any trip to gimy could not be complete without a visit to the Viking the large statue has been in the community for decades but recently people who live there have been debating whether or not it should be changed ctv's John Hendricks explains why New York has the Statue of Liberty in Winnipeg it's the Golden Boy and here in gimle the big attraction is the Viking oh it's great it brings a lot of people here and it's been here forever the 15t tall Viking statue has been standing watch over the Icelandic Community since 1967 but recently a controversy over the statue has emerged in the community specifically the horns on its helmet are they historically accurate there's never been a Viking helmet found with horns and that led one gimle resident to ask on social media has there ever been discussion about removing the horns from the Viking statue it's kind of embarrassing he wrote what well the post sparked a fiery debate online with hundreds of replies one person writing he'd feel naked without the horns another asking who are the horns embarrassing local cattle but not everyone was in favor of the horns with one person writing yes I was hoping they would remove them when it was restored a few years ago but a horn removal operation didn't appear to have a lot of support from the people we spoke with today probably look weird without horns I think it looks good how it is and while the horns may not be completely historically accurate they are certainly popular if sales of Viking toys in the museum gift shop is any indication without a doubt the ones with the horns sell way faster than the ones without the horns the man who wrote the post that sparked this entire debate didn't wish to appear on camera but he tells CTV news that although he doesn't believe this statue is historically accurate he does think it looks awesome turns and all John Hendrick CTV News gimy