[3] "There is not a trace of chain mail in the find, nor any iron plates fit for making up the rest of the helmet.

"[3] Eight fragments of "thin iron strips, about 1 cm [3⁄8 in] broad and of varying length" were found, however, and may have been originally used to join the helmet plates.

[3] The Tjele fragment was discovered amidst a tenth century collection of smith's tools in 1850,[8] but its significance was not understood until 1984.

[11] In 1858 the collection of tools—two anvils, five hammers, three pairs of tongs, a pair of plate shears, two files, a chisel, two drawplates, two foundry ladles, a whetstone, a set of balance scales with ten weights, five sickles, a key, three iron nails, an axe, two jingles, a spearhead, bronze wires, fragments of bronze and iron, and the remains of a casket—was published, but the helmet fragment passed over as a saddle mounting.

[12][13][14] After leading "an unnoticed existence" for some 130 years despite being on display, the fragment was finally recognized as the remainder of a helmet by Elisabeth Munksgaard,[3] the assistant keeper at the museum's Department of the Prehistory of Denmark.