Wihtgils
Encyclopedia
Wihtgils was a semi-legendary Jutish
chieftain who, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
, was the father of Hengest
and Horsa:
Jutes
The Jutes, Iuti, or Iutæ were a Germanic people who, according to Bede, were one of the three most powerful Germanic peoples of their time, the other two being the Saxons and the Angles...
chieftain who, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a collection of annals in Old English chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the Chronicle was created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alfred the Great...
, was the father of Hengest
Hengest
Hengist and Horsa 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 Great Britain in the 5th century AD...
and Horsa:
- A.D. 449 [...] Their leaders were two brothers, HengestHengestHengist and Horsa 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 Great Britain in the 5th century AD...
and Horsa; who were the sons of Wihtgils; Wihtgils was the son of WittaWitta, son of WectaWitta son of Wecta is mentioned as a Jutish chieftain in the 449 entry of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as the father of Wihtgils and the grandfather of Hengest and Horsa. He also appears in the same role in Henry of Huntingdon's Historia Anglorum. He is most probably mythological, but as a historical...
, Witta of WectaWectaWecta is mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and the Historia Brittonum.He is considered mythological, though he shows up in the genealogies as a Saxon ancestor of Hengest and Horsa and the kings of Kent, as well as of Aella of Deira and his son Edwin of Northumbria.He appears in the Prose Edda...
, Wecta of WodenWodenWoden or Wodan is a major deity of Anglo-Saxon and Continental Germanic polytheism. Together with his Norse counterpart Odin, Woden represents a development of the Proto-Germanic god *Wōdanaz....
. From this Woden arose all our royal kindred, and that of the Southumbrians also.