http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HornyVikings



From the midnight sun where the hot springs flow

The hammer of the gods

Will drive our ships to new lands

To fight the hordes and sing and cry

"Valhalla, I am coming!"

On we sweep with, with threshing oar

Our only goal will be the western shore! Led Zeppelin, "Immigrant Song" We come from the land of the ice and snowFrom the midnight sun where the hot springs flowThe hammer of the godsWill drive our ships to new landsTo fight the hordes and sing and cry"Valhalla, I am coming!"On we sweep with, with threshing oarOur only goal will be the western shore!

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The more Northern, cold-climate cousins of the Pirate, native to Dark Age Europe, who spend a lot of their time cruising in their Cool Boats, pillaging and burning any hapless peasant villages that happen to get in their way.

Vikings in fiction tend to feature elements of The Berserker and Proud Warrior Race Guy, are seldom seen without those spiffy horned helmets and are sometimes adorned with Pelts of the Barbarian. Vikings are always quite hairy, with long beards and longer Braids of Barbarism flying in the ocean breeze. Being Nordic, most of them are blonde or red-headed, but black-haired Vikings are as common as they were in real life. Expect them to approach aboard intimidating, monster-headed longships, fierce men aboard fearsome boats.

The trope name is a pun on Vikings' reputation for raping and pillaging, and the horned helmets that they never actually wore. The horned helmet stereotype started with the Romans, who attributed such helmets indiscriminately to all kinds of Northern barbarians; later this was reinforced by some archeologists digging up a Viking helmet near a couple of drinking horns and assuming that they had once been one piece. Horns on a helmet would actually sabotage its effectiveness, providing a joint to catch incoming blows rather than deflect them. Horned helmets may be replaced by the (equally unhistorical) winged helmets, especially when the work wants to present the Vikings as noble rather than barbaric.

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Examples:

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Capital One played with this trope by using Vikings as a metaphor for other cards over-charging (pillaging) customers. Some Vikings wore metal helmets with horns, some metal helmets without horns, and others with nothing at all on their heads. Later, the Vikings were looking for other jobs (since so many people were using the Capital One card) and still later, were using the card themselves.

Anime & Manga

Jessie and James dressed up like these guys in the Pokémon: The First Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back. They even had Meowth acting as the figurehead on the bow. Thanks to Woolseyism: "I didn't know Vikings still existed." "They mostly live in Minnesota." (See Sports).

Vinland Saga of course, though none of the vikings wear horned helmets. The fact that no living viking has been recorded to wear one is perhaps a testament to Vinland Saga's more realistic depiction of vikings than most other works-see Real Life below.

Vicky the Viking, a 1970s German/Japanese colab about a viking boy who prefers to use brain instead of brawn to work out problems. The young viking in question is known as Wickie in Germany, Bikke in Japan, and Vicky in English-speaking countries. The ultimate origin of Vicky, however, is a Swedish children's book series called Vicke Viking from the 1960s. note The TV series was very successful both in Europe and in Japan and, at least on German TV, seems to be on the re-run regularly. It was never broadcast in the US, apparently.

One Piece: Word of God states that Vikings, (the ones in Vicky the Viking in particular) were the initial inspiration. They make in-story appearances in the form of the Giants of Elbaf.

Honey Honey no Suteki na Bouken: Honey and the gang encounter Vikings once in their journey across Europe who dress like this.

Comedy

George Carlin stated they were real bad news. George Carlin: We come from that northern European, basically the northern European genes, the blue eyes. Those blue eyes. Boy everybody in the world learned real quick, didnt they? When those blue eyes sail out of the north, you better nail everything down. Nail it down, strap it down, or theyll grab it. If they cant take it home, theyll burn it. If they cant burn it, theyll fuck it.

Dave Allen has a sketch which wouldn't be half as funny without horns: cliche vikings storm a village with the standard "Rape and pillage" cry...until they meet the town hag. The chief's horns rotate down and he orders them to just to pillage.

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Comic Books

Comic Strips

Hägar the Horrible note sometimes referred to as simply Hagar; called Olaf el Terrible in Spanish-speaking countries and Olafo el Amargado in Latin America is the title and the name of the main character of a syndicated comic strip created by Dik Browne. If a Viking lies, his horns fall off. (Hagar tends to go through a lot of helmets because of this.) The horns also show the wearer's emotional state, somehow, pointing upward normally but pointing downward when Hagar is sad.

is the title and the name of the main character of a syndicated comic strip created by Dik Browne. If a Viking lies, his horns fall off. (Hagar tends to go through a lot of helmets because of this.) The horns also show the wearer's emotional state, somehow, pointing upward normally but pointing downward when Hagar is sad. The Far Side uses Vikings as a common subject. One strip pitted them against their pillow-wielding counterparts, the Wimpodites.

In Pearls Before Swine, Pig has a set of viking action figures that are apparently sentient. They subvert the trope, however, from acting more like preteen girls than anything.

Prince Valiant: The Prince was the Viking prince of Thule.

Modesty Blaise: In "The Vikings", Modesty battles a group of Scandinavian men who, being supposedly bored with the ease and comfort of modern life, have embraced the ways of their Viking ancestors; plundering shipping and coastal towns. They embrace most of the Viking stereotypes, but it is largely a smokescreen for their actions as Ruthless Modern Pirates: the Viking trappings making it hard for the authorities to take them seriously.

Fan Works

The reindeer of Tarandroland from the Under The Northern Lights are a Fantasy Counterpart Culture to Vikings (at least partially). Having natural antlers makes horned helmets unneccessary. Them starting to pillage the coast of Equestria after a very long peace is what sets off the plot.

Girl Days: Chinese Vikings are introduced in chapter 18. They've adapted over the years (though they kept the horned helmets), preferring to fish rather than pillage, equipping their longboats with diesel engines and GPS, and have generally peaceful relations with most of the other strange tribes in China. Even the Amazons, who have never quite forgiven them for sneaking a "no forced marriages between our people and yours regardless of your traditions" clause into their peace treaty and retaliated by passing a law to prevent the two groups from ever intermarrying. This doesn't stop one of them from being romantically obsessed with Mousse - if she can't marry him, she'll just "take him to a deserted island, and bed him until he wilts", as two of her tribesmen put it.

Films — Animation

Films — Live-Action

Literature

Live-Action TV

Music

Pro Wrestling

Sports

The National Football League's Minnesota Vikings have the horns painted on their helmets and their logo is a mustached, braided long-haired blond man with a horned helmet. In keeping with the pun title of the trope, the Vikings NFL team was caught in a major sex scandal aboard (what else?) a party boat.

Tabletop Games

Theatre

Video Games

Web Comics

Web Original

Whateley Universe : Donner, one of the students at Whateley Academy and a rather pointed parody of Marvel Comics' Thor, is described as looking like what you'd get "if superheroes wanted to look like Vikings but didnt do the research", horned helmet and all. Worse yet, he's actually from Sweden (and thus you'd expect him to know better), speaks English with a nearly impenetrable accent a la the Swedish Chef, and is an utter dunce. Best known for idly swinging (and often, dropping) a warhammer for no good reason.

C0DA, written by former The Elder Scrolls series writer/designer Michael Kirkbride, takes place in the far distant future of TES universe. Talos, one of the series most prominent deities, makes an appearance at the bachelor party of the main character, Jubal. Talos' appearance takes it Up to Eleven, stated to be "more Viking than Viking". To note: "His helmet has curled goat horns that are longer than his arms. His beard has to be wrapped up in his gigantic leather belt. In either hand, he carries a flagon of mead."

Western Animation

Real Life