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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Hengist and Horsa
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(5th century AD) Two semi-legendary brothers, supposedly leaders of the first *Anglo-Saxons in Britain. They make a tentative first appearance in the work of *Bede ('the first chieftains are said to have been the brothers Hengist and Horsa'), but the later *Anglo-Saxon Chronicle states that they landed in 455 in Kent, that Horsa was killed in that year, that Hengist died in 488 and that his descendants became the kings of Kent. Hengist was the word for a stallion; so even if he existed, it seems unlikely that the short-lived 'horsa' was anything more than his verbal double.
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