Angle

Angle, member of a Germanic people, which, together with the Jutes, Saxons, and probably the Frisians, invaded the island of Britain in the 5th century ce. The Angles gave their name to England, as well as to the word Englisc, used even by Saxon writers to denote their vernacular tongue. The Angles are first mentioned by Tacitus (1st century ce) as worshippers of the deity Nerthus. According to the Venerable Bede in the Ecclesiastical History of the English People, their Continental homeland was centred in Angulus, traditionally identified as the Angeln district in Schleswig between the Schlei inlet and the Flensburger Förde, which they appear to have abandoned at the time of their invasion of Britain. They settled in large numbers during the 5th and 6th centuries in what became the kingdoms of Mercia, Northumbria, and East and Middle Anglia.