Children's Web magazine...
Entertaining , Educational, Fun,Informative and MORE

Number 8: Horns on Viking helmets – wrong!

Vikings, the fearsome Scandinavian warriors and raiders, are often depicted as having horns on their helmets, even the American football team the Minnesota Vikings have horns on their helmets, but in reality archaeologists are more likely to find a yeti than horns on a Viking helmet! This is simply a modern myth, inspired by artists’ false depictions of Vikings going into battle. This idea originates from Scandinavian artists Malstrom and Mary McGregor in the 1800s, creating a fierce appearance to backup texts describing the ferocity of the Vikings. There have been horned helmets in history but they were much older than the Vikings, dating back to the bronze age and were used in druidic rituals, likely to make the wearers appear more animalistic and so at one with mother nature and the animals of the forest which they worshipped and were thankful for.

Number 9: Stone Henge was built by ancient druidic tribes – wrong!

One of the greatest mysteries of this planet is Stone Henge. Great towering rocks, how on earth did the ancient tribes people of Britain erect such a statue 5000 years ago without cranes and modern tools? They didn’t. Historical records of the monument can be found dated to 1200 AD but not in the same position as they are today. Cambridge University, one of the most esteemed academic institutions in the world, announced that in fact nearly all the stones we see today have been moved in some way and are all standing in concrete to help keep them upright. There are older photos of Stone Henge which show some of the stones laying on each other rather than being upright as they are today. Even then that was only a couple of hundred years ago since we’ve had cameras and photographs and some stones had already been moved upright at this point. There are photos depicting a ‘restoration’ project of Stone Henge in the 19th Century using cranes which actually involved moving several of the rocks to help create this stone circle wonder. As for how the stones got there to begin with, perhaps it was a natural formation, or perhaps they were dragged there for rituals by the Brittanic tribal druids, but they certainly did not place them standing up, it just defies the laws of physics.

Number 10: The First Thanksgiving story – wrong!

Thanksgiving is perhaps the most important celebration in America. Whilst much of Europe and certainly other Christian nations host Christmas as their largest national holiday and perhaps Easter, in America Thanksgiving is regarded as a time for family to come together, feast and be thankful for what they have and is a time when the majority of the country are off work for a long weekend. The origins of the story, taught to young children in America, is that the first thanksgiving was recorded when the pilgrims and native American Indians shared Turkey legs and corn together and discussed farming techniques. There are even paintings depicting this event! In reality Thanksgiving was a celebration following a series of brutal victories and purges over and of the Native Americans by the pilgrims and perhaps the only resemblance to today’s Thanksgiving is that they did indeed feast, primarily on Turkey legs and corn. History can be horrible, but it’s better to know the truth than kid ourselves and pretend our ancestors were better people than they really were!

Hopefully this series has shown you that history is not always necessarily right and that it never hurts to do some research and see if what you’re being taught is true or just what the victors wrote to make themselves look good!         

IMAGE 1 SOURCE: http://www.visit-stonehenge.com/2011/07/stonehenge-crane-photograph-by-fox.html

IMAGE 2 SOURCE: http://www.gekretchmer.com/animals-nature-and-landscapes/1347/