Hengist and Horsa

Hengist and Horsa were legendary Germanic brothers believed to have led the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes during their supposed 5th-century invasion of Britain. According to tradition, Hengist became the first Jutish king of Kent.

However, modern scholars generally view Hengist and Horsa as mythological rather than historical. Their names, both alliterative and animal-themed, suggest symbolic invention, and their genealogies appear artificially constructed. The accounts that survive, especially from later texts like the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, are thought to reflect the concerns and imagination of the ninth century more than the fifth.

Early sources state that the brothers landed at Ebbsfleet on the Isle of Thanet. Initially, they served as mercenaries for Vortigern, the king of the Britons, but eventually turned against him. British tradition accuses them of betrayal in an episode known as the Treachery of the Long Knives. Horsa was reportedly killed in battle against the Britons, while Hengist went on to conquer Kent and became the ancestral figure for its royal line.

A similar figure named Hengest appears in the Finnesburg Fragment and in Beowulf, prompting J. R. R. Tolkien to suggest that this may point to a historical origin for the legend of Hengist.

Hengist was said to have been buried at Hengistbury Head in Dorset.