HORNS

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Permalink Reply by Ostara Fire on March 20, 2009 at 11:04am

Well, I guess that pretty much sums it up! My family belongs to a group called the Sons of Norway and somtimes, during the Kretstevne (sp?) they wear those goofy plastic horned helmets and to be quite honest with you, I'm offended. I don't say anything anymore because they do it "all in fun". I think that if they were serious about their heritage then they wouldn't make fun of it.

Ramy

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Permalink Reply by zool on April 4, 2009 at 3:59am

confirmed. no horns on helmets - thats an asterix-cartoon myth.

i have such a drinking horn for ceremonys and travel (on the belt it makes actually much sense to have a horn instead a plastic cup :-)

however, on my horn is no helmet attached ;)

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Permalink Reply by The Zen Viking on April 4, 2009 at 5:24am

Ah-ha! I have found it! The answer to this and all of life's most important questions: It's Lee Majors' fault.

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Permalink Reply by Wa-Ya Wik on September 7, 2009 at 12:17am

lol

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Permalink Reply by Marje on April 19, 2009 at 3:59pm

Maybe you should try wikipedia?

Although horned helmets are in popular culture often associated with Vikings, there is no evidence that Viking Age Scandinavians have ever worn them. The attribution probably arose in 19th century Swedish Romanticism. The image was so widespread by the mid-20th century that the helmet logo of the Minnesota Vikings football team is a horn on each side of the helmet.

There is one other instance of a possible depiction of a Viking Age horned helmet, an illustration on a tapestry found in the Viking Age Oseberg ship burial.

Overall, there have been so few discoveries of horned helmets that it appears unlikely that Vikings really wore horned helmets to battle. The depictions of warriors could represent ritual war dances as well as actual combat. The most likely explanation is that this helmet type originated in Celtic religion, possibly related to Cernunnos, and that then it was adopted, changing the horns into snakes, by Germanic tribes during the Migration age, and continued to play a certain role in religious ritual up to the 9th century or so.

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Permalink Reply by zool on April 30, 2009 at 5:01am

Just in case you were unaware...

Wikipedia is not the ultimate truth and answer to all things (thatd be "42" anyways)
, it is a wikipage with a high probability rate of delivering roughly correct informations.

Real scientists though laugh their ass off when wikipedia is listed as "reference".
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I think we all know there were no horns above belt level on vikings :P

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Permalink Reply by Clarissa Metall on June 6, 2009 at 11:28pm

As I recall at some point in England the monks who lived their raids called them devils. They drew pictures of these men who had horns. Thus making them evil for the actions they did and warned people of near by villages with such images.
I think that is what started it all.

After that it stuck to the vikings as they REALLY dressed in such a manner...
We all know they didn't and if they ever where to wear horns it was most likely back at home when doing rituals.

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Permalink Reply by Wa-Ya Wik on September 7, 2009 at 12:19am

that would make sense

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