#Viking helmets

[petermorwood]

Interesting post about costume here.

This paragraph in particular caught my attention...

What we think of as “peasant garb” is actually the product of a game of telephone that travels back from Romantic Revival art, and many of those (urban) artists got their idea of what rural peasants wore from opera costumes. The costumers working at the opera were not going out to the country side to take notes on what farmers actually wore, nor did they want to. Opera is show biz, you want it to be evocative, but not ordinary. Their costumes would have been based on what urban folks were wearing, with extra little touches like a shepherds crook to make it look “rural”.

... because it was Wagner's Ring Cycle that gave us horned helmets.

They didn't originate with the Vikings. They originated with the 1876 costume designs for a bunch of operas, and those designs by Carl Emil Doepler still exist.

For reference, all the horny characters are mortals.

Those helmets were probably based on archaeological finds, even though all Northern European examples are, AFAIK and depending on context, either religious headgear equivalent to a bishop's mitre, or ceremonial headgear equivalent to a crown.

In addition, every single one predates the Viking Age by a period ranging from a couple of centuries to a couple of millennia so - makes vague handwave gesture - they're more appropriate for the sorta-kinda mythic Migration Era setting of the Ring than any Vik who ever inged..

Doepler's designs also feature WINGED helmets, worn by immortals like Wotan...

... and the Valkyries.

Something else I encountered when looking for pics to illustrate this was that other clichéd armour error, the boob-plate.

Here's dramatic soprano Karin Branzell wearing one...

...while here's heroic tenor Fritz Vogelstrom also wearing one.

He's singing the role of Siegfried but wearing the costume of Brunnhilde, at least that's how it looks to an operatic Philistine like me.

Anyway...

Winged helmets are even more historically dodgy - no archaeological evidence at all - yet are actually more feasible as working combat helmets.

The difference is that horns, being heavy, need sturdy mountings so a horned helmet both provides catch-points for incoming blows and handles for an enemy to grapple, while a winged helmet does neither. The wings, being light, wouldn't need solid fixtures so would just shear off under a weapon or come off in an enemy's hands.

I'm well aware that other times, places and cultures - Indo-Persia, Poland, Japan etc. - had helmets with wings, horns and all sorts of other stuff, but this is about how the popular image of Vikings that headgear came from opera.

And went all over the place... :->

[loki-was-framed]

[nycreligion]

Richard Wagner, mythologist of the horned Vikings

Adapted from “The new mythology. Wagner’s apotheosis in Bayreuth,” Der Ulk, Berlin, 1876. Wagner as the god Wotan. The musical composer Richard Wagner promoted a Viking mythology as the common religion of the early Germans and Scandinavians. He wanted to loosen the hold of the Mediterranean civilizations, including Christianity, in favor of indigenous northern European culture. Then, he wanted…

[gasmaskblog]

Heavy Rubber Drysuits Available for sale

[cami-whatsit]

Here's a Camicazi before I continue re-reading the books🔥

[blogtib]

[ottosbigtop]

a humble bob/helmut request for them doin like literally anything hahaha

also for the future au I wanted to say am really charmed by the cameras as ask conduits, and that in turn that means Otto is still fucking at it inventing and building things and handing them to his fav little mentee of his mentee

They are… looking :) ran out of steam to color this but ohhh how I care them

and thank u! Otto is a curse upon the psychonauts and will never die until you venture to the deep caverns beneath the Motherlobe and kill the giant mechanical heart that keeps him alive. All in due time.

[simple-persica]

I got sidetracked from something I was working on and decided to do Freyja, so here's my concept page for her.

[olessan]

It's a bit wild that the War of the Rohirrim design leads thought that this sort of blatant plagiarism was a normal thing to do. 🤔

On the left (and the boots on the right) you have Helm (and Hera's) clothes from one of the newer pieces of art released from WotR. The other images are screenshots from LotRO.

Specifically, the breastplate is the Armour of the Eastemnet and the Armour of the Elite Rider. The boots are Westemnet Boots of x (multiple kinds). Helm's vambraces and faulds, and Haleth's tunic (in the group shot) also look very familiar.

They claim to be following the designs from the trilogy but oh boy did they just google "Rohan armour" and lift whatever they found.

[divergear]

Suiting up

Hat on

Securing helmet

Diver standing

Inflating the diver

Segunda especialidad Inspección de emisarios Zea Mays EOS Negua

[toasts-httyd-hyperfixation]

Breaking News

Knitted hat....

[princess-ibri]

Here is one of the Aurora pieces from the Art of Coloring: Twisted Tales book coloured by the artist who drew it herself, Abigail Larson.

👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀

Aurora in armor, its always a great look 👌👌👌

[natequarter]

btw i love steven. sceptic gets lied to about history and reacts by running off on his own and attacking a total stranger. sheer poetry dear boy now please stop bothering me

[nycreligion]

Richard Wagner, mythologist of the horned Vikings

Adapted from “The new mythology. Wagner’s apotheosis in Bayreuth,” Der Ulk, Berlin, 1876. Wagner as the god Wotan. The musical composer Richard Wagner promoted a Viking mythology as the common religion of the early Germans and Scandinavians. He wanted to loosen the hold of the Mediterranean civilizations, including Christianity, in favor of indigenous northern European culture. Then, he wanted…

[blueiscoool]

A Unique Pre-Viking Helmet Fragment Discovered in Denmark

In Lejre, the northwestern part of the island of Zealand in eastern Denmark, detectorists have uncovered an exceptionally rare fragment of a helmet dating back to the period just before the Viking Age. The two helmet pieces were discovered at the Lillebro site near Lejre.

This gold-plated piece, adorned with red gemstones, once belonged to one of Scandinavia’s most magnificent helmets, revealing close connections to present-day England and Sweden.

With its gold plating, gemstones, and intricate animal ornamentation, the helmet fragment found in 2024 will soon shine in a display case at Lejre Museum. “Finding helmet pieces is a rare occurrence in Denmark. This fragment comes from what must have been one of Scandinavia’s most splendid helmets,” says Julie Nielsen, the archaeological director of ROMU.

The bronze fragment is gilded and features a red gemstone known as a garnet. The fragment consists of two parts discovered in the same field, fitting together like pieces of a puzzle. Together, they form most of the helmet’s brow arch, indicating their distinctive curved shape.

“The gold, the ornamentation, and the garnet all highlight the helmet’s grandeur. The ornamentation—a creature with prominent teeth and large eyes—reflects the style we recognize from the later Germanic Iron Age; this fragment dates from between 650 and 750 AD,” said Julie Nielsen.

The helmet serves as a testament to the grandeur and status reflected in Lejre’s hall buildings and burial monuments from the same period. According to Julie Nielsen, the archaeological director of ROMU, this artifact was likely a significant item reserved for a king or a high-ranking individual within the region’s hierarchical society. “The deep red garnet has long been associated with strength. The intricate ornamentation on the helmet narrates a story of immense power belonging to its owner,” she explains.

Nielsen posits that the helmet was not intended for battle, noting that during the later Germanic Iron Age, Lejre was not a site of local conflict but rather a center for political and religious elites. The focus here was on worship, exaltation, networking, and trade, extending even across national borders.

“We observe similar helmet fragments in neighboring countries to the east and west—England and Sweden—indicating that Lejre was situated at the heart of a significant trade axis,” she adds.

In the extensive study “Viking Dynasties,” researchers from ROMU, the National Museum, and Uppsala University draw comparisons between Lejre’s legendary royal seat and a sister dynasty in Gamla Uppsala, Sweden. John Ljungkvist, an archaeologist and senior researcher at Uppsala University, has meticulously examined the helmet fragment from Lejre and emphasizes its unique construction: “Unlike other helmets that feature three separate fittings, this helmet’s brow arch is crafted as a single piece. We have not encountered a similar variant of this exclusive helmet before.”

Ljungkvist considers the ability to produce a helmet of this caliber to be extraordinary: “This represents craftsmanship of exceptional quality—comparable to that of the renowned helmet from the Sutton Hoo ship burial in England.”

The discovery will be showcased at the Lejre Museum during a special opening for the winter holiday in week 8.

By Leman Altuntaş.

[russell-crowe]

QI S14E2: north norse