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English 'berserk' comes from Old Norse berserkr, the name for warriors who, in the sagas and poems of Scandinavia, fought in a howling, shield-biting fury. The word most likely meant 'bear-shirt': someone who went into battle wearing a bearskin.

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The fullest description comes from Snorri Sturluson, the Icelandic historian who wrote around 1230 that Odin's warriors went into battle without armour, 'mad as dogs or wolves', biting their shields and as strong as bears. Snorri read the name as 'bare-shirt', meaning without mail, but most scholars now prefer 'bear-shirt'. Berserkers were eventually outlawed: a Norwegian ruler banned them in 1015, and Iceland's medieval law code punished berserk frenzy. Among the Lewis Chessmen, carved in the 12th century and found on a Scottish island in 1831, four of the rooks are berserkers biting their shields. English took the word from Sir Walter Scott's novel The Pirate (1822), and the adjective followed in the 1840s. Theories that berserkers used drugs remain unproven.

Türkçe oku
İngilizcedeki “berserk” (çılgına dönmüş) sözcüğü, Eski İskandinavcadaki berserkr'den gelir. İskandinav sagalarında ve şiirlerinde bu adla anılan savaşçılar, uluyarak ve kalkanlarını ısırarak gözü dönmüş bir öfkeyle savaşırdı. Adın anlamı büyük olasılıkla “ayı gömlekli”, yani savaşa ayı postuyla giren kişiydi.

En ayrıntılı tarifi, 1230 dolaylarında yazan İzlandalı tarihçi Snorri Sturluson verir: Odin'in savaşçıları zırhsız saldırır, köpekler ya da kurtlar gibi kudurur, kalkanlarını ısırır ve ayılar kadar güçlü olurdu. Snorri adı “çıplak gömlekli”, yani zırhsız diye yorumlamıştı; bugün araştırmacıların çoğu “ayı gömlekli” açıklamasını daha olası buluyor. Berserkerler sonunda yasaklandı: Norveç'te Jarl Eiríkr Hákonarson 1015'te onları kanun dışı ilan etti, İzlanda'nın ortaçağ yasaları da berserker öfkesini cezalandırdı. 12. yüzyılda oyulan Lewis satranç taşları 1831'de bir İskoç adasında bulundu; kale taşlarından dördü kalkanını ısıran berserkerlerdir. Sözcük İngilizceye Sir Walter Scott'ın 1822 tarihli The Pirate (Korsan) romanıyla girdi; sıfat olarak kullanımı 1840'larda başladı. Uyuşturucu kullandıklarına dair kuramlar ise kanıtlanmış değildir.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Berserker
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