Here’s some art by Munwie on Deviantart:
Meanwhile, this is an obvious reason why Viking helmets didn’t have horns.
Going into battle wearing handlebars for the opponent to play with is a Bad Idea. That didn’t stop other cultures (Indo-Persian, Japanese) from doing so, but Vikings? NO.
The origin of the Nordic Horned Helmet is actually known: they first appeared in C.E. Doepler’s costume designs for Wagner’s “Ring Cycle” operas.
Incidentally, calling mail armour “chain-mail” first happened in the novel “The Fortunes of Nigel” by Sir Walter Scott.
Something similar has happened with the word “longsword”, which only came into general HEMA use for what had previously been “hand-and-a-half” or “bastard” swords about 20 years ago; even then the first time I saw it (in “Medieval Swordsmanship” © 1998 by John Clements) it was two words with a hyphen: “long-sword”.
As a single word it’s been part of the fantasy fiction arsenal since the mid-1970s, for example in C.J. Cherryh’s “Gate of Ivrel” © 1977, I used it in “The Horse Lord” © 1983, and I’m sure a search through very early D&D manual could place it even earlier.
Longsword is certainly a handier term than the alternatives, but IIRC even “hand-and-a-half sword” is no older than Victorian. In the Middle Ages a sword was usually just “a sword”; it was very inconsiderate of them not to think of later generations who might like to label things with a bit more exactitude…
Not all Munwie’s Deviantart birds are corvids, and not all are sinister…
…though you might have second thoughts about that if you know anything about the lifestyle of the European Robin.
They’re ferociously territorial, their usual song translates as “Get Off My Lawn Or I Will Kill You With Death”, and we’re grateful the two pairs in our garden are the size they are and not as big as e.g. tyrannosaur turkeys.
Which having written it is a mental image I really didn’t need…
