Hands-on: Viking helmet

Make a Viking helmet

Not many Viking Age helmets have been found. This is probably because it was very expensive to buy a helmet. Many Vikings simply wore a woollen or leather cap, or nothing at all on their heads, when they fought. The metal in a helmet was valuable and could be reused or melted down for other useful things.

The only almost complete helmet has been found at Gjermundbu in Norway.

Viking helmets had no horns. No helmets with horns have ever been found, and there are no written sources, for example the sagas, that mention horns on helmets. In fact, it would have been very impractical in battle if an enemy grabbed hold of a horn and pulled the helmet off the warrior. No, the idea that Vikings wore horned helmets is a myth, a story invented in the theatre world in the 19th century, at least 800 years after the Viking Age.

But if you dream of having a Viking helmet, this is how to make one that fits your head perfectly: