: I'm reading this supercool book about the conquest of
: England in 1066. The author describes the invasion of
: Vikings (Norse) that took place a few days before
: William invaded. The Norse heroes were called
: "Berserks", because they would berserk, or
: go mad on the field of battle, "killing everyone
: and everything until they dropped dead."
I don't personally know much about a Viking invasion in England at that particular time, but I do know that most of England's original inhabitants (the Celts, the Jutes, the Picts, the Angles, etc.) were of Scandinavian/Germanic type origin. I think it was the Jutes and the Picts in particular who had a special type of warrior - "Berserkers" who also went into that same battle rage.
: The Norse loved these guys, and wrote songs about them,
: and gave them affectionate epithets like Harald who
: Bargains Hard, Olag who Piles the Corpses, Wulfeld
: Covered in Scars. Sound familiar?
"Harald who Bargains Hard?" What, was he doing business with the enemy while he was splitting his in two?
: Perhaps Bungie put the berserks with Scottish accent
: because we indentify a brogue with
: "kick-ass" much more than a Norse accent.
: Also, the berserks in Myth can't seem to stop hacking
: and killing once they've started, simulating the
: "battle-madness". Also, the Vikings and
: English both fought on foot, while the French in 1066
: used horses. Notice that there are no horses in Myth,
: light or dark?
Actually, if you read the part of the Strategy Guide (for either TFL or SB) where it describes the units, it says that the Berserks were sort of based on the guys in "Braveheart." The Berserks, then, are prbly more likely to be based on the Berserkers of the Jutes and Picts, who, along with the Celts, eventually became the scots and the irish (while the anles [Anglish <-> English, duh] and the britons [Briton <-> Britain, duh] became the British [I have absolutely no idea where the welsh figure in]) sum1 correct me if I'm wrong on that. I wouldn't want to offend any of the scots, brits, irish, or welsh on that.
I think another reason they used the "lilting brogue" of the scots is just cuz it sounds really cool.
-Doom >)
