Talk:Hengest

Merge from Hengist of Woodcroft
The article on the character in the Harry Potter books should be merged into this one, possibly as "references in fiction" or "references in popular culture". --Slashme 12:17, 20 December 2005 (UTC)


 * The HP character is hardly a popular culture reference to this Hengist

WikiProject class rating
This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as start, and the rating on other projects was brought up to start class. BetacommandBot 09:13, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

"creative" anachronism
The following is self-described as "original" research and doesn't belong at Wikipedia:
 * Hengest is also mentioned in an original filk music song, "Song of the Shield-Wall," written by Debra Doyle and Melissa Williamson (under their Society for Creative Anachronism persona names, respectively Malkin Gray and Peregrynne Windrider), first published by Off Centaur Publications in the 1970s. (The song is often facetiously subtitled, "Four Hundred Years of Saxon History in Three Minutes and Fifteen Seconds.")

"Malkin Gray" and "Peregrynne Windrider" are non-entities with fatuously magickal names, and the mses. Debra Doyle and Melissa Williamson, sad to relate, are non-notable. A ludibrium. Let the editor who entered this remain anonymous please. --Wetman (talk) 00:41, 12 December 2007 (UTC)

Note on etymology
This may be lost to English speakers, but before the Middle Ages, the analogy between a (horse) stallion and a (human) "stud" was dead obvious to anyone who spoke a West Germanic language at Heng/e/i/sts time. ("Stud" in fact is the male opposite to "mare", i.e. a stallion - cf German Stute "mare". As I found worthwhile to add, in German there is no distinction in words at all - we use the same word for a stallion and a human "stud": Hengst.

(The etymology of horse-terms in German and English is mixed up in an interesting way - a "mare" cognate exists in the German Mähre but that denotes a "nag" of either sex though more often than not female (Klepper would be the same with a somewhat more male bent). It seems the actual (West) Germanic "biological" terms for horse sexes were the ancestors of "stud" and Stute, and German replaced the term for the male and English replaced the term for the female.) Dysmorodrepanis (talk) 17:08, 3 March 2008 (UTC)

Thomas Jefferson
This may or not be relevant, but Thomas Jefferson was a big fan of Hengest and Horsa and wanted to including them on the seal of the United States. It might be worth noting something about this in the article. See http://wiki.monticello.org/mediawiki/index.php/Seal_of_the_United_States kthx. 66.195.36.133 (talk) 20:33, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

Unreferenced opinion
There is a sceptical section in the middle of the article that states (as if Wikipedia were asserting) that "It is perhaps likelier that" the bros. H & H were legendary culture heroes and not historical figures. As near as I can tell from reading the Wikipedia policies, this isn't neutral language. I do know that some scholars believe that, but others don't. Perhaps just who believes what should be referenced as differing opinion, and not speculating on whose opinion is most likely. 76.112.200.171 (talk) 06:10, 4 August 2009 (UTC)
 * I've pulled the section as it is, indeed, pretty terrible. The article as a whole is pretty bad. I'm currently preparing a quick rewrite. bloodofox: (talk) 04:02, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

Merge request
The ongoing merge request is happening over at Talk:Horsa. bloodofox: (talk) 04:47, 9 September 2009 (UTC)