Topic

myths

Did "rule of thumb" come from a law about wife-beating?

False. No law ever set a thumb-width limit for beating a wife, and the phrase meant a rough, practical method long before anyone linked it to that story. Here is where the legend came from and why it sounds true.

Read the verdict

History4 min

Did Vikings really wear horned helmets?

Illustration of a horned costume helmet under a spotlight on a theatre stage, beside a plain rounded iron helmet with a spectacle-shaped eye and nose guard in a museum display case

False. No Viking Age helmet ever found has horns. The real ones are plain iron caps; the horned look comes from 19th-century art and an 1876 opera costume, and the only real Scandinavian horned helmets are about 1,700 years older than the Vikings.

Read the verdict