholars read "berserkr" as "bare-shirt," meaning a fighter who went into battle without armour. The Norse sagas and poems describe these warriors as fighting in a frenzy, biting their shields, howling, and feeling no wounds. Their rage was called "berserksgangr," literally "going berserk," and it was a feared and admired state. Kings and chieftains kept bands of berserkers as elite bodyguards. English borrowed the word in the 1800s, when Victorian writers rediscovered the Icelandic sagas. Its later sense of "wildly out of control" grew from that image of uncontrolled fury.

Synonyms: berserker