Did Vikings Wear Horned Helmets? 6 Viking and Pirate Myths
Film has fixed an image of Vikings and pirates that doesn't always match what we know. We look at six myths, from horned helmets to the eye patch, and at what the finds and the sources tell us.
Vikings didn't wear horned helmets
Not a single horned Viking helmet has ever been found. The most complete Viking helmet we know of was discovered in 1943 at Gjermundbu, Norway. It is an iron dome with a visor for the eyes.
Horns wouldn't have made practical sense either. In hand-to-hand fighting, a horn would have given the enemy a handle to twist your head.
The image was born in 1876, in Bayreuth. Costume designer Carl Emil Doepler gave horns to the characters in Wagner's The Ring of the Nibelung. The horned helmets from Veksø, in Denmark, do exist. But they date from around 900 BC, some seventeen centuries before the Vikings, and were probably ceremonial.
Nor were they filthy barbarians
The calendar itself proves otherwise. In Danish and Norwegian, Saturday is lørdag. The word comes from the Old Norse laugardagr, meaning "washing day".
Bone combs, tweezers and ear cleaners frequently turn up in their graves. And a 13th-century English chronicle complains that the Danes combed their hair every day, bathed every Saturday and changed their clothes often in order to seduce English women.
Pirates didn't make people walk the plank
During the golden age of piracy, roughly between 1650 and 1730, anyone pirates wanted to get rid of was simply thrown overboard. Setting up a plank would have been an unnecessary ceremony.
The few documented cases come later, from the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The image was cemented by Howard Pyle's illustrations and by Captain Hook in Peter Pan, in 1904.
Buried treasure, with one exception
The usual practice was to share out the loot and spend it at the next port. Burying it meant leaving it somewhere you might never return to.
The famous exception is William Kidd. In 1699 he hid part of his loot on Gardiners Island, off Long Island, New York. The colonial authorities dug it up. It ended up as evidence at the trial that sent him to the gallows in London in 1701.
The X that marks the spot was popularized by Robert Louis Stevenson in Treasure Island, published in 1883. The novel grew out of a map he drew with his stepson.
The eye patch: an injury, not a trick
A claim circulating online says the patch kept one eye already adjusted to the dark for going below deck into the hold. The physiology checks out: the eye needs about twenty to thirty minutes to fully adapt to low light. But no source from the period is known to mention it.
The most likely explanation is the simple one. In a naval battle, splinters, gunpowder and shrapnel flew everywhere. Anyone who lost an eye covered it up.
Compensation set down in writing
Crews signed a set of articles before setting sail. Alexandre Exquemelin, who sailed with the Caribbean buccaneers, published their rates in 1678. A right arm was worth six hundred pieces of eight or six slaves. A left leg, four hundred. An eye, one hundred pieces or one slave.
It was paid out of the common loot, before anything else was shared. The crew also elected the captain by vote and could remove him. It was injury compensation set down in writing some two centuries before Germany passed the first compulsory workplace accident insurance in 1884.
Frequently asked questions
Has a horned Viking helmet ever been found?
No. The most complete Viking helmet, found at Gjermundbu (Norway) in 1943, is an iron dome with a visor and no horns.
Where does the idea of horned Vikings come from?
From costume designer Carl Emil Doepler, who in 1876 gave horns to the characters in Wagner's The Ring of the Nibelung, in Bayreuth.
Did pirates bury their treasure?
The usual practice was to share out and spend the loot. A well-known exception is William Kidd, who in 1699 hid part of his on Gardiners Island.
Why did pirates wear eye patches?
Most likely to cover an eye lost in combat. No sources from the period support the theory about adapting to the dark.
Informative article written with the help of AI tools from the verified script of the video. The video is in Spanish.