"To go berserk" znaczy w j. angielskim wpaść w amok i siać wkoło spustoszenie. Słowo "berserk" jest pochodzenia skandynawskiego, oznacza niedźwiedzia, a dawnymi czasy określano nim wojowników - wikingów, którzy wprawiając się w rodzaj szału bojowego, siali spustoszenie wśród wrogów niepodatni na ból i zmęczenie. Wśród wielu naukowców badających ów fenomen popularnym był/jest pogląd, według którego berserkowie wprawiali się w stan amoku bojowego wypijając wywar z muchomora. Czyli przed walką szprycowali się substancjami psychoaktywnymi. Niedawno pogląd ów został swoiście zweryfikowany. Otóż według nowej hipotezy, berserkowie mieli się intoksykować wywarem z lulka czarnego - na co ma wskazywać dokładna analiza zachowań berserków przed walką jak i po walce - objawy antyklimaksu.
Zainteresowanych odsyłam do podlinkowanego materiału.

sciencenor(*)e-been-high-on-henbane/1571431

"Stinking henbane was in use during the Viking era, says Anneleen Kool, a senior lecturer at the Natural History Museum (NHM) in Oslo who studies exactly how plants were used during the Viking Age.“It is often found in excavations of Viking Age sites, and has been found in several places in Denmark, York, Dublin and Staraja Ladoga in Russia,” she wrote in an email.
For example, archaeologists have found traces of the plant in the grave of a sorceress in Denmark, she says.Kool says the plant has been used over the centuries as a sedative, sleeping agent and to induce hallucinations. The plant is deadly toxic, and even though people did use the plant, it was not harmless, she said.That's because it contains hyoscyamine and scopolamine, two substances that have a strong narcotic effect on the nervous system. If the seeds are heated, the two substances evaporate and the vapours may act like a narcotic. In all probability, the oracle in Delphi inhaled the steam from these seeds.Both the plant and the fly agaric mushroom could have caused many of the symptoms ascribed to berserkers, but Fatur says violent aggression is not typical of someone who has eaten fly agaric. He points to other cases where plants related to stinking henbane, and that also contain the same substances, are said to have caused similar levels of aggression.Karoline Kjesrud is an associate professor at the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo. (Photo: Daria Segal / UiO). The anaesthetic effect of the herb may also have allowed the warriors to tolerate more pain than the average fighter, which may have given others the impression that they were almost invincible on the battlefield.And because the warriors had headaches and blurred vision in the days following a battle, Fatur believes that this indicates that they had ingested substances contained in stinking henbane, and not fly agaric, which rarely causes side effects afterwards."