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Angles (tribe)
The Angles (Old English: Ængle, Engle; Latin: Angli) were one
of the main Germanic peoples[2] who settled in Great Britain in
Angles
the post-Roman period. They founded several kingdoms of the Ængle / Engle
Heptarchy in Anglo-Saxon England. Their name is the root of the
name England ("land of Ængle"). According to Tacitus, writing
around 100 AD, a people known as Angles (Anglii) lived east of
the Lombards and Semnones, who lived near the Elbe river.[3]

Etymology
The name of the Angles may have been first recorded in Latinised
form, as Anglii, in the Germania of Tacitus. It is thought to derive
from the name of the area they originally inhabited, the Anglia
Peninsula (Angeln in modern German, Angel in modern Danish).
The spread of Angles (orange) and
Multiple theories concerning the etymology of the name have Saxons (blue) to the British Isles
been hypothesised:
around 500 AD
1. According to Gesta Danorum, Dan and Angul were made Regions with significant
rulers by the consent of their people because of their bravery. populations
Dan gave name to Danes and Angel gave names to Angles.
Jutland (Schleswig (Anglia),
2. It originated from the Germanic root for "narrow" (compare Holstein), Frisia, Heptarchy
German and Dutch eng = "narrow"), meaning "the Narrow
[Water]", i.e., the Schlei estuary; the root would be *h₂enǵʰ, (England)
"tight". Languages
3. The name derives from "hook" (as in angling for fish), in Old English
reference to the shape of the peninsula; Indo-European
(Anglic dialects)
linguist Julius Pokorny derives it from Proto-Indo-European
*h₂enk-, "bend" (see ankle).[4] Alternatively, the Angles may Religion
have been called such because they were a fishing people or Originally Germanic and Anglo-
were originally descended from such.[5] Saxon paganism, later Christianity

During the fifth century, all Germanic tribes who invaded Britain Related ethnic groups
were referred to as either Englisc, Ængle or Engle, who were all Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Normans,
speakers of Old English (which was known as Englisc, Ænglisc, or English, Lowland Scots,[1] Saxons,
Anglisc). Englisc and its descendant, English, also goes back to Frisii, Jutes
Proto-Indo-European *h₂enǵʰ-, meaning narrow.

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;

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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 The approximate positions of some Germanic
known to the Romans. He grouped the Angles with peoples reported by Graeco-Roman authors in the
several other tribes in that region, the Reudigni, 1st century. Suevian peoples in red, and other
Aviones, Varini, Eudoses, Suarines, and Irminones in purple
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 Mother Earth, whose sanctuary was located on "an island
in the Ocean".[9] The Eudoses are the Jutes; these names probably
refer to 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 map shows both the Anglia
(Angeln) and the Schwansen
The majority of scholars believe that the Anglii lived on the coasts of
peninsulas
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

Surviving versions of the work of Ptolemy, who wrote 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.
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One theory is that they or part of them dwelt or moved among other
coastal people, perhaps confederated up to the basin of the Saale (in
the neighbourhood of the ancient canton of Engilin) on the Unstrut
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 Possible locations of the Angles
the Langobardi, but that these have been duplicated, so that they and Jutes before their migration
appear once, correctly, on the lower Elbe, and a second time, to Britain
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.[9][12]
The Saint Petersburg Bede, 8th
Danish tradition has preserved record of two governors of
century
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
Angliorum et Werinorum hoc est Thuringorum.[9][12]

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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
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 Angles, Saxons, and Jutes
populations came under the Danelaw. Further south, the Saxon throughout England
kings of Wessex withstood the Danish assaults. Then in the late
9th 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 and even the river Witham.

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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
1. Steven L. Danver (2014). "Groups: Europe". Native Peoples of the World: An Encyclopedia of
Groups, Cultures and Contemporary Issues. Routledge. p. 372. ISBN 978-0765682949.
2. Darvill, Timothy, ed. (2009). "Angles" (https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/97801
99534043.001.0001/acref-9780199534043-e-160?). The Concise Oxford Dictionary of
Archaeology (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780191727139. Retrieved 26 January
2020. "Angles. A Germanic people who originated on the Baltic coastlands of Jutland."
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://penelope.uchi
cago.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. Lex Anglorum et Werinorum hoc est Thuringorum (in Latin) – via Vikifons.
13. Schütte (1917), p. 34 (https://archive.org/stream/ptolemysmapsofno00schrich#page/34/mode/2up/
search/angles) & 118 (https://archive.org/stream/ptolemysmapsofno00schrich#page/118/mode/2u
p/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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Bede (731). Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum [Ecclesiastical History of the English People]
(in Latin).
Chadwick, Hector Munro (1911). "Angli"  (https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6di
a_Britannica/Angli). In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 2 (11th ed.).
Cambridge University Press. pp. 18–19.
Jane, Lionel Cecil, ed. (1910). Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation  (https://en.wikisource.o
rg/wiki/Ecclesiastical_History_of_the_English_Nation_(Jane)). Translated by John Stevens.
Tacitus, Publius Cornelius. De origine et situ Germanorum [On the Origin and Situation of the
Germans] (in Latin).
Germania. Translated by Church, Alfred John; Brodribb, William Jackson. 1876.
Schütte, Gudmund (1917). Ptolemy's Maps of Northern Europe: A Reconstruction of the
Prototypes (https://archive.org/stream/ptolemysmapsofno00schrich). Copenhagen: Græbe for H.
Hagerup for the Royal Danish Geographical Society.
Sweet, Henry (1883). King Alfred's Orosius (https://archive.org/details/kingalfredsorosi79oros).
Oxford: E. Pickard Hall & J. H. Stacy for N. Trübner & Co. for the Early English Text Society.
Loyn, Henry Royston (1991). A Social and Economic History of England: Anglo-Saxon England
and the Norman Conquest (2nd ed.). London: Longman Group. ISBN 978-0582072978.

Attribution:

"Angles"  (https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica,_Ninth_Edition/Angles),
Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 2 (9th ed.), 1878, p. 30

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