Angles

The Angles (Old English: Ængle, Engle; Latin: Angli) were one of
Angles
the main Germanic peoples[2] who settled in Great Britain in the
post-Roman period. They founded several kingdoms of the Ængle/ Engle
Heptarchy in Anglo-Saxon England, and their name is the root of
the name England ("land of Ængle"). According to Tacitus,
writing before their move to Britain, Angles lived alongside
Langobards and Semnones in the historical regions of Schleswig
and Holstein, today part of southern Denmark and northern
Germany (Schleswig-Holstein).[3]

Contents
Etymology
Greco-Roman historiography Spread of Angles (Orange) and
Tacitus Saxons (blue) around 500 AD
Ptolemy Regions with significant
Medieval historiography populations
Archaeology Jutland (Schleswig (Anglia),
Anglian kingdoms in England Holstein), Frisia, Heptarchy
(England)
Notes
Languages
References
Old English
(Anglic dialects)
Etymology Religion
Originally Germanic and Anglo-
The name of the Angles may have been first recorded in Latinised
Saxon paganism, later Christianity
form, as Anglii, in the Germania of Tacitus. It is thought to derive
from the name of the area they originally inhabited, the Anglia Related ethnic groups
Peninsula (Angeln in modern German, Angel in Danish). Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Normans,
English, Lowland Scots,[1] Saxons,
Multiple theories concerning the etymology of the name have been
Frisii, Jutes
hypothesised:

1. According to Gesta Danorum were Dan and Angul (Angel), sons of one Humbli, who were
made rulers by the consent of the people because of their bravery. Dan gave name to Danes
and Angel gave names to Angles.
2. It originated from the Germanic root for "narrow" (compare German and Dutch eng =
"narrow"), meaning "the Narrow [Water]", i.e., the Schlei estuary; the root would be *h₂enǵʰ,
"tight".
 3. The name derives from "hook" (as in
angling for fish), in reference to the shape of
the peninsula; Indo-European linguist Julius
Pokorny derives it from Proto-Indo-
European *h₂enk-, "bend" (see ankle).[4]
Alternatively, the Angles may have been
called such because they were a fishing
people or were originally descended from
such.[5]

During the fifth century, all Germanic tribes who

invaded Britain were referred to as either Englisc,
Ængle or Engle, who were all speakers of Old
English (which was known as Englisc, Ænglisc, or
Anglisc). Englisc and its descendant, English, also Approximate positions of some Germanic peoples
goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₂enǵʰ-, reported by Graeco-Roman authors in the 1st
meaning narrow. century. Suevian peoples in red, and other Irminones
in purple
Pope Gregory I, in an epistle, simplified the Latinised
name Anglii to Angli, the latter form developing into
the preferred form of the word.[6] The country remained Anglia in Latin. Alfred the Great's translation of
Orosius's history of the world uses Angelcynn (-kin) to describe the English people; Bede uses Angelfolc (-
folk); also such forms as Engel, Englan (the people), Englaland, and Englisc occur, all showing i-
mutation.[7]

Greco-Roman historiography

Tacitus

The earliest known mention of the Angles may be in chapter 40 of

Tacitus's Germania written around AD 98. Tacitus describes the
"Anglii" as one of the more remote Suebic tribes compared to the
Semnones and Langobardi, who lived on the Elbe and were better
known to the Romans. He grouped the Angles with several other
tribes in that region, the Reudigni, Aviones, Varini, Eudoses, Suarines,
and Nuithones.[3][8] These were all living behind ramparts of rivers
and woods, and therefore inaccessible to attack.[3][8]

He gives no precise indication of their geographical situation but states

that, together with the six other tribes, they worshipped Nerthus, or The map shows both the Anglia
Mother Earth, whose sanctuary was located on "an island in the (Angeln) and the Schwansen
Ocean".[9] The Eudoses are the Jutes; these names probably refer to peninsulas
localities in Jutland or on the Baltic coast. The coast contains sufficient
estuaries, inlets, rivers, islands, swamps, and marshes to have been
then inaccessible to those not familiar with the terrain, such as the Romans, who considered it unknown,
inaccessible, with a small population and of little economic interest.

The majority of scholars believe that the Anglii lived on the coasts of the Baltic Sea, probably in the
southern part of the Jutland peninsula. This view is based partly on Old English and Danish traditions
regarding persons and events of the fourth century, and partly because striking affinities to the cult of
Nerthus as described by Tacitus are to be found in pre-Christian Scandinavian religion.[9]
Ptolemy

Ptolemy, writing in around AD 150, in his atlas Geography (2.10),

describes them in a confusing manner. In one passage, the Sueboi
Angeilloi (in Greek equivalent to Latin spelling Suevi Angili), are
living in a stretch of land between the northern Rhine and central Elbe,
but apparently not touching either river, with the Suebic Langobardi
on the Rhine to their west, and the Suebic Semnones on the Elbe
stretching to their east. This is unexpected. However, as pointed out by
Gudmund Schütte, the Langobards also appear as the "Laccobardi" in
another position near the Elbe and the Saxons, which is considered
more likely to be correct, and the Angles probably lived in that region
also.[10][11] Owing to the uncertainty of this passage, much
speculation existed regarding the original home of the Anglii.

One theory is that they or part of them dwelt or moved among other
Possible locations of the Angles
coastal people, perhaps confederated up to the basin of the Saale (in
and Jutes before their migration
the neighbourhood of the ancient canton of Engilin) on the Unstrut
to Britain
valleys below the Kyffhäuserkreis, from which region the Lex
Anglorum et Werinorum hoc est Thuringorum is believed by many to
have come.[9][12] The ethnic names of Frisians and Warines are also
attested in these Saxon districts.

A second possible solution is that these Angles of Ptolemy are not those of Schleswig at all. According to
Julius Pokorny, the Angri- in Angrivarii, the -angr in Hardanger and the Angl- in Anglii all come from the
same root meaning "bend", but in different senses. In other words, the similarity of the names is strictly
coincidental and does not reflect any ethnic unity beyond Germanic. Gudmund Schütte, in his analysis of
Ptolemy, believes that the Angles have simply been moved by an error coming from Ptolemy's use of
imperfect sources. He points out that Angles are placed correctly just to the northeast of the Langobardi, but
that these have been duplicated, so that they appear once, correctly, on the lower Elbe, and a second time,
incorrectly, at the northern Rhine.[13]

Medieval historiography
Bede states that the Anglii, before coming to Great Britain, dwelt in a land called Angulus, "which lies
between the province of the Jutes and the Saxons, and remains unpopulated to this day." Similar evidence
is given by the Historia Brittonum. King Alfred the Great and the chronicler Æthelweard identified this
place with Anglia, in the province of Schleswig (Slesvig; though it may then have been of greater extent),
and this identification agrees with the indications given by Bede.[9]

In the Norwegian seafarer Ohthere of Hålogaland's account of a two-day voyage from the Oslo fjord to
Schleswig, he reported the lands on his starboard bow, and Alfred appended the note "on these islands
dwelt the Engle before they came hither".[n 1] Confirmation is afforded by English and Danish traditions
relating to two kings named Wermund and Offa of Angel, from whom the Mercian royal family claimed
descent and whose exploits are connected with Anglia, Schleswig, and Rendsburg. Danish tradition has
preserved record of two governors of Schleswig, father and son, in their service, Frowinus (Freawine) and
Wigo (Wig), from whom the royal family of Wessex claimed descent. During the fifth century, the Anglii
invaded Great Britain, after which time their name does not recur on the continent except in the title of the
legal code issued to the Thuringians: Lex Anglorum et Werinorum hoc est Thuringorum.[9][12]
 The Angles are the subject of a legend about Pope Gregory I, who
happened to see a group of Angle children from Deira for sale as
slaves in the Roman market. As the story was told by Bede,
Gregory was struck by the unusual appearance of the slaves and
asked about their background. When told they were called Anglii
(Angles), he replied with a Latin pun that translates well into
English: "Bene, nam et angelicam habent faciem, et tales
angelorum in caelis decet esse coheredes" (It is well, for they have
an angelic face, and such people ought to be co-heirs of the angels
in heaven). Supposedly, this encounter inspired the pope to launch
a mission to bring Christianity to their countrymen.[16][17]

Archaeology
The province of Schleswig has proved rich in prehistoric antiquities
that date apparently from the fourth and fifth centuries. A large
cremation cemetery has been found at Borgstedt, between
Manuscript of Bede Rendsburg and Eckernförde, and it has yielded many urns and
brooches closely resembling those found in pagan graves in
England. Of still greater importance are the great deposits at
Thorsberg moor (in Anglia) and Nydam, which contained large quantities of arms, ornaments, articles of
clothing, agricultural implements, etc., and in Nydam, even ships. By the help of these discoveries, Angle
culture in the age preceding the invasion of Britannia can be pieced together.[9]

Anglian kingdoms in England

According to sources such as the History of Bede, after the
invasion of Britannia, the Angles split up and founded the
kingdoms of Northumbria, East Anglia, and Mercia. H.R. Loyn
has observed in this context that "a sea voyage is perilous to tribal
institutions",[18] and the apparently tribe-based kingdoms were
formed in England. Early times had two northern kingdoms
(Bernicia and Deira) and two midland ones (Middle Anglia and
Mercia), which had by the seventh century resolved themselves
into two Angle kingdoms, viz., Northumbria and Mercia.
Northumbria held suzerainty amidst the Teutonic presence in the
British Isles in the 7th century, but was eclipsed by the rise of
Mercia in the 8th century. Both kingdoms fell in the great assaults
of the Danish Viking armies in the 9th century. Their royal houses
were effectively destroyed in the fighting, and their Angle
populations came under the Danelaw. Further south, the Saxon Angles, Saxons, and Jutes
kings of Wessex withstood the Danish assaults. Then in the late 9th throughout England
and early 10th centuries, the kings of Wessex defeated the Danes
and liberated the Angles from the Danelaw. They united their
house in marriage with the surviving Angle royalty, and were accepted by the Angles as their kings. This
marked the passing of the old Anglo-Saxon world and the dawn of the "English" as a new people. The
regions of East Anglia and Northumbria are still known by their original titles. Northumbria once stretched
as far north as what is now southeast Scotland, including Edinburgh, and as far south as the Humber
estuary.
The rest of that people stayed at the centre of the Angle homeland in the northeastern portion of the modern
German Bundesland of Schleswig-Holstein, on the Jutland Peninsula. There, a small peninsular area is still
called Anglia today and is formed as a triangle drawn roughly from modern Flensburg on the Flensburger
Fjord to the City of Schleswig and then to Maasholm, on the Schlei inlet.

Notes
1. See the translation by Sweet,[14] noted by Loyn.[15]

References
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3. Tacitus, Cap. XL
4. Pyles, Thomas and John Algeo 1993. Origins and Development of the English Language.
4th edition. (New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich).
5. Baugh, Albert C. and Thomas Cable 1993 A History of the English Language. 4th edition.
(Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall).
6. Gregory said "Non Angli, sed angeli, si forent Christiani" [They are not Angles, but angels, if
they were Christian] after a response to his query regarding the identity of a group of fair-
haired Angles, slave children whom he had observed in the marketplace. See p. 117 of
Zuckermann, Ghil'ad (2003), Language Contact and Lexical Enrichment in Israeli Hebrew.
Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9781403917232, 9781403938695
7. Fennell, Barbara 1998. A History of English. A Sociolinguistic Approach. Oxford: Blackwell.
8. Church & Brodribb (1876), Ch. XL
9. Chadwick (1911), pp. 18–19.
10. Ptolemy, Geography, 2.10 (https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20171020085906/http://penelop
e.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Periods/Roman/_Texts/Ptolemy/2/10/limited.html).
11. Schütte (1917), p. 34 (https://archive.org/details/ptolemysmapsofno00schrich/page/34)See
also pp. 119–120, & 125–127
12. Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1 at line 1392: bad argument #1 to 'pairs' (table
expected, got nil).
13. Schütte (1917), p. 34 (https://archive.org/stream/ptolemysmapsofno00schrich#page/34/mod
e/2up/search/angles) & 118 (https://archive.org/stream/ptolemysmapsofno00schrich#page/1
18/mode/2up/search/angles).
14. Sweet (1883), p. 19.
15. Loyn (1991), p. 24.
16. Bede (731), Lib. II.
17. Jane (1910), Vol. II.
18. Loyn (1991), p. 25.

Sources

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Attribution:

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