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Home>>The Viking Helm>>The Gjermundbu Helm
The Gjermundbu Helm
Owners Note1: After received my copy of Dominic Tweddle's "The Anglian Helm from Coppergate," I've gained alot of information on Pre-Viking helms and a whole new insight on some issue's dealing with them. I highly recommend obtaining a copy of the book if you are interested in any of the helms listed below. Most of the information below came from said book, but it is still worth buying! Better pictures of the originals and their line drawings are on the way! Contact me with any questions you may have regarding any of the info below!
This helm is circa mid tenth century from Sweden but it is thought by some to be at least a few hundred years older that the date of the grave.  Though it is one of the most recognizable helms on the period it is almost certainly reconstructed inaccurately. The neck is protected by a mail curtain. the protection for the face is offered by an ocular like the Valsgarde helm have. The only difference between its construction and that of the Valsgarde oculars is that it is on one piece, ie it is made up of a nasal, eyebrows, and curved linking strips. Also similar to the Valsgarde helmets is the construction of the cap which is of sectional construction, a brow band, nose-to-nape band, and lateral bands. The difference being that the nose-to-nape and lateral bands are 4 sections of half round sections that are riveted on the top via a circular plate with a spike on top. These bands form "ribs" that border the interstices that four triangular plates fill. Unlike the Valsgarde there is no decoration on the cap, the "rib" that forms the center crest, or the eyebrows. It is clearly Swedish in origin but not fancied up as many of the other Swedish helms of the period. One of the richest finds ever from the Viking Age was discovered at a farm called Gjermundbu in the Haug area of Ringerike in Buskerud County, during W.W. II but we don't think that this was his chieftain seat. A nearby farm, by the name Bølgen, is to us a far more likely farm to have been that we think. Bølgen is a much bigger farm and the placement in the topography is strategically superior to that of Gjermundbu. It's dated to approximately 970 AD, but who had owned these valuable artifacts we wonder? The richness doesn't make us believe that he was a ordinary local chieftain, but rather a king, petty king or someone in the inner circle of the king. The Viking helmet excavated from the mound is famed for being the best preserved Viking helmet ever found in the entire world. It was one of the main attractions put on display at the Scandinavian Viking exhibition in the United States of America in 2000, but this wasn't the only important item they found in the burial mound at Gjermundbu during 1943. Indeed, the mound itself isn't even the only mound at the farm, as an even larger one is still present, but not excavated. More can be found on the subject in the article:Who WAS the Viking Chieftain they found in a mound at the farm Gjermundbu in Ringerike?
- Tweddle, Dominic. The Anglian Helmet from Coppergate. Council for British Archaeology 1992
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