Kudos to the young designer of the Poulsbo Viking Fest logo. What I like most about it is that it’s authentic — no ridiculous horns attached to the helmet!

Ever since we first discovered and later moved to Poulsbo, I’ve been mystified by the notion that Vikings wore helmets with horns. My Danish family who visited us a few years ago reacted the same way, slightly amused by Americans’ interpretation of history for the sake of tourists, who we were told expect the horns, no matter how unauthentic they are.

So, if the Poulsbo powers-that-be thought this new logo fit to be representative of its Norwegian heritage, why are there depictions of horns everywhere else, including the proud statue on Lindvig Way and Viking Avenue? For those who are not aware, the horns stem from the German Wagnerian opera “The Valkyrie,” from the Nibelungen Saga. How they wound up on Scandinavian Viking horns as a symbol of authenticity is truly puzzling.

While visiting history museums in Iceland and Denmark, I tried to verify with docents and history teachers that Viking helmets never had horns, nor were they ever depicted as having horns. And I was reassured that indeed, it’s not my misguided interpretation of facts — no horns ever existed on Viking helmets. So why does Poulsbo and all of its Norwegian entities, who rightfully take great pride in their heritage, insist on misrepresenting history, just to appease tourists who don’t know any better, rather than educating them with truthful historical facts?

Boggles the mind.

Gitta Brown
Poulsbo