Early Middle Ages

Did Vikings Wear Helmets with Horns?

The myth of the horned Viking helmet, where the image came from, and what Viking helmets actually looked like according to archaeology.

Question & answer

Short answer

No. There is no evidence that Viking warriors ever wore helmets with horns, and the image is a nineteenth-century myth. The horns would have been impractical in battle, and the actual Viking helmets, of which only one complete example survives, were simple iron caps with a nose guard and a guard for the eyes. The horned-helmet image is a Victorian fantasy that has been thoroughly debunked by historians and archaeologists.

Where the myth came from

The image of the Viking warrior with horns on his helmet is a product of the nineteenth century, not of the Viking Age itself. The horns were first associated with Viking warriors in the paintings and stage designs of the Romantic period, when a fashion for the Scandinavian past swept across Europe. The most famous early example is the costume designed for the 1876 production of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen in Bayreuth, which gave the singers horned helmets in the style of Scandinavian Bronze Age metalwork. The horned helmet of the Bayreuth costume was adopted by stage designers and by popular illustrators, and it quickly became the standard image of the Viking warrior.

The romanticized image of the Viking was not, however, entirely new. Eighteenth-century writers had already begun to romanticize the Norse past, and the great Icelandic sagas, rediscovered in the early nineteenth century, became a source of inspiration for writers and artists across Europe. The image of the noble savage, fighting for honor and freedom against the corrupt civilization of the south, was attractive to Romantic artists, and the horned helmet was a vivid emblem of the primitive, warlike spirit of the north. The Danish and Swedish nationalists of the nineteenth century also played a role, using the image of the Viking warrior to celebrate the supposed virtues of the Scandinavian race.

A further source of confusion is the art of the Scandinavian Bronze Age, c. 1500 to 500 BC, which features depictions of warriors and priests wearing horned helmets. The Bronze Age helmets had horns, but the Bronze Age ended a thousand years before the Viking Age began, and there is no continuity between the two. The confusion is partly the result of the loose use of “Viking” to describe any pre-modern Scandinavian, and partly the result of the Romantic-era interest in the prehistory of the north.

The archaeological evidence

The actual archaeological evidence for Viking helmets is thin, but it is consistent. Only one complete Viking-Age helmet has ever been found, the famous Gjermundbu helmet, discovered in Norway in 1943. The Gjermundbu helmet is a simple iron cap, with a rounded crown, a brim that comes down to protect the neck, and a nose guard. There are no horns, and no indication that horns were ever attached. The construction is plain and functional, designed to protect the head from a sword stroke or an axe blow, and it looks like a practical piece of military equipment.

Several other helmet fragments have been found, including the famous Coppergate helmet from York, discovered in 1982, which dates to the tenth century. The Coppergate helmet is a more elaborate piece, with a decorative band and a face guard with a stylized moustache and eyebrows, but it also has no horns. The fragments that have been found in Scandinavia and in the British Isles are consistent with the Gjermundbu design, and there is no evidence for horns in any of them.

The pictorial evidence is also consistent. The Bayeux Tapestry, which depicts the Norman conquest of England in 1066 — the descendants of Viking settlers at the close of the Viking Age — shows the Norman and English warriors with simple, undecorated helmets. The warriors of the tapestry are fighting men, not theatrical figures, and they have no horns on their helmets. The illuminated manuscripts of the Anglo-Saxon and Frankish periods, which depict Norse warriors in many scenes, also show plain helmets with no horns.

Why the myth has been so persistent

The horned-helmet image has been remarkably persistent in popular culture, and it continues to appear in films, television, and Halloween costumes. The persistence is partly the result of the Romantic legacy, and partly the result of the appeal of the dramatic image. The horned helmet is, after all, a striking image, and it has been used by advertisers, by sports teams, and by rock musicians as a symbol of the supposedly wild and primitive spirit of the north.

The myth is also useful as a way of distinguishing the Vikings from other medieval warriors. The Norman, the Frankish, and the Anglo-Saxon knights of the early Middle Ages wore simple helmets too, and there is little to distinguish them in the visual record. The horned helmet, whether or not it has any historical basis, is a distinctive image that makes the Vikings stand out. It is, in other words, a marketing image as much as a historical one.

The practical objections

Even if the horned helmet had been used by some Norse warriors, it would have been impractical. A horned helmet would have been heavier than a plain cap, and the horns would have caught in a wind and in a rain. In a battle, the horns would have given an opponent a convenient handhold, and a horned helmet would have been dangerous in a shield wall or in close combat. The Viking warrior was a practical man, and the practical design of the Gjermundbu helmet is the kind of equipment that the Viking raiders would have worn.

The other practical consideration is the cost. A horned helmet would have required more iron, more smithwork, and more decoration than a plain cap, and the additional cost would not have bought any military advantage. A Viking chieftain could have used the same amount of iron to equip several of his followers with plain caps, and he would have been more likely to do so. The horned helmet, if it existed, would have been the mark of a few rich or eccentric warriors, not a standard piece of military equipment.

Conclusion

The image of the Viking warrior in a horned helmet is a myth, with no basis in the historical or archaeological record. The actual Viking helmets, of which only a few complete or fragmentary examples survive, were simple iron caps with nose and eye guards. The image is a product of the nineteenth century and has been thoroughly debunked by modern scholarship. Yet the myth persists, and it is now so deeply rooted in popular culture that it may be impossible to dislodge. For the wider context of Viking military technology, see the Viking ships and technology and Viking society and culture.