Hengist and Horsa—Frisian Horses from Overseas That Founded the Kentish Kingdom

Hans Faber
May 11, 2024
24 min read

Updated: Sep 6

It is at the inn The Prancing Pony in the village of Bree that the Hobbits find refuge from the screeching Nazgûl on their coal-black horses. It is also here that they encounter Strider, the mysterious wanderer who is later revealed to be Aragorn—future king of the Reunited Kingdom. Horses, wanderers, fugitive royalty, shifting alliances, the forging of armies, and the rise of kings—these are also the hallmarks of the epic North Sea saga of Hengist and Horsa. A tale set 1,600 years ago, when the first Anglo-Saxon kingdom was founded in Kent. Fittingly, Kent still flies a blood-red flag adorned with a prancing white horse. In this blog post, we recount the story as it has been preserved by one of these North Sea peoples: the Frisians.

Indeed, according to the Frisian version of the wanderer saga, the brothers Hengist and Horsa were of Frisian stock. “Oh come on—this is a bridge (or two) too far, and far too predictable!” one might object, eyebrows raised. But before any rosbifs slam this tab shut or hit ‘unfollow blog’ in indignation, be assured: there is a fair bit of murkiness surrounding the origins of these legendary brothers in those shadowy, pre–Dark Ages.

The one thing on which the oldest texts and most scholars—both seasoned and fresh-faced—tend to agree, is that the two brothers hailed from somewhere along the south-eastern shores of the North Sea. Beyond that, opinions scatter like scooters at a Jakarta intersection during rush hour. Jutish, Angle, (Half-)Danish, (Old-)Saxon, even Frankish—all have been proposed as the true stock of Hengist and Horsa by serious scholars who have dedicated much of their lives to the matter. In truth, none of the original sources explicitly states their nationality (Bliss 1983). It is all based on circumstantial evidence.

Regarding the name Oisc—the son of Hengist, as we will explore later—some scholars have connected it to the backward rune-inscribed name ᚺᛉXᛋᛅᚫ (ansgz or aisgzh) found on the reverse of a shield boss dated to the early third century, discovered in the Thorsberg bog in the southeast of Denmark. This area was once the homeland of the Angles. According to one theory, ansgz may correspond to Anchis, a name mentioned in the Ravenna Cosmography (ca. 700), and Anchis in turn may be the same figure as Oisc, described by the Venerable Bede (ca. 672–735). This link is sometimes cited as evidence that Hengist and his lineage could have been of Angle origin.

However, there are several caveats. First, the shield boss and other weapons found in the Thorsberg bog might have belonged to a foreign enemy force, not necessarily locals (Mees 2024). Second, as with most matters of runology, there is no shortage of alternative interpretations; see our blog post Scratching Runes Was Not Much Different From Spraying Tags. Some consider ansgz or aisgzh even to be a meaningless or nonsensical sequence rather than a proper name (Looijenga 1997). In short, while the Thorsberg shield boss is occasionally cited as circumstantial evidence for an Angle origin of Hengist and Oisc, it is far from a smoking gun.

In other words, there is no reliable civil registry for Hengist and Horsa, nor is their nationality protected like some patented brand. And with all the distinguished—yet hopelessly divergent—scholarly opinions, there remains plenty of room for the obscure Frisians, the indigenous folk of much of the southern North Sea coast, to stake a claim of their own. At the very least, the Frisians can offer a slightly skewed angle on the dominant Anglo-Saxon history… before quietly retreating back into the coastal fog.

Sjoch dêr de griene greiden, dy pronkje yn maitiidsfleur,

O rûkste it ek net, Hengist! ús âlde heitlânsgeur,

Dy’t komt mei’t twirke út ’t Westen oer fiere mieden wei,

Gjin lân fan iv’ge sinne komt dochs myn lân bynei!

Behold the green meadows, gleaming in springtime bloom, | Oh, can you not smell it too, Hengist! our ancient homeland’s perfume, | That drifts with the western breeze across the distant fields, | No land of eternal sun can match my own homeland’s yields! (Simke Kloosterman 1933)

Sources of the Early Middle Ages

The names and stories of Hengist (also often called Hengest) and Horsa appear in several early medieval texts, notably the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle by anonymous authors, the Historia Brittonum by the monk Nennius, the Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum by the Venerable Bede, the De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae by the monk Gildas, the epic poem Beowulf, and the Finnsburh Fragment by an anonymous author. Though not early medieval, the Historia Regum Britanniae—written by Geoffrey of Monmouth around 1136—and Brut, about Brutus of Troy, king of the Britons, penned by the priest Layamon in the late twelfth century, are often included as well. All these sources blend fact, fiction, and exaggeration, and notably, they predominantly reflect the Anglo-Saxon perspective.

Lastly, we should not overlook the oldest account mentioning the Frisians in Britain, even though it makes no mention of Hengist and Horsa. This is found in De Bello Gothico, written by the Greek historian Procopius of Caesarea in the mid-sixth century, providing a rare, hence valuable non-Anglo-Saxon perspective. This text predates Bede’s account by about two centuries and comes roughly three centuries after the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (Stenton 1943), bringing us as close as possible to the era of the migrating peoples into Britain. Procopius wrote: “The island of Brittia is inhabited by three very populous nations, each ruled by a king. The names of these nations are Angiloi, Frissones, and those sharing the island’s name, the Brttones.” So, here we have a group of migrant Frisians with their own king in Britain—see also the note at the end of this blog post. Quite intriguing, isn’t it?

The events surrounding Hengist and Horsa took place in the first half of the fifth century AD, during the era known as the Migration Period or the Wandering of Peoples. This was a time when the Romans withdrew from their northern frontiers, retreating southward. By 410, the Romans had completely pulled out of Britannia, leaving the Britons to defend themselves. Similarly, in the Lower River Rhine region, the Romans pulled back, establishing a new border that roughly corresponds today to the linguistic divide between French and Dutch speakers in Belgium and the most northern tip of France. This southern retreat of the Romans created a power vacuum that, as it were, sucked in Germanic tribes from the north (Fouracre 2005).

Moreover, much of the southern North Sea coast had been largely depopulated from the mid-fourth century onward, likely due to worsening environmental conditions. Around 425 AD, tribes from the Elbe-Weser triangle—including groups from southern Scandinavia—began to repopulate these once-empty coastal lands, forming what would become the (New) Frisians. This century also marked the beginning of the adventus Saxonum, the ‘coming of the Saxons’ to Britain—a barbarian influx that peeled away much of the four-century-old Romano-British cultural veneer.

Note that the term ‘Saxons’ was originally a broad umbrella name for a confederation of Germanic tribes along the North Sea—a vague and flexible label, much like ‘Franks,’ ‘Alamanni,’ or ‘Goths.’ These large confederacies began forming from the third century AD onward, led by (often temporary) war chiefs who controlled significant territories. At times, they allied with the Romans; at others, they became serious threats to the empire’s security. These confederations also laid the groundwork for the early Germanic kingdoms that would border the North Sea. For a deeper dive into how these confederacies shaped identities and political structures among the Germanic peoples, check out our blog post Our Civilization—It All Began with Piracy.

Cultural ties between the early Anglo-Saxons and Frisians remained strong until the seventh century. Their material culture and economies were remarkably similar. They spoke closely related languages and used the same runic alphabet. Well-connected through trade, political alliances, and elite networks, their kinship is evident from archaeological finds, linguistic studies, and DNA research. By around the year 600, small Anglo-Saxon and Frisian kingdoms had emerged along both sides of the southern North Sea coast. Among these were the three Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of southern East Anglia, Essex, and eastern Kent, and the two Frisian kingdoms located at the mouth of the River Rhine and in Westergo, in the northwest of the modern Netherlands (Nicolay 2017, 2023, Betten 2018, Lugt 2021). See the map below.

From the second half of the sixth century onward, so-called ideologically charged traditions began to emerge within aristocratic households (Fleming 2010). The leitmotif or central theme of these ideologies was the idea of unruly, foreign warriors who were legitimized to rule and entitled to privileges in contrast to the native populations they governed. Royal genealogies were often constructed, tracing lineage back to a deity—most commonly Woden—as the founding ancestor (Fahey 2015). It is during the last quarter of the sixth century that the earliest historic kings become known, such as those ruling Mercia and East Anglia.

Notice, by the way, the parallels in the names of the Frisians and the Anglo-Saxons, both referring to their territories and early-medieval divisions and kingdoms: Westfriesland (West Frisians), Friesland (Middle Frisians), Ostfriesland (East Frisians), and Nordfriesland (North Frisians), versus Wessex (West Saxons), Middlesex (Middle Saxons), Essex (East Saxons), and Sussex (South Saxons).

kingdoms at southern North Sea ca. AD 600 by Lugt 2021

The history of Hengist and Horsa, as it is documented in those early-medieval, predominantly Anglo-Saxon texts, broadly goes as follows:

Hengist and Horsa were warriors of noble descent but without a country. They were sons of Wihtgils (also Victgils or Wichtgils), son of Witta (also Vitta), son of Wecta (also Vecta or Wechta), son of Woden, son of Frealaf, son of Fredulf, son of Finn, son of Folcwald, son of Geat. The reason for the brothers' statelessness is not clear, but it might have had to do with the armed conflict between the Danes and the Frisians, in which the Jutes played an important role as well. During this conflict, the Frisian King Finn was slain. This happened around 420. In other words, it was a regional conflict that had an impact on the tribes living along the southern North Sea.

Ġewiton him ða wīġend wīca neosian

frēondum befeallen, Frȳsland ġesēon,

hāmas ond hēaburh. Henġest ðā ġȳt

wælfāgne winter wunode mid Finne;

hē unhlitme eard ġemunde,

Then Finn’s warriors left the land, returning to Frisia, bereft of their friends, to their forts and houses. But Hengest stayed at Finn’s place during that death-stained winter; he deeply longed for his native land, (Beowulf, after transl. by Mitchel 2017)

With three ceóls 'keels' (Old English synonym for ship) the Hengist and Horsa sailed for Britannia in the year 428 or 449 (dates differ). The arrival of these warriors was on the initiative of the noted arrogant Gurthrigerno Britannorum duce, overking of the Britons and better known as Vortigern, also written as Vurtigern, who was in search of warriors to help withstand the incursions of northern tribes. Probably continuing the modus operandi of the Romans of recruiting Celtic/Germanic tribesmen for the imperial army (Henson 2006). See also our blog post Frisian Mercenaries in the Roman Army. Fighting for Honour and Glory.

The Germanic warband came ashore at Ypwines fleot, likely modern Ebbsfleet on the coast of the Isle of Thanet in Kent. The newcomers were granted the isle to settle, and in return their leaders, Hengist and Horsa, were called upon to aid the Britons—the Romano-Britons—in their struggles against the Picts and the Gaels. Ever since the Roman legions had withdrawn from Britannia, the threat posed by these tribes had grown into a pressing security concern.

After Hengist and Horsa, forty more ceóls arrived—drawn by tales of fertile land and Britons said to be cowardly, timid, and weak. These new sǽhenġestas (literally sea-horses, an Old English kenning for ships) carried fierce Angles, Jutes, and Saxons: warriors hated alike by God and men. They were led by Hengist’s son and nephew, Œric Oisc (also called Æsc, Ocha, or Octha) and Ebissa. In the year 455, during the Battle of Ægels threp—modern Aylesford—Horsa was slain. Thereafter, Œric Oisc fought at his father’s side in many battles, during which, the sources claim, thousands of their foes were cut down.

But then the snake bit its own tail. Perhaps the Britons had stopped paying their Germanic mercenaries. After fighting on their behalf, these warriors—the cubili leaenae barbarae 'barbaric brood of lion cubs'—turned against their former masters and struck an alliance with the Celtic tribes. What followed was devastation on a massive scale: homes and buildings laid waste, clergymen murdered. Hengist and his son thundered across the land, warriors loyal to no one but themselves, in full gallop.

In some of the sagas, Rowena, the striking daughter of Hengist, plays a treacherous part. Married to King Vortigern, she found herself at the centre of a bitter conflict. After a great battle between Vortigern—fighting alongside Hengist and Horsa—and his eldest son Vortimer, the father was defeated, stripped of his kingdom, and sent into exile. Rowena, however, remained at court. There she used her beauty and cunning to seduce the new king. During a banquet, she slipped poison—carried in a vial hidden in her bosom—into Vortimer’s wine. With his death, Vortigern returned from exile to reclaim his throne.

From Hengist’s son Œric Oisc, whose last name means 'god', the Kentish royal house descends: the Oiscingas. Œric Oisc acceded to the throne in the year 488.

flag of Invicta Kent (with Sleipnir, the white horse of Wodan, as a reminder?)

It is clear that the exploits of Hengist and Horsa belong to the category of myths of origin—a genre well represented across western Europe. These stories typically share two traits: they credit foreigners with founding a new nation, and in both the Anglo-Saxon and Frisian traditions, they are deeply maritime in character (Fouracre 2005, IJssennagger 2017). For the Frisians, the tale speaks of three brothers—Friso, Saxo, and Bruno—who came from overseas to establish Frisia, Saxony, and Brunswick. The number three, of course, is a hallmark of Germanic origin legends (Vollrath 1993). Likewise, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle often mentions three ships landing on English shores, each bringing founders of a new kingdom. And for three times hundred years, the Saxons would hold sway in England. For more on these myths of origin, see our blog post We'll drive our ships to new land.

As an anecdote, statesman Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) was attracted to these sagas about founding fathers from overseas, too. He once expressed that he would envision a great seal of the United States with one side depicting Moses and the Israelites, and the other side Hengist and Horsa (Webster 2012). Yes, America as the adventus Saxonum revisited. Over time, all three settlement stories (Israel, Britain, and America) have been enriched with multiple, non-immigrant perspectives, to put it diplomatically. Of course, the Israelites did not come sailing over water but walked through it, and stayed dry as well.

Curious are the names Hengist and Horsa. These are not proper first names. They mean 'stallion and horse'. We came across several explanations for their unusual names. In a fictional novel their names are clarified for their father's passion for horses (Poage 2023). A more serious explanation we found is that they were simply nicknames, poetic inventions, or noms de guerre of warriors (Durham 2023). Concerning animal war names, think also of the warrior Beowulf meaning 'bee-wolf', a kenning for a bear.

Another explanation would be that Hengist and Horsa are in fact entirely fictional, their horsy names no less so. The argument a contrario—that because the names are not real names, Hengist and Horsa cannot have been historical figures either (Fleming 2010)—is too simplistic, for it implies a causality that does not exist. Others hold the opinion that they were real (Henson 2006, Tolkien; see Webster 2012). There are also theories that Ebissa and Octha were in fact the true names of the dreaded duo. Van der Tuuk (2024) points out that horses may have had a sacral status, and that their (fictional) names thus served to underscore their importance as founders of the Anglo-Saxon world.

The names Hengist and Horsa can also originate from the so-called 'divine twins,' which is part of (reconstructed) proto-Indo-European mythology. Part of these mythologies involves horses and battle, as well as a woman who plays a role. Some examples are the brothers Castor and Pollux, who were famous horsemen as well; the saints Boris and Gleb; the twins of the Gaulish horse goddess Epona; and the founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus. Hengist and Horsa—the Frisian counterparts of Romulus and Remus (Jongstra 2024). The history or legend of two other Frisian brothers Corsold and Coarchion, who were more or less in the same place and time as Hengist and Horsa, namely Brittany around the year 500, aligns with the divine twins mythology too (see note down below).

Then there is another, not fully understood tradition. Farmsteads in the north of Germany and the northeast of the Netherlands—indeed, including parts of former Frisia—were adorned with crossed horse head gables, or gable signs with two rampart horse figures, known as 'Hengst und Hors'. A tradition that existed way until the late nineteenth century (Webster 2012, Simek 2021, Van Renswoude 2021). Interestingly, by and large the region Hengist and Horsa could have originated from. This is a nice bridge to the next topic of this blog post: the Frisian perspective on Hengist and Horsa. But before we look at the figures of the famous couple through the eyes of the Frisians, one more remark.

Above we inserted the flag of the county of Kent. Interestingly, the northwest of Germany and northeast of the Netherlands use the same heraldic symbol—called the Saksenros or Sachsenross meaning 'Saxon horse/steed'—as their colours and on their coat of armours. The region of Twente in the east of the Netherlands, and the regions of Westphalia and Lower Saxony in the northwest of Germany, for example, have a same flag as Kent, namely a white prancing horse against a red background. A reminder of the era of the Wandering of Peoples (Kuipers, Jensma & Vries 2011).

A final remark concerns the toponym De Hengst in the western Wadden Sea. It refers to a sandbank located between the islands of Texel and Vlieland, just north of the gully called Vogelzwin. The origin of this name remains unclear. It might refer to the skinny, exhausted salmon returning to sea after spawning—known colloquially as hengst in parts of the Netherlands. Or perhaps it was named after a fisherman and beachcomber called Jack IJlst, nicknamed Hengst, who lived in the early nineteenth century. Another theory points to the hengst, a type of flat-bottomed Flemish boat once common in these waters. Since no explanation stands out, allow us to add a completely unbiased fourth option: it refers to the legendary Hengist, who once roamed these shores and set sail for England from this very coast.

Further east along the Wadden Sea, in the Dollart Bight on the Dutch-German border, lies another toponym: Hengstegat, meaning ‘hengst-hole’ or ‘hengst-channel’. According to local legend, it is named after the mighty stallion of King Radbod. Or… is it about salmon again? And before we confuse ourselves entirely, let’s end with one last note: Hengst is also the name of an Iron Age Wallanlage—a fortified hilltop site—on the island of Rügen in the far northeast of Germany.

The conclusion is that we yearn for new etymological theories explaining these hengst toponyms along the coasts of the Wadden Sea and the Baltic Sea.

A Frisian perspective on Hengist and Horsa

The saga is documented by Frisian chroniclers, historians and writers from the early-fifteenth century onward and thus can predate this date. To list the most important ones: the Chronicon Frisiae by monk Worp of monastery Thabor at Tirns written between 1400-1417, the Croniicke, ende warachtige beschryvinghe van Vrieslant by Ocka Scharlensis written in 1597, the Chronique ofte historische geschiedenisse van Vrieslant by Pierium Winsemium written in 1622, the Volledige Chronyk van Oostfrieslant by Eggerik Beninga written in 1723, and the Chronik der friesischer Uthland by Christian Peter Hansen written in 1856. New variations to the epic saga are Hengist en Horsa. 419 nei Kristus by Simke Kloosterman written in 1933, Het Zwaard, de Zee en het Valse Hart by Theun de Vries written in 1966, and Rowena. De sage van een Friese prinses by Pieter Winsemius written in 2016.

The names of adventurers Hengist and Horsa also appear as Hengest (and Horsa), and as Engistus and Horsus in the Frisian sagas. In the Dutch and German languages the word hengst means stallion. In the Mid Frisian language the word for stallion is hynst. The Old Frisian word for horse is hors or hars. The proto-Germanic form for horse is hrossa (Must 1959). So, (h)ros hors(e), it is all the same.

The Saga of Hengist and Horsa

how the Frisians pass it on

Udolf Haaron, duke of Frisia, who ruled from AD 360 to 432, had two sons, namely Hengist and Horsa. Hengist was the oldest and two years older than Horsa. When his sons had reached the ages of eleven and thirteen, the duke sent them to Roman Emperor Valentinian in Rome. At the emperor’s court, they would be educated and also trained in the art of combat. After nine years, in the year 383, Hengist and Horsa returned to the citadel of their father in Stavoren, the capital of Frisia.

Two years later, the people bitterly cried for the duke to take measures. The lands were overpopulated. Udolf Haaron ordered that a part of his people had to leave Frisia to avoid a great famine. According to the ancient laws of the ancestors, lot would decide which warriors had to leave the land. These laws did not make any exceptions, and also Hengist and Horsa were chosen by lot. Because they were the sons of the duke, they became the leaders of these strays. Together with Angles and Saxons, they laid their oars in sea and crossed the North Sea to Britannia with three long ships and with favourable winds.

Their landing on the shores of Kent caused quite a commotion. King Vortigern of the Britons asked the duces Hengist and Horsa, who were notable for their nobility, beauty, and piety, what had brought them to his kingdom. Hengist explained their mission and the reasons behind it: they were hoping to find new fertile land in which to settle. Although the king was displeased that the Frisians were heathens and made it clear that his God was not theirs, he saw a potential advantage—they could help him defend against the Picts and the Scots. “If you fight for the Britons, your reward will be great,” the king concluded, somewhat vaguely. With few alternatives, Hengist and his men swore allegiance to the king. Not long after, the Scots and Picts attacked the kingdom. Hengist, Horsa, and their men fought on the front lines and were decisive in defeating the enemy.

Hengist was a schlauer Friese—a sly Frisian—and had noticed that King Vortigern was not very popular among his subjects. Because of his achievements in battle, Hengist was highly regarded by the king. He suggested bringing more brave and warlike warriors from Frisia to Britannia to assist in the fight against the Scots and Picts, and the king gave his consent.

Hengist also requested that the king properly reward him and his men for their service and grant them land to settle. Vortigern, however, refused, citing the laws of his ancestors, which forbade giving land to foreigners and warned that doing so would provoke his own people. As a compromise, Hengist asked for permission to build a castle as large as one ox hide could cover, and to this the king agreed.

Cleverly, Hengist cut the ox hide into very thin, long strips and used them to mark out the layout of the castle. The castle was named Cancaster, known today as Lancaster. When the new groups of Frisian warriors, as previously agreed with the king, arrived in Britannia, they settled in this new town of Cancaster. These reinforcements came in two waves: first a fleet of eleven ships, followed later by a fleet of forty.

Among these newcomers were Hengist’s son Ocha and the daughter of his sister, named Ronixa, who was strikingly beautiful. Some might even say her beauty rivalled that of another Frisian woman who would settle in Kent centuries later, in the village of Elham—none other than Audrey Hepburn (1929–1993).

Then Hengist invited the king to visit his castle and to offer him a banquet. During this banquet, Ronixa was also introduced to King Vortigern. She was beautifully dressed and carried a golden goblet filled with precious wine. Ronixa kneeled before the king and asked him to accept her gift. The king accepted. Ronixa drank some of the wine, handed the goblet to the king, and kissed him according to her nation's tradition.

King Vortigern was, of course, deeply impressed and at once fell in love with Hengist's niece. Some say Satan entered Vortigern's heart because Ronixa was a heathen. The king asked Hengist for permission to marry her. After Hengist had consulted his younger brother Horsa and other chieftains in his retinue, he agreed to the marriage under the condition that the king would grant him the land in the corner of his kingdom named Cantuaria, which is today Canterbury. The love-struck king agreed, and the marriage was celebrated with a great wedding. King Vortigern and Ronixa were both very happy together.

The eldest son from the king’s first marriage, Prince Gortenir, together with the earls and thegns of the kingdom, opposed all these developments and repeatedly demanded that the Frisians be expelled from the country. A male heir from this marriage would affect the succession to the throne, and Ronixa was a heathen. King Vortigern refused to heed the advice of his son and principal advisors in the wiðrædde ('council of witnesses'), perhaps aware of how difficult it is to curb migration (Dale 2024).

Eventually, Prince Gortenir and the noblemen plotted against the king and proclaimed Gortenir as their new ruler. An army was raised to attack the Frisians. During the ensuing battle, Horsa was killed, and the Frisians suffered a devastating defeat. Nearly all were driven out of Britannia, including Hengist.

Gortenir's victory was short. Not long after, he was poisoned, and so his father Vortigern became king again. Ronixa urged Vortigern to send for Hengist, which he did. Hengist was instructed to come in secrecy to Britannia and only with a small warband. Sly Hengist, however, ignored these instructions and landed with a great number of ships with many bold warriors of great stature. King Vortigern and his noblemen were furious and wanted to drive out the Frisians. Ronixa notified Hengist of the intentions of the Britons. In reaction, Hengist sent a courier to the king to inform him that the Frisians were not here to make trouble nor war. He only wanted to ask the king to accept Frisian warriors in the king's service for the defence of the realm. Hengist asked for a time and place to negotiate.

"Talking can't hurt," King Vortigern must have thought, and he went along with Hengist's proposal. The king decided that they would meet on the 1st of May. That day, when both parties would come together, no weapons were allowed in the great hall. But Hengist instructed his men to take knives with them and to hide these under their feet. When Hengist would give the signal in their own, undecipherable language: "Nimath ure saxa!" ('draw your knives'), they would surprise and kill all the Britons present (see note down below). So it was done. During the assembly, between three hundred and three hundred and fifty—numbers differ—Britons were slaughtered, including all their noblemen. The purge is remembered as 'The Treason of the Long Knives'. King Vortigern was taken prisoner and forced to leave his crown to Hengist.

Incidentally, according to the Historia brittonum of Nennius, King Vortigern underwent a harsh death. The king got one of his own daughters pregnant, and for this he was punished by God. His castle was burned down together with the king and all his women, including the sister of Hengist, prinses Rowena. Somehow, this Vortigern guy never was considered a very loveable type in the sagas.

Anyway, Hengist took control over the kingdom and reoccupied the lands they had lost before. Because Hengist and the Frisians were filled with revenge and anger over the death of Prince Horsa and other Frisian men, they exerted great terror in Britannia. Moreover, because Hengist and his men worshipped Woden and Frigge, many Britons renounced the Christian faith and turned to heathendom. Only later, when Hengist's successors were converted, would the people return to Christendom again.

The Frisian tradition of the saga of Hengist and Horsa has been passed down in several variations. For this account, we have taken the liberty to merge different elements where possible, provided they did not directly contradict one another. The version recorded by Waling Dykstra (1895) serves as our central reference. However, we have followed the ending found in other variants, in which Hengist and his son Oisc become the first rulers of Kent. In Dykstra’s version, by contrast, Hengist never becomes king. Shortly after the infamous Treason of the Long Knives, he is captured and beheaded. The remaining Frisians are either slain, expelled, or sold into slavery.

Other elements that differ between the different versions is first of all the number and timing of ships the Frisians, and other tribes, sailed with. In other versions, the Frisians initially arrived with three ships and later eleven more ships came. Also about the personage Princess Ronixa exist conflicting stories. She is presented both as daughter and as niece of Hengist. Furthermore, she is known as Rowena or Rouuenne too, and sometimes as a treacherous woman (Webster 2012, Winsemius 2016). Not surprisingly, in Anglo-Saxon versions of the saga, Rowena/Ronixa is the one who poisons King Vortimer/Gortenir, whilst in the Frisian version of the saga it is left open who the murderer is. No biases involved, of course.

True to the tradition and old sagas, characters Rowena MacLeod and Rowena Ravenclaw are witches in the television series Supernatural and in the film series Harry Potter, respectively.

Also, the area within Frisia wherefrom the Frisians drove their ships to Britannia differs. In the Mid Frisian versions of the saga, the town of Stavoren is where everything takes place. Whilst in the North Frisian versions they set sail from either the town of Tønder, or from the harbour at Wenningstedt on the Wadden Sea island of Sylt (Hansen 1856). The North Frisian sagas speak of sylter Friesenhäuptlinge (Muuß 1933), or of Westfriesen, that is, Frisians from the province of Friesland, who sailed from the region of Nordfriesland (Hansen 1856). A last remark concerns the differences on where and when the Frisians were granted land to settle. In other versions, namely, the Frisians were given the right to settle on the Isle of Thanet.

Of interest is also the reason why Frisians, together with Angles and Saxons, had to leave their lands. In the version we presented in this blog post, the reason was that the land had become overcrowded and famine was on the brink. In old Swiss sagas telling about their own origins, it is Frisians and Swedes who had to leave their lands because of a famine too. They moved to the Alps and lay the foundation of Switzerland. Here too, men, women and children who had to leave, were chosen by lot. Check our blog blog post Make way for the homesick dead!

Note 1 — About the same time, two other brothers from Frisia caused turmoil in the wider region. These were Corsold and Coarchion, who were warlords operating in Brittany and subdued the Bretons. There are also parallels in both stories on how the Frisians exerted terror over the Britons and Bretons. And, of course, a beautiful woman who plays an important role, too. For more, read our blog post A Frisian warlord who ruled in Brittany, until his wife cheated on him.

Note 2 — If the reader wants to feel the emotion of what happened during the Treason of the Long Knives, watch the episode of the Red Wedding of Game of Thrones. The Red Wedding in its turn was inspired by the Black Dinner in Scotland in the Late Middle Ages. A dinner with King James II when the leading heads of the Douglas clan were murdered.

Note 3 — Hengist's watchword "nimath ure saxa" in the Frisian saga (Dykstra 1895) is copied from the English sagas, namely "eu Saxones, enimith saxas" 'hey Saxons, draw knives' (Mees 2023). In the North Frisian version of the saga, the signal to draw their swords was: "Nhmet oure saar!"

'The Treason of the Long Knives' has parallels with 'The Night of the Long Knives' that took place in Nazi Germany in the summer of 1934. An operation during which the whole command of the Sturmabteilung 'storm troopers' was brutally murdered extrajudicially in order to consolidate Hitler's power. We speculate, but was the Nazi regime's code name inspired by Hengist's watchword from the old sagas?

Note 4 — With regard to the actuality about the use of the term Anglo-Saxon, as it is supposedly contaminated with racial issues, perhaps it is better to follow historian Procopius and use the term 'Anglo-Frisian' from now on, although we aren't fully confident this would solve the matter. Not sure either whether Frisian people would agree with this, because up till now they are being left out of these sensitive discussions.

Suggested hiking

North Dawns Way, a long-distance pilgrims route of 200 kilometers running from Farnham to Dover. If this is too much and you want to gaze at the white cliffs, hike The White Cliffs of Dover. An easy 6.5 kilometer walk. It covers the last stretch of the North Dawns Way.