Wherever we look, we come across Viking horn-helmets. There are game figures with a horned helmet for the youngest; there is the little hearty „Wiki“ and the clumsy little ”Hägar”, called the “Horrible”. On German ponds „re-enactors“ paddle in plastic helmets with plastic horns and conjure up wild Viking times past. Countless films have been made in which these frightening horned-helmeted northern fighters appear.
But the Viking horned helmet did not exist at all! It‘ s all pure fiction!
How can I be so sure? By now, in the Scandinavian countries especially, but also in England and Greenland, hundreds of archaeological sites have been excavated and thousands of artefacts unearthed. Amongst them numerous household items, weapons, jewellery, precious metals, especially the well-known “Hack-Silver“ (found for example on the island of Gotland), and even whole bundles of clothes (found in Greenland’s permafrost). Particularly impressive are the hairpins and combs made of horn.
But no horned helmet or even a small fragment thereof were ever found! It doesn’t make any military sense either! Or do you want to wear a helmet with protruding horns in the battlefield, with all that hacking, hewing and stabbing? A major blow to your head could even leave your head with an even worse injury. But where does the myth of the Viking horned helmet come from? On the one hand, there were ceremonial helmets for priests, witches, ghost charmers and charlatans, who wanted to make an impression with such headdresses. As a matter of fact, research has shown that the myth of the horned helmet had been invented before 1900 as seen in the Vikings of Bayreuth at the Wagner Opera House. Directors wanted to use props make their Nordic heroes look particularly martial in their costumes including horned helmets – definitely allowed in the theatre!. In this Third Realm, the „noble“ Norse warrior came for particular attention!
….and by the way: The famous helmet of Gjermundbu is not a „Viking helmet“ likewise (in the sense of a helmet which the Vikings usually wore)! The helmet found in the Gjermundbu grave (= a farm in Haugsbygd/Ringerike N Oslo) in 1943 is of a type known since approximately 7th century in Nordic countries as well as in Britain. There are various styles such as the „spectacle helmet“ or „Vendelhelm“ and existed in similar forms by the Romans as well. The Gjermundbu helmet was in fact found in the tomb of a Viking and was either a prestigious object of this rich Viking or possibly some debris or stolen property.