>Berserker means "bear-spirit", from the viking warriors that were berserkers. They went into battle wearing a small peice of leather from a bear, thinking it would give them the same strength.
thats a new one, the "bear-spirit" enterpretation..
in swedish the word is "bärsärk" and the only suggestions to its roots I have heard is "bar särk" which sorta means "no shirt".. never heard anything about a bear..
any other scandinavians around to give their national theories on the root of the word??
>It would be better if berserkers could only wear leather armour.
however the mentions in norse mythology and the icelandic stories are not entierly clear on the subject of armor for these berserkers..
>Also in Norse legends, Berserkers are counted as the "evil" characters, from their raping and murdering AFTER the battle. They were not overly respected.
that I would like to hear a reference to, all mentions I have ever read of berserkers are that they are great heroes and very respected warriors (quite often they are also bards ) ..
as for the "rape and plunder" part of it.. the vikings were mostly farmers and traders and a very small part of the time was spent doing the famous viking-raids.. they were not the dumb and drinking types they are genrally depicted as.. iceland had one of the oldest legal system in the world, their boats made it possible to cross the atlantic and they traveled to the meditiranian to trade.. (though it would seem that they sucked immensly at making swords, tales speak of vikings having to stop fighting to straighten out their swords, this might be a reason for the popularity of axes).. one theory even peggs swedish vikings from "Rosslagen" to be the founders of the russian nation.. but the norweigan vikings did make a few well remebeed raids on the british isles.. and I seem to recall that the danes prefered france and those areas.. and I must admit that norse mythology is kinda bent on battle so they weren't entierly peaceful I guess, but like I said, the violent part is much overrated..
>From this i think they should only be "EVIL" chars in bgate2
ehh no..
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