Editing Hengist and Horsa (section)

===''Finnesburg Fragment'' and ''Beowulf''===
A Hengest appears in line 34 of the ''[[Finnesburg Fragment]]'', which describes the legendary [[Battle of Finnsburg]]. In ''[[Beowulf]]'', a [[scop]] recites a composition summarizing the Finnsburg events, including information not provided in the fragment. Hengest is mentioned in lines 1082 and 1091.<ref name=CHICKERINGJR111AND113>Chickering Jr. (2006:111 and 1113).</ref>

Some scholars have proposed that the figure mentioned in both of these references is one and the same as the Hengist of the Hengist and Horsa accounts, though Horsa is not mentioned in either source. In his work ''[[Finn and Hengest]]'', [[J. R. R. Tolkien]] argued that Hengist was a historical figure, and that Hengist came to Britain after the events recorded in the ''Finnesburg Fragment'' and ''Beowulf''. Patrick Sims-Williams is more sceptical of the account, suggesting that Bede's Canterbury source, which he relied on for his account of Hengist and Horsa in the ''Ecclesiastical History'', had confused two separate traditions.<ref name=WALLACE-HADRILL215>Wallace-Hadrill (1993:215).</ref>