Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People, completed in 731, places the arrival of invited warriors in the reign of Marcian, which he dates from 449. He describes three ships and names Hengist and Horsa as the commanders said to have led them. He associates Kent's people with the Jutes and records a genealogy reaching back to Woden. Bede's narrative is an early written witness to the tradition, not a contemporary eyewitness account of the landing. It does not contain every later episode about Rowena, the oxhide or Hengist's death.

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle places the invitation by Vortigern under 449 and records subsequent fighting in Kent. Its entry for 455 says that Horsa was killed and that Hengest then took the kingdom with his son Esc. Later entries associate Hengest and Esc with further victories; the entry for 488 gives Esc the succession. Esc, also known as Æsc or Oisc, should not be silently replaced by Octa when describing this source. These annals preserve a Kentish origin sequence whose details need to remain distinct from the later British chronicle narratives.

Geoffrey develops Hengist's acquisition of power through land and marriage. The commander requests a site that can be enclosed by a thong, then cuts a bull's hide into a long strip to mark out a fortress, Thong Castle. Reinforcements bring his daughter Rowena, called Rowen in the consulted translation. At a feast she offers Vortigern a cup and a greeting that Geoffrey connects with the custom of wassail. Vortigern seeks to marry her, and Hengist demands Kent in return. The grant disregards its existing lord. These are events within Geoffrey's story, not independently verified land transactions.

The same narrative has Vortigern's son Vortimer resist the newcomers before Rowena brings about his death by poison. Hengist then returns and proposes a peaceful meeting. His followers conceal knives and attack the unarmed British nobles at a signal. Vortigern is kept alive as a captive, while Eldol of Gloucester fights his way out of the slaughter. The massacre, remembered as the Treachery of the Long Knives, explains the collapse of British leadership within this literary account. It is important not to combine Geoffrey's exact numbers and dramatic details with Bede's earlier testimony as though both were reporting the same complete scene.

Geoffrey brings Aurelius Ambrosius, the ruler known in this collection as Ambrosius, back from Brittany with Uther Pendragon. Their campaign ends in Hengist's defeat near Kaerconan, often identified with Conisbrough. Eldol seizes him by the helmet and takes him prisoner; he does not behead him during that capture. After the victory, Bishop Eldad urges his execution before a council, and Eldol carries it out outside the city. Geoffrey then follows Octa and Eosa's submission. This ending belongs to his chronicle and should not be substituted for the different succession sequence preserved in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.