Subject: hearthweru 'hearth-guard', gesith 'companion' warrior

Culture: Anglo-Saxon

Setting: England late 5th-early 9thc

Object: helmet

Caesar's Palace *

* Royal Armouries Museum > War Gallery

"The 'Pioneer' helmet This helmet from Wollaston, Northamptonshire is only the fourth to be found from Anglo-Saxon England in the 7th and 8th centuries. The right half of the helmet is lost.

"In March 1997, archaeologists from Northamptonshire County Council, working on behalf of Pioneer Aggregates (UK) Ltd on the company's Earl Barton Sand and Gravel Quarry, excavated the grave of an Anglo-Saxon warrior. The site is at the side of a Roman road in the Nene Valley. Alongside a skull and the few remaining bones they found a helmet, an iron sword, and a bronze hanging bowl.

"Pioneer Aggregates funded the excavation and ensuing conservation.

"The Pioneer helmet is an interesting combination of different features. The boar crest is like that of the Benty Grange helmet, but its overall shape and construction are most like that of the Coppergate helmet. The boar symbolised strength, and represented the goddess Freyr. Contemporary literature such as Beowulf contains many references to boar-crested helmets:

'The boar crest, brightly gleaming, stood over their helmets: superbly tempered, plated with glowing gold, it guarded the lives of those grim warriors ... Displayed on his pyre, plain to see, were the bloody mail shirt, the boars on the helmets, iron hard and gold clad.'

"The corrosion of the helmet revealed traces of materials that seldom survive. Two different types of cloth are visible, representing either the lining of the helmet or associated clothing or bedding in the burial. Feathers were found, probably from a mattress or pillow, and, inside the cheekpiece, fly pupae cases, which suggest the burial took place in summer.

"Helmet of band-helm type, Anglo-Saxon, about 700 AD." ....