Þá hálgan (pronounced thar halgan) is a version of the so-called Kentish Royal Legend (its incipit Her cyð ymbe þa halgan þe on Angelcynne restað "Here [follows] a relation on the saints who rest in the English nation") is a heading which appears to be for both texts, as the Kentish legend, which comes first, is actually an account of how various members of the royal family of Kent, descendants of Æthelberht of Kent, founded monasteries and came to be regarded as saints.
[2] It begins with a history of Hyde Abbey, Winchester, written in 1771, followed by a wide collection of much older original source documents.
A selection of medieval drawings, is followed by a Liber vitae, written in 1031 consisting of lists of names of brethren and benefactors of the New Minster, also at Winchester, and substantially annotated.
[3] The two documents being considered here, originally composed entirely separately, were then written into the same Old English manuscript, under a combined heading of 'On the Resting-Places of the Saints'.
The first, ('Þá hálgan') includes mention of many saints, particularly those relating to Kent, but written as part of a narrative of the Kentish Royal Legend.
In addition to the extensive genealogy, (in which members of the family marry into the royal families of Mercia, Northumbria and East Anglia) it has an account of the foundation of the Abbey at Minster-in-Thanet, bound up with the lives of two murdered brothers Æthelred and Æthelberht, the founding Abbess at Thanet, Domne Eafe, and her daughter saint Mildthryth.