Wecta (Old English: Wægdæg, Old Norse: Vegdagr) is a figure mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and the Historia Brittonum.

Wecta is considered mythological, though he shows up in the genealogies as a Saxon ancestor of Hengest and Horsa and the kings of Kent, as well as of Aella of Deira and his son Edwin of Northumbria.[1]

Wecta appears in the Prologue to the Prose Edda as Vegdeg, one of Woden's sons, a mighty king who ruled East Saxony. Although Wecta is mentioned as the father of Witta and the grandfather of Wihtgils in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and the Historia Brittonum, the Prose Edda and the Anglian collection of Anglo-Saxon genealogies reverses the order of Witta and Wihtgils in the genealogy.[2]

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References

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  1. ^ Semple, Sarah (2013). Perceptions of the prehistoric in Anglo-Saxon England. Religion, ritual, and rulership in the landscape. Corby. p. 75. ISBN 978-0-19-150560-7. OCLC 860901458.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  2. ^ Chambers, Raymond Wilson (1912). Widsith, a Study in Old English Heroic Legend. University Press. p. 194. ISBN 978-1-4047-7166-6.