Chapters 114-123 - Germanic Mythology

Hengest had two brothers, Ochta and Ebissa. 144 In spite of their corruption these names
are reminiscent of Slagfinn's brothers, Aggo-Ajo (Völund) and Ibor-Ebbo (Egil).
According to the historicized saga, Hengest was the leader of the first Saxon army
which landed in Britain. All scholars have long since agreed that this Hengest is a purely
legendary figure. The Germanic myths‘ migration saga was transmitted by the heathen
Saxons to England, and survived there until Christian times. Once the name of the actual
leader of the Saxon immigration was forgotten, Hengest got to take their place, because
in the myths he had been a leader of the Saxon emigrants from their original country, the
Scandian peninsula (see no. 16), and because this immigration was blended in Christian
times with the memory of the emigration from Germany to Britain. Thus, while the
Longobardians made Völund and Egil (Ajo and Ibor) the chiefs of their emigration, the
Saxons made their brother Slagfinn (Hengest-Gjuki) theirs. The Burgundians also
regarded Slagfinn (Gjuki) as their emigration chief and royal tribal father. Of this there is
evidence partly in Lex Burgundionum, the preface of which enumerates [755] Burgundian
kings that bear Gjukung names; partially in Middle High German poem, which make the
Gjukungs Burgundian kings. The Saxon migration saga and the Burgundian are therefore,
like those of the other Germanic peoples, united with the Ivaldi family and with the
fimbul-winter.
Continued in
Viktor Rydberg’s Investigations into Germanic Mythology, Vol. II.
Part I: Indo-European Mythology (2006)
Part II: Germanic Mythology (2004).
Translated and Annotated by William P. Reaves
Available at www.amazon.com and wherever books are sold.
144 Nennius, Historia Brittonum, ―Hengist, after .this, said to Vortigern, "if you approve, I will send for my
son and his brother, both valiant men, who, at my invitation will fight against the Scots, and the people who
dwell in the North, near the wall called Guaul. The incautious sovereign having assented to this; and Ochta
and Ebissa arrived with forty ships,‖ [William Gunn tr.] Most commentators take Ochta as a son of
Hengest, and Ebissa as Hengest‘s son or brother.