Myth 10 of 10
10. Myth: Vikings wore horned helmets
There is no evidence that Viking warriors wore horns on their helmets. The image was created in the 19th century, largely through the costumes of an opera.
An invention of the theatre
The most complete Viking helmet ever found is the Gjermundbu helmet from Norway, dating to the 10th century. It is made of iron, rounded, with protection for the eyes and nose, and has no horns. The second most complete, found at Yarm in England and dated to 2020, also has none.
Horns would get in the way in a fight: they would give the enemy something to grab or strike. Many warriors, in fact, probably fought with leather caps or without helmets, because metal was expensive.
The modern image comes from Romanticism. In 1876, costume designer Carl Emil Doepler dressed characters of Richard Wagner's opera The Ring of the Nibelung in helmets with horns and wings. The premiere was a success, and the idea spread through paintings, books and later the cinema.
There are horned helmets much older in Scandinavia, such as those from Veksø in Denmark. But they date from the Bronze Age, about 3,000 years ago, long before the Viking Age, and were probably used in ceremonies, not battles.
Did you know? The Vikings reached North America about 500 years before Columbus. The remains of a Norse settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows, in Canada, have been dated to around the year 1000.
The 10 myths in this list
- Myth: the Great Wall of China is visible from space
- Myth: we only use 10% of our brain
- Myth: lightning never strikes the same place twice
- Myth: the goldfish has a 3-second memory
- Myth: bulls get angry at the colour red
- Myth: ostriches bury their heads in the sand
- Myth: camels store water in their hump
- Myth: bats are blind
- Myth: Napoleon was short
- Myth: Vikings wore horned helmets
Where this information comes from: astronaut Yang Liwei's account, 2003 (Great Wall of China); neuroimaging studies (brain); Empire State Building and Guinness World Records (lightning); University of Plymouth and University of Oxford, 2022 (goldfish); Discover Wildlife (ostrich and camel); University of Durham, 2020, and the Gjermundbu helmet, displayed in Oslo (Viking helmets).
