Rowena

It was first recorded by Geoffrey of Monmouth in his 12th-century Historia Regum Britanniae (in various spellings, including Ronwen, Renwein, and Romwenna), and may represent a Medieval Latin corruption of some lost Old English or other Germanic name.

[1] She is first mentioned in the 9th century Historia Brittonum (traditionally attributed to Nennius) as the lovely unnamed daughter of the mythological figure, the Saxon Hengist.

Following his brother, Horsa, and his arrival at Ynys Ruym (modern Isle of Thanet), Hengist negotiates with the King of the Britons, Vortigern, for more land.

[3] Geoffrey of Monmouth's work Historia Regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain, circa 1138) was the first to give Hengist's daughter a name, Rowena (described by the scholar Edward Augustus Freeman as "a later absurdity"),[4] though the spelling varies widely by manuscript.

The marriage of Rowena in the Gesta Regum Anglorum by William of Malmesbury, a work contemporaneous with Monmouth's Historia, serves as an exemplum of the unification of ruling families after conquest, in this case Briton and German, thus legitimating the authority of the couple's descendants.

[2] In the Spiegel historiael (Mirror of History) by the Flemish writer Jacob van Maerlant (1284–89) Rowena's father Engistus is considered to be Frisian; 15th century chronicles identify him as the founder of the city of Leiden.