Vikings

What do you see when you hear the word “Viking”?
A man in a helmet that’s horned?
Alas, there’s no evidence Vikings would ever
Go off on a raid thus adorned.

While only one real Viking helmet, from Gjermundbu,
Still is intact to this day,
Such horns are too heavy for close-quarters fights,
And the joint wouldn’t knock blows away.

A couple medieval renditions show ritual
Helmets with hornlike protrusions,
Which might have been meant to be ravens or snakes,
But they’re not the main source of confusions.

I read that the Romans attributed helmets
With horns to the northernmost tribes.
They didn’t care which, and it’s likely they thought
That the look gave barbarian vibes.

(Please note: While it’s true that the Vikings had raiders,
They weren’t all that savage or mean.
They didn’t drink mead from the skulls of their foes,
And by standards of yore, they were clean.)

It seems archaeologists dug up a helmet
Right next to some horns made for drinking
And made the assumption the horns had come off it,
In line with the Roman-type thinking.

There came the Romanticist Viking revival,
When artists thought horns would look sweet.
They blended the Viking and Bronze Age depictions;
Their research was hardly complete.

Today we make Vikings look rather cartoonish
When not such a fright to behold,
But history lessons have value regardless.
I hope you don’t mind being told.