<P> The helmet dates to the 10th century . This helmet was made of iron from four plates after the spangenhelm pattern . This helmet has a rounded cap, and there is evidence that it also may have had a mail aventail . It has a "spectacle" guard around the eyes and nose which formed a sort of mask, which suggests a close affinity with the earlier Vendel Period helmets . </P> <P> From runestones and other illustrations, it is known that the Vikings also wore simpler helmets, often caps with a simple noseguard . Research indicates that Vikings may have only rarely used metal helmets . Helmets with metal horns, presumably for ceremonial use, are known from the Nordic Bronze Age, 2,000 years prior to the Viking Age . </P> <P> Despite popular culture, there is no evidence that Vikings used horned helmets in battle as such horns would be impractical in a melee, but it is possible that horned head dresses were used in ritual contexts . The horned and winged helmets associated with the Vikings in popular mythology were the invention of 19th - century Romanticism . The horned helmet may have been introduced in Richard Wagner's Ring opera: The male chorus wore horned helmets, while the other characters had winged helmets . </P> <P> Once again, a single fragmented but possibly complete mail shirt has been excavated in Scandinavia, from the same site as the helmet--Gjermundbu in Haugsbygd . Scandinavian Viking Age burial customs seems to not favour burial with helmet or mail armour, in contrast to earlier extensive armour burials in Sweden Valsgärde . Probably worn over thick clothing, a mail shirt protected the wearer from being cut, but offered little protection from blunt trauma and stabbing attacks from a sharp point such as that of a spear . The difficulty of obtaining mail armour resided in the fact that it required thousands of interlinked iron rings, each one of which had to be individually riveted together by hand . As a result, mail was very expensive in early medieval Europe, and would likely have been worn by men of status and wealth . </P>

What is a viking axe made out of