One of the most enduring components of the Viking myth can be found in the berserkers—the frenzied warriors who fought naked, consumed with uncontrollable fury while out of their minds on mushrooms. This is, as they say, a truth with modification. There is no doubt that the berserkir were a Viking-Age reality, but almost every other aspect of their nature is open to interpretation. The word itself refers to a shirt (serk) with either a bear- or bare- prefix, thus giving an image either of an ursine warrior or a man shirtless in the sense of being unarmoured or even naked.
