Fascinating Words
from Ken Grant
Berserk very likely comes
from Old Norse
Berr=bare
erk=serc chain mail.
For fighters who were so taken by the frenzy of battle that they
would go off to fight without/bare of their chain mail/serc.
Wael actually the ae diphthong
is Old English for those slain in battle/corpses. Other compounds created
from it are:
Wael-bed or
bed of death
Wael-fah or slaughter stained
Wael-stow of battle field (Stow means field or place; hence, Bristow
and other British sites ending in stow or stowe)
From these—Wael to Val and Valhalla or slaughter/corpse hall and
Valkyrie or corpse-maidens.
I hine hraedlice
heardan clammum
On waelbedde writhan thohte
Beowulf lines 963-4
I him quickly with a hard grasp
On the slaughter-bed thought to bind