The Viking connection
Sir: Mr Alf Bjercke (Letters, 4 July) states
that . there has never been a Viking hel- met with horns', and alleges that 'the first such helmet was created in connection with the premiere in New York in 1882 of the Niebelungenring [sic] opera by Richard Wagner.' I bow to his expertise as regards the Viking connection, but a visit to the British Museum will rapidly reveal that his second statement is nonsense. Not only were such helmets described by classical writers and portrayed in sculpture, as the catalogue notes, but a superlative example has been preserved and is in the Museum's collection. They were, however, Celtic rather than Norse: no doubt the confusion arose in the 19th century when, as illustrat- ed by Hole's unintentionally comic wall- painting in the National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh, the artefacts of the Iron, Bronze and Dark Ages were quite liberally misattributed.
M.R. Lewis
50 Normandy Avenue, High Barnet, Hertfordshire
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