Three Things To Know About Viking Helmet

The Vikings were one of the most famous warriors that once earned their fame and wealth through raidings and battling. Their wonderful skill was not the sole element that helped them achieve victory in battle. Besides the skills, the Viking warriors possessed the powerful armor that protected them from blades of the foes. Though their mail was quite complicated, the Viking helmet was fairly simple but still useful in battles. 

Indeed, the Viking helmet was one of the simplest war protectors of any time. It was merely a bowl with a nose guard.

Here are three things we want you to know about the Viking helmet. I mean the historically accurate ones. 

1. Not all the Vikings wore helmets

Before the Viking attacks became real wars, they were merely hit and run attacks. At the very beginning, their armors were quite simple. They were believed to wear their daily clothes only. Maybe they sometimes added extra leather to their clothes. It's true that they once placed iron or any kind of metal inside their clothes, most of them felt that they were far way heavy. That's why they quickly abandoned such kinds of armor. 

Viking attack

Complicated armor and helmets only appeared when the Vikings declared real wars on other regions. They started to equip themselves with more complex armor and helmet. Yet, because most of them were farmers, not all of them could afford themselves a helmet for battle. 

2. No horned helmets

No, the Vikings didn't wear any kind of horned helmets in battle which were obviously impractical. 

The Viking helmet in the ancient time was just a bowl with a nose guard. It was the simplest war protectors at that time. They were made of iron and only helped to protect the head of the warriors from the blows of the enemies. The Viking helmet could absorb not only the force of the blow but also the sweat that would make the iron helmet rust from the inside.

Viking helmet artifact

The Viking helmet would cost a sum of money so it was not really common among the majority of the Vikings. Any Viking warriors wanted to have a helmet into the battles but not many of them could afford one. Helmets were prized, carefully preserved, repaired if necessary, and passed down from generations to generations.

3. Horned helmets appeared in Viking artifacts 

Although the Vikings didn't wear any horned helmet in reality, a famous horned helmet appeared in a Viking fabric artifact. It was the Oseberg tapestry that was found in the Oseberg burial mound - one of the most famous Viking excavations ever on Earth. 

The fabric featured a kind of ancient ritual. This figure wore a horned helmet and was obviously bigger than other people in the depiction. His hand held a sword in the upside down position which presented his wealth and high social rank. Because in the Viking age, only the people of wealth could possess a sword. To conclude, the man with the horned helmet was both the leader of the ceremony and the one with high power in the Viking community. 

There were many ways to interpret the right part of the Oseberg Tapestry. But it was generally accepted that the people and horses were parts of the ceremonies while the house in the left might be the Viking temple.