Horse Head Gables
On farmhouses in Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein, Northern Germany, horse head gables were referred to as "Hengist and Hors" as late as around 1875. Rudolf Simek notes that these horse heads gables can "still be seen today" (from a 2007 edition of a work first published in 1984) and says that the horse head gables confirm that Hengist and Horsa were originally considered mythological, horse-shaped beings. Martin Litchfield West comments that the horse heads may have been remnants of pagan religious practices in the area.
-
Sketch of horses' heads carving on a farmhouse gable in Northern Germany
-
Horse head gables in Wedemark, Hannover, Northern Germany
-
Horse head gables in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Northern Germany
-
Horse head gables on German author Thomas Mann's cottage in Nida, Lithuania
-
Horse head gables in Arnhem, the Netherlands
Read more about this topic: Hengist And Horsa
Famous quotes containing the words horse and/or head:
“If this bureau had a prayer for use around horse parks, it would go something like this: Lead us not among bleeding-hearts to whom horses are cute or sweet or adorable, and deliver us from horse-lovers. Amen.... With that established, let’s talk about the death of Seabiscuit the other night. It isn’t mawkish to say, there was a racehorse, a horse that gave race fans as much pleasure as any that ever lived and one that will be remembered as long and as warmly.”
—Walter Wellesley (Red)
“Each part may call the furthest, brother:
For head with foot hath private amitie,
And both with moons and tides.”
—George Herbert (1593–1633)