Anglia (
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
and
Low German: ''Angeln'';
Danish
Danish may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark
People
* A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark
* Culture of Denmark
* Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish ance ...
and
South Jutlandic
South Jutlandic or South Jutish (South Jutish: ; da, Sønderjysk; german: Südjütisch or Plattdänisch) is a dialect of the Danish language. South Jutlandic is spoken in Southern Jutland (''Sønderjylland''; also called Schleswig or Slesvig) ...
: ''Angel''; ang, Engla land) is a small
peninsula on the eastern coast of
Jutland (the Cimbric Peninsula). Jutland consists of the mainland of
Denmark and the northernmost
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
state of
Schleswig-Holstein. Anglia belongs to the region of
Southern Schleswig, which constitutes the northern part of
Schleswig-Holstein, and protrudes into the
Bay of Kiel
The Bay of Kiel or Kiel Bay (, ; ) is a bay in the southwestern Baltic Sea, off the shores of Schleswig-Holstein in Germany and the islands of Denmark. It is connected with the Bay of Mecklenburg in the east, the Little Belt in the northwest, ...
of the
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain.
The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...
.
To the south, Anglia is separated from the neighbouring peninsula of
Swania (Ger. ''Schwansen'', Dan. ''Svans'' or ''Svansø'') by the
Sly Firth
Firth is a word in the English and Scots languages used to denote various coastal waters in the United Kingdom, predominantly within Scotland. In the Northern Isles, it more usually refers to a smaller inlet. It is linguistically cognate to ''f ...
(Ger. ''Schlei'', Dan. ''Sli''), and to the north from the Danish peninsula of
Sundeved
Sundeved is a peninsula on the east coast of the Jutland peninsula in south Denmark. It lies between Åbenrå Fjord and Als Fjord to the north, Alssund to the east and Flensborg Fjord to the south. The westernmost part of the city of Sønderbor ...
(Ger. ''Sundewitt'') and the Danish island of
Als
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or Lou Gehrig's disease, is a neurodegenerative disease that results in the progressive loss of motor neurons that control voluntary muscles. ALS is the most comm ...
(Ger. ''Alsen'') by the
Flensburg Firth (Ger. ''Flensburger Förde'', Dan. ''Flensborg Fjord''). The landscape is hilly, dotted with numerous lakes. Whether ancient Anglia conformed to the borders of the Anglian Peninsula is uncertain. It may have been somewhat larger; however, the ancient sources mainly concur that it also included the peninsula's territory.
Anglia has a significance far beyond its current small area and country terrain, in that it is believed to have been the
original home of the
Angles
The Angles ( ang, Ængle, ; la, Angli) were one of the main Germanic peoples who settled in Great Britain in the post-Roman period. They founded several kingdoms of the Heptarchy in Anglo-Saxon England. Their name is the root of the name ' ...
, Germanic settlers in
East Anglia,
Central
Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object.
Central may also refer to:
Directions and generalised locations
* Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known a ...
and
Northern England, and the Eastern
Scottish Lowlands
The Lowlands ( sco, Lallans or ; gd, a' Ghalldachd, , place of the foreigners, ) is a cultural and historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Lowlands and the Highlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lo ...
. Their migration led to their new homeland being named after them, from which the name "England" derives. England, East, Mid and West Anglia as well as the English language, thus, ultimately derive at least their names from Anglia.
Glücksburg Castle
Glücksburg Castle (German: Schloss Glücksburg, Danish: ''Lyksborg Slot'') is one of the most significant Renaissance castles in Northern Europe. The castle was the headquarters of the ducal lines of the house of Glücksburg and temporarily serve ...
in
Glücksburg
Glücksburg (; da, Lyksborg) is a small town northeast of Flensburg in the district Schleswig-Flensburg, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany and is the northernmost town in Germany.
It is situated on the south side of the Flensborg Fjord, an inlet ...
in the north of Anglia, is the seat of the
House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg
A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air c ...
, of which the future kings of the United Kingdom are
patrilineal
Patrilineality, also known as the male line, the spear side or agnatic kinship, is a common kinship system in which an individual's family membership derives from and is recorded through their father's lineage. It generally involves the inheritanc ...
members.
Terminology
The German word ''Angeln'' has been hypothesised to originate from the
Germanic Proto-Indo-European root ', meaning "narrow", meaning here "the Narrow
ater Ater (Hebrew אֲתַר) is an Old Testament male name.
#A descendant of Hezekiah, who returned from Babylon ;
#An Israelite, who subscribed to Nehemiah
Nehemiah is the central figure of the Book of Nehemiah, which describes his work in reb ...
, i.e. the
Sly Firth
Firth is a word in the English and Scots languages used to denote various coastal waters in the United Kingdom, predominantly within Scotland. In the Northern Isles, it more usually refers to a smaller inlet. It is linguistically cognate to ''f ...
; the root would be ', "tight" (compare Ger. and
Dutch ''eng'' = "narrow", "England" = Ger. ''England'', "narrow land" = Ger. ''enges Land'').
The "-n"-ending is the most common ending for geographical regions in German, comparable to the English endings "-ia" and "-y": "Croatia" = ''Kroatien'', "Italy" = ''Italien''.
In German, the word ''Angeln'' has three other meanings: as a verb, ''angeln'' means "to angle". It is written with a capitalized initial letter in its
nominalized form: ''das Angeln'' (
n) = "(the)
angling
Angling is a fishing technique that uses a fish hook or "angle" (from Old English ''angol'') attached to a fishing line to tether individual fish in the mouth. The fishing line is usually manipulated via a fishing rod, although rodless techni ...
" (compare "(the) fishing" = ''das Fischen'' (
n) or ''die Fischerei'' (
f)).
When used with the plural article, ''Angeln'' means "
fishing rod
A fishing rod is a long, thin rod used by anglers to catch fish by manipulating a line ending in a hook (formerly known as an ''angle'', hence the term "angling"). At its most basic form, a fishing rod is a straight rigid stick/pole with ...
s": ''die Angel'' (long form: ''die Angelrute'') (
f) = "the fishing rod", ''die Angeln'' (''die Angelruten'') (
p) = "the fishing rods".
Finally, the term ''Angeln'' also refers to the people of the
Angles
The Angles ( ang, Ængle, ; la, Angli) were one of the main Germanic peoples who settled in Great Britain in the post-Roman period. They founded several kingdoms of the Heptarchy in Anglo-Saxon England. Their name is the root of the name ' ...
: ''die Angeln'' (
p) = "the Angles", while Eng. "the
angel
In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God.
Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles include ...
" = Ger. ''der Engel'' (
m), "the
angle
In Euclidean geometry, an angle is the figure formed by two rays, called the '' sides'' of the angle, sharing a common endpoint, called the ''vertex'' of the angle.
Angles formed by two rays lie in the plane that contains the rays. Angles a ...
" = ''der Winkel'' (
m), "the angler" = ''der Angler'' (
m), and "the fisherman" = ''der Fischer'' (
m).
There is also a theory that ''Angeln'' meant "hook" (as in angling for fish), in reference to the shape of the peninsula. Compare
Old Norse ''ǫngull'' and Modern
Nynorsk
Nynorsk () () is one of the two written standards of the Norwegian language, the other being Bokmål. From 12 May 1885, it became the state-sanctioned version of Ivar Aasen's standard Norwegian language ( no, Landsmål) parallel to the Dano-No ...
''angel'' or ''ongel'', with the meaning (fish) hook,
cognate with English ''
angle
In Euclidean geometry, an angle is the figure formed by two rays, called the '' sides'' of the angle, sharing a common endpoint, called the ''vertex'' of the angle.
Angles formed by two rays lie in the plane that contains the rays. Angles a ...
''.
Linguist
Julius Pokorny derived it from the Proto-Indo-European root ''*ang-'', "bend" (see ankle).
It is also possible that the Angles may have been called such because they were a fishing people or were originally descended from such.
Geography
Together with
Swania (Ger. ''Schwansen'', Dan. ''Svans'' or ''Svansø''),
Danish Wahld
The Danish Wahld (, ) is a peninsula in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is located between Eckernförde Bay in the north and Kiel Fjord in the south. The '' Amt'' of " Dänischer Wohld" in the district of Rendsburg-Eckernförde is named after th ...
(Ger. ''Dänischer Wohld'', Dan. ''Jernved'') and
Wagria
WagriaArnold, Benjamin (1991). ''Princes and territories in medieval Germany'', Cambridge University Press, Cambridge and New York, p. 156. . (german: Wagrien, ''Waierland'' or ''Wagerland'') is the northeastern part of Holstein in the German state ...
(Ger. ''Wagrien'', Dan. ''Vagrien''), Anglia is one of four peninsulas along the
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain.
The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...
coast of the northernmost German federal state of
Schleswig-Holstein.
As part of the
Schleswig-Holstein Morainic Uplands (Ger. ''Schleswig-Holsteinisches Moränenhügelland''), that were formed during the
Weichselian glaciation, these peninsulas are hilly and dotted with several
glacial lakes. The Anglian glacial lakes form the North Anglian Lake Group (Ger. ''Nordangeliter Seengruppe''). The
River Treene (Dan. ''Trenen'') with its main headstream Bondenau (Dan. ''Bondeåen'') rises in Anglia. Although rising on the Anglian Peninsula in the Baltic Sea, the Treene flows towards the
North Sea, being the main tributary of the
River Eider
A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wat ...
(Dan. ''Ejderen''), the river that constituted the Southern border of the
Danish Realm for a very long time. The northernmost part of Anglia is formed by the Holnis (Dan. ''Holnæs'') Peninsula that protrudes into the
Flensburg Firth.
Apart from
Flensburg, which is an independent town, the Anglian Peninsula belongs to the
district
A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...
of
Schleswig-Flensburg (Dan. ''Slesvig-Flensborg''), Germany's northeasternmost district (seat:
Schleswig (Slesvig). This comparatively rural district has approximately 200 025 inhabitants (as of 31 December 2018).
Languages
The main language of Anglia is German. The peninsula is, however, also part of the language area of
Low German (
Low Saxon
Low Saxon, also known as West Low German ( nds, Nedersassisch, Nedersaksies; nl, Nedersaksisch) are a group of Low German dialects spoken in parts of the Netherlands, northwestern Germany and southern Denmark (in North Schleswig by parts of ...
), which is more closely related to English than German is, since it was not affected by the
High German consonant shift
In historical linguistics, the High German consonant shift or second Germanic consonant shift is a phonological development ( sound change) that took place in the southern parts of the West Germanic dialect continuum in several phases. It probabl ...
.
Danish was the main language of Anglia from the 9th century to the 19th century. The Danish variety indigenous to Anglia was
Anglian Danish (Dan. ''Angeldansk'' or ''Angelbomål'', Ger. ''Angeldänisch''), a dialect of
South Jutlandic
South Jutlandic or South Jutish (South Jutish: ; da, Sønderjysk; german: Südjütisch or Plattdänisch) is a dialect of the Danish language. South Jutlandic is spoken in Southern Jutland (''Sønderjylland''; also called Schleswig or Slesvig) ...
(''Synnejysk'', Dan. ''Sønderjysk'', Ger. ''Südjütisch'' or ''Südjütländisch''), the southernmost variety of Danish spoken on the
Jutland Peninsula, once spoken as far south as
Eckernförde
Eckernförde ( da, Egernførde, sometimes also , nds, Eckernför, sometimes also ) () is a German town in Schleswig-Holstein, Rendsburg-Eckernförde, on the coast of the Baltic Sea approximately 30 km north-west of Kiel. The population is a ...
-
Borby (Dan. ''
Egernførde or Egernfjord-
Borreby'') on the
Eckernförde Bay (Ger. ''
Eckernförder Bucht'', Dan. ''
Egernførde Fjord''). In the 19th century, however, a language shift towards Low German occurred.
Danish is still spoken in Anglia by a minority, but in
Southern Schleswig Danish dialects, which are not dialects of South Jutlandic, but German-influenced dialects of Standard Danish. The cities with the largest Danish-speaking minorities are
Flensburg (Flensborg),
Schleswig (Slesvig) and
Glücksburg
Glücksburg (; da, Lyksborg) is a small town northeast of Flensburg in the district Schleswig-Flensburg, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany and is the northernmost town in Germany.
It is situated on the south side of the Flensborg Fjord, an inlet ...
(Lyksborg).
Many Anglian placenames are of Danish origin, including placenames ending in ''-
by'' ("city"), such as
Brodersby-Goltoft,
Flensburg-
Engelsby (Flensborg-Engelsby), Flensburg-
Jürgensby (Flensborg-Jørgensby),
Nieby
Nieby (, da, Nyby) is a municipality in the district of Schleswig-Flensburg, in Schleswig-Holstein
Schleswig-Holstein (; da, Slesvig-Holsten; nds, Sleswig-Holsteen; frr, Slaswik-Holstiinj) is the northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, ...
(Nyby); and placenames ending in ''-rup'' ("village"), such as
Sörup (Sørup),
Sterup,
Tastrup (Tostrup). There are many placenames of Danish origin in England as well, such as
Derby,
Rugby
Rugby may refer to:
Sport
* Rugby football in many forms:
** Rugby league: 13 players per side
*** Masters Rugby League
*** Mod league
*** Rugby league nines
*** Rugby league sevens
*** Touch (sport)
*** Wheelchair rugby league
** Rugby union: 1 ...
or
Whitby), but in Danish, German and
Swedish ''-by'' is pronounced , not as in England.
North Frisian, one of the
Frisian languages that form the group of
Anglo-Frisian languages
The Anglo-Frisian languages are the Anglic (English, Scots, and Yola) and Frisian varieties of the West Germanic languages.
The Anglo-Frisian languages are distinct from other West Germanic languages due to several sound changes: besides th ...
together with English, is spoken in many dialectal variants in neighbouring
North Frisia
North Frisia (; ; ) is the northernmost portion of Frisia, located in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany between the rivers Eider and Wiedau. It also includes the North Frisian Islands and Heligoland. The region is traditionally inhabited by the North F ...
along the North Sea coast of Schleswig-Holstein and on the
North Frisian Islands
The North Frisian Islands ('' Öömrang'' and '' Fering'' frr, Nuurdfresk Eilunen, '' Söl'ring'' frr, Nuurđfriisk Ailönen, link=no, da, Nordfrisiske Øer, german: Nordfriesische Inseln) are the Frisian Islands off the coast of North Frisia.
...
.
History
Early history
The region was home to the
Germanic people, the
Angles
The Angles ( ang, Ængle, ; la, Angli) were one of the main Germanic peoples who settled in Great Britain in the post-Roman period. They founded several kingdoms of the Heptarchy in Anglo-Saxon England. Their name is the root of the name ' ...
, some of whom, together with
Saxons and
Jutes, left their homeland to migrate to the island of
Great Britain in the 5th and 6th centuries. For the years 449–455, the ''
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
The ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' is a collection of annals in Old English, chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the ''Chronicle'' was created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alf ...
'', written around 890, describes how King
Vortigern, a British king, invited the Angles to come and receive land in return for helping him defend his realm against marauding
Picts. Those successful Angles sent word back that good land was available and that the British were "worthless". A wholesale emigration of Angles and kindred German peoples followed.
The ''Chronicle'', commissioned by
King Alfred the Great
Alfred the Great (alt. Ælfred 848/849 – 26 October 899) was King of the West Saxons from 871 to 886, and King of the Anglo-Saxons from 886 until his death in 899. He was the youngest son of King Æthelwulf and his first wife Osburh, who b ...
, drew on earlier oral traditions and on the few written fragments available. The best of these, written around 730, was by the monk
Bede
Bede ( ; ang, Bǣda , ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, The Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable ( la, Beda Venerabilis), was an English monk at the monastery of St Peter and its companion monastery of St Paul in the Kingdom o ...
, whose history of English Christianity contains the following brief account of the origin and distribution of the Angles:
The phrase "north of the Humber" refers to the northern kingdom of
Northumbria, which included most of northern England and part of southern
Scotland.
Mercia
la, Merciorum regnum
, conventional_long_name=Kingdom of Mercia
, common_name=Mercia
, status=Kingdom
, status_text=Independent kingdom (527–879)Client state of Wessex ()
, life_span=527–918
, era=Heptarchy
, event_start=
, date_start=
, ye ...
was located in central England and broadly corresponds to the
English Midlands
The Midlands (also referred to as Central England) are a part of England that broadly correspond to the Mercia, Kingdom of Mercia of the Early Middle Ages, bordered by Wales, Northern England and Southern England. The Midlands were important in ...
.
This account can be related to the evidence of archaeology, notably the distribution of types of ''
fibulae
The fibula or calf bone is a leg bone on the lateral side of the tibia, to which it is connected above and below. It is the smaller of the two bones and, in proportion to its length, the most slender of all the long bones. Its upper extremity i ...
'', or brooches, worn by both men and women in antiquity. Eastern and northern Britain were settled by groups wearing cruciform brooches, of the style in fashion at the time in coastal
Scandinavia,
Denmark, and Schleswig-Holstein south to the lower
Elbe and east to the
Oder
The Oder ( , ; Czech, Lower Sorbian and ; ) is a river in Central Europe. It is Poland's second-longest river in total length and third-longest within its borders after the Vistula and Warta. The Oder rises in the Czech Republic and flows th ...
, as well as a pocket in coastal
Friesland.
Later history
After the Angles departed from Anglia, by the 8th century the region was occupied by
Danes. This is reflected in the large number of place names ending in ''-by'' (meaning "city") in the region today. In the 10th century, the chronicler
Æthelweard reports that the most important town in Anglia was
Hedeby (Ger. ''Haithabu'').
Later Anglia's history is subsumed in that of the larger surrounding region, which came to be known as
Southern Jutland
Southern Jutland ( da, Sønderjylland; German: Südjütland) is the name for the region south of the Kongeå in Jutland, Denmark and north of the Eider (river) in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. The region north of the Kongeå is called da, Nø ...
or
Schleswig (Dan. ''Slesvig''). Until the 19th century the area belonged to Denmark. In terms of ethnic and linguistic heritage the countryside spoke a Danish dialect until the early 1800s after which Low German spread northwards, whereas the towns spoke Low German from the late medieval era. Denmark lost Schleswig to
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous c ...
and
Prussia
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...
in 1864 as a result of the
Second Schleswig War
The Second Schleswig War ( da, Krigen i 1864; german: Deutsch-Dänischer Krieg) also sometimes known as the Dano-Prussian War or Prusso-Danish War was the second military conflict over the Schleswig-Holstein Question of the nineteenth century. T ...
. In 1920, following Germany's defeat in the
First World War, a
plebiscite was held to determine which areas should return to Danish control. As a result of the plebiscite, the northern part of Schleswig returned to Denmark, but Anglia remained in Germany. See
Schleswig-Holstein Question for a detailed history.
See also
*
Angles
The Angles ( ang, Ængle, ; la, Angli) were one of the main Germanic peoples who settled in Great Britain in the post-Roman period. They founded several kingdoms of the Heptarchy in Anglo-Saxon England. Their name is the root of the name ' ...
*
Anglo-Saxons
The Anglo-Saxons were a cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo-Saxons happened wit ...
*
List of Germanic peoples
This list of ancient Germanic peoples is an inventory of ancient Germanic cultures, tribal groupings and other alliances of Germanic tribes and civilisations in ancient times. The information comes from various ancient historical documents, beginn ...
*
Thorsberg moor
The Thorsberg moor (german: Thorsberger Moor, da, Thorsberg Mose or ''Thorsbjerg Mose'', South Jutlandic: ''Tosbarch'', ''Tåsbjerre'' " Thor's hill") near Süderbrarup in Anglia, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, is a peat bog in which the Angl ...
Notes
References
* ''Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation, Book I'', Bede, c. 731
* ''The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: Translated and collated by Anne Savage'', Dorset Press, 1983,
* Malcolm Falkus and John Gillingham, ''Historical Atlas of Britain'', Crescent Books, 1987,
External links
Bede, ca 731 A.D., Ecclesiastical History of the English NationAnglo-Saxon Chronicle, ca 890 A.D.*
ttps://web.archive.org/web/20060910183129/http://www.uni-kiel.de/cinarchea/prod/unewatt-e.htm Cinarchea (Archaeological films of Schleswig-Holstein)County and Municipal Flags (Schleswig-Holstein, Germany)Genealogy in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
{{Authority control
Jutland
Peninsulas of Schleswig-Holstein
English language
Regions of Schleswig-Holstein
Anglo-Saxon society