#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…

[cami-whatsit]

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

[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.

[blogtib]

[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 👌👌👌

[cervenakoviny]

Kyjevskí hromotĺci - I

Zdroj - https://sagy.vikingove.cz/en/inspiration-4-a-retainer-from-kyiv/

[oldschoolfrp]

Viking equipment from Graeme Davis' article "Viking -- Magic & Mayhem," presenting ideas for Norse-inspired PCs in D&D campaigns, in Imagine magazine 30, TSR UK, September 1985 (no signature; Mark O'Dell signed the other illustrations in this article)

[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…

[artifacts-archive]

Gjermundbu Helmet

Viking

793–1066 CE

The Gjermundbu helmet was found during the excavation of a burial mound at Ringerike in 1943. The excavation showed that this was the last resting place of a powerful man who died sometime between 950 and 975.  He was buried with full equestrian equipment, one sword, two spears, two axes, chain mail, kitchen utensils, and game pieces. The helmet from Gjermundbu is the inspiration of almost all reconstructions used in re-enactments, films, games and so on. The helmet is quite famous. Horns have never been attached to the helmet.

source

[saturnniidae]

Httyd modern au but having fun with it because Berk can still exist similarly to canon. It could be a self governing island or even archipelago (officially called the Berkian Isles or smth but it's inhabitants call it the Barbaric Archipelago out of tradition. No one outside of the area calls it that.) somewhere in the large area between Iceland and Norway. I think they should also have their own language, as a treat.

Also they can still have weird names!! Maybe it's a dying tradition that only some families still do or perhaps they have their 'Berk Names' then similar but 'normal' versions. They're just Very, very traditional and have a weird history.