I just finished The Last Kingdom. I groaned inwardly when I realized it was in the first person narrative, but soon got over it. The protagonist is wonderfully flawed! In any event, I read the Historical Note and was interested by your position that the berserkir were merely myth. They may be, but you may be interested to know there is some evidence that the name may have originally meant “bear shirt” and refers to norse mythology relative to “shape-shiting” and lycanthropy myths. John MacDonald