Truefastness: August 2018

All Hail!

... I have ne'er heard of
Men so mighty of muscle and valor,
Earls so eminent, as the atheling-brothers,
Hengist and Horsa, heroes of Anglia,
Lords of the mainland. The lay of the gleeman
Is full of their fame. Far 'mid the races,
The minstrel's song, swelling to heavenward,
Tells of the splendid, spacious, audacious
Deeds of those daring, doughty, invincible
Fathers of freedom who fared o'er the waters
Hither to England, and here builded them
A kingdom so mighty that men cannot shake it,
And hell cannot take it. ...

- John Lesslie Hall 'The Calling of Hengist and Horsa' from Old English Idyls (Ginn & Company, 1899).

Before going on to write some background stuff about the Heavenly Twins as a whole, I thought I should say something first about our own Heavenly Twins: Hengest and Horsa.

But weren't Hengest and Horsa historical characters?

Yes, and no. It was something that belongs to the old belief to blurr the lines between men, and especially heroic men, hæleþas, and gods. And it seems this was always something that belonged to the worship of the Heavenly Twins above all other gods. Gen. 6:1-82, 4:-

"1 And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,
2 That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.
...
4 ... and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown."

The Greeks, or rather those texts that shape our thoughts about what the Greeks knew, are confused and liable to do more harm than good among the unwary reader. For they say that Κάστωρ καὶ Πολυδεύκης, Castor and Polydeuces, are:

i) the sons of Tyndareus (Τυνδάρεος), the erstwhile king of Sparta;
ii) the sons of the god Zeus (whence their name of Dioscuri (Διόσκουροι) "lads/sons/knights of Zeus"="sons of God");
iii) and sometimes Tyndareus and Zeus are each in themselves only the fathers of one or other of these twins.

What they should say however, or what they meant to say, is that the Heavenly Twins are gods wielding things along with all the other intellectual gods from their "intellectual place of survey" outside of time and space. They may nevertheless "descend to works" in time and space when the need is, even descending as far as to men on earth, and when they do, these are what the folk of India speak of as their aṃśa-avatārau "partial incarnations", oftened shortened to avatārau "avatars". But we in the West once had the self-same teaching, thus Acts 14:11:

"And when the people saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in the speech of Lycaonia, The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men."

The "historical" Castor and Polydeukes then, that once lived at Sparta in Greece, are only one of the countless aṃśa-avatārau of these gods throughout time (and space!). In India the Aśvinau (earlier named Dasrā and Nāsatyā) as they call the twins, were thus well understood by them to be embodied in the heroes Sahadeva and Nakula who we may find in the Mahābhārata.

How these things happen is one of the "mysteries of God" but the various attempts at outfolding who the fathers and mothers of aṃśa-avatārau of the Heavenly Twins are/were, cannot but set before the reader at first glance a list of contradictions. For in one way of speaking they do have mortal fathers and mothers and are men as other men. In another way of speaking they beget themselves upon a mortal women and are gods and half-gods at the same time. And then there is whatever fanciful pedigree some poet has bestowed upon the Heavenly Twins as a third layer of confusion. But I think you can see from all this that two or more seemingly contradictory things, that couldn't normally be true at the same time, are nevertheless going to be true in this case. It is all a question of the speaker's own outlook.

Gods into Heroes, Heroes into Gods.

Howsoever begotten the aṃśa-avatārau of the Heavenly Twins will soon make themselves known to everyone by their lives. As their souls are far greater than the ordinary kind of souls, so their lives whilst in bodies are greater than ordinary, in short, all that we might understand under the name of "heroic".

Now with our own Hengest and Horsa I think we are talking about two men who, from their leading of our fathers to Britain and their winning of Kent from the Britons, were no longer thought of as men, but as gods. And we read in Jordanes De origine actibusque Getarum of the old leaders of the Goths:

“XIII. 78 ... magnaque potiti per loca victoria iam proceres suos, quorum quasi fortuna vincebant, non puros homines, sed semideos id est Ansis vocaverunt. ...”

“XIII (78) ... And because of the great victory they had won in this region, they thereafter called their leaders, by whose good fortune they seemed to have conquered, not mere men, but demigods, that is Ansis. ...”

(Mark that Ansis, the kindred-word of our own esa and the Northern æsir is here said to mean no more than "semideos".)

And needless to say, the gods who our two early leaders were thought to be were, the Heavenly Twins. That is, so thorough-going was their identification with these gods that later generations knew them only by the names of the gods themselves, their own mortal names being almost forgotten. And H. M. Chadwick writes something far truer than he knows when he writes:

".. I should be inclined to think that Hengest and Hors were not the names originally given to the two brothers but nicknames acquired subsequently." (see The Origin of the English Nation (1907) lf.45 footnote)

I say "almost forgotten", as the unknown Ravenna Cosmographer does indeed mark the name of the first leader of our folk to Britain:

In oceano vero occidentali est insula quae dicitur Britannia, ubi olim gens Saxonum veniens ab antiqua Saxonia cum principe suo nomine Ansehis modo habitare videtur. quam insulam, ut diximus, quidam Graecorum philosophi quasi mic[r]ocosmin appellaverunt.

In the western ocean is the island which is called Britain, where once the folk of the Saxons, coming from "Old Saxony" with their leader who was named Ansehis, are now seen to be living. Which island, as we said, certain philosophers of the Greeks called a "little world".

[lf.423 of 1869 Pinder and Parthey outsetting].

Ansehis is meant to be for Anschis (see Seiichi Suzuki The Quoit Brooch Style (2000) 5:115) and this for *Anskiz, that is behind Bede's "Oisc": and we will call to mind his Historia Ecclesiastica II, 5:

"Oeric cognomento Oisc, a quo reges Cantuariorum solent Oiscingas cognominare"
"Oeric afternamed Oisc, from whom they are wont to aftername the kings of the Kent-folk 'Oiscingas' ...".

That Oeric Oisc is made into a son of Hengest is only what we might have guessed would happen for elsewhere we find the favourites of this or that god becoming thought of as a kind of "son" (foster-son might have been better said) of the god (see [here]). Alan Bliss (in The Fragment (1983) lvs. 97-98) makes a good case however, for "Octha et Ebissa" as their true names. *Anskiz, which I take to mean "little god", may then after all, still only be another nickname.

Although Bede makes Octha or Octa the son of Oeric Oisc (see HE II,5) in the pedigrees of the kings of Kent, Oeric Oisc and Octa are swapped about, and Nennius in his Historia Brittonum witterly has Octa as Hengest's son. Octa would seem to be behind the Welsh name "Osla Gyllellvawr", Osla "big knife" who is said to be King Arthur's foeman at Badon in the Breudwyt Ronabwy. But in Culhwch ac Olwen however, Osla is interestingly made into one of King Arthur's knights in the hunting of Twrch Trwyth!

"ac osla gyỻeỻuawr. a ymdygei bronỻauyn verr ỻydan. pan delei arthur a'e luoed y uronn ỻifdwr y keissit ỻe kyuing ar y dwuyr. ac y dodit y gyỻeỻ yn| y gwin ar| draws y ỻifdwr. digawn o bont uydei y lu teir ynys prydein. a'e their rac·ynys ac eu hanreitheu."

"... and Osla Gyllellvawr (who bore a short broad dagger. When Arthur and his hosts came before a torrent, they would seek for a narrow place where they might pass the water, and would lay the sheathed dagger across the torrent, and it would form a bridge sufficient for the armies of the three Islands of Britain, and of the three islands adjacent, with their spoil)." (awend. Lady Charlotte Guest)

Now we should know here that the fording or otherwise crossing of any body of water was likely to have been overseen by the Heavenly Twins, and bridges everywhere were thus also likely to be something that were hallowed to them.

Saxon Horses

Hengest and Horsa "Stud-horse" or "Stallion" and "Horse" are then truly to be understood as the Saxon or Jutish names for the Heavenly Twins among our forefathers. The Heavenly Twins having a marked affinity with (white) horses, thus Castor and Polydeukes/the Dioscuri are in Pindar's first Pythian Ode, line 66, brought into close contact with their symbol- λευκοπώλων Τυνδαριδᾶν, "to the sons of Tyndareus of the white horses". Matching this is what Euripides says of the Heavenly Twins of Thebes, Amphion (Ἀμφίων) and Zethus (Ζῆθος), also called the Dioscuri (Διόσκουροι), in his more or less lost play Antiope, namely that they are "λεύκω δὲ πώλω τὼ Διὸς " "white steeds of Zeus" (see also his Phœnissæ line 609). With Areion (Paus. Guide... 8.25.7) and Pegasus (Hesiod Theog. 280- 286) moreover one of the twins has become thought of as wholly an horse (on these names see my last post [here]).

The worship of Hengest and Horsa lived on better in folk art than anything else. Thus W. Johnson Folk-memory (1908) ch. 15, lf.329:

“Houses existed in Jutland in 1865, and probably exist to-day, which have gable rafters projecting in the form of a V, each limb of which is surmounted by a horse's head. Asked for an explanation, the natives exclaimed, ' Oh! they are Hengist and Horsa; they are put up for good luck.'”

This from a letter from one S. C. Sewell, M.D., in Notes and Queries, 3rd Ser., vol. vii (Jan.-Jun. 1865), lf. 10.

Above: Horse-head gable-tokens on a hall-house at Schröers-Hof, Kirchstraße in Neuenkirchen (Lüneburger Heide) - the triangular smoke hole these horse-head tokens ward is known as the Ulenflucht or Ulenlock "Owl's flight" or "Owl's Hole".
By Frank Vincentz - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10911679.

Although found both elsewhere and on gables without the Ulenlock, these kind of gable-tokens truly belong to the "hall-houses" with Ulenlock that were once widespread in the North German plain wherever a "Saxon" identity was strong. Its match is however to be found in Lithuania and Latvia. In Lithuania the žirgeliai "little horses" that are there found on houses are said to be linked to their Heavenly Twins, the Ašvieniai or Dievo sūneliai. But in Latvia it seems the horse heads are linked to Jumis and Jumala, a god and goddess who preside over the kind of fruitfulness that doubles things and who I think are alot like the Northern Freyr and Freyja. How these last stand in relation to our own Hengest and Horsa and the Heavenly Twins must abide a later post, but the names of Jumis and Jumala stem from Proto-Indo-European *yem- (“to pair, match”) whence also the Latin "gemini".

But what happens if you don't build "hall-houses"? On another kind of house design we might once have found a single horse head carved at each end of the gable, so that it would be clear that they were actually a pair of horse heads only when you could see the whole roof of the house and both gable ends. R. Bagdasarov Swastika (2001) figure 95 gives a forebisening of this kind from an old photograph (of the Oshevnev House on Kizhi Island ?) from Russia. And we can see how over time this kind of horse head gable end would become, through weathering, slowly mis-shapen so that it was at length mistakenly thought to be only a kind of "decorative finial" of an indeterminate design. Such "decorative finials" as these are not uncommon today in England on our more traditional houses, although often tile-clay has taken the place of wood as the medium in which they are wrought.

Above: King Harold's hall from the "Bayeaux Tapestry", stitched by English needle-women, with the "decorative finials" ringed in yellow and belike stemming from weather-worn or otherwise misunderstood horse-head gables.

In Kent, the land of my birth, we are everywhere minded of our father Hengest in so much as the arms of Hengest are shown everywhere as the arms of Kent, thus Richard Verstegan's A Restitution of Decayed Intelligence in Antiquities Concerning the Most Noble and Renowned English Nation (1605):

" Hingistus was doubtless a Prince of the chiefest blood and nobility of Saxony, ... his weapon or arms, being a leaping white horse or hengst in a red field; or, according to our mixed manner of blasing arms in broken French and English put together, A horse argent rampant in a field gules; which was the ancient arms of Saxony, that the chief princes and dukes have there, long since, for many ages together born."

The motto of Kent is "invicta", "unoverswithed" or "unconquered", as the tale has long been told that Kent was not conquered by the Normans, but that Duke William came to terms with the men of Kent, and Kentish men, at Swanscombe.

Then said the dreadful conqueror :
" You shall have what you will,
Your ancient customs and your laws,
So that you will be still ;

" And each thing else that you will crave
With reason at -my hand ;
So you will but acknowledge me
Chief king of fair England."

The Kentishmen agreed thereon,
And laid their arms aside ;
And by this means king Edward's laws
In Kent doth still abide:

And in no place in England else
These customs do remain :
Which they by manly policy
Did of duke William gain.

Furthermore, it has often seemed to me likely that the white horse of Kent, is truly the white horse of England, and the true old token of the whole land, but now living on only in that part which is "invicta". And if we take the names of the fightlocks at Hengestesdun (Hingston Down) in 835 and at Assandun 18th. October 1016, as is likely, being given post bellum there is some grounds for thinking that these were then named for some token of the English shown forth in them. In victory it was indeed a "hengest", but when they were beaten, then it was only an "assa"!

The Heavenly Twins are the great gods of the "Saxons"

The strong links the Saxons and Jutes have to the Heavenly Twins is belike behind why in ‘der Nibelunge liet’ or ‘der Nybelvnge not’- the "Nibelungenlied" - “Auent[i]v[re] wie Sivrit mit den Sahsen streit” - the Saxons and Danes are said to be ruled by two brothers ‘Lvdeger’ and ‘Lvdegast', whose alliterating names might well mean they are twins.

Bede in his Historia Ecclesiastica book V, chapitle 10 tells us of saints "Niger Heuuald" "se blaca Heawald" and "Albus Heuuald" "se hwita Heawald" who were early missionaries to the Old Saxons and martyred there. But all things bethought it may be that these unlikely named saints have soaked up something of an underlying belief of the Heavenly Twins. Why black and white? In India the Heavenly Twins truly lie behind the heroes Rama and Lakshmana of the Ramayana, for they free Sita from Ravana as the Heavenly Twins once freed the sun or sun's daughter (see [here]). Often Rama and Lakshmana are shown as blue and white, but here and there, we will find them shown as black and white (see below). Again, why this should be will have to abide a later post, but it has nothing to do with "race".

Above: Rama and Lakshmana fighting with Ravana. Late 18th century. Bikaner style. Rajasthan, India. From an handwrit in The National Museum, New Delhi.

A little to the south of the Saxons in olden Hesse, the Vita S. Bonifatii, chapitles 6 to 8, has the odd mark up of two twin brothers "gemini ... germani" at "Amanaburg" (now Amöneburg) called "Dettic ... et Deorulf" whom the saint is meant to have brought into the Christian fold. I wouldn't be the first to think this might mark some kind of lingering worship of the Heavenly Twins at this stead. The hill with an old earthwork here overlooks an old crossing of the Ohm (the Amana- in the name). Bonifatius interestingly is also said to have built a church to st. Michael the archangel on the hill top there.

Above: "Amanaburg" as it looks today. From "Foto von Hydro bei Wikipedia", CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25664587.

A later showing forth or aṃśa-avatārau of the Heavenly Twins among the Old Saxons would seem to be the "Two Sons of Count Gero" who stopped their own folk being rooted out altogether in the time of the bad Emperor Henry IV. Thus Lambert of Hersfeld in his Annals under the year 1076 (awending G. A. Loud):

Saxones, deportatis in exilium principibus suis, taedio et moerore tabescebant, nec calamitatis ullum usquam patebat effugium. Amici regis per montes et colles dispersi, cervicibus imminebant, nec eos ut antea conventus facere, consilia conferre, aut ullam recuperandae salutis viam temptare sinebant. Insuper cottidie ex agris et villis praedas agebant, tributa regioni difficillima imponebant, castella sua summo provincialium labore et impensis communiebant, et graves prorsus atque inexplicabiles pristinae rebellionis poenas exigebant. Erant duo cuiusdam Geronis comitis filii, satis quidem edito loco nati, sed propter inopiam rei familiaris inter principes Saxoniae nullius nominis vel momenti. Hi tempore dedicionis ultra Albim fluvium refugerant, ibique rei eventum praestolabantur, facile a rege propter obscuritatem nominis vel ignorati vel contempti. Cumque viderent mala quae fiebant, non aliud scilicet actum dedicione principum quam proditam plane esse libertatem patriae, totamque gentem Saxonum, quo rex semper intenderat, in servitutem atque sub iugum redactam; quamvis patriis finibus extorres, quamvis munitionibus amissis, perdito patrimonio, rerum omnium inopes remansissent, gaudebant tamen admodum, quod cum ceteris Saxoniae principibus tempestuosum illud dedicionis naufragium non incidissent. Et cum urgeret penuria, contractis ex sui similium numero aliquantis copiis, rapto sibi victum quaerere coeperunt. Plerumque etiam, ubi oportunitas accidisset, regis exactoribus resistere et iniurias manu propulsare temptabant. Cumque eis semel et secundo res prospere cessissent, milites principum qui relegati fuerant, ingenui quoque omnes qui necdum dediti fuerant, quique extrema omnia quam fidem regis ultra experiri malebant, catervatim ad eos confluebant; et facta est intra dies paucos permaxima multitudo, ita ut iam non ad insidias modo et clandestinas latrocinantium more excursiones, sed ad apertam vim et publicas congressiones pares se hostibus arbitrarentur. Praeterea provinciales, quibus inter ultimas desperationis tenebras lux aliqua salutis et consolationis caelitus emicuerat, omnes promptissimo animo socias manus communemque operam publicis negociis pollicentur; satius iudicantes, pro patria, pro liberis, pro coniugibus, honesta morte perfungi, quam inter tantas tribulationes omni morte tristiorem vitam agere. [Scriptores rerum Germanicarum in usum scholarum separatim editi (SS rer. Germ.) vol. 38 Lamperti Monachi Hersfeldensis Opera (1894) Lamperti Annales Under 1076 lvs. 259 to 260]

With their princes carried away into exile, the Saxons languished in bitterness and sadness, and nor did the disasters that were suffering lessen in any way. The friends of the king spread out through the mountains and hills and threatened their necks, nor were they allowed to hold meetings, as they had done previously, to take counsel or to try to find some means of restoring their safety. Meanwhile every day the king’s men plundered the fields and villages, imposing a most harsh tribute on the region. They strengthened the castles through the hard labour and expense of the local people, and exacted heavy and hitherto unknown penalties for the former rebellion. There were two sons of a certain count Gero, who were indeed of quite high birth, but who because of the meagreness of their family property had no great name or importance among the princes of Saxony. At the time of the surrender they had fled beyond the River Elbe, and were waiting upon events there, quite unknown to or ignored by the king on account of the obscurity of their name. But when they saw the evils that were taking place, through the surrender of the princes which was plainly a betrayal of the liberty of their homeland and of the entire Saxon race, whom the king intended to keep in perpetual servitude and under his yoke, although they were exiles from their fatherland, lacking castles and had lost their patrimony, and were left lacking every sort of resource, they still rejoiced, at least to a certain extent, that they had not fallen foul of the stormy shipwreck of surrender, like the rest of the Saxon princes. And since they were forced by penury, they recruited some soldiers from those who were in a similar position to themselves and began to make raids in search of food. They tried, for the most part, and where opportunity presented itself, to resist the king’s tax collectors and forcibly to prevent the injuries [the latter caused]. And when these actions turned out to be successful not just once but again, the knights of the princes who had been banished, all those who were freeborn, who had still not surrendered, and who preferred to suffer any danger rather than trust the king’s word any longer, flocked in droves to join them. Within a few days a great multitude had gathered, and they now decided that they no longer needed to rely on ambush or clandestine raids like thieves, but could meet the enemy in the field in open battle. Moreover, the local people, to whom a light of safety and consolation had shone forth from heaven amid the dark shadows of desperation, all promised most enthusiastically to take part in this common enterprise for the public good, judging it more appropriate to suffer an honest death for their homeland and their wives and children rather than to live their lives amid such great tribulations that were sadder than any sort of death.

And this makes me think that the Bercthun and Andhun "duces" of the South Saxons who drove out the thoroughly nasty so-and-so Caedualla, and who are found in Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica book 4, chap. 15 belong here:

"INTEREA superueniens cum exercitu Caedualla, iuuenis strenuissimus de regio genere Geuissorum, cum exularet a patria sua, interfecit regem Aedilualch, ac prouinciam illam saeua caede ac depopulatione attriuit; sed mox expulsus est a ducibus regis, Bercthuno et Andhuno, qui deinceps regnum prouinciae tenuerunt; ..."

"IN the meantime, Caedwalla, a daring young man, of the royal race of the Gewissae, who had been banished his country, came with an army, slew Ethelwalch, and wasted that country with much slaughter and plundering; but he was soon expelled by Berthun and Andhun, the king's commanders, who afterwards held the government of that province."

And that all those who rescue their, as it were "drowning" folk in extremis, are of the Heavenly Twins. Arthur and Merlin? But in Geoffrey's telling maybe Arthur and "Hoelus" are to be understood, whilst in Malory's tale the kings Ban and Bors who come to help Arthur might also be thought of here. King Ælfred, and the unsung hero Denewulf, the swineherd of Athelney (to whom all the statues should truly be of)? Hereward and his priest "Levricus diaconus" who wrote down his deeds? Though among Hereward's men we find:

"... Duti et Outi, ambo fratres gemini, moribus et facie consimiles, atque ex militia laudabiles. "

"... Duti and Outi, twin brothers, alike in character and in person, and of repute as soldiers."

And then there is "Wluricus Niger et Wluricus Albus" and the two Siwards, Hereward's "nepotes". Robin Hood and Little John?

Some "historical" points about Hengest and Horsa to mark

All Bede says ...

It is thus to both the gods who they incarnated, and to the actual human leaders themselves under the names of their patron gods, that Bede is referring to in his Historia Ecclesiastica I, 15 when he says:

"Duces fuisse perhibentur eorum primi duo fratres Hengist et Horsa; ..."

"Their first leaders (duces ... primi) were two brothers called Hengest and Horsa...".

Now all Bede says of Hengest and Horsa, beyond them being the "duces... primi" of the English is that Horsa died fighting the Britons and has a stone with his name written on it in East Kent (HE I, 15 "...e quibus Horsa postea occisus in bello a Brettonibus, hactenus in orientalibus Cantiae partibus monumentum habet suo nomine insigne"). From both the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle under the year 455 and Nennius' Historia Brittonum §44 we know that this battle was at Agęlesþrep/Episford/ Rithergabail - that is, Aylesford. No stone with Horsa's name upon it is now to be found, though from William Lambarde onward there are whispers of such a stone once being at Horsted (now swallowed up in Chatham). And John Milton in his History of England (1670) has:

“In the year 455. Hengist and Horsa fought against Vortigern, in a place called Eglesthrip, now Ailsford in Kent, where Horsa lost his life, of whom Horsted, the place of his burial, took name.”

But the "White Horse Stone" east of Aylesford has become a worthy stand-in, and who knows if this wasn't the stow meant by Bede all along? The "Anglo-Saxons" often buried their dead in older barrows and so on.

Above: The White Horse Stone. By User:Ethan Doyle White, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44460070.

The other fightlocks

As to the background of this battle the two "sources" are at odds. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle puts it in a framework whereby Hengest and his son drive the Britons westward out of Kent so that "þa Walas flugon þa Englan swa fyr" "the Britons flew from the English as fire". Whilst the Historia Brittonum §§44-45 will have the Britons driving the English out of the island for a time, only for them to creep back in after the death of the British leader "Guorthemir". It strikes me however that the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle's i)"on þam staþe þe is genemned Ypwinesfleot"; ii) Agęlesþrep; iii) Crecganford are only Nennius' battlefields in reverse iii) "super flumen Derguentid" - the Cray is a tributary of the Darent; ii) "super vadum quod dicitur ... Episford"; i) "in campo juxta lapidem tituli, qui est super ripam Gallici maris". But more importantly, as we shall see in the next post, they are all the kind of places often hallowed to the Heavenly Twins, and all lying more or less along the line of Watling Street which is the backbone of Kent, but here heading off to Richborough the old Roman gateway to Britain with its triumphal arch. Nearby are Faversham (the faber's or smith's home) with its old cult stows (house and well) of the awfully twin-like Saints Crispin and Crispinian (see [here]) "patron saints of cobblers, tanners and leather workers" id est carvers up of bits of bull's hide, and the more likely stead of the "Thong" Castle legend (see below). Nennius has Vortigern give Hengest and Horsa Thanet almost straightaway upon landing (HB §§31 & 36). Why Thanet? Well apart from the obvious, here is a clue from Eilert Ekwall's The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names (1987) lf.464, with Old Welsh "tan" "fire" in mind as its root:

"It may mean 'bright island' or 'fire island' (from a beacon or lighthouse)."

And we shall see in the next post or so what the Heavenly Twins have to do with beacons and lighthouses although it is maybe not that hard to work out.

Aylesford is belike named for Æȝel, this is said "Ayle", (on the Frank’s Caket his name is spelt ᚨᚷᛁᛚᛁ - Æȝili), that is the Northern Egill, who, with his brother of the Völund of the Völundarkviða, the Velent of Þiðrekssaga af Bern (Velents þáttr smiðs), our own Wēland, said "Wayland", are a kind of Heavenly Twins. But again this will have to abide another post.

Duces primi

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle follows Bede, and Bede follows Gildas' De Excidio et Congestu Britanniæ in saying that the first English were invited by Vortigern ("inuitabant" "Wyrtgeorne geleaþade") to Britain to help them against the Picts and the Scots - a perennial problem to the lands laying to the south. Nennius however, will have the first three keels "a Germania expulsæ in exilio" "driven from Germania into exile" (HB§31) and all the inviting is done later (HB §§37-38) once a link had been made.

Nennius' "driven from Germania into exile" harks back to an ancient custom common to many folks of yore which is set out for us by Dionysius of Halicarnassus in his Roman Antiquities bk. 1, ch. 16 (awend. Earnest Cary):

"1. ... τὸ μὲν πρῶτον ἱερά τις ἐξελθοῦσα νεότης, ἄνδρες ὀλίγοι κατὰ βίου ζήτησιν ὑπὸ τῶν γειναμένων ἀποσταλέντες, ἔθος ἐκπληροῦντες ἀρχαῖον, ᾧ πολλοὺς βαρβάρων τε καὶ Ἑλλήνων ἐπίσταμαι χρησαμένους.
2. Ὁπότε γὰρ εἰς ὄχλου πλῆθος ἐπίδοσιν αἱ πόλεις τισὶ λάβοιεν ὥστε μηκέτι τὰς οἰκείας τροφὰς ἅπασιν εἶναι διαρκεῖς, ἢ κακωθεῖσα ταῖς οὐρανίοις μεταβολαῖς ἡ γῆ σπανίους τοὺς εἰωθότας καρποὺς ἐξενέγκειεν, ἢ τοιόνδε τι πάθος ἄλλο τὰς πόλεις κατασχὸν εἴτε ἄμεινον εἴτε χεῖρον ἀνάγκην ἐπιστήσειε μειώσεως τοῦ πλήθους, θεῶν ὅτῳ δὴ καθιεροῦντες ἀνθρώπων ἐτείους γονὰς ἐξέπεμπον ὅπλοις κοσμήσαντες ἐκ τῆς σφετέρας· εἰ μὲν ὑπὲρ εὐανδρίας ἢ νίκης ἐκ πολέμου χαριστήρια θεοῖς ἀποδιδοῖεν, προθύοντες ἱερὰ τὰ νομιζόμενα, εὐφήμοις οἰωνοῖς τὰς ἀποικίας προπέμποντες· εἰ δ´ ἐπὶ μηνίμασι δαιμονίοις ἀπαλλαγὰς αἰτούμενοι τῶν κατεχόντων σφᾶς κακῶν τὸ παραπλήσιον δρῷεν, αὐτοί τε ἀχθόμενοι καὶ συγγνώμονας ἀξιοῦντες γενέσθαι τοὺς ἀπελαυνομένους.
3. Οἱ δὲ ἀπαναστάντες ὡς οὐκέτι τῆς πατρῴας γῆς μεταληψόμενοι, εἰ μὴ κτήσαιντο ἑτέραν, τὴν ὑποδεξαμένην αὐτοὺς εἴτε πρὸς φιλίαν εἴτε ἐν πολέμῳ κρατηθεῖσαν πατρίδα ἐποιοῦντο· ὅ τε θεὸς, ᾧ κατονομασθεῖεν ἀπελαυνόμενοι, συλλαμβάνειν αὐτοῖς ὡς τὰ πολλὰ ἐδόκει καὶ παρὰ τὴν ἀνθρωπίνην δόξαν κατορθοῦν τὰς ἀποικίας."

"1. ... First, a sacred band of young men went forth, consisting of a few who were sent out by their parents to seek a livelihood, according to a custom which I know many barbarians and Greeks have followed. 2 For whenever the population of any of their cities increased to such a degree that the produce of their lands no longer sufficed for them all, or the earth, injured by unseasonable changes of the weather, brought forth her fruits in less abundance than usual, or any other occurrence of like nature, either good or bad, introduced a necessity of lessening their numbers, they would dedicate to some god or other all the men born within a certain year, and providing them with arms, would send them out of their country. If, indeed, this was done by way of thanksgiving for populousness or for victory in war, they would first offer the usual sacrifices and then send forth their colonies under happy auspices; but if, having incurred the wrath of Heaven, they were seeking deliverance from the evils that beset them, they would perform much the same ceremony, but sorrowfully and begging forgiveness of the youths they were sending away. 3 And those who departed, feeling that henceforth they would have no share in the land of their fathers but must acquire another, looked upon any land that received them in friendship or that they conquered in war as their country. And the god to whom they had been dedicated when they were sent out seemed generally to assist them and to prosper the colonies beyond all human expectation."

Among the Italic folks the rite of sending out of a surplus in time of need, was called a ver sacrum.

And it seems it was an old wont to have those sent out in this way to be led by twins, or at least brothers, even if only "sworn-brothers". This was seemingly done from some lingering belief in the luck of twins as aṃśa-avatārau "partial incarnations" of the Heavenly Twins. Yet underlying this we can still see an even older layer whereby twins were seen as uncanny by the main body of the folk and cast out, together with their mother. And so we have: Chionis and Battus who set up Cyrene (see Paus. Guide to Greece 3.14.3); Romulus and Remus the leader of the outcasts from Latium; Ybor and Agio who lead the folk who would become the Lombards out of Scania; maybe "Ambri et Assi... duces Wandalorum"; Raüs "reed-thatch" and Raptus "rafter" (Ῥᾶός ... καὶ Ῥάπτος) who led the Hasdingi (Dio Cassius Roman Hist. 72.12.1); Segovesus and Bellovesus of the Bituriges who lead the Gauls east to Hercynia and to Italy; Leonarius and Lotharius who led the Galatæ into Asia Minor; Widewuttis and Brūtens who led the forefathers of what would become the Prussians to Prussia; Brutus and Corineus from the Historia Regum Britanniæ who led the first Britons to Britain, Moses and Aaron/Joshua and Caleb; the "Scarthe & fflayn" (=Þorgils Skarði & Kormákr "Fleinn"?) who built Scarborough and Flamborough, and so on. Our own Hengest and Horsa fitting right along side all these.

a lost tale of Hengest?

In the so-called Short English Metrical Chronicle from the Auchinleck Handwrit (see [here]) we find a mark up of a Hengest who was on his way to becoming a match for King Arthur. He is fitted into the list of kings of the Britons, following Belin but before Leir. I sum up as follows:

lines 655 to 664 general praise
665 “Of belding he was wise man” in lines 665 to 674 17 towns are listed that he built;
675-6 overwinner of Britain
677 – 694 calls parlement in London and sets laws of which is marked only that thieves over a set amount are to be hanged

695 -698 hundred, shire, measures (forlong &mile) made by him

¶ King Hingist he was a sire,

He made boþe hundred & schire

& afterward, wiþouten gile,

He made boþe forlong & mile.

699 – 714 a limit is agreed upon as to how far a groom may go in summer and winter and their wages

715 – 726 he sets up Stonehenge or "Hingiston" as if Sonehenge is "henge(st's)+stone" (the seat in the stone may show a muddling up with Avebury)

¶ King Hingist made as men mai se
A gret meruaile in þe west cuntre,
Wiþ messangers stark & strong.
In o niȝt out of Irlond
Opon þe Pleyn of Salesbirye,
720 A mile out of Hambesbirie,
He dede it clepe in his game
Hingiston in his name.
¶ In þat ston was made a sete;
To eueriche man it is mete,
725 To al men þat come þere,
ȝif þai of loue trewe were.

727 – 739 London renamed "Hengisthom" "Hengest-home".

739 – 758 he conjured 300 fiends to build a bridge over the Channel.

759 – 836 the king of France says only half the sea is his, but Hengest demands Normandy in return for knocking down the bridge, this is granted, and Gascony is thrown in.

837 – 848 Scotland won and Durham, Newcastle and Carlisle builded.

849 – 852 builds towns in Wales

853 to 856 writ sent out at London/Hengisthom for men to "tile & sowe" waste lands.

857 to 858 three score battles he won and twelve kingdoms.

859 to 868 35 children begotten on seven wives 27 became kings others earls eight girls all of whom became queens.

869 to 876 he made caves, reigned 150 years and was buried at Glastonbury.

Now whilst many might well be thinking that this is all draff, they should know that a good deal of what is said here belongs to the worship of the Heavenly Twins. Victory in battle. Building towns. Overseeing laws and the truth of men. Fertility. Ploughing. Long life. The safe crossing of seas and other bodies of water. Bridges. Stonehenge we shall come back to later.

some things the English "forgot", but the Welsh didn't

Now Nennius, as we have said, has Vortigern give Hengest and Horsa Thanet almost straightaway (HB §§31 & 36). Then Vortigern weds Hengest's unnamed daughter in return for all Kent (HB §37). Welsh lore however calls her "Ronnwen Baganes" "Ronnwen the Paganess" and she is in the Welsh triads. Some of you might have heard her called "Rowena" which is her Welsh name in the Latin of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s later “improved” version of Nennius' Historia, the so-called Historia Regum Britanniæ. Triad 37 Tri matkud ynys prydein - Three Disclosures of the Island of Britain, from Red Book of Hergest where it 144 verso (awend. Rachael Bromwich):

"penn bendigeituran uab ỻyr a gudiwyt yn y gwyn uryn yn ỻundein. a'e wyneb ar ffreinc. a'hyt tra uu yn'yr ansawd y dodet yno. ny doei ormes saesson byth y'r ynys honn. Yr eil amatkud. Y dreigeu yn ninas emreis a gudyawd ỻud uab beli. a'r trydyd esgyrn gwertheuyr uendigeit. ym'prif pyrth yr ynys honn. a hut tra vydynt yn'yr yn ys kud hwnnw. ny doei ormes o saesson byth y'r ynys honn. a'ỻyna y

tri anuatkud pan datkudywyt. a gwrtheyrn gwrtheneu a datkudyawd esgyrn gwertheuyr uendigeit yr serch gwreic. Sef oed honno ronnwen baganes. ac ef a datkudyawd y dreigeu. Ac arthur a datkudyawd penn bendigeituran o'r gwynn vrynn. kannyt oed dec gantaw kadw yr ynys honn o gedernit neb. namyn o'r eidaw e'hun."

"The Head of Bran the Blessed, son of Llyr, which was concealed in the White Hill in London, with its face towards France. And as long as it was in the position in which it was put there, no Saxon Oppression would ever come to this Island;
The second Fortunate Concealment: the Dragons in Dinas Emrys, which Lludd son of Beli concealed;
And the third: the Bones of Gwerthefyr the Blessed, in the Chief Ports of this Island. And as long as they remained in that concealment, no Saxon Oppression would ever come to this Island.

And they were the Three Unfortunate Disclosures when these were disclosed. And Gwrtheyrn the Thin disclosed the bones of Gwerthefyr the Blessed [="Guorthemir"] for the love of a woman: that was Ronnwen the pagan woman; And it was he who disclosed the Dragons;
And Arthur disclosed the Head of Bran the Blessed from the White Hill, because it did not seem right to him that this Island should be defended by the strength of anyone, but by his own."

Triad 59, in Red Book of Hergest 145 recto:

"Tri anuat gyghor ynys prydein. rodi y ulkessar a gwyr ruuein ỻe y karneu blaen y eu meirch ar y tir ym| pwyth meinlas.
a’r eil gadel hors a heyngyst a ronnwen y’r ynys honn.
a’r trydyd rannu o arthur y wyr deirgweith a medrawt yg kamlan."

"Three unfortunate Counsels of the island of Britain: To give place for their horses’ fore-feet on the land to Julius Caesar and the men of Rome in requital for slender grey;
and the second: to allow Horsa and Hengist and Rhonwen into this island;
and the third: the threefold division by Arthur of his men with Medrawd at Camlan."

Although Ronnwen "fair (wen) lance (ron)" looks to be a Welsh name some have thought it truly looks back to an Old English Hrōþwynn. And although Ronnwen is made into a daughter of Hengest, if she also belongs to the myth of the Heavenly Twins, then she is more likely to be their well-known sun-goddess sister, and one with the Greeks' Helen of Troy.

Welsh bards often call the English as a whole by names like "hil Ronwen" (Ieuan Llwyd ap Gwilym ai Kant (1420-1450) in his poem to Saint Teilo) or "blant Ronwen" (Guto’r Glyn in his poem to William Herbert) both meaning "the stock of Ronwen". And we also find "phlant Hors" (Guto'r Glyn th'ilk). The English however, liked to link themselves to Hengest, thus in the Red Book of Bath we read:

“Englische men beþ Saxoynes,

Þat beþ of Engistes Soones;”

beþ=are.

The "Alis" however, in "lin alis arthes" (Ieuan Llwyd th'ilk) "the stock of Alice the she-bear", which is another name for the English, I guess must stem from the name of some other later Englishwoman that the bards minned as a thorn in the side of their folk.

frith-fastening

After the battles (HB §§43-44) we have already marked, and the death of "Guorthemir". The last thing we hear of in Nennius about Hengist and Horsa is to do with Vortigern's overthrow §§45 -46 (awending J.A. Giles) :

45 At barbari reversi sunt magno opere, cum Guorthigirnis amicus illis erat propter uxorem suam et nullus illos abigere audaciter valuit, quia non de virtute sua Brittanniam occupaverunt, sed de nutu dei. contra voluntatem dei quis resistere poterit et nitatus? sed quomodo voluit dominus fecit et ipse omnes gentes regit et gubernat.

Factum est autem post mortem Guorthemir regis Guorthigirni filii et post reversionem Hengisti cum suis turbis consilium fallax hortati sunt, ut dolum Guorthigirni cum exercitu suo facerent. at illi legatos, ut impetrarent pacem, miserunt, ut perpetua amicitia inter illos fieret. at ille Guorthegirnus cum suis maioribus natu consilium fecerunt et scrutati sunt, quid facerent; tandem unum consilium cum omnibus fuit, ut pacem facerent, et legati eorum reversi sunt et postea conventum adduxerunt, ut ex utraque parte Brittones et Saxones in unum sine armis convenirent, ut firma amicitia esset.

46 Et Hengistus omni familiae suae iussit, ut unusquisque artavum suum sub pede in medio ficonis sui poneret. et quando clamavero ad vos et dixero: eu Saxones eniminit saxas, cultellos vestros ex ficonibus vestris educite et in illos irruite et fortiter contra illos resistite. et regem illorum nolite occidere, sed eum, pro causa filiae meae, quam dedi illi in coniugium, tenente, quia melius est nobis, ut ex manibus nostris redimatur. et conventum adduxerunt et in unum convenerunt, et Saxones amicaliter locuti in mente interim vulpicino more agebant et vir iuxta virum socialiter sederunt. Hengistus sicut dixerat, vociferatus est et omnes seniores trecenti Guorthigirni regis iugulati sunt et ipse solus captus et catenatus est et regiones plurimas pro redemptione animae suae illis tribuit, id est Estsaxum, Sutsaxum, Middelsaxum cum reliquis regionibus quas ipsi eligentes nominaverunt.

45. After this the barbarians became firmly incorporated, and were assisted by foreign pagans; for Vortigern was their friend, on account of the daughter of Hengist, whom he so much loved, that no one durst fight against him__in the meantime they soothed the imprudent king, and whilst practicing every appearance of fondness were plotting with his enemies. And let him that reads understand, that the Saxons were victorious, and ruled Britain, not from their superior prowess, but on account of the great sins of the Britons: God so permitting it. For what wise man will resist the wholesome counsel of God? The Almighty is the King of kings, and the Lord of lords, ruling and judging every one, according to his own pleasure.

After the death of Vortimer, Hengist being strengthened by new accessions, collected his ships, and calling his leaders (maioribus "great ones") together, consulted by what stratagem they might overcome Vortigern and his army; with insidious intention they sent messengers to the king, with offers of peace and perpetual friendship; unsuspicious of treachery, the monarch, after advising with his elders, accepted the proposals. [The messengers went back and afterwards a meeting (conventum) was brought about, where from each side, the Britons and Saxons should meet as one, without weapons, to make fast the friendship.]

46. [But Hengist ordered his household men, to hide under their feet a knife, hidden in the middle of his shoe. And when I shout out and say to you "Nimed eure Saxes (you Saxons take your saxes)", take out your knives from your shoes and rush into them and do boldly against those who resist.] But spare the king on account of his marriage with my daughter, for it is better that he should be ransomed than killed. [So the meeting was brought about and they were gathered together, and the Saxons, friendly speaking but in mind and ways of doing, fox-like, sat down in fellowship, a man next to a man. Hengist then as he had said, spoke out and all three hundred of Vortigern's "seniores" were slain, and he himself alone was taken prisoner and chained. To buy back his life he yields to them East-, South-, and Middle- Sex, with whatever lands besides they, choosing, named]."

It is worth marking here that in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s later “improved” version of Nennius' Historia, the so-called Historia Regum Britanniæ, this meeting is held (bk. 6, ch. 15), "Maiis kalendis" "the first of May" and "juxta Ambrii coenobium" "next to the minster of Ambrius". This "minster of Ambrius" is called this from one Ambrius, thus bk. 8, ch.9:

“Erat ibi Cœnobium trecentorum fratrum in monte Ambrii, qui, ut fertur, fundator ejus olim extiterat.”

“There was a minster for three hundred brothers on the mount of Ambrius, which, so they say, he had set aforetime.”

This minster-stead is the "æt Ambresbyriȝ", now Amesbury, of King Alfred's will. The stow next to this where the Saxons and Britons meet is Stonehenge (see bk. 11, ch.4) lying as it does in Amesbury parish. The three hundred monks oddly match the number of Vortigern's "seniores" killed by Hengest and his Saxons. Ambrius looks like it is for an Old Welsh “Embreis” (see HB §42, the later Welsh Emrys as in Dinas Emrys) which in Nennius' Historia Brittonum is given for the Latin Ambrosius, (this from Ancient Greek ἀμβρόσιος (ambrósios, “immortal, divine”) and linked to the tale of the fatherless boy “infantem sine patre” that we find there (in HB§§40-42), whose blood was needed as a foundation sacrifice for Vortigern's tower. In Geoffrey of Monmouth's work this fatherless boy is "Ambrosius Merlinus”, that is “Merlin”, (Geoffrey puts the names together three times, twice in bk. 6, ch.19: “Tunc ait Merlinus, qui et Ambrosius dicebatur...” & “Ambrosius Merlinus” and once in bk. 8, ch.3 “Ambrosio Merlino”. As Geoffrey makes Merlin set up Stonehenge where the Britons were killed in more or less the same spot (see bk.8, ch.12 “in montem Ambrii … … praecepit Merlino lapides circa sepulturam erigere, quos ex Hibernia asportaverat.”) it may be the "Ambrosius Merlinus" and "Ambrius" the monk were the same to begin with. The “cœnobium” and “chorea gigantum”, that is Stonehenge, both said to be on Mount Ambrius also being in reality the same thing. That Nennius understands the fatherless boy as the king Ambrosius who is the hero of Gildas' De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniæ is interesting. Geoffrey, as we have seen, begs to differ, but he still knows Gildas' king Ambrosius whom he however calls "Aurelius Ambrosius". The plot thickens however when we learn that it is under this king Aurelius Ambrosius's orders that Merlin sets up Stonehenge, and that he is to be buried there. It seems to me that if we are not dealing with a downright confusion, then we may have here a remembrance of a pair of British Heavenly Twins one a prophet ("Ambrosius Merlinus") and the other a king ("Aurelius Ambrosius").

That these stones of the "chorea gigantum" are said by Geoffrey to come from "in Killarao monte Hiberniae" (8, 10), is to link them to the middle-stead of Ireland, Uisneach. For Killaraus is Killare, a parish in Rathconrath barony, and Killare parish is the western neighbour of Conry parish where the Hill of Uisneach is! And it is thus likely that we are meant to think of Stonehenge and the place where Hengest's men and the Britons meet as a middle-stead as well. Nikolai Tolstoy in his The Quest for Merlin believes the tower in the fatherless boy tale is actually Stonehenge not Dinas Emrys in Snowdonia. And that Dinas Emrys is maybe mistakenly put for Amesbury. But as things stand, Dinas Emrys is linked in a back-story, the Cyfranc Lludd a Llefelys from the Red Book of Hergest, to the middle-stead of Britain "y pwynt perued" = Latin “punctus permedius” is a further bit of evidence. That the middle-stead is something where we should hope to find the Heavenly Twins worshipped is again something that will have to abide a later post. That Hengist should be brought into contact with it however should be looked at in this light.

"Thong Castle"

Although Nennius doesn't mention this at all, it would seem that he has missed out something here. This is the trick by which the English lawfully take possession of Britain by being given a gift of land big enough to live on, and on which theythen build the so-called “Thong Castle”. We do however find it in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniæ., bk. 6, ch. 11. After the first victory of the Saxons over the Picts and Scots, Hengist says to Vortigern:

“ Ditasti me largis mansionibus et agris, nec tamen eo honore quo ducem decuerat, cum duces me progenuerint. Quippe inter cetera danda esset mihi civitas sive oppidum, ut digrtior inter proceres tui regni censerer. Dignitas namque consulis, sive principis adhibenda esset, ex utrorumque genere edito.” Cui Vortegirnus : “ Prohibitus sum hujusmodi donaria vobis largiri, quia alienigena estis et pagani, nec adhuc vestros mores et consuetudines agnosco, ut vos concivibus meis parificem : nec, si vos ut proprios cives existimassem, inciperem donare, quod proceres regni mei dissuaderent.” Cui Hengistus : “ Concede,” inquit, “ mihi servo tuo, quantum una corrigia possit ambiri intra terram quam dedisti, ut ibidem promontorium aedificem, quo me, si opus fuerit, recipiam. Fidelis etenim tibi sum, et fui et ero : et in fidelitate tua quae agere desidero, faciam. Motus igitur rex ipsius verbis, ejusdem petitioni acquievit: praecepitque legatos suos in Germaniam mittere : ut milites ex ea invitati festinatum auxilium darent. Nec mora, missa in Germaniam legatione, cepit Hengistus corium tauri, atque ipsum in unam corrigiam redegit. Exin saxosum locum quem maxima cautela elegerat, circuivit cum corrigia, et intra spatium metatum castellum aedificare coepit. Quod ut aedificatum fuit, traxit nomen ex corrigia, quia cum ea fuerat metatum. Dictum namque fuit postmodum Britannice Kaercorrei: Saxonice vero Thancastre. Quod Latino sermone castrum corrigiae appellamus."

"The possessions which you have given me in land and houses are very large, but you have not yet done me that honour which becomes my station and birth, because, among other things, I should have had some home town or city granted me, that I might be entitled to greater esteem among the nobility of your kingdom. I ought to have been made a consul or prince, since my ancestors enjoyed both those dignities." "It is not in my power," replied Vortigern, "to do you so much honour, because you are strangers and pagans; neither am I yet so far acquainted with your manners and customs, as to set you on a level with my natural born subjects. And, indeed, if I did esteem you as my subjects, I should not be forward to do so, because the nobility of my kingdom would strongly dissuade me from it." "Give your servant," said Hengist, "only so much ground in the place you have assigned me, as I can encompass with a leathern thong, for me to build a fortress upon, as a place of retreat if occasion should require. For I will always be faithful to you, as I have been hitherto, and pursue no other design in the request which I have made." With these words the king was prevailed upon to grant him his petition; and odered him to despatch messengers to Germany, to invite more men over speedily to his assistance. Hengist immediately executed his orders, and taking a bull's hide, made one thong out of the whole, with which he encompassed a rocky place that had been carefully made choice of, and within that circuit began to build a castle, which, when finished, took its name from the thong wherewith it had been measured; for it was afterwards called, in the British tongue, Kaercorrei; in Saxon, Thancastre, that is, Thong Castle."

And this is how Master Laȝamon Leouenaðes sone does it:

   Nu ic wulle biliue. sende after mine wiue;
& æfter mire dohter; þe me is swa deore.
& æfter ohte monnen; þa bezste of mine cunne.
and þu ȝif me swa muchel lond; to stonden a mire aȝere hond.     7080
swa wule anes bule hude; ælches weies ouer-spræden.
feor from ælche castle; amidden ane ualde.
Þenne ne mai þe atwite; þe hæne ne þe riche.
þat þu æi hæhne burhȝe; hæðene monne habbe bi-tæht.
Þe king him iȝette; swa Hengest ȝirnde.       7085
Hengest nom læue; & forð he gon liðe.
& æfter his wiue sende sonde; to his aȝene londe.
& he seolf wende ȝeond þis lond; to sechen ænne bræ[d]ne fæld.
þer he mihte wel spræde; on his feire hude.
He com æn enne ende; in enne fæire uelde.        7090
he hafde ane hude; biȝite to his neode.
of ane wilde bule; þe wes wunder ane strong.
He hæfden ænne wisne mon; þe wel cuðe a craften.
þe nom þas hude; & a bord leide.
and whætte his sæxes; alse he schæren wolde.                             7095
Of þere hude he kærf enne þwong; swiðe s[m]al & swiðe long.
nes þe þwong noht swiðe bræd; buten swulc a twines þræd.
Þa al islit wes þe þong; he wes wunder ane long.
a-buten he bilæde; muche del of londe.
He bigon to deluen; dic swiðe muchele.    7100
Þer-uppe stenene wal; þe wes strong ouer-al.
ane burh he arerde; muchele & mare.
Þa þe burh we[s] al ȝare; þa scop he hire nome.
he hæhte heo ful iwis; Kaer Carrai. an Bruttisc.
& Ænglisce cnihtes; heo cleopeden Þwong-chastre.     7105
nu and auere-mare; þe nome sto[n]deð þere.
& for nan o[ð]ere gome; næueden þæ burh þene nome.

Mark that Laȝamon has Hengest slay "ane wilde bule" "that alone was wonderfully strong". And indeed it was. This bull-slaying is not in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Latin telling, or in Wace's French which Laȝamon was otherwise following.

That this is Caistor in Lincolnshire I think we can take with a pinch of salt, Geoffrey being about ingratiating himself with Alexander the Bishop of Lincoln to whom he also betaught his "Prophecies of Merlin". Wace's Lancaster in no better than a bad guess. The truth is likely to have been much more in keeping with what William Lambard wrote in his Perambulation of Kent (1576):

"... common opinion (conceived upon report, received of the elders by tradition) chalengeth it to Tong Castle in this Shyre: ...".

This is at the Tonge near Sheppey, and not far off the line of Watling Street as it runs between Faversham and Sittingbourne.

Now there are those who might say here that Geoffrey of Monmouth made up the "Thong Castle" story with Virgil's Æneid bk. 1, lines 365 to 368 in mind (awend. T. C. Williams):

Devenere locos, ubi nunc ingentia cernis 365
moenia surgentemque novae Karthaginis arcem,
mercatique solum, facti de nomine Byrsam,
taurino quantum possent circumdare tergo.

Then came they to these lands where now thine eyes
behold yon walls and yonder citadel
of newly rising Carthage. For a price
they measured round so much of Afric soil
as one bull's hide encircles, and the spot
received its name, the Byrsa.

But there is much more to it than this. For Widukind of Corvey, who lived long before Geoffrey, has a tale somewhat akin to it, as also the tale of the treachery at a peace treaty, in his Res gestae saxonicae sive annalium libri tres. And although Widukind is writing of these things as taking place in Germany, with the Saxons coming by boat from Britain and driving out the Thuringians(!), we can at least see that the two tales have a footing in some shared Saxon tradition. And it would seem that it was from the strength of this that John Lydgate was driven to better the Greek myth of the setting up of Thebes by Cadmus in his "The Siege of Thebes":

But sothly yit some expositours,
Groundyng hem upon olde auctours,
Seyn that Cadmus the famous olde man
Ful longe afor this cité first began,
And the ground of the bieldyng sette,
And the boundes be compas out he mette
With thong outkorve of a boolys hyde,
Whych envyroun strecche myghte wyde
To get inne londe a ful large space
Wherupon to byld a dwellyng place,
And called was the soyle thus geten inne
Whylom Boece of the bolys skynne. 304

Boece=Bœotia, Βοιωτία.

Now for a long while this is how things rested with me. I didn't see them as intrinsically bound up with eachother, and I didn't see them as needfully having to do with the Heavenly Twins. My guess was that they did, but I had nothing to back this up. Then I found these wonderful tales from India.

Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency vol. 13 (1882), Thána, ch. 3, Lvs.168 to 169:

“Mahádev Kolis are found chiefly in Sháhápur, Murbád, Karjat, Váda, and the Jawhár state, and a few in Panvel, Kalyán, and Bhiwndi. In 1836 their estimated strength was 3500 houses.

According to Mackintosh [Trans. Bom. Geog. Soc.] their original home was in the Mahádev and Bálághát hills, the western boundary of tho Nizám’s country. They came west many centuries ago, and settled first in the valley of the Ghoda river in Poona, and from there worked north and west into the Konkan, attacking and exterminating or embodying among their clans, or kuls, the Garsis, Sombatis, and Gavlis. The story of the eastern, origin of the Mahádev Kolis is supported by the fact, that in former times they were Lingáyats and had their marriage and funeral ceremonies conducted by Rával Gosávis. It is not more than 120 years since the Ráuls were driven out of their priestly offices, and the Kolis converted to Bráhmanism by priests sent from Poona during the supremacy of the Peshwás. According to their own story the Mahádev Kolis did not pass into the Konkan till the beginning of the fourteenth century, when a Koli leader named Pauperah was told by a holy man in the Deccan to go to the Konkan, take Jawhár, and become its chief. Jawhar was in the hands of a Várli, and Pauperah was little inclined to carry out the holy man's advice. After wandering for several years in Gujarat he went to the Jawhár chief and asked for as much land as a bullock's hide could enclose. The Várli chief agreed, and when he saw his fort enclosed in the circle of leather stripes, he admitted Pauperah’s superiority and was presented with the country round Gambirgad. Shortly after Pauperah showed himself so loyal and friendly to the Musálman sovereign that he was given twenty-two forts and a country yielding £90,000 (Rs. 9,00,000) a year. Pauperah's family still holds the Jawhár chiefship, though their power and wealth were greatly reduced by the Peshwa between 1760 and 1766.”

Lt.Col. J. Tod Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan vol. 2 (1920), Book VII Annals of Jaisalmer lvs. ch.2, 1194 to 1196:

“Rāo Deorāj.—Deoraj remained for a long time concealed in the territory of the Barahas; but at length he ventured to Buta, his maternal abode, where he had the happiness to find his mother, who had escaped the massacre at Tanot. She was rejoiced to behold her son's face, and " waved the salt over his head," then threw it into the water, exclaiming, " Thus may your enemies melt away ! " Soon tired of a life of dependence, Deoraj asked for a single village, which was promised; but the kin of the Buta chief alarmed him, and he recalled it, and limited his grant to such a quantity of land as he could encompass by the thongs cut from a single buffalo's hide; and this, too, in the depth of the desert. For this expedient he was indebted to the architect Kaikeya, who had constructed the castle of Bhatner. Deoraj immediately commenced erecting a [236] place of strength, which he called after himself Deogarh, or Derawar, on Monday, the 5th of the month Magh (sudi), the Pushya Nakshatra, S. 909.

Soon as the Buta chief heard that his son-in-law was erecting, not a dwelling, but a castle, he sent a force to raze it. Deoraj despatched his mother with the keys to the assailants, and invited the leaders to receive the castle and his homage ; when the chief men, to the number of a hundred and twenty, entered, they were inveigled, under pretence of consultation, ten at a time, and each party put to death and their bodies thrown over the wall. Deprived of their leaders, the rest took to flight.”

footnote:

“This deception practised by the Bhatti chief to obtain land on which to erect a fortress is not unknown in other parts of India, and in more remote regions. Bhatner owes its name to this expedient, from the division (bantna) of the hide. The etymology of Calcutta is the same, but should be written Khalkata, from the cuttings of the hide (khal).”

Here we have both the castle built on as much land as a bull's hide can cover and the slaughter of rival nobles which shows I think that these were always intrnsically linked to eachother, though not everywhere remembered.

F. B. Bradley-Birt, Chota Nagpore, A Little-Known Province of the Empire (1910) lf.16:

“The Rajas of Barabhum have a curious legend of the manner in which their estate came

into the possession of their family. The two sons of the Raja of Kirat quarrelled with their father, and, leaving him, took up their residence at the court of Vikramaditaya. There, the younger brother was sawn into two pieces—the reason of this outrage, with typical Eastern vagueness, being left unexplained—and his blood placed as a mark upon his elder brother's forehead by Vikram. The latter then gave the elder brother two umbrellas and told him that all the land he could ride round in a day and a night should be his. The circuit he accomplished is said to be the estate of Barabhum; and the story must be true, the legend concludes, because the prints of his horse's hoofs are still visible on the southern slopes of the hills.”

Here we have the first indication that brothers at least, maybe twin brothers, are intrinsically linked to these tales, and we have an acceptable variation of the bull's hide tale, in which the land bestowed is, not as much land as can be covered by a bull's hide, but rather as much as can be rode about in a day and a night.

And last but not least, E.A. de Brett Central Provinces Gazetteers – Chhattisgarh Feudatory States vol. 10 (1909)lf.192 §340:

“The ruling family are Rāj-Gonds. The legend is that their ancestors were twin brothers, named Hari and Gūjar, who were soldiers of the Rājā Kalyān Shah of Sambalpur, but they only had wooden swords. When the Raja heard of this, he determined to punish them for keeping such useless weapons, and in order to expose them, he directed that they should slaughter the sacrificial buffalo on the next Dasahra day. The brothers, on being informed of the orders, were in great trepidation, but the goddess Devī appeared to them in a dream and said that all would be well. When the time came they severed the head of the buffalo with one stroke of their wooden swords. The Rājā was delighted at their marvellous performance and asked them to name their reward. They asked for as much land as would be enclosed between the lines over which they could walk in one day. This request was granted, the Rājā thinking they would only get a small plot. The distances walked by them, however, enclosed the present Sakti State, which their descendants have since held. The swords are preserved in the family and worshipped at the Dasahra.”

Wow! Again we have guessed much of what must lie behind this in an earlier post [here]. But we see the Twin brothers, that they were once linked up to a goddess who oversaw the festivities of the autumnal or spring equinoxes when a bull was offered up either by her, by the Twins, by all three, or by a god in stead of the goddess. But howsoever later thought of, the bull slaying was originally understood as a demiurgic act making the world as we know it, a world which may also be thought of as a kind of stronghold-town or a castle, if not a labyrinth or worse.

"Settlement in a new, unknown, uncultivated country is equivalent to an act of Creation."

- Mircea Eliade Cosmos and History: The myth of the Eternal Return (1959) lf.10.

In short, the thong-castle when properly understood, is all the Northmen understand by the word garðr in miðgarðr.

With the tale of Dido doing the bull-carving at Carthage which we find in Virgil's Æneid, I hope we may now see that she herself must be for a sun-goddess, and it should not be missed here that Virgil gives her "flavum ... crinem" "blond hair" (bk. 4, line 698). Again this is matched in the East, but this time the tale is from Burma, thus Shway Yoe (Sir J. G. Scott), The Burman, his Life and Notions
(London, 1910), lf. 442:

“ The chronicles of Prome relate the well-known worldstory of the bullock’s hide of ground. A tribe came from the East under the command of an Amazon. She obtained from the aborigines—probably now some of the hill-tribes in Arakan—a grant of as much land as could be enclosed within an ox-hide, and, following the example of Dido, cut the hide into strips. She got into difficulties, however, and would probably have been driven out had she not married a neighbouring king. A stepson of hers founded the ancient town of Tharekattara (Prome).”

The above tales should also be set beside what was once told about "Maiden Bower" near Dunstable in Bedfordshire:

“This mound of earth is generally called the Castle by the peasantry, among whom some singular tales are current respecting the cause of its formation. One of these is a vague story of a certain Queen, who having made a wager with the King, that she could encamp a large army of men within a bull's hide, ordered the bull's hide to be cut into strings, and the greatest possible circle to be encompassed therewith: this was done accordingly, and the encampment made upon this spot.”

[From lf.29 of 'The Beauties of England and Wales' by John Britton, and Edward Wedlake Brayley (1801)].

The "Queen" here is also the sun. Dunstable is named for a "staple" or pillar where Icknield Street and Watling Street cross and is something of a holy middle-stead in its own right. What the Irish say about Macha - the Grian Banchure, the "Sun of Womanfolk" - at Emhain Macha (Navan Fort) may well belong here, but it seems to me that two or three old tales have been overlaid on top of each other so that the plain tale of Macha the sun-goddess making a stronghold is lost sight of.

The primordial demiurgic act with a bull offering is also dimly minned in India in another work. Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa 1:2:5:1-5 (awend. Julius Eggeling) :-

1.devāśca vā asurāśca | ubhaye prājāpatyāḥ paspṛdhire tato devā anuvyamivāsuratha
hāsurā menire 'smākamevedaṃ khalu bhuvanamiti

2. te hocuḥ | hantemām pṛthivīṃ vibhajāmahai tāṃ vibhajyopajīvāmeti
tāmaukṣṇaiścarmabhiḥ paścātprāñco vibhajamānā abhīyuḥ
3. tadvai devāḥ śuśruvuḥ | vibhajante ha vā imāmasurāḥ pṛthivīm preta tadeṣyāmo
yatremāmasurā vibhajante ke tataḥ syāma yadasyai na bhajemahīti te yajñameva
viṣṇum puraskṛtyeyuḥ
4. te hocuḥ | anu no 'syām pṛthivyāmābhajatāstveva no 'pyasyām bhāga iti te hāsurā
asūyanta ivocuryāvadevaiṣa viṣnurabhiśete tāvadvo dadma iti

5. vāmano ha viṣnurāsa | taddevā na jihīḍire mahadvai no 'durye no
yajñasaṃmitamaduriti

1. The gods and the Asuras, both of them sprung from Pragâpati, were contending for superiority. Then the gods were worsted, and the Asuras thought: 'To us alone assuredly belongs this world!
2. They thereupon said: 'Well then, let us divide this world between us; and having divided it, let us subsist thereon!' They accordingly set about dividing it with ox-hides (ukṣṇaiścarma-) from west to east.
3. The gods then heard of this, and said: 'The Asuras are actually dividing this earth: come, let us go to where the Asuras are dividing it. For what would become of us, if we were to get no share in it?' Placing Vishnu, (in the shape of) this very sacrifice, at their head, they went (to the Asuras).
4. They then said: 'Let us share in this earth along with yourselves! Let a part of it be ours!' The Asuras replied rather grudgingly: 'As much as this Vishnu lies upon, and no more, we give you!'
5. Now Vishnu was a dwarf. The gods, however, were not offended at this, but said: 'Much indeed they gave us, who gave us what is equal in size to the sacrifice.'

And Eggeling's footnote to 1:2:5:5 is:

"This legend is given in Muir's Original Sanskrit Texts, IV, p. 122, where it is pointed out that we have here the germ of the Dwarf Incarnation of Vishnu; and in A. Kuhn's treatise, 'Ueber Entwickelungsstufen der Mythenbildung,' p. 128, where the following remarks are made on the story: 'Here also we meet with the same struggle between light and darkness: the gods of light are vanquished and obtain from the Asuras, who divide the earth between themselves, only as much room as is covered by Vishnu, who measures the atmosphere with his three steps. He represents (though I cannot prove it in this place) the sun-light, which, on shrinking into dwarf's size in the evening, is the only means of preservation that is left to the gods, who cover him with metres, i.e. with sacred hymns (probably in order to defend him from the powers of darkness), and in the end kindle Agni in the east--the dawn--and thereby once more obtain possession of the earth.' Compare also the corresponding legend in Taitt. Br. III, 2, 9, 7, p. 60 where the gods are granted by the Asuras as much as they can enclose; and by the Vasus being placed in the south, the Rudras in the west, the Âdityas in the north, and Agni in the east, they obtain the whole of the earth."

And this from the Taittirīya Saṃhitā 6. 2, 3-4 (awend. J. Muir) where Indra in the shape of a "salāvṛikī" (which Muir awends, rightly or wrongly, as "she-jackal") is doing the three steps. But here the idea is they are done in going around (parikrāmati) the land so marked off, which was belike the older thought here:

"Asurāṇāṁ vai iyam agre āsīt| yāvad āsīnaḥ parāpaśyati tāvad devānām | te devāḥ abruvann "astv eva no ’syām api" iti|" Kiyad vo dāsyāmaḥ" iti| yāvad iyaṁ "salāvṛikī triḥ parikrāmati tāvan no datta " iti | sa Indraḥ salāvṛikī -rūpaṁ kṛitvā imāṁ triḥ sarvataḥ paryakrāmat | tad imām avindanta|yad imām avindanta tad vedyai veditvam |sā vai iyaṁ sarvā eva vediḥ|"

"This earth formerly belonged to the Asuras, whilst the gods had only as much as a man can see when sitting. They (the gods) said, ‘Let us have a share in this earth also ?’ ‘How much shall we give you ?’ (asked the Asuras). ‘As much as this she-jackal can go round in three (steps).’ Indra, assuming the form of a she-jackal, stepped around the earth in three (strides). Thus the gods obtained (avindanta) it. And from this circumstance the altar derives its name of vedi."

The last half of "salāvṛikī" at least is "vṛkī" (वृकी) “she-wolf”. And this makes me straight-away think of the folk-etymology of the old Greek word "Lycobas" as "wolf-run" (λύκος+βαίνω), although the word means "year", and which the Emperor Julian marks in his Oration to the Sun (awend. W. C. Wright):

"καίτοι λυκάβαντά φασιν ἀπὸ τοῦ λύκου τὸν ἐνιαύσιον χρόνον· ὀνομάζει δὲ αὐτὸν οὐχ Ὅμηρος μόνον οὐδὲ οἱ γνώριμοι τῶν Ἑλλήνων τοῦτο τὸ ὄνομα, πρὸς δὲ καὶ ὁ θεός· διανύων γάρ φησιν

Ὀρχηθμῷ λυκάβαντα δυωδεκάμηνα κέλευθα."

"Yet men call the period of a year “lycabas,” which is derived from “wolf.” And not only Homer and the famous men of Greece call it by this name, but also the god himself, when he says:

“With dancing does he bring to a close his journey of twelve months, even the lycabas.” [Odyssey 14.161]"

But a "she-wolf" would double up with the mare as a token of the sun-goddess. And at Rome, needless to say, the she-wolf is the mother of twins!

From all of which I hope you can see that the seemingly historic legends truly look back to a primordial creation myth when it was the ettins or giants who seemed to be in possession of all, and were then cheated out of it by the gods employing a trick. In India the canonical tale has ended up as Vishnu the dwarf taking his three strides and the trick turns on him being a dwarf and so could not stride that far. But the ettins don't know he is a god in hidlock! In the East nevertheless, as marked above, the folk knew of other tales which more nearly matched that which we find in the West with the bull-hide trick.

a god in need of rescue?

The above outdraught of the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa then goes on :

6. te prāñcaṃ viṣṇuṃ nipādya | candobhirabhitaḥ paryagṛhṇangāyatreṇa tvā candasā
parigṛhṇāmīti dakṣiṇatastraiṣṭubhena tvā candasā parigṛhṇāmīti paścājjāgatena tvā
candasā parigṛhṇāmītyuttarataḥ
7. taṃ candobhirabhitaḥ parigṛhya | agnim purastātsamādhāya tenārcantaḥ
śrāmyantaścerustenemāṃ sarvām pṛthivīṃ samavindanta tadyadenenemāṃ sarvāṃ
samavindanta tasmādvedirnāma tasmādāhuryāvatī vedistāvatī pṛthivītyetayā hīmāṃ
sarvāṃ samavindantaivaṃ ha vā imāṃ sarvāṃ sapatnānāṃ samvṛṅkte nirbhajatyasyai
sapatnānya evametadveda
8. so 'yaṃ viṣṇurglānaḥ | candobhirabhitaḥ parigṛhīto 'gniḥpurastānnāpakramaṇamāsa sa
tata evauṣadhīnām mūlānyupamumloca
9. te ha devā ūcuḥ | kva nu viṣṇurabhūtkva nu yajño 'bhūditi te hocuścandobhirabhitaḥ
parigṛhīto 'gniḥ purastānnāpakramaṇamastyatraivānvicateti taṃ khananta
ivānvīṣustaṃtryaṅgule 'nvavindaṃstammāttryaṅgulā vediḥ syāttadu hāpi
pāñcistryaṅgulāmeva saumyasyadhvarasya vediṃ cakre

6. Having then laid him down eastwards, they enclosed him on all (three) sides with the metres, saying (Vâg. S. I, 27), on the south side, 'With the Gâyatrî metre I enclose thee!' on the west side: 'With the Trishtubh metre I enclose thee!' on the north side: 'With the Gagatî metre I enclose thee 1!'
7. Having thus enclosed him on all (three) sides, and having placed Agni (the fire) on the east side, they went on worshipping and toiling with it (or him, i.e. Vishnu, the sacrifice). By it they obtained (sam-vid) this entire earth; and because they obtained by it this entire (earth), therefore it (the sacrificial ground) is called vedi (the altar). For this reason they say, 'As great as the altar is, so great is the earth;' for by it (the altar) they obtained this entire (earth). And, verily, he who so understands this, wrests likewise this entire (earth) from his rivals, excludes his rivals from sharing in it.
8. Thereupon this Vishnu became tired; but being enclosed on all (three) sides by the metres, with the fire on the east, there was no (means of) escaping: he then hid himself among the roots of plants.
9. The gods said: 'What has become of Vishnu? What has become of the sacrifice?' They said: 'On all (three) sides he is enclosed by the metres, with Agni to the east, there is no (way of) escaping: search for him in this very place!' By slightly digging they accordingly searched for him. They discovered him at a depth of three inches (or thumb's breadths): therefore the altar should be three inches deep; and therefore also Pâñki 1 made the altar for the Soma-sacrifice three inches deep.

Underlying the outfolding of this or that ritual action which is being given here, we can maybe see a shred of a myth wherein one of the gods involved in taking possession has gotten themselves trapped inside what they have helped to take possession of, or make. And in the West this is Persephone/Helen as we wrote in an earlier post [here], the sun goddess's daughter, who has to be freed by ... you guessed it, the Heavenly Twins!

Bull's hide

Many who have written about the "Thong Castle" tale have thought it has something to do with the Old English land meteing, or measurement, of an "hide". However, as even more say, the two words are from wholly unalike roots. Hide (Old English "hȳd") meaning "skin" is from the verb hȳdan "to hide" as it hides what is inside, whilst "hide" (Old English "hīd, hȳd, hīġed, hīġid") said to mean “a measure of land”, is truly to be understood as an old word for both a family and the plot of land it lives on. Thus where Bede in Latin writes land for so many "familiarum" or "familes" (see 1,25: 2,9 : 3,4; 3,24; 3,25: 4,3; 4,13; 4, 14; 4,17; 4,21: 5,19) the Old English awending made at the time of King Alfred will have so and so hides. Thus of Thanet we find it written:

"insula non modica, id est magnitudinis juxta consuetudinem aestimationis Anglorum familiarum sexcentarum, ...".

"Mycel eáland. ꝥ is syx hund hída micel æfter Angelcynnes æhte ..."

However, the "Thong Castle" tale does still look to an old meteing or measurement of land nonetheless, only one that is so old that, Hengest outtaken, the English themselves don't seem to have ever brooked it! I say "so old" for that something much like it can be found in the old laws of India.

Thus in the Viṣṇusmṛti or Institutes of Vishnu (awent by Julius Jolly -Sacred Books of the East, Vol. 7), book 5 we may read:

"181. gocarmamātrādhikāṃ bhuvam anyasyādhīkṛtāṃ tasmād anirmocyānyasya yaḥ prayacchet sa vadhyaḥ //
182. ūnāṃ cet ṣoḍaśa suvarṇān daṇḍyaḥ //
183. eko 'śnīyād yad utpannaṃ naraḥ saṃvatsaraṃ phalam /
gocarmamātrā sā kṣoṇī stokā vā yadi vā bahu ||

"181. He who has mortgaged more than a bull's hide of land to one creditor, and without having redeemed it mortgages it to another, shall be corporally punished (by whipping or imprisonment).
182. If the quantity be less, he shall pay a fine of sixteen Suvarnas.
183. That land, whether little or much, on the produce of which one man can subsist for a year, is called the quantity of a bull's hide."

go-carma-mātrā (गोचर्ममात्रा) bull's hide meteing or measure.

Germanus and Lupus

Besides Hengest and Horsa Vortigern is well known for getting a visit from two other strangers from over the sea. Namely from the sainted bishops Germanus of Auxerre and Lupus of Troyes, although on his second visit Germanus is meant to have been accompanied by a Severus. And it is altogether odd that much of what is said of these saints whilst in Britain would not be out of place being said of the Heavenly Twins. From Constantius’s life of Saint Germanus, which Bede is using in his Historia Ecclesiastica, we have:

i) Germanus stilling the stormy waves and saving the ship from sinking that they are crossing the Channel in (HE I.17, Vita §13),

ii) making the blind daughter of a tribune see (HE I, 18, Vita §15) ,

iii) keeping a house he is in from being burnt (HE I, 19, Vita §16) ,

iv) Germanus helps the Britons beat the Saxons and Picts (HE I, 20, Vita §§17-18).

And with the second crossing we only have the healing of Elaphius’ son (HE I, 21, vita §§26-7).

Now healing is a thing of the Heavenly Twins, as also a lordship over fire. Whilst protecting ships at sea/calming storms and bestowing victory in battle are their heart and soul. Germanus has a name moreover that in Latin means “brother” whilst Lupus has an odd animal name meaning "wolf" which, in its way, is not unlike Hengest and Horsa. Lycophron in his Αλεξάνδρα line 504 calls Castor and Polydeukes "Ἀκταίων λύκοι" "wolves of Actaia (Ἀκταία)", Actaia being an old name for Attica from acte (ἀκτή) "seashore", and this for that they had to make an inroad into Attica to get back their sister Helen after Theseus had stolen her from Sparta. Óðin's two wolves then, as also his two ravens and his eight-legged steed, that is, two horses in one, are all thereby outfolded.

From Nennius' Historia Brittonum §§32-35 we have the episode where a king Benli wouldn’t welcome the saint. The saint stayed with one of the king's servants “unus de servis regis” however, who we later find out was called “Catel” Cadell, after he took pity on him. Then there is a trick with a calf whereby it is eaten and then brought back to life again by the saint. On the second day the saint watches Benli kill one of his servants who was late to work in the morning, although the saint contrives to baptise the man beforehand. That night “ignis de caelo cecidit, et combussit arcem” “fire fell from heaven and burnt the fortress” Germanus warning the man he is staying with to get himself and all he cares about out of Benli's stronghold. The following day Germanus's host is baptised and made the first king of Powys “regio Povisorum” blessed by the saint. Benli's stronghold is said to have been on Foel Fenlli in Denbighshire.

Vortigern's end in Nennius is the outcome of Germanus' prayers. After the peace conference fiasco Vortigern was hounded by Germanus (HB§§47-48). Vortigern fled to “Guorthigirniaun” then to “Arcem Guorthigirni” “in regione Demetorum juxta flumen Teibi” and there, on the fourth night, was burnt up with his court “per ignem missum de caelo”.

The tale about Benli and "Catel" puts me in mind of that of the early dukes and kings of Poland who are said to have understood themselves to be the offspring of Piast "the Wheelwright" (Piast Kołodziej). The tale is first marked in the Cronicæ et Gesta ducum sive Principum Polonorum (Chronicles and deeds of the dukes or princes of the Poles), book 1, chapitles 1 to 3 written c. 1113 by Gallus Anonymus. Here the bad king is called "Popel" and at the time of a feast marking the first hair-shearing of his two sons, "duos ... hospites" "two strangers" turn up at the king's court at Gniezno. They are misbrooked and sent away, but they are nevertheless taken in by a poor "arator" "ploughman" called "Pazt" who is about to have a feast for the first hair-shearing of his own son "Semovith". The little beer and swine's flesh he had gotten ready for the feast are found to go a lot further than they should have done, and the two guests give "Semovith" his first hair-shearing.

“Hiis itaque peractis puer Semovith, filius Pazt Chosssistconis viribus et aetate crevit, et de die in diem in augmentum proficere probitatis incepit, eatenus quod rex regum et dux ducum eum Poloniae ducem concorditer ordinavit, et de regno Pumpil cum sobole radicitus extirpavit.”

“ And so with these things having come about, the boy Siemowit, the son of Piast Chościskowic, waxed in strength and years and from day to day he began to advance in increase of uprightness so far that the "king of kings and duke of dukes", amicably appointed him the duke of Poland, and utterly uprooted Popel and his offspring from the kingdom.”

Popel, needless to say, comes to a bad end. Now these two "hospites" are it seems thought of as angels by the Christian writer, but as the tale is about pagans we can see that they are more than likely to be the Heavenly Twins. Ṛgvedaḥ 1.117.9:

purū varpāṃsy aśvinā dadhānā

O Aśvins, wearing many forms at pleasure,...

Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa 4:1:5:8:

"aśvinau ha vā idam bhiṣajyantau ceratuḥ ... "

" Now the Asvins then wandered about here on earth performing cures."

But what about the "historical" Hengest of Bēowulf and the fragment of The Fight at Finnsburh?

Those that know the Fight at Finnsburh fragment can skip this, but for those who don't I have set it out here for you with an awending.

...nas byrnað?"

Hnæf hleoþrode ða, heaþogeong cyning:

"Ne ðis ne dagað eastan, ne her draca ne fleogeð,

ne her ðisse healle hornas ne byrnað.

Ac her forþ berað; fugelas singað, 5

gylleð græghama, guðwudu hlynneð,

scyld scefte oncwyð. Nu scyneð þes mona

waðol under wolcnum. Nu arisað weadæda

ðe ðisne folces nið fremman willað.

Ac onwacnigeað nu, wigend mine, 10

habbað eowre linda, hicgeaþ on ellen,

winnað on orde, wesað onmode!"

ða aras mænig goldhladen ðegn, gyrde hine his swurde.

ða to dura eodon drihtlice cempan,

Sigeferð and Eaha, hyra sword getugon, 15

and æt oþrum durum Ordlaf and Guþlaf,

and Hengest sylf hwearf him on laste.

ða gyt Garulf Guðere styrde

ðæt he swa freolic feorh forman siþe

to ðære healle durum hyrsta ne bære, 20

nu hyt niþa heard anyman wolde,

ac he frægn ofer eal undearninga,

deormod hæleþ, hwa ða duru heolde.

"Sigeferþ is min nama," cweþ he, "ic eom Secgena leod,

wreccea wide cuð; fæla ic weana gebad, 25

heardra hilda. ðe is gyt her witod

swæþer ðu sylf to me secean wylle."

ða wæs on healle wælslihta gehlyn;

sceolde cellod bord cenum on handa,

banhelm berstan (buruhðelu dynede), 30

oð æt ðære guðe Garulf gecrang,

ealra ærest eorðbuendra,

Guðlafes sunu, ymbe hyne godra fæla,

hwearflicra hræw. Hræfen wandrode,

sweart and sealobrun. Swurdleoma stod, 35

swylce eal Finnsburuh fyrenu wære.

Ne gefrægn ic næfre wurþlicor æt wera hilde

sixtig sigebeorna sel gebæran,

ne nefre swetne medo sel forgyldan

ðonne Hnæfe guldan his hægstealdas. 40

Hig fuhton fif dagas, swa hyra nan ne feol

drihtgesiða, ac hig ða duru heoldon.

ða gewat him wund hæleð on wæg gangan,

sæde þæt his byrne abrocen wære,

heresceorp unhror, and eac wæs his helm ðyrel. 45

ða hine sona frægn folces hyrde,

hu ða wigend hyra wunda genæson,

oððe hwæþer ðæra hyssa

… burns?”

Hnæf shouted then, the young fighting king:

"This is not the dawning from the east, nor here a fire-drake flies,

nor here in this hall the gable ends burn not.

But here brings forth; fowls sing, 5

howls a grey-skin [=wolf], fight-wood dins,

shield speaks to shaft. Now shines the moon

wandering (or waning) in the welkin. Now arise deeds of woe

that will frame the downfall of this folk.

But awake now, my fighters, 10

hold your lindens, think on valour;

fight in the van and be courageous!”

then arose many a gold-laden thane, girt him his sword.

Them to the door went the knightly champions,

Sigeferð and Eaha, their swords drew, 15

and at the other door Ordlaf and Guþlaf,

and Hengest himself followed on.

Then yet Garulf Guðere steered

that he so noble a life for the first time

to the hall doors weapons bear not, 20

now it a hard fighter would take,

for he asked before all openly,

dear-courageous hero, who those doors held.

"Sigeferþ is my name," quoth he, "I am lord of the Secgan,

an exile widely known; of many woes I abided, 25

of hard fights. It is yet here appointed to me

whichever of the two you yourself will ask."

Then was in hall uproar of slaughter;

the “keeled” board (=shield) must be in the hands of the keen,

bone-helm burst, borough-planks dinned, 30

until in that fight Garulf fell,

the foremost of all earth-dwellers,

Guðlaf’s son, about him many good men,

transient corpses. A raven wandered,

swart and sallowbrown. Stood the light of swords, 35

such that all Finnsburuh were on fire.

Never heard I worthier of men at fighting

sixty victory-barons of better bearing,

nor never of the sweet mead better paid back.

than Hnæf’s young men paid back his. 40

They fought five days, so that not one of them fell

of the knights, but they the doors held.

Then a wounded hero left to go to the wall,

said that his byrnie was broken,

ruined by fighting, and also a hole was in his helm. 45

then him soon asked the folk’s herder,

how those fighters outlived their wounds,

or which of those young men …

So Hnæf’s (sixty) young men for five days hold a hall at Finnsburuh against their foes. Sigeferð “lord of the Secgan” and Eaha hold one door. Ordlaf and Guþlaf (with Hengest) the other. Garulf Guðlaf’s son died, who was steered by Guðere, a kinsman it would seem.

Sigeferþ is an exile among Hnæf’s men. He would seem to be of the same kindred as Sæferð marked in Wīdsīð line 31:

“Sæferð [weold] Sycgum, ...”.

But if we will take the narrow outlook, doubtless Gudmund Schutte is right in saying Sæferð is only a corruption for Sigeferþ and only one hero of the Secgan was known to the old scopas. Schutte is also doubtless right in making the Secgan kindred to the Saxons in some way looking to Gesecg a forefather of the kings of the East Saxons.

We don’t know who is doing what to whom from the above fragment. But luckily Bēowulf lines 1063 to 1160 has something of the same tale.

From this we know that Hnæf is a Scylding (line 1069 “Hnæf Scyldinga”) and he is leading a body of men made up of Hengest and his Jutes (1091 “Hengestes hēap” 1088 “wið Ēotena bearn”) - who are also called “Danes” “Dene” (1090) and “Here-Scyldinga” (1108) “Scēotend Scyldinga” (1154) . Jutland where the Jutes come from being one of the three parts (“laws”) of the kingdom of the Danes.

Wīdsīð line 29 however knows Hnæf as king of the Hōcingas:

“Hnæf [weold] Hōcingum, ...”.

But as Hildeburh in Bēowulf is called, line 1076 “Hōces dohtor”, and Hnæf would seem to be her brother, this tribe may well be little more than an invention of Wīdsīð himself. That Hnæf is indeed her brother has to be stitched together from the fact that her brother and son are named as being slain; and then much is made of Hnæf’s pyre (1114 “æt Hnæfes āde”) on which Hildeburh puts her own son (1115 “hire selfre sunu”) at seemingly Hnæf’s shoulder (1117 “on eaxle” - the “ēame” here is an amending of the written “earme”).

And Finn, whose burh the above action takes place in, as everyone knows, is Finn the son of Folcwalda (1068, 1081, 1089) king of the Frisians (1093 “ Frēsena cyn”). Wīdsīð line 27:

“Fin Folcwalding [weold] Fresna cynne.”

So we now know the above fragment is meant to be set in Frisia.

The lines in Bēowulf open in the aftermath of a great slaughter (the “Fr…es wæle” of line 1070, in most outsettings this is amended to “Frēs wæle” ) wherein Hildeburh has lost “son and brother” (line 1074 “bearnum and brōðrum”). This slaughter must be what the “Fight at Finnsburh” is partly showing us. The background to this being that she had to see the slaying of kinsmen where she had earlier beheld the greatest happiness (line 1079-90 “morðor‐bealo māga,⁠ þǣr hēo ǣr mǣste hēold| worolde wynne: ...”). From what we can gather later from Bēowulf it would seem Hildeburh was Finn’s wife and the queen (thus 1153 “sēo cwēn numen” and 1158 “drihtlīce wīf⁠tō Denum feredon,” are taken to refer to Hildeburh as the wife of Finn). And it would also seem to me that Hnæf and his sixty fellows are in Frisia for that Hnæf is visiting his sister who is the queen and they are her guests. Why they ended up coming to blows with their hosts we will maybe never know, but the whole idea of guests barrickading themselves in a hall when attacked is found in the back half of the Nibelungenlied, and there a brother is also going to visit his sister in a foreign kingdom where she is queen. Coincidence? I think not.

From Bēowulf we know Finn and his Frisians are beaten by Hnæf and his Jutes to such an extreme extent (1080 to 1081 “wīg ealle fornam | Finnes þegnas,”) that the kingdom is split between Finn and Hengest (1087-8 “þæt hīe healfre geweald|wið Eotena bearn⁠”). Hengest seemingly taking over the leadership of Hnæf's men with the death of Hnæf himself. It seems however, Hengest’s position was an awkward one for him, and it was part of the peace-treaty (1096 “frioðu‐wǣre”) that the Jutes were not to moan that they now followed their former lord’s killer (1102-3 “þēah hīe hira bēag‐gyfan ⁠banan folgedon| þēoden‐lēase,”). The Jutes spend the winter with the Frisians until one Hūnlāfing puts the “light of battle” in Hengest’s lap (1142-3 “Hūnlāfing ⁠hilde‐lēoman,| billa sēlest, ⁠on bearm dyde:”). This is in the spring time, a fact the scop is surprisingly keen to have us know (1136 to 1137 “Þā wæs winter scacen,|fæger foldan bearm;⁠”) and the Jutes rise up and kill Finn (1152 “Finn slægen”) and take the queen, that is Hildeburh (thus 1153-4 “sēo cwēn numen|Scēotend Scyldinga⁠ tō scypum feredon” and 1158 “drihtlīce wīf ⁠tō Denum feredon,”), and a few other “keep-sakes” back with them to their own home in Jutland we presume, but the scop actually says “ ⁠tō Denum”.

Now I don’t think this is history at all, although it does indeed seem alot like it. But those who have read their Iliad will know that it also convinces the reader that it is history, yet that too is now widely acknowledged to be myth. And indeed the selfsame myth that we are dealing with here! Thus Ken Dowden The uses of Greek Mythology (1992) ch.4, lf.42:

“… it is hard to say that this or that myth is sufficiently distinctive and sufficiently like another to derive from a common ancestor.
Yet it does happen on occasion. One example, which has been thoroughly tested for coincidence by Ward (1968: chapter 1), is the Indo-European myth of horsemen twins who must rescue their sister/wife. In the Sanskrit tradition, the twin Aśvins (‘horsemen’), Divó nápātā (‘sons/descendants of Dyāuḥ’), jointly woo and marry Sūryā, daughter of the Sun Sūrya. Meanwhile, in Latvian songs, two or more horsemen, Dieva dēli (‘sons of Dievs’), woo Saules meita (‘the sun’s daughter’, sometimes just Saule herself). The comparison is the more interesting for the fact that the Indo-European sky god, *Dyēus, the principal god of the Indo-Europeans, like his Greek manifestation, Zeus, has lost his
significance in both these cultures. We do not, however, have to go far to find the corresponding Greek twins: the Dioskouroi (‘sons of Zeus’), the twin horsemen Kastor and Polydeukes (Castor and Pollux in Latin). The figure corresponding to Sūryā/Saule, the sun maid, is almost as clearly their sister Helen, whose name might just, as Puhvel has argued, be related to hēlios (‘sun’) and that in turn to ‘Sūrya’ and ‘Saule’ (Puhvel 1987:59f., 225f., 141–3). In general, ancients turned to the Dioskouroi for rescue –especially if they were mariners in distress; but myth presents them as the rescuers of
Helen, seized (in one descendant of this Indo-European myth) by Theseus. But there is another, more familiar, descendant of this Indo-European myth. It obviously lies behind the twin Atreidai, Agamemnon and Menelaus, going to recover Menelaus’ wife – Helen – from Troy. The story of the Trojan War is not quite as historical as it seems.
This is a rare example of the visibility of indo-European myth. ...”.

Hengest in the Finnsburh fragment and in Bēowulf would seem to have lost his brother Horsa, but I have no doubt that we are still to think of him here as one of the Heavenly Twins. And I'm sorely tempted to see Hnæf as a stand-in for the missing twin. We have already marked in an earlier post [here] how a little thing like a difference of ages doesn't get in the way of the Heavenly Twins being still thought of as "twins"! If we understand here Hildeburh as the sun’s daughter and Hengest and Hnæf as the Heavenly Twins, then their "rescue" from the kingdom of winter (=Finn) then the whole thing is myth. And indeed the scop's insistance that we know they spend the winter with Finn and leave in the spring, after killing their host, is a big clue to what is going on I think. Another is the name "Hildeburh". The scop here knew his craft. And if we only knew the Kûtrûn or "Kudrun-lied" (“Ditze Buoch ist von Kûtrûn”) we would see that "Hildeburc" there names one of "the three king's daughters" (“Daz drîer künege tohter” 2/73 & 7/484 to 485) whom Hagene frees from the cave in the beginning of the tale. They have all the hallmarks of being otherworldly maidens to say the least, and in the lied are withmeted to mermaids (“wildiu merwunder” 2/112). That they are of unalike elds “eltiste" "mitteliste" "jungiste” (3/118 to 120) might make us think of the weird sisters. But I think we have here a threefold sun-goddess. Hagene will wed the "eltiste" "Hilde" the daughter of the king of India! It is their daughter, who is also called "Hilde", who is the Northern Hildur of the Hjaðningavíg (see Skáldskaparmál), Sörla þáttr and Gesta Danorum book 5. In the Gesta Danorum she is a Jute, but in Wīdsīð line 21 her father is said to be a king of the Ulmerugi of the iland of Rügen "Hagena [weold] Holmrygum ond Heoden Glommum". But Rügen isn't that far from Jutland as the swan flies. The tale of Hilde's fetching away by Wate, Hôrant and Fruote for "Hetele" (âventiure 5 to 8) is a kind of freeing of the sun-gooddess tale ( here maybe we should say daughter of the sun-goddess) in its own right with Wate, Hôrant and Fruote doing what the Heavenly Twins should do. The same myth is more or less edledged in the main body of the work (âventiure 9 to 32) only the sun-goddess or sun's daughter is now to be understood as Kûdrûn, Hetele and Hilde's daughter. Kûdrûn is stolen away by Hartmuot "hard-mood" who here betokens winter. She is freed at length by her own brother Ortwîn and her husband-to-be Herwîc who stand-in here for the Heavenly Twins. As with the "three king's daughters" in the cave in the beginning, Kûdrûn in her time of hardship is not alone but has two help-maids Heregart or Hergart and ... you guessed it, Hildeburc (8/1007 to 1009)! The selfsame Hildeburc as was the "mitteliste" king's daughter in the cave in the the beginning of the lied and which at least shows you, that both sets of three women have the same meaning whatever that may be.

I call to mind here also that Helen of Troy is twice marked as being one of three women. In the Iliad book 3, lines 143 to 144 we have (awend. A. T. Murray):

οὐκ οἴη, ἅμα τῇ γε καὶ ἀμφίπολοι δύ᾽ ἕποντο,
Αἴθρη Πιτθῆος θυγάτηρ, Κλυμένη τε βοῶπις:

not alone, for with her followed two handmaids as well,
Aethra, daughter of Pittheus, and ox-eyed Clymene;

Aethra here is noneother than the mother of Theseus, but as a common-noun, aethra (αἴθρη) means a clear sunlit sky (see Iliad 17.646). Clymene means "well-known". And in a painting by Polygnotus in the Λέσχη at Delphi araught by Pausanias in his Guide to Greece book 10, chap. 25, §4 (awend. W. H. S. Jones):

" κάθηται δὲ αὐτή τε ἡ Ἑλένη ... θεράπαινα δὲ Ἠλέκτρα καὶ Πανθαλίς, ἡ μὲν τῇ Ἑλένῃ παρέστηκεν, ἡ δὲ ὑποδεῖ τὴν δέσποιναν ἡ Ἠλέκτρα: ..."

" Helen herself is sitting, ... One handmaid, Panthalis, is standing beside Helen; another, Electra, is fastening her mistress' sandals."

Electra is elsewhere the name of one of the Pleiades, and is more than likely to be linked to the word "elector" (ἠλέκτωρ) “shining (sun)” (see Iliad 19.398). Panthalis "all-growing".

Hildeburc ...

Hildeburc or Hildeburh should make those who have read my "Harvest Home" post [here] think of "saints" Walpurga and Milburga who have likenesses to the corn-mother, Demeter or Ceres, and a goddess who was evened with the "Mother of the Gods", and worshipped of old in Asia Minor as a sun-goddess. Athena or Minerva also being essentially the selfsame goddess in her fighting mood. Durga in India the same. In the same post I make the case for "golden haired" Demeter or Ceres being a sun-goddess, and one with the mother of both the Heavenly Twins and their sister who was also a kind of sun-goddess. This last gives us both Helen of Troy and Persephone. I then go on to show that we should understand the corn-mother as Sibb, the Northern Sif (and this would also make her the sun) and her daughter Þrúðr, which would be our Þrȳþ, as one with Helen and Persephone up to a point.

The solar essence of Milburga may be seen in the myth of a "beam of the sun" (solis radius) that once abided upon her head, and of Walpurga in the folktale that she had "fiery shoes". Now Milburga and her two sister-saints Mildþrȳð (or Mildred) and Mildgȳð are alot like our "three king's daughters" above, and her mother Eormenburg (also called Domne Eafe) take us back to Hengest and Horsa's island of Thanet. For Eormenburg was given as much land there as her hind could run about to atone for the murder of her two Heavenly Twin-like brothers. They are said to have been martyred by a king's redesman with the most unlikely name of Þunor which is, needless to say, the name by which the Northern god Þórr “Thor” was known by the English! As to Walpurga the "saint" for whom May-Eve is named Walpurgisnacht in German we have already marked that her two brothers, Bishop Willibald (of Eichstätt "oak-stead") and Abbot Wynnebald of Heidenheim, "heathen-home", would seem to have borrowed a little something from the Heavenly Twins. Walpurga's name moreover is not found in any of the earliest lives of Willibald or Wynnebald who come from southern Hampshire, that is, in the midst of that other land in Britain besides Kent that Bede tells us Jutes are meant to have settled.

Farewell.

Truefastness

Sunday 19 August 2018

Hengest and Horsa