History Main / HornyVikings

* ''Film/{{Outlander}}'' is set in ancient Norway. In lieu of seafaring and pillaging, there's warfare between two Viking clans, and [[CoolVersusAwesome hunting a giant alien lizard]].
* ''Film/Pathfinder2007'': The Vikings are portrayed as AlwaysChaoticEvil villains who wear classic fictional viking attire, including horned helmets. They speak Icelandic in a guttural accent to sound like BlackSpeech.

* Ya from the (currently unreleased) Alpha Tales web series is an aversion, and describes the stereotype as “an act of racism” by the Romans. She’s a SexyScandinavian FriendlyPirate and R’s best friend(later girlfriend).

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'': Spongebob encountered a tribe of underwater vikings, all of whom were named Olaf, and their leader, who was, of course, named... Gordon.
** Also, Spongebob briefly wore one of these helmets himself, in honor of "Lief Erikson Day".

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/CareBears1980s'' had Grams Bear tell a story with the bears playing the role of vikings. The emphasis on horned helmets is even more pronounced here than usual. Grumpy was only a "small horned" viking, while everyone else was a "big horned" viking. The episode was mostly about Grumpy earning the right to wear "big horns".

* ''VideoGame/MountAndBlade'' : The FantasyCounterpartCulture, Nords, of are a subversion, being settled-down and more similar to Danish-like Vikings or proto-Normans. The "Sea Raider" type of bandits fill the niche of the more classical, northerner Vikings, being stereotypical RapePillageAndBurn {{Proud Warrior Race Guy}}s. Both Nords and Sea Raiders use normal undecorated helmets, [[ShownTheirWork mainly the conical and "spectacled" Scandinavian-esque ones]].

** The Ironborn are a FantasyCounterpartCulture to the Vikings. Natives of a small group of islands with poor soil and rich mineral deposits, the Ironborn choose to reave and pillage rather than make their own wealth (indeed, to pay for something with money as opposed to to taking it by force is viewed as extremely dishonorable). To drive the point home, they live in the Northwest, somewhat roughly analogous to the real life location of Scandinavia, their homeland is cold (though not icy) and they have names like [[MyNaymeIs Gelmar, Ragnor, and Agarr]]. They're also the most war-like people in the setting and have arguably the most physically powerful warrior among their ranks, and worship a God who's basically Odin + C'thulhu + Poseidon and their idea of an afterlife is basically Underwater Valhalla.
** The Wildlings are the 'non-seaborn, settled Norse' version to an extent. With names like Tormund (who is sometimes called the King of a meadhall), Torreg, and so on. With a love for axes and living in the snow.

* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': The people in the Iron Islands, the ironborn, are less like this than in the books, but they still bear more than a passing similarity. They are the smallest and among the least-populous of the regions of Westeros, but [[BornUnderTheSail the naval skills of their population are unmatched]] and they enjoy great mobility due to their ships. They have a unique culture centered on maritime raiding and pillaging other peoples.

* Creator/RosemarySutcliff's ''Literature/BloodFeud'', ''[[Literature/TheDolphinRing Sword Song, The Shield Ring]]'', ''Literature/KnightsFee'' and ''We Lived in Drumfyvie''.
* In "Literature/ClublandHeroes", the Splendid Six reminisce about an adventure involving an army of magically reanimated viking skeletons, and TheSmartGuy boasts about how he could tell they weren't real vikings because they had horned helmets.

* The Fjordlanders in ''Literature/{{Discworld}}''.
* The short story ''The Haldenmor Fugue'' from the ''Franchise/DoctorWho Storybook 2010''.
* ''Dragonships'': Creator/MargaretWeis and Tracy Hickman's novel series takes place in a fantasy world, the protagonist is from a FantasyCounterpartCulture of Vikings.

* ''Dreamscape: The Wanderer'' mentions the Langsyne; a race whose names and battle tactics are very similar to those of Vikings. No horned helmets though.
* The Thalesians are ''Literature/TheElenium'''s Viking FantasyCounterpartCulture. The Genidian Knights (based in Thalesia) wear horned helmets as part of their formal armor. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in that the horns in question come from ogres, and are much harder than steel; they're additional head protection.
* The ''Literature/{{Everworld}}'' series drops a quartet of modern teens into a different universe. This first book brings them to a Viking village that pays homage to Loki, who lives in a nearby castle.

* Creator/HarryHarrison's ''Literature/TheHammerAndTheCross'' trilogy focuses heavily on vikings, including Lodbrok and his sons (see below).

* The Skaldi of ''Literature/KushielsLegacy'' have definite Viking elements. Their longboats are mentioned but never seen.

* ''Film/TheVikings'', starring Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis. While there aren't too many horned helmets, every other cliché is present (including throwing axes to trim the pigtails off a young lady, the burning ship funeral, and hundreds of people shouting "Odin!" as they attack or die).

** ''Recap/AsterixAndTheGreatCrossing'' has actual Vikings who like Leif Erikson navigate to America way before the Great Navigations. There the Danish connection is really played up, with the Vikings' speech peppered with [[PaintingTheMedium å and ø]], their boat having a Great Dane dog, and many references to ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}''.

* In ''Literature/DaveBarrySleptHere'', the Vikings are described as "extremely rugged individuals" who used Zippo lighters to set fire to English tribespeople's thatched roofs just for fun, and sometime in the ninth century crossed the Atlantic for two purposes: "(a) try to locate North America and (b) see if it was flammable."

* ''VideoGame/JitsuSquad'' have four playable characters, one of them being a Viking named Aros Helgason. And he wears a horned helmet that screams "Viking!" from a mile away.

** In ''VideoGame/AgeOfMythology'' Norse heroes, raiding cavalry and upgraded frost giants wear horned helmets. The rest of their units stick to more compact designs. Not to mention that they earn favor with their gods by killing.

* The UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeague'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. (The name is in reference to Minnesota's large population of descendants of Scandinavian--mostly Swedish and Norwegian--immigrants.) 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.

* The UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeague'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.

* The Norse people enjoyed the peak of their power between the 8th and 11th centuries (most historians set the period to 793 - 1066), in what is called UsefulNotes/TheVikingAge. Real Vikings did not wear horned helmets into battle. In fact, only a single horned helmet has ever been excavated, dating several hundred years ''before'' the Viking Age, did not have cow-shaped horns, and was clearly ceremonial. At most, Viking helms often featured the distinctive "spectacle-guard" around the eyes and nose, a style common amongst the peoples in the region.\\\
It would have been hard for genuine Vikings to wear horned helmets in battle -- Viking warfare was based on the shield wall and other close-quarters styles of fighting (including naval combat which involved a lot of boarding actions), and horns would have put allies at risk of impaling an arm or hand on the protrusions. Or more likely, as any helmet is designed to deflect blows, putting horns and other ornamentation on a helmet would give a weapon something to snag and direct the force of the blow to the wearer's head, defeating the purpose of wearing helmets. In close combat, it would also give an opponent an excellent thing with which he could grab and control someone.\\\
The ancient Norse were also surprisingly civilized, although remembered mostly for their [[NeverLiveItDown offenses towards women and monks]] in battle. When not raiding or pillaging, their interests immediately turned to [[IntrepidMerchant trade]] and [[BoldExplorer colonization]]. Areas under the Danelaw quickly became centers of industry and cultural exchange, thanks to wide-ranging Viking vessels.\\\
Vikings were the direct ancestors of the Normans once the people further up the Seine realized it was easier to buy off these Danish hooligans with land at the mouth of the river, rather than have them raid what would later become Paris every once in a while. Indeed, William the Conqueror was the great-great-great-grandson of Rollo, the founder and first ruler of the viking principality that later became Normandy. It is one of the ironies of history that feudal society has its roots among the descendants of vikings, but feudalism never truly caught on in Scandinavia when the cultural influence of the Normans began to spread (people accustomed to electing their kings were not too impressed with the notion of a society run from the top down -- among many other things).\\\
Viking lords really ''did'' have awesome names like Sveyn Forkbeard, Ivar The Boneless,[[note]]It is possible that the intended meaning was ''leg''less (Old Norse had the same word for bone and leg, as do the modern languages which evolved from it). [[TheLoinsSleepTonight Another, ruder possible meaning]] makes this an AtrociousAlias, though another reading of his name in Latin could just simply mean "[[TheDreaded the Hated]]".[[/note]] and Erik Bloodaxe.\\\
It should also be noted that "viking" was a job description, more or less, rather than an ethnicity. It was a word for their method of raiding. (These warriors could be hired for a right price -- just ask the [[UsefulNotes/EasternRomanEmpire Roman emperors]] in [[IstanbulNotConstantinople Miklagarðr]]). The vast majority of the people were farmers, craftsmen and traders. Population boom + limited farm land = lots of men with energy to burn. The solution? Have them amass wealth and status some other way. Also, far from being filthy and unbathed, their personal hygiene bordered on OCD (well, for the time, anyway). This makes sense as, when it's too cold to sweat ''ever'', you definitely don't want any dirt or grime sticking to you for long periods of time. Among the excellent documentary evidence for Vikings' cleanliness: a letter from a Saxon bishop, complaining that the pagan Norse settlers were luring away Christian women by washing and combing their hair.

[[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant Not to be confused with]] SexyScandinavian (based on another meaning of 'horny').

* The HERO Games catalog of alternate universes known as ''TabletopGame/{{Champions}} in 3D'' included a brief description of Mad Viking World, where horned helmets, heavy drinking and incredible overenthusiasm were the order of the day, even when crossing the street.

** The Norscans are fantasy Vikings in imposing heavy plate and intimidating horned helmets who worship the [[GodOfEvil Chaos]] [[EldritchAbomination Gods]]. They love battle, slaughter and warfare like the French love their wine. They also have a penchant for being [[MarkOfTheBeast marked by the Chaos Gods]] in various ways.

* The Northern Reaches in ''TabletopGame/{{Mystara}}'' are [[FantasyCounterpartCulture very obviously based on]] medieval Scandinavia.
* In ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'', the Lands of the Linnorm Kings are home to warriors who are actually called "vikings" in-universe. Horned helmets are a DefiedTrope, though--the vikings only wear them in plays and ceremonial events because of how unwieldy they are.

* The Norscans in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' are basically Vikings in imposing heavy plate and intimidating horned helmets who worship the [[GodOfEvil Chaos]] [[EldritchAbomination Gods]]. Love battle, slaughter and warfare like the French love their wine. Also have a penchant for being [[MarkOfTheBeast marked by the Chaos Gods]] in various ways.

*** The background also mentions the Norse Dwarfs of Kraka Drak, who are a combination of the two. It was implied in the Tome of Corruption supplement that after living in a state of constant siege from the Norscans, some of them have been turned to Chaos.
** Not ''nearly'' to the same extent as the Norscans, but the Empire too has a lot of Nordic flavour, especially the cult of Ulric.

* Harry Harrison's ''Literature/TheTechnicolorTimeMachine'' is about a movie studio's attempt to use a time machine to make a viking picture with real vikings.
* The Scanrans in Tamora Pierce's ''Literature/TortallUniverse'' are masters of the sea and feared pirates. They both raid by water and by land. They hail from Scanra which is located to the north of Tortall. It borders the Emerald Ocean to the west, Tortall to the south, and Galla to the southeast. It is very cold and rocky and only very little of it can be farmed.
* In Christopher Stasheff's ''Literature/WarlockOfGramarye'' series, the LostColony of Gramarye eventually gets some neighbors in the form of "beastmen"-- coastal raiders in horned helmets and dragon-prowed ships. The twist; they are actually [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot genetically engineered psychic Neanderthals]] put there by {{time travel}}ers as part of an EvilPlan to allow their faction to conquer Gramarye and ''[[MakeWrongWhatOnceWentRight prevent]]'' a future {{Utopia}}.

* Cratror/HarryHarrison's ''Literature/TheHammerAndTheCross'' trilogy focuses heavily on vikings, including Lodbrok and his sons (see below).

* In Christopher Stasheff's ''Literature/WarlockOfGramarye'' series, the LostColony of Gramarye eventually gets some neighbors in the form of "beastmen"-- coastal raiders in horned helmets and dragon-prowed ships. The twist; they are actually [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot genetically engineered psychic Neanderthals]] put there by {{time travel}}ers as part of an EvilPlan to allow their faction to conquer Gramarye and ''prevent'' a future Utopia.

* Inverted in "Back through time" by ''Music/Alestorm''. They travel back in time to board a Viking ship.

We killed them all to steal their gold!''
* Ceann's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LL4PV2e6LDc "Blame the Viking,"]] in which the singer insists that all of his mistakes were actually committed by an elusive Viking "friend".

* ''Literature/TheLongShips'', written in Sweden in the 1940s and set around the year 1000 is the definitive viking novel. Includes characters of myth and history, casual slavery, casual warfare, casual religion switching for pragmatic purposes and plenty of BlackHumor.

* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': The people in the Iron Islands, the ironborn, are less like this than in the books, but they still bear more than a passing similarity. They are the smallest and among the least-populous of the regions of Westeros, but the naval skills of their population are unmatched and they enjoy great mobility due to their ships. They have a unique culture centered on maritime raiding and pillaging other peoples.

* A common segment in ''Series/HorribleHistories'' is "Vicious Vikings." Horrible Histories being what it is, these tend to give the facts and stories most in keeping with the Horny Vikings trope, although they often [[ShownTheirWork don't actually have horned helmets]]. Then again, there's Vikingland, a song about Vikings that settled peacefully and contributed to British culture as we know it.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'' seems to avert this trope for the most part, the Vikings depicted in the cartoon being bereft of the stereotypical horned helms, axes and berzerker attitude, though they are still all about the pillaging.
* ''WesternAnimation/IAmWeasel'' had an episode where the main characters were vikings. Considering that they have been pretty much everything else, from egyptians to undead, this was inevitable. The [[BigRedDevil King and Queen]] of [[StealthPun Nopantsland]] kidnaps them because he wants to be pillaged, and they have to spend the entire episode teaching him how to put up a fight so they can pillage him properly. Seriously, this was a weird show.

It would have been hard for genuine Vikings to wear horned helmets in battle -- Viking warfare was based on the shield wall and other close-quarters styles of fighting (including naval combat which involved a lot of boarding actions), and horns would have put allies at risk of impaling an arm or hand on the protrusions. Or more likely, as any helmet is designed to deflect blows, putting horns and other ornamentation on a helmet would give a weapon something to snag and direct the force of the blow to the wearer's head, defeating the purpose of helmets. In close combat, it would also give an opponent an excellent thing with which he could grab and control someone.\\\

[[caption-width-right:325:[[ProudWarriorRace We]] [[Film/FullMetalJacket so horn-ed]], [[Music/TwoLiveCrew we raid you long time]].]]

[[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant Not to be confused with]] SexyScandinavian (based on another meaning of 'horny')

* ''ComicBook/MortadeloYFilemon'': Parodied where it turns out that the Vikings they encounter [[spoiler: are victims of one of [[MadScientist Dr. Bacterius]]'s experiments GoneHorriblyWrong, and the horns are really attached to their heads.]]

** [[TheFriendNobodyLikes Orm]] is an effeminate CampStraight who has never been on a raid before and gets his ass kicked by a little girl when he finally does. He is overshadowed by his brother, and even by his wife Frøya, who is not only a fearsome raider, but is introduced wearing a [[CreepySouvenir necklace]] [[GroinAttack of dicks]] she cut off of the men ''she'' raped. [[spoiler: Then he turns out to be a bit more CampGay than he let on.]]
--->'''Arvid:''' [[spoiler: Passionate sex with another man? Yeah, it doesn't get much gayer than that!]]

* Eric Northman from ''Series/TrueBlood'' isn't named like that for nothing, as we learn in a flashback [[spoiler: where the mighty warrior lies dying from his battle wounds and discusses the joys of Valhalla with his two loyal companions. Until Godric shows up, that is...]]. But then again it should be obvious: dude is tall, well-built, blue-eyed and blonde. And speaks Swedish with his minions. And is 1000 years old. Not to mention, he is played by Alexander Skarsgård, son of the famous Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgård. It's in the blood.