Note 125 — Chapter IV

Berserk. The etymology of this word has been much contested. Some, upon the authority of Snorre in the above quoted passage, derive it from berr (bare) and serkr (comp. sark, Scotch for shirt); but this etymology is inadmissible, because serkr is a substantive, not an adjective. Others derive it from berr (Germ. Bär = ursus), which is greatly to be preferred, for in olden ages athletes and champions used to wear hides of bears, wolves and reindeer (as skins of lions in the south), hence the names Bjalfe, Bjarnhedinn, Ulfhedinn (hedinn, pellis),—“pellibus aut parvis rhenonum tegimentis utuntur.” Cæsar, Bell. Gall. VI, 22. Even the old poets understood the name so, as may be seen in the poem of Hornklofi (beginning of the 10th century), a dialogue between a valkyrie and a raven, where the valkyrie says at berserkja reiðu vil ek þik spyrja, to which the raven replies, Ulfhednar heita, they are called wolf coats. In battle the berserks were subject to fits of frenzy, called berserksgangr (furor bersercicus), when they howled like wild beasts, foamed at the mouth, and gnawed the iron rim of their shields. During these fits they were, according to a popular belief, proof against steel and fire, and made great havoc in the ranks of the enemy. But when the fever abated they were weak and tame. Vigfusson Cleasby’s Icelandic-English Dictionary, sub voce.