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How many times have you seen Vikings in movies? Chances are they are portrayed as these massive, six-pack Nordic men with a thirst for violence, ale and with helmets sporting horns on them. Equally common in mainstream media, you can see wings instead of horns as the Vikings’ head-gear ornaments. Just look at Marvel’s Thor comics or the Minnesota Vikings NFL logo.

There is no evidence, archaeological or otherwise, that Viking warriors wore any type of horns or wings on their helmets.

There is one bit of evidence, a 9th century Oseberg tapestry which depicts a figure wearing a horned helmet. Scholars think the figure on the tapestry may be a god and this helmet was only used in some rare ceremonial occasion. However, they found evidence for plain domed/conical helmets made mostly of leather (possibly to keep their heads warm!).

So where did this bit of misinformation start from? Roman and Greek writers referred to ‘northerners’ wearing horns, wings, antlers and other things on their helmets.  Archaeological findings suggest these were for ceremonial purposes, and had largely faded out by the time of the Vikings (circa late 8th century).

In 1876 Carl Emil Doepler created horned helmets for the first Bayreuth Festival production of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen, which has been credited with inspiring this myth, even though the opera was set in Germany, not Scandinavia. These costume designers may have been inspired by 19th-century discoveries of ancient horned helmets that later turned out to predate the Vikings.