Ah yes I remember reading a EB unit which said that, their name ment long haired companions or something.
Yes we don't have the Bear warrior, there are also two others called in the book from what I got from online version. One of them is also featured on the helmet of the Sweboz Bodyguard unit!I agree to a large degree Phalanx300, but berzerker I believe means something on the order of "putting on the skin of the bear" therefore, if I am not mistaken, it would be in our timeframe with bear warrior.
From what I've read of it from various sources, nobody really knows what the whole "berserk" thing originally meant. One theory I've seen went so that it came from "bare chest", in the sense of a warrior putting aside his shield (hence "baring" his chest) and grasping his sword with two hands to deliver more powerful blows - an obviously risky and reckless tactic.
¯\(°_o)/¯
Go figure.
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No nobody knows. The best we can come up with is educated guesswork.
This is one of my fields of specialisation- at least for denmark- I know a lot on the subject and thus know how little we actually know, and will not theorise very much, not even as much as EB has... That should, IMO, be an example to other scholars.
BTW, Bracteates are not really medieval, they are Germanic Iron Age.
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The term Berserkr* is linked to the viking age an their myths and is so a little out of eb time frame. Just a few hundred years.
That doesnt mean that the concept of fighting (almost) nude in a wild fashion possibly influenced by drugs wasnt invented then. I mean we all know gaesetae, right? This way of warfare was also probably used by the germans aswell (skadugangonez e.g. - sory dont know the new name yet)
I am a huge sweboz fan but I think its not the intension to put in fantasy units in just to have a fancier unit roster. And the actual units are already a bit "fantasy" because we have so little evidences from these uncultivated dumbasses, or -as i like to call them- the developing nation of antiquitiy.
*The newest sources I have about the etymology of this word date for about 4 years and they say its unsure if it comes from "bear" or rather "bare". "Serkr" means "clothing".
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Last edited by cmacq; 08-10-2009 at 20:45.
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