Did Vikings really wear horned helmets?
Blame a 19th-century opera for this stubborn myth.
The answer
There is zero archaeological evidence that Vikings wore horned helmets in battle. The only complete Viking-age helmet ever found - the Gjermundbu helmet from Norway - is a simple rounded iron cap with a nose guard. The horned helmet myth was popularized by costume designer Carl Emil Doepler for the 1876 premiere of Wagner's opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen, and it has stubbornly persisted in popular culture ever since.
Source: Smithsonian Magazine
- Vikings
- myths
- Scandinavia
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