Hengest or Hengist (d. 488?) was a semi-legendary ruler of Kent in southeast England. His name is Anglo-Saxon for "stallion".

Hengest and Horsa
Hengest is a character in the Fight at Finnsburg narrative mentioned in the Finnsburg Fragment and the Beowulf poem. In these texts, Hengest is a Danish warrior who takes control of the Danish forces after the prince Hnæf is killed, and succeeds in killing the Frisian lord Finn in revenge for his lord's death. The events in these accounts had a historical basis, and have been supposed by historians to occur in approximately AD 450 This makes these events contemporary with the Anglo-Saxon invasion of England, though what connection (if any) exists between the two Hengests is unknown.
Nevertheless, some have speculated that the two Hengests are one and the same. A point against this theory is the fact that one Hengest is described as a Jute and the other a Dane, though this does not serve as a conclusive disproof, as distinctions between adjacent groups (both Jutes and Danes lived in Denmark) were sometimes vague.
Hengest is the subject of the 1620 play Hengist, King of Kent, or The Mayor of Quinborough by Thomas Middleton.
Hengest is also mentioned in an original filk music song, "Song of the Shield-Wall," written by Debra Doyle and Melissa Williamson (under their Society for Creative Anachronism persona names, respectively Malkin Gray and Peregrynne Windrider), first published by Off Centaur Publications in the 1970s. (The song is often facetiously subtitled, "Four Hundred Years of Saxon History in Three Minutes and Fifteen Seconds.")

See also