Did Vikings really wear horned helmets?

The short answer

Not one Viking helmet ever found has horns. The look was popularised by an 1876 opera, and the real horned helmets are about 2000 years older than the Vikings!

The story, line by line

1. Picture this... you're a Viking. Big ship, cold sea... and a helmet with two HUGE horns!
2. But here's the thing... archaeologists have dug up Viking helmets... and not one has horns!
3. So where did the horns come from? Historians point to... an OPERA!
4. In eighteen seventy six, a costume designer put cow horns on the singers' helmets... and within twenty years, horns meant Viking in books, ads and paintings.
5. But here's the twist... real horned helmets DO exist! Two were found in Denmark... and they're about three thousand years old.
6. That's two thousand years before the Vikings! So the Vikings? Stuck in the middle... with no horns at all.