Berserker

The Bear-Shirt

The berserker of Norse legend was a warrior who worked himself into a battle-frenzy, said to fight clad in the skin of a bear, while the ulfhednar wore wolf-pelts. Dedicated to Odin, these fighters howled and bit their shields, heedless of wounds and pain, charging shield-walls in a trance of fury that sagas claimed left them invulnerable to iron and fire. So fearsome and uncontrollable were they that later laws sought to outlaw their rage.