Hi all, I'm currently writing a series of books that have a variety of mythical and supernatural creatures in them, but the base species is that of the Berserker. I've done a little research and I'm currently in the process of developing my Berserker's into a fully fleshed out race. I was just wondering if anyone knew of any websites or articles that would help me as I need as much information about this Norse Myth as possible. Thanks
Berserkers weren't a myth, they were an unofficial warrior-class. But the Norse sagas are probably the best source of information on them, specifically those of Orkney and Iceland, which deal a lot more with war, rather than political affairs in Norway. You should be able to find extracts on Google, quite good ones, but if you want to read a copy of one (or perhaps the original) then you'll probably need to go to a formerly Norse-occupied country: Iceland, Norway, Denmark, the Faroe Islands, etc.
Did you try searching on the keyword pair Norse Berserks to get a more relevent set of results? As your research proceeds, you may come up with even more selective and effective search terms.
yes, they were real, not a myth... the word comes from the norse for 'bear' [or'bare'] and 'shirt'... the warriors who were called berserkers apparently wore bearskins [or fought bare-chested...this is still debatable] and fought in such a frenzied state, that they were virtually impervious to wounds... that is thought to have been due to either uncontrollable rage, or having worked themselve into [or partaken of some substance that put them into] a trance-like state... here's a very good history of the term: http://encyclopedia.stateuniversity.com/pages/2679/berserker.html
Thanks for the response guys, I appreciate it! And I didn't know what other word to use other then "myths" even though I know Berserkers aren't myths. I've just been finding it difficult to find the information that I needed to form a good bases for MY race of Berserkers. B-Gas atm I haven't got an in depth description of what my Berserkers are, but my thoughts are that they are what they are in the Sagas Gallowglass & mammamaia mentioned, or a variation of this. I'm thinking of explaining them as decendants of Norse Gods, humans instilled with inhuman power [strength, speed, immunity to ailments of battle]. There are also a few other races in my series [vampires, lycans, witches, faeries] all are considered Demonic Species. Berserkers are considered the guardians and warriors of these races, keeping them safe from those called the Fallen Ones [underworld demons]. Again I haven't done very much research right now so I dont know too much about this, hence why I asked for a little help in where to begin.
