Horned Helmet Hoax

In this day and age, far beyond the era of Vikings, whenever someone mentions the word viking it is hard to suppress the image of a burly man wearing a metal helmet with protruding horns. This is a common misconception that may have originated from Plutarch and other historians. One such historian was named Diodorus Siculus. He wrote briefly about his observations of the Celtic people of Gaul. He wrote: "Upon their heads they wear helmets of brass with large appendages made for ostentation's sake to be admired by the beholders." This gave him and others who read his works the incorrect knowledge that Vikings wore helmets. Another place the misnomer could have come from Viking battle rituals. Their fury was heavy and they became known as beserkers. "The berserkers were, literally, the 'warriors in shirts (serkr) of bear'" (http://www.mircea-eliade.com/from-primitives-to-zen/145.html). Throughout the world word may have gotten around about these odd rituals and stretched here or there and the result was men who wore animal horns on their heads. The only reason Vikings would ever have donned helmets with horns would have been during religious ceremonies. If the Vikings did in fact wear helmets they would not have been made from the bones of animals like they appear. They would have been constructed from hard leather, wood, and small strips of metal. While Viking battle helmets were not used in battle at all, religious ceremonies did incorporate them. Viking helmets have been associated so closely with Viking culture that it seems as if we have almost changed history.  

"File:Hyghalmen Roll Late 1400s.jpg -." Wikimedia Commons. Web. 17 Mar. 2010. <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hyghalmen_Roll_Late_1400s.jpg>.

"The Franks, Goths, Gauls, Celts, Teutons, Lombards And Ancient Britons." Old And Sold Antiques Auction. Web. 17 Mar. 2010. <http://www.oldandsold.com/articles09/clothes-17.shtml>.

"Horned Helmet -." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 16 Mar. 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horned_helmet>.

"INITIATION OF A WARRIOR - Man and the Sacred - Patterns of Initiation - , "From Primitives to Zen"" Mircea Eliade. Web. 17 Mar. 2010. <http://www.mircea-eliade.com/from-primitives-to-zen/145.html>.