arrival I am blithe, and with me ye shall remain, and your will I will
perform, by my quick life! But first I would of you learn, through
your sooth worship, what knights ye be, and whence ye are come, and
whether ye will be true, old and eke new?"

Then answered the one who was the eldest brother: "Listen to me now,
lord king, and I will make known to you what knights we are, and
whence we are come. I hight Hengest; Hors is my brother; we are of
Alemaine, a land noblest of all, of the same end that Angles is named.
In our land are strange tidings; after fifteen years the folk is
assembled, all our nation-folk, and cast their lots; upon whom that it
falleth, he shall depart from the land. The five shall remain, the
sixth shall forth proceed out of the country to a foreign land; be he
man ever so loved, he shall forth depart. For there is folk very much,
more than they would desire; the women go there with child as the wild
deer, every year they bear child there! That is fallen on us, that we
should depart; we might not remain, for life nor for death, nor for
ever anything, for fear of the sovereign. Thus we fared there, and
therefore are we now here, to seek under heaven land and good lord.
Now thou hast heard, lord king, sooth of us through all things." Then
answered Vortiger—-of each evil he was ware—-"I believe thee, knight,
that thou sayest to me right sooth. And what are your creeds, that ye
in believe, and your dear god, whom ye worship?" Then answered
Hengest, fairest of all knights—-in all this kingdom is not a knight
so tall nor so strong:—-"We have good gods, whom we love in our mind,
whom we have hope in, and serve them with might. The one hight Phebus;
the second Saturnus; the third hight Woden, who is a mighty god; the
fourth hight Jupiter, of all things he is aware; the fifth hight
Mercurius, who is the highest over us; the sixth hight Appolin, who is
a god brave; the seventh hight Tervagant, a high god in our land. Yet