According to a well-known legend, Hengist and Horsa, two brothers, landed in 449 as mercenaries for a British king, Vortigern.

After a rebellion over pay and the death of Horsa in battle, Hengist established the kingdom of Kent.

The sequence of events of the fifth and sixth centuries is particularly difficult to access, peppered with a mixture of mythology, such as the characters of Hengist and Horsa, and legend, such as St Germanus's so-called " Alleluia Victory " against the Heathens, and half-remembered history, such as the exploits of Ambrosius Aurelianus and King Arthur.

Hengist ( or Hengest ) and Horsa ( or Hors ) are figures of Anglo-Saxon, and subsequently British, legend, which records the two as the Germanic brothers who led the Angle, Saxon, and Jutish armies that conquered the first territories of Britain in the 5th century.

According to these sources Hengist and Horsa arrived in Britain as mercenaries serving Vortigern, King of the Britons.

While the early sources indicate that Horsa died fighting the Britons, no details are provided about Hengist's death until Geoffrey's Historia, which states that Hengist was beheaded by Eldol, the British duke of Gloucester, and buried in an unlocated mound.

As a result, scholars have theorized a pan-Germanic mythological origin for Hengist and Horsa, stemming originally from divine twins found in Proto-Indo-European religion.

In his Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, Bede records that the first chieftains among the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes in England were said to be Hengist and Horsa.

According to Bede, Hengist and Horsa were the sons of Wictgils, son of Witta, son of Woden.

Hengist and Horsa arrived at a place called Ipwinesfleet, and went on to defeat the Picts wherever they fought them.

Hengist and Horsa sent word to the Angles describing " the worthlessness of the Britons, and the richness of the land " and asked for assistance.

These forces were led by the brothers Hengist and Horsa, sons of Wihtgils, son of Witta, son of Wecta, son of Woden.

In the entry for the year 455 the Chronicle details that Hengist and Horsa fought with Vortigern at Aylesford and that Horsa died there.

In the year 473, the final entry in the Chronicle mentioning Hengist or Horsa, Hengist and Esc are recorded as having fought " the Welsh ", having taken " immense booty " and the Welsh having " fled from the English like fire ".

The Historia Brittonum records that, during the reign of Vortigern in Britain, three vessels that had been exiled from Germania arrived in Britain, commanded by Hengist and Horsa.

The narrative then gives a genealogy of the two: Hengist and Horsa were sons of Guictglis, son of Guicta, son of Guechta, son of Vouden, son of Frealof, son of Fredulf, son of Finn, son of Foleguald, and Foleguald son of Geta.

" In 447 AD, Vortigern received Hengist and Horsa " as friends " and gave to the brothers the Isle of Thanet.

But at length his son Vortimer engaged Hengist and Horsa and their men in battle, drove them back to Thanet and there enclosed them and beset them on the western flank.

Hengist and Horsa appear in books 6 and 8:

In chapter 10 of book 6 of Historia Regum Britanniae, Geoffrey records that three brigandines ( or long galleys ) full of armed men commanded by two brothers, Hengist and Horsa, arrived in Britain.

" Hengist notes that his retinue is the result of this process, and through this custom Hengist and his brother Horsa were made generals " out of respect to our ancestors, who enjoyed the same honour ," and so they have arrived in Vortigern's kingdom " under the good guidance of Mercury.

Hengist told Vortigern that he would now be both Vortigern's father and adviser and that Vortigern would know no defeat with his counsel, " for the people of my country are strong, warlike, and robust.

Hengist continued to send for more ships from his country, so that some islands where his people had previously dwelt are now free of inhabitants.

Hengist continues that they were driven from their native country because " the laws of the kingdom require it " and details that Saxony had become overpopulated ; the tradition of their people dictates that when their lands are overstocked with people, the princes of all their provinces meet, and they order that all of the youth of the kingdom assemble before them.

Vortigern responds that it is not in his power to appoint Hengist to these positions, reasoning that Hengist is a pagan, that he barely knows Hengist, that Hengist's people are strangers and that Vortigern's nobles would not accept the appointment.

" Hengist promises the men victory and safety, reasoning that the Saxon numbers are superior, being 200, 000 men.

Hengist finds that his men, who are pagans, are routed, and that the Britons, who are Christian, " by the especial favour of god ," hold the upper hand.

* According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 4, 000 Britons are slain at Crecganford in battle against Hengist and his son Aesc.

* Battle of Wippedesfleot: The Saxons under command of Hengist and Aesc are defeated by the Britons near Ebbsfleet ( Kent ).

Other horse twins are: Greek, Dioskuri ( Polydeukes and Kastor ); borrowed into Latin as Castor and Pollux ; Irish, the twins of Macha ; Old English, Hengist and Horsa ( both words mean ' stallion '), and possibly Old Norse Sleipnir, the eight-legged horse born of Loki ; Slavic Lel and Polel ; possibly Christianized in Albanian as Sts.

The stones are said to be a monument to Horsa, a great warrior and King of Kent who supposedly died near the stone but is most likely fictional ( see Horsa and Hengist articles for details ), who used the White horse of Kent as his standard.

The two legendary figures Hengist and Horsa ( both named after horses ), who were said to have conquered Great-Britain in the early Middle Ages, are commonly though disputably claimed to be of Twents origin, or from directly surrounding areas.

Patrick Sims-Williams is more skeptical of the account, suggesting that Bede's Canterbury source, for which he relied on for his account of Hengist and Horsa in his work Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, had confused two separate traditions.

However, Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People, completed around 731, names Octa as the son of " Orric, surnamed Oisc " and the grandson of Hengist.

In the Historia Brittonum Hengist had an unnamed daughter ( her name is first given in Historia Regum Britanniae as Rowena ) who seduced Vortigern, eventually leading to the Night of the Long Knives when Hengist's men massacred the Britons at a peace accord.

In chapter 1 of book 8 of Historia Regum Britanniae, Merlin prophecies to Vortigern ( who fled to Cambria during the Saxon onslaught ) that Hengist will be killed and that Uther Pendragon will be crowned.

The story as reported in such sources as the Historia Brittonum and Gildas indicates that the British king Vortigern allowed the Germanic warlords, later named as Hengist and Horsa by Bede, to settle their people on the Isle of Thanet in exchange for their service as mercenaries.

Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote about the town, claiming that it had been fortified by Ambrosius Aurelianus, king of the Britons after his victory over the Saxon forces of Hengist ( Historia Regum Britanniae viii, 7 ), that the captive Saxon leader Hengist was hacked to pieces by Eldol outside the town walls, and was buried at " Hengist's Mound " in the town.

According to Geoffrey of Monmouth's fanciful Historia Regum Britanniae, the British king Vortigern married Rowena, the daughter of Hengist, with the civitas of the Cantiaci ( Kent ) as the bride-gift.

The list is inserted between the death of Hengist and the reign of Ida in Bernicia, which suggests that the Historia Brittonum's compiler believed Arthur's floruit to have been in the early-mid 6th century.

Some manuscripts of the Historia include genealogies of the Saxon kingdoms ; the genealogy of the kings of Kent names Octa as the son and successor to Hengist and the father to the subsequent king Ossa.