Bede writes that Rædwald was the son of Tytila and grandson of Wuffa, from whom the East Anglian Wuffingas dynasty derived its name. Almost all that is recorded comes from the eighth-century Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum by the Benedictine monk Bede, leaving knowledge of Rædwald's life, already poorly recorded, at the mercy of such things as differing interpretations of Ecclesiastical Latin syntax. What scant information is known about King Rædwald of East Anglia, according to the Anglo-Saxon historian Simon Keynes, could fit 'on the back of the proverbial postage stamp'.

The case for Rædwald, by no means conclusive, rests on the dating of the burial, the abundance of wealth and items identified as regalia, and, befitting a king who kept two altars, the presence of both Christian and pagan influences. The preferred candidate, with some exceptions when the burial was thought to have taken place later, has been Rædwald his kingdom, East Anglia, is believed to have had its seat at Rendlesham, 4 + 1⁄ 4 miles (6.8 kilometres) upriver from Sutton Hoo. Owner Īttempts to identify the person buried in the ship-burial have persisted since virtually the moment the grave was unearthed. Had the helmet been crushed before the iron had fully oxidised, leaving it still pliant, the helmet would have been squashed, leaving it in a distorted shape similar to the Vendel and Valsgärde helmets. The fact that the helmet had shattered meant that it was possible to reconstruct it. It is thought that the helmet was shattered either by the collapse of the burial chamber or by the force of another object falling on it. Long afterwards, the chamber roof collapsed violently under the weight of the mound, compressing the ship's contents into a seam of earth. An oval mound was constructed around the ship. Inside this, the helmet was wrapped in cloths and placed to the left of the head of the body. The ship had been hauled from the nearby river up the hill and lowered into a prepared trench. The helmet was buried among other regalia and instruments of power as part of a furnished ship-burial, probably dating from the early seventh century. Main article: Sutton Hoo The ship impression during the 1939 excavation Basil Brown is in the foreground, and Lieutenant Commander John Kenneth Douglas Hutchison in the background. She donated them to the British Museum, where the helmet is on permanent display in Room 41. The helmet and the other artefacts from the site were determined to be the property of Edith Pretty, owner of the land on which they were found.

It was excavated as hundreds of rusted fragments first displayed following an initial reconstruction in 1945–46, it took its present form after a second reconstruction in 1970–71.

The visage contains eyebrows, a nose, and moustache, creating the image of a man joined by a dragon's head to become a soaring dragon with outstretched wings. An iconic object from an archaeological find hailed as the 'British Tutankhamen', it has become a symbol of the Early Middle Ages, 'of Archaeology in general', and of England. The helmet was both a functional piece of armour that would have offered considerable protection if ever used in warfare, and a decorative, prestigious piece of extravagant metalwork. 620–625 CE and is widely associated with an Anglo-Saxon leader, King Rædwald of East Anglia its elaborate decoration may have given it a secondary function akin to a crown. The Sutton Hoo helmet is a decorated Anglo-Saxon helmet found during a 1939 excavation of the Sutton Hoo ship-burial.

Medieval helmets behind