It's plain to see from the writings of the Venerable Bede, in his Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation, that superstitions and taboo's grew up surrounding the use of certain horses by priests of the Heathen religion. Bede had this to tell us concerning an Anglo-Saxon high priest and his conversion to Christianity. 'Then immediately in contempt of his former superstitions desired the king to furnish him with arms and a stallion, and mounting the latter he set out to destroy the idols, for it was not lawful for the high priest either, to carry weapons or ride on any beast but a mare.' The high priest in question was Coifi, |
importance of the horse to the Anglo-Saxons we can go all the way back to the turbulent times of Hengist and Horsa, the legendary and mythical brothers who led the Anglo-Saxon settlement in Britain Their names mean Stallion and Horse respectively, and as mentioned elsewhere on this site, there is a strong possibility that these two brothers were more than just living flesh and blood, but were twin horse gods that in various forms and with differing |
Horse |
The horse as a symbol, like the dragon, goes all the way back to the earliest stages of Anglo-Saxon settlement in Britain, and even before. The importance of the horse in Anglo-Saxon society, whether for war, travelling or more mundane purposes cannot be underestimated. And like other animals, it's not surprising that the horse and it's image was raised to almost religious levels of veneration. For evidence of the |
importance of the horse to the Anglo-Saxons we can go all the way back to the turbulent times of Hengist and Horsa, the legendary and mythical brothers who led the Anglo-Saxon settlement in Britain Their names mean Stallion and Horse respectively, and as mentioned elsewhere on this site, there is a strong possibility that these two brothers were more than just living flesh and blood, but were twin horse gods that in various forms and with differing |
names were worshipped throughout the Germanic world. The landscape of England has been blessed in both ancient and modern times with the carving and scouring of massive symbols and images, including that of huge horse images, that quite possibly date to Anglo-Saxon times and before. Firstly there is the White Horse of Uffington, a beautifully designed horse that lies no more than two miles south of the village of Uffington, a place name that is derived from the Anglo-Saxon Uffa. Over the years this carving has been credited to Celts, Anglo-Saxons and others. Many compare the shape and style of the horse to other similar horse images that have been found upon Celtic artefacts, such as coins and buckets in both Britain and ancient Belgium. And whilst there is some evidence pointing to an Anglo-Saxon origin for the horse, the Celtic theory is stronger. Another image carved into the hills of England, that could be of an Anglo-Saxon origin, is that of the Westbury Horse. This horse is a massive 55 metres long, and another 33 metres tall, and is spectacularly carved into the steeps hills of Bratton Down in Wiltshire. There are several theories from both ancient and modern times as to |
why the horse was created. One is a myth concerning Alfred the Great, who is said to have ordered the carving of a white horse to commemorate one of his victories over the Vikings. Alfred the Great was of course vehemently Christian in his beliefs, so if this myth was to be true, |
the creation of the Westbury Horse couldn't be put down to the conscious thoughts of a Heathen. But that isn't to say that the ultimate root of Alfred's desire for such a horse image to be carved into English soil was not of an unconscious Heathen origin. For as we have already seen and read, the veneration of horses and their images to the Heathen Anglo-Saxons was very strong, and stretched all the way back to the earliest days of England, and quite possibly back to the dawn of the Indo-Europeans. And just like so many other beliefs and symbology that were rooted in the pre-Christian religions of Europe, that continued unbroken into Christian times, the importance of the horse and it's veneration continued unbroken also. And these two examples of carved horse images do not exhaust the evidence of the importance of the horse as a symbol in England, for we also have the Red Horse of Tysoe. This is another vast carving in the English landscape, but unfortunately, unlike |
the Uffington and Westbury horses, has now lost all physical shape and appearence to the naked eye. But we have been left many reports detailing it's image and appearence, some as far back as Elizabethan times. The Red Horse was carved into the land near the town of Banbury and the village of Lower Tysoe. As the Horse is now physically lost to |
us, it is difficult to estimate it's exact size and dimentions, but by all reports, it's size is inferior to that of the Uffington and Westbury Horses. The Red Horse of Tysoe, according to many historians, has far stronger links to the Anglo-Saxons than any of the other carved horses. And not just to the Anglo-Saxons as a whole, but more importantly to the pre-Christian Anglo-Saxons. Our first, and |
obvious, Heathen link to the Horse and it's surrounding area is the village of Tysoe itself. The name Tysoe was named in honour of the Anglo-Saxon god Tiw, and basically means hill spur of Tiw. So it is very possible that the Anglo-Saxons who carved this beast did it to honour Tiw, their patron god. If this is true, and the Heathens did carve it in his honour, then this not only shows that |
the horse was sacred to the Anglo-Saxons, but to the god Tiw also. In the most ancient of times, Tiw was called Tiwaz, and was regarded as the original Sky Father of the Germanic peoples, related to Zeus of the Greeks. So it does seem possible that the men who carved this image, did it not only to honour Tiw, but also so that their Sky Father could look down from the skies and see his own symbol, veneration and worship. In 1971 S.G. Wildman wrote: 'I tried to recover the lost red Horse, I failed to do so. What I did find was something which I think is even more interesting, a collection of four great hill-figures representing the legend of the Saxon god Tiw'. If true, it certainly seems that this whole area was very much an area dedicated and sacred to Tiw. |
a Heathen priest in service to King Edwin of Northumbria. After much deliberation it was decided by Edwin and his wise men that they should convert to Christianity and turn their backs on the Heathen religion. When this decision was made, Coifi furiously set out to destroy the temple and idols that he had worshipped. And in doing so happily, and what would seem enthusiastically, broke taboo's surrounding weapons and horses. The reason he did this was very much to insult the religion that he was leaving behind, and in a sense spit in the faces of the gods that he had worshipped and venerated all his life. And the fact that one of the ways to achieve this insult was to break the taboo on horses just shows so clearly how important and how much a part of the religion and lore of the Heathens horses truly were. |
It's plain to see from the writings of the Venerable Bede, in his Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation, that superstitions and taboo's grew up surrounding the use of certain horses by priests of the Heathen religion. Bede had this to tell us concerning an Anglo-Saxon high priest and his conversion to Christianity. 'Then immediately in contempt of his former superstitions desired the king to furnish him with arms and a stallion, and mounting the latter he set out to destroy the idols, for it was not lawful for the high priest either, to carry weapons or ride on any beast but a mare.' The high priest in question was Coifi, |
But to get a glimpse of what a horse meant to the Anglo-Saxons, or maybe to a single Anglo-Saxon man, we can look no further than the amazing find of an Anglo-Saxon Heathen warrior who was found buried not just with his sword, spear and shield, but also with his horse. Why this single man was cast to the earth with his horse may never be known, maybe they both died upon the battle field, and dying together meant lying together. Or it's possible that it was just the man who |
died and his horse was sacrificed so that they could remain together in death just as they had done in life. The sacrifice of the horse so as to accompany it's master is the stronger of the two theories, this is because the horse's death was caused by a massive blow to the front of the horses head, just above the eye's. Seemingly showing that this was a deliberate act so as to kill the horse purely to be buried in this grave. Also found in the grave was food, showing clearly that the man and his horse were both destined for another life, to remain companions in the afterlife, just as they had in real life. |
This page was last
updated on: July 22,
2003
