Boar-crested helmets are a staple of Anglo-Saxon imagery, evidence of a Germanic tradition in which the boar invoked the protection of the gods.

[5] Cutouts at the front of the brow and nose-to-nape bands functioned as eye-holes, and a 5 mm (0.20 in) wide strip of metal was riveted along the edge of the openings, perhaps to provide balance or decoration.

[7] Finally, three narrow C-sectioned strips were added to provide additional strength, one each running the length of the nose-to-nape and lateral bands.

[10] It was curved inward both laterally and longitudinally other than the upper rear edge which was bent outwards, either intentionally to improve the articulation of the joint, or by damage incurred during use.

[16][17] Excavations in the area had taken place for years on behalf of various aggregate companies before the land was exploited for gravel, and had uncovered an extensive network of Iron Age and Roman farms.

[17][18] The evidence for post-Roman habitation, however, had been limited to two fragments of a brooch, and two separate collections of pottery, when metal detector surveying discovered a copper alloy hanging bowl and a millefiori-decorated mount in what turned out to be a grave.

[25] The grave was excavated with brushes and wooden tools, revealing a number of bone fragments, including part of a skull;[26] these were used to suggest that the body was that of a man seventeen to twenty-five years old,[27] laid in a supine position with his head on a pillow and knees slightly raised.

[15] A pattern welded sword was also found,[30] and together with the hanging bowl and helmet, marks the grave as one for a person of high social status.

The Pioneer Helmet is dated to the late seventh century on the basis of the style of belt buckles found in the grave,[53][54] which were current around 675.

[60] Except for an outlier fragment found in Kyiv,[61] all crested helmets originate from England or Scandinavia,[62][63] and are distinct from the continental spangenhelm and lamellenhelm from the same period.

[64][65] The boar was an important symbol in prehistoric Europe, where, according to the archaeologist Jennifer Foster, it was "venerated, eulogised, hunted and eaten ... for millennia, until its virtual extinction in recent historical time.

[70][71] Boar-crested helmets are depicted on the turn-of-the-millennium Gundestrup cauldron, discovered in Denmark, and on a Torslunda plate from Sweden, made some 500 years later.

[69] The boar persisted in continental Germanic tradition during the nearly 400 years of Roman rule in Britain, such as in association with the Scandinavian gods Freyja[73][74] and Freyr.

[note 1] Such is the case after Grendel is defeated, when a minstrel entertains Beowulf and his men with the story of the Fight at Finnsburh, in which Hnæf, king of the Danes, died.

Æt þæm ade wæs eþgesyne swatfah syrce, swyn ealgylden, eofer irenheard, æþeling manig wundum awyrded; sume on wæle crungon!

Het ða Hildeburh æt Hnæfes ade hire selfre sunu sweoloðe befæstan, banfatu bærnan, ond on bæl don eame on eaxle.

Wand to wolcnum wælfyra mæst, hlynode for hlawe; hafelan multon, bengeato burston, ðonne blod ætspranc, laðbite lices.

Lig ealle forswealg, gæsta gifrost, þara ðe þær guð fornam bega folces; wæs hira blæd scacen.

The Hildeburh ordered her own son's body be burnt with Hnæf's, the flesh on his bones to sputter and blaze beside his uncle's.

Carcass flame swirled and fumed, they stood round the burial mound and howled as heads melted, crusted gashes spattered and ran bloody matter.

In another case, Hrothgar laments the death of Æschere, "my right-hand man when the ranks clashed and our boar-crests had to take a battering in the line of action"[95] (eaxlgestealla, ðonne we on orlege hafelan weredon, þonne hniton feþan, eoferas cnysedan[96]).