Angeln
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Modern Angeln, also known as Anglia (German: Angeln, Danish: Angel, Latin: Anglia, English: may follow German or Latin), is a peninsula in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, protruding into the Bay of Kiel. It is separated from the neighbouring peninsula of Schwansen (Danish: Svansø) by the Schlei inlet, and from the Danish island of Als by the Flensburger Förde ("Firth of Flensburg"). Whether ancient Angeln conformed to these borders is uncertain. It may have been somewhat larger; however, the ancient sources mainly concur that it included the territory of modern Angeln.
Angeln has a significance far beyond its current small area and country terrain, in that it is believed to have been the original home of some Germanic immigrants to the southern part of Great Britain, which was named after them, England, from which the major world language, English, takes its name.
[edit] The name
In one theory the name of the Angles came from Germanic words for "narrow" (compare German eng = "narrow"), and meant "the people who live beside the Narrow [Water]", i.e. beside the Schlei estuary. The root would be *angh-, "tight".
The most common theory is that the name Angeln itself means "hook", e.g. as in angling for fish. Many reputable etymological dictionaries are silent on its root. Julius Pokorny, however (a major Indo-European linguist), derives it from *ang-, "bend". The meaning would be "Anwohner der Holsteiner Bucht" (inhabitants of Holstein Bay). The problem with this derivation is that Grimm's Law does not appear to apply to it.
Modern Angeln does not evidence any landforms resembling a hook. It is situated on the large bight linking the Baltic coast to Jutland, which is mainly the Bay of Kiel (Kieler Bucht), but might be seen as Holsteiner Bucht . This interpretation suggests that when the Anglii received their name, they did in fact populate the entire bend and not just the Angeln of today. There is a parallel in Engern, which once comprised the entire middle Weser and was a major third of Saxony, but today is a small settlement in Westphalia, which absorbed most of its territory (see under Angrivarii).
The Angles were part of the Federation of the Ingaevones, with their mystic ancestor and god of fertility Ingwaz, and both terms might well share the same root (inglish -> anglish), say as the origin of the federation. Pokorny points out the possible use of this etymological root in other ancient names, such as Hardanger and Angrivarii.
[edit] Earlier history
The region was home to the Germanic people, the Angles, who, together with Saxons, left their home to migrate to Britain in the 5th-6th centuries. For the years 449-455, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle describes how king Vortigern (a British king) invited the Angles to come and receive land among them if only they would help to defend them against the Picts. Those successful Angles sent word back that good land was available and that the British were worthless (presumably as soldiers). Then:
- "From Anglia, which has ever since remained waste between the Jutes and the Saxons, came the East Angles, the Middle Angles, the Mercians, and all of those north of the Humber." (Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 449 AD)
The phrase "north of the Humber" refers to the northern kingdom of Northumbria. Mercia was located in central England.
It had long been suspected from all the Germanic sources that this report is too simple, a suspicion confirmed by the archaeology; namely, the fibulae, or brooches, worn by the women. There are essentially two kinds, the saucer brooch and the cruciform brooch. East coastal and northern Britain were settled by women wearing cruciform brooches, which came from coastal Scandinavia, all of Denmark, and Schleswig-Holstein all the way south to the lower Elbe and all the way east to the Oder, as well as a pocket in coastal Friesland, the embarkation point.
South central Britain was settled by women wearing the saucer brooch, which came from Lower Saxony, the south side of the lower Elbe, and pockets among the then Franks up the Rhine and along the coast to the mouth of the Seine.
Eastern Sweden, except in the far north, did not use either brooch, which may indicate that they were not as close culturally to the westward-looking population; i.e., they formed a conservative subculture of their own, the nucleus of a future Sweden. They would have looked adventurously rather to the east, as that is the direction in which the Goths had gone and in which the Vikings who would found Russia were to go.
The most logical conclusion is that the people called "Angles" comprised the population of all of Schleswig-Holstein and the Propommern south to the first big bend in the Elbe. They must have included identities mentioned under other names in the more ancient sources, just as the Angles themselves must have had other names. A more complete presentation is given under Angles.
[edit] Later history
Following the departure of the Angles from Anglia, the region was occupied by Danish Vikings not later than the 8th century. This is reflected in the large number of place names ending in -by which characterise the map of the region today. In the Viking period, the chronicler Aethelweard reports that the most important town in Angeln was Hedeby.
In subsequent history, Angeln's history is subsumed in that of the larger surrounding region, which came to be known as Southern Jutland or Schleswig (Danish: Slesvig). Up until the 19th century, the area primarily belonged to Denmark. However ethnically and linguistically a mixed German/Danish population evolved. Denmark lost Schleswig to Austria and Prussia in 1864 as a result of the second war of Schleswig. In 1920, following Germany's defeat in World War I, a plebiscite was held to determine which areas should return to Danish control. As a result of the plebiscite, much of Schleswig returned to Denmark, but Angeln remained in Germany. See "Schleswig-Holstein Question" for a detailed history.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles: Translated and collated by Anne Savage, Dorset Press, 1983, ISBN 0-88029-061-7
- Malcom Falkus and John Gillingham, Historical Atlas of Britain, Crescent Books, 1987, ISBN 0-517-63382-5
