The popular image is of fearsome warriors in horned helmets, and many depictions of Vikings carry that attribute. Depictions are not the same as helmets, and the archaeological record is thinner than the iconography. Only one helmet survives from the whole Viking Age.
It has no horns. The single preserved helmet comes from a Norwegian warrior burial at , north of Oslo, found with the only complete suit of chain mail from the period. Parts of helmets turn up in Denmark, including to protect the face, and none of the contemporary sources mention horned headgear.
The popular image of the Vikings is of fearsome warriors in horned helmets, and many depictions display that attribute. However, only one helmet is preserved from the Viking Age, and it does not have horns.
That helmet was found in the Norwegian warrior’s burial at Gjermundbu, north of Oslo, together with the only complete suit of chain mail from the period. Parts of helmets have been found in Denmark, including brow ridges to protect the warrior’s face in battle.
The scarcity has several possible causes, which is why absence is weak evidence here. No tradition existed of placing helmets in graves, helmets were not sacrificed as spears and swords were, and it is also possible that relatively few Vikings wore them at all.
Horned helmets are not invented, though. They appear on the Iron Age Golden Horns and on a woven hanging from the early Viking Oseberg burial, and the horned figures on the Golden Horns are . Such headgear may have been for display or , since horns would be in the way in a fight and worse on a crowded ship, and no contemporary source mentions Vikings wearing them.
wat. One Viking Age helmet survives, from Gjermundbu, and it has no horns.
wat wat
A costume everybody can picture turns out to rest on pictures rather than on anything anybody dug up.
How do we know?
The National Museum of Denmark sets out what has been found, why so little survives, and what the horned depictions from the Iron Age and the Viking period actually show.
What is still unknown
Absence of finds is weak evidence by itself, and the museum lists several reasons helmets would be missing even if they were worn.
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