Berserker.

This is coolbert.

Here is an interesting web site on the topic of the berserker.

This specific article shows a level of scholarship that is just amazing. The author is obviously a person of learning.

The word "berserker" is of course a word of Norse origin.

A person who in battle rushes heedless and headlong at the enemy, to close with same and inflict the maximum amount of damage, spurning death in the process. A person possessed by super-human ferocity and an almost out-of-body mentality. A warrior, not a soldier.

The action of a berserker is a world wide phenomenon however. NOT strictly a Norse tradition.

From the article cited above, this tradition of berserker is found among the Indo-European peoples, the peoples of the Malabar coast [India] and the Malay ethnic group, and also perhaps among the Zulu, who are known to have had units of what can only described as berserker "commandos".

In the movie "Kingdom of GOD", the actions of the berserker called only our "German friend" are shown in one of the opening scenes. This German crusader receives an arrow through the throat. A mortal wound that he instantly knows is a mortal wound. The "German friend" then picks up a second sword [he already had one broadsword in his hands], and rushes forward at the enemy, barechested and hair in a ponytail, the sole remaining purpose of his now over life to inflict upon his tormentors and enemy the maximum punishment possible. And this he does with panache'. His enemy knows that he was there, the "German friend" berserker having killed and wounded a number of his enemy before he too expires!!

coolbert.