e ipsi
colebant."[177] In this pedigree of the ancestors of Hengist and Horsa,
it is deserving of remark that Woden, from whom the various Anglo-Saxon
kings of England, and other kings of the north-west of Europe generally
claimed their royal descent, is entered as a historical personage,
living (according to the usual reckoning applied to genealogies) about
the beginning of the third century, and who could count his descent back
to Geat; while the Irish and other authorities affect to trace his
pedigree for some generations even beyond this last-named ancestor.[178]
According to Mallet, the true name of this great conqueror and ruler of
the north-western tribes of Europe was "Sigge, son of Fridulph; but he
assumed the name of Odin, who was the supreme god among the Teutonic
nations, either to pass, among his followers, for a man inspired by the
gods, or because he was chief priest, and presided over the worship
paid to that deity."[179] In his conquering progress towards the
north-west of Europe, he subdued, continues Mallet, "all the people he
found in his passage, giving them to one or other of his sons for
subjects. Many sovereign families (he adds) of the north are said to be
descended from those princes." And Hengist and Horsa were thus, as was
many centuries ago observed by William of Malmesbury, "the
great-great-grandsons of that Woden from whom the royal families of
almost all the barbarous nations derive their lineage, and to whom the
Angles have consecrated the fourth day of the week (Wodens-day), and the
sixth unto his wife Frea (Frey-day), by a sacrilege which lasts even _to
this time_."[180]

Henry of Huntingdon, in his _Historiae Anglorum_, gives the pedigree of
Hengist and Horsa according to the list which he found in Nennius; but
he changes back the spelling to the Saxon form. They were, he says,
"Filii Widgils, filii Wecta, filii Vecta, filii Woden, filii Frealof,
filii Fredulf, filii Fin, filii Flocwald, filii Ieta (Geta)." Florence
of Worcester follows the shorter genealogy of Bede, giving in his text
the names of the ancestors of Hengist and Horsa as Wictgils, Witta, and
Wecta; and in his table of the pedigrees of the kings of Kent spelling
these same names Wihtgils, Witta, and Wehta.[181]

In giving the ancient genealogy of Hengist and Horsa, we thus find our
old chroniclers speaking of their grandfather under the various
orthographic forms of Guitta, Uuicta, Witta, Vitta; and their
great-grandfa