Sutton Hoo Helmet: Old Hamlet.

This royal helmet, reconstructed by the British Museum, dates from the seventh century - roughly the time of the original saga of Amleth from which, via the version in Saxo-Grammaticus, the plot of Hamlet derives. It suggests the kind of armor Old Hamlet might have worn. One level of the play relates to the physical prowess required by leaders of primitive, pre- or barely-Christian societies, where single combat settles the fate of kingdoms. Claudius rules by more devious methods.

Photo: Gernot Keller: licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license.