Hengist and Horsa - Modern Influence

Modern Influence

Written between 1616 and 1620, Thomas Middleton's play Hengist, King of Kent features portrayals of both Hengist and Horsa (as Hersus). On July 6, 1776, the first committee for the production of the Great Seal of the United States convened. One of three members of the committee, Thomas Jefferson proposed that one side of the seal feature Hengist and Horsa, "the Saxon chiefs from whom we claim the honor of being descended, and whose political principles and form of government we assumed." "Hengist and Horsus" appear as antagonists in William Henry Ireland's play Vortigern and Rowena, which was touted as a newly-discovered work by William Shakespeare in 1796, but was soon revealed as a hoax. The pair are commemorated in plaques placed at the Walhalla Temple in Bavaria, Germany during the 19th century. During World War II, two British military gliders took their names from the brothers: the Slingsby Hengist and the Airspeed Horsa. The 20th-century American poet Robinson Jeffers composed a poem titled Ode to Hengist and Horsa.