Architectural Traditions: The Horse-stave Gable Cross

This is actually a common sight on barn roofs in the traditionally agrarian areas of Germany, though mostly in the northern half of the country. The open roof peak served to ventilate as well as provide a roost for owls, also to rid the building of rodents. While Anglo-Saxon legends will refer to these crossed horse-headed staves as Hengist and Horsa, its much earlier Teutonic meanings are only a vague memory in German mythology. Nonetheless the symbol is also a familiar sight in German heraldry and the logo of the “Reiffeisen” hardware cooperative throughout rural Germany.

However, throughout northern Eurasia, the horse was not only regarded as a status symbol, given the powerful means of travel; but embodied something powerfully psychic in that regard. It was believed that the thunder of their invading hoof-beats combined with their shrill whinnies could even drive away the wights of their enemies. Hence, when delivering a curse upon an enemy, the horse-head mounted nithing pole served much the same idea; whereas, the crossed staves, much like the rune "Not", served to protect one's homestead from rodents. At least in those days, rodents and not cats were regarded as the harbingers of evil (plagues). On occasion, horses were sacrificed to the gods and their heads ceremoniously buried at the cornerstone of important buildings being erected, or mounted over their entrance. This practice carried on well into Medieval times, often as an act of rebellion against the church, which included the consumption of horse flesh as a proof of heathen faith. As Christianity took over, this became frowned upon as barbaric and the sacrifices replaced with the symbolic hanging of horseshoes as a ward against witchcraft, however, made the fatal mistake of conversely trying to condemn cats as the evil harbingers of plague.