Angles (tribe)
Angle / Engle | |
|---|---|
The spread of Angles (orange) and Saxons (blue) to the British Isles around 500 AD | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| origin: southern Jutland: Schleswig (Angeln, Schwansen, Danish Wahld, North Frisia/North Frisian Islands) Holstein (Eiderstedt, Dithmarschen) destination: Heptarchy (England) | |
| Languages | |
| Old English | |
| Religion | |
| Originally Germanic and Anglo-Saxon paganism, later Christianity | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Frisian, Anglo-Normans, English, Lowland Scots, Anglo, Saxons, Frisii, Jutes |
The Angles (Old English: Engle, Latin: Anglii) 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, which probably derives from the Angeln peninsula, is the root of the name England ("Engla land", "Land of the Angles"), and English, in reference to both for its people and language. According to Tacitus, writing around 100 AD, a people known as Angles (Anglii) lived beyond (apparently northeast of) the Lombards and Semnones, who lived near the River Elbe.