Their Helmets
Despite Hollywood’s portrayal of grizzly Vikings who wore bear pelts, held large shields, swords, and horned helmets, the Vikings didn’t actually look like that. There is no record of Vikings wearing horned helmets at all. The misconception may have begun with 19th-century painters who portrayed the Vikings with a horned cap as a derogatory feat. It stemmed from northern European descriptions of the Vikings by the ancient Greeks and Roman chroniclers.
Their Helmets
Skull Cup
Despite their rather vicious reputation, the Vikings were raiders, invaders, and traders, but they did not drink out of skull caps. To further disprove the fact, the earliest record of any civilization drinking out of human remains was in fact by a Greek historian named Herodotus. In his book ‘Histories’, he named Scythians (Eurasian nomads) the ones who did drink out of skulls. While there may not be archeological evidence to prove this, there isn’t anything written in the books about Vikings taking part in this not-so-pleasant tradition. However, they did drink out bones, just not human bones – cattle horns. Maybe this is where the rumor began in the first place.
Skull Cup