Editing Hengist and Horsa (section)

==Theories==

===''Finnesburg Fragment'' and ''Beowulf''===
A Hengest appears in line 34 of the ''[[Finnesburg Fragment]]'', which describes the legendary [[Battle of Finnsburg]]. In ''[[Beowulf]]'', a [[scop]] recites a composition summarizing the Finnsburg events, including information not provided in the fragment. Hengest is mentioned in lines 1082 and 1091.<ref name=CHICKERINGJR111AND113>Chickering Jr. (2006:111 and 1113).</ref>

Some scholars have proposed that the figure mentioned in both of these references is one and the same as the Hengist of the Hengist and Horsa accounts, though Horsa is not mentioned in either source. In his work ''[[Finn and Hengest]]'', [[J. R. R. Tolkien]] argued that Hengist was a historical figure, and that Hengist came to Britain after the events recorded in the ''Finnesburg Fragment'' and ''Beowulf''. Patrick Sims-Williams is more sceptical of the account, suggesting that Bede's Canterbury source, which he relied on for his account of Hengist and Horsa in the ''Ecclesiastical History'', had confused two separate traditions.<ref name=WALLACE-HADRILL215>Wallace-Hadrill (1993:215).</ref>

===Germanic twin brothers and divine Indo-European horse twins===
Several sources attest that the Germanic peoples venerated a [[Divine twins|divine pair of twin brothers]]. The earliest reference to this practice derives from [[Timaeus (historian)|Timaeus]] (c. 345 – c. 250 BC). Timaeus records that the Celts of the [[North Sea]] were especially devoted to [[Interpretatio graeca|what he describes as]] [[Castor and Pollux]]. In his work ''Germania'', [[Tacitus]] records the veneration of the [[Alcis (gods)|Alcis]], whom he identifies with Castor and Pollux. Germanic legends mention various brothers as founding figures. The 1st- or 2nd-century historian [[Cassius Dio]] cites the brothers [[Raos and Raptos]] as the leaders of the [[Hasdingi|Astings]]. According to [[Paul the Deacon]]'s 8th-century ''[[History of the Lombards]]'', the [[Lombards]] migrated southward from Scandinavia led by [[Ibur and Aio]], while [[Saxo Grammaticus]] records in his 12th-century ''[[Gesta Danorum|Deeds of the Danes]]'' that this migration was prompted by [[Aggi and Ebbi]]. In related Indo-European cultures, similar traditions are attested, such as the [[Dioscuri]]. Scholars have theorized that these divine twins in Indo-European cultures stem from divine twins in prehistoric Proto-Indo-European culture.<ref name=PROTO-INDO>Simek (2007:59–60) and Mallory (2005:135).</ref>

[[J. P. Mallory]] comments on the great importance of the horse in Indo-European religion, as exemplified "most obviously" by various mythical brothers appearing in Indo-European legend, including Hengist and Horsa:
<blockquote>
:Some would maintain that the ''premier'' animal of the Indo-European sacrifice and ritual was probably the horse. We have already seen how its embedment in Proto-Indo-European society lies not just in its lexical reconstruction but also in the proliferation of personal names which contain "horse" as an element among the various Indo-European peoples. Furthermore, we witness the importance of the horse in Indo-European rituals and mythology. One of the most obvious examples is the recurrent depiction of twins such as the Indic Asvins "horsemen," the Greek horsemen Castor and Pollux, the legendary Anglo-Saxon settlers Horsa and Hengist [...] or the Irish twins of [[Macha]], born after she had completed a horse race. All of these attest the existence of Indo-European divine twins associated with or represented by horses.<ref name=MALLORY135/></blockquote>

===Uffington White Horse===
{{see also|Uffington White Horse}}
[[File:White horse from air.jpg|thumb|The [[Uffington White Horse]]]]
In his 17th-century work ''Monumenta Britannica'', [[John Aubrey]] ascribes the [[Uffington White Horse]] [[hill figure]] to Hengist and Horsa, stating that "the White Horse was their Standard at the Conquest of Britain". However, he also ascribes the origins of the horse to the [[Ancient Britons]], reasoning that the horse resembles Celtic Iron Age coins. As a result, advocates of a Saxon origin of the figure debated with those favouring an ancient British origin for three centuries after Aubrey's findings. In 1995, using [[optically stimulated luminescence]] dating, David Miles and Simon Palmer of the [[Oxford Archaeology]] Unit assigned the Uffington White Horse to the [[Bronze Age Britain|Bronze Age]].<ref name=SCHWYZER45AND56>Schwyzer (1999:45 and 56).</ref>

===Aschanes===
The [[Brothers Grimm]] identified Hengist with [[Aschanes]], mythical first King of the Saxons, in their notes for legend number 413 of their ''German Legends''.<ref>''The German Legends of the Brothers Grimm'' volume 2, edited and translated by Donald Ward, Millington Books, 1981</ref> Editor and translator Donald Ward, in his commentary on the tale, regards the identification as untenable on linguistic grounds.