“Berserker” shifts are not a thing. You aren’t wearing an animal skin. You haven’t taken drugs. No, you’re a goddamned liar trying to be cool. Call it an “edgelord shift” instead. Makes more sense, kiddos. In all seriousness, though…“berserker shift” is bad terminology. You aren’t doing anything a real berserker did. Calling it that is wrong. And on that note, if people still think it works…we should just let people who are -hearted claim to be otherkin because sometimes it’s close enough.
Not sure what’s stopping people from going berserk now when they could easily do it in the iron and viking ages. I don’t believe that berserker shifts happen on their own (except in some cases of neurodiversity, I suppose), but they can easily be willed forth. While I have no idea why anyone would choose to go into one of these shifts, they’re by no means impossible or made up.
From what I’ve heard, berserker shifts usually take place during mental health breakdowns. I don’t doubt that they could be called forth, I’d agree that they’re very legitimate. -Adviser
I’m not even talking about whether they’re legit or not. I am talking about semantics and terminology. Berserkers are people who did drugs and wore animal skins. People having so called “berserker shifts” aren’t doing those things. Call it an extreme mental shift or mental breakdown, if you want but it sure as hell isn’t a “berserker” shift. That aside, most people who happily claim to experience shifts like that are indeed lying to be cool.
@aestherians @angrianfamily @shadowfae
I doubt any of you are paying attention to my reply so here you go.
Thanks for the tag. While I can’t know for sure how the term was coined, I think it’s likely that it’s based on the adjective berserk (“Injuriously, maniacally, or furiously violent or out of control.”) rather than the noun berserker. Even if not, words change based on culture and time. There isn’t really any sanctity of language when it comes to English.
I know I’m not an authority on this, but as an actual asatru Scandinavian raised among viking/iron age reenactors and historians, you sure won’t see me calling cultural appropriation on people using the term ‘berserker’ for such a similar situation. After all, plenty of people have eaten fly amanita (one of the favored ‘drugs’ in the practice og berserkergang) but only a handful have become violent as a result, which implies that the mindset of berserker warriors was at least somewhat willed forth.
I actually had no idea that this ‘berserker’ thing like that existed, and like Poppy, I figured it meant ‘berserk’ as in violently out of control.
I’ll have to look into that then, see what happened and who coined the term.
tumblr archive 