Angleland

[zbearspirit]

Can anyone tell me how this beautiful Isle of ours was ever called Angleland when the Angles lived in europe, and what happened to the european Angles?

[dundurn]

Bede recorded that King Vortigern invited the Angles to come to Britain to fight for him against the Picts. Angeln was centred around Schleswig but its precise extent is subject to discussion. Bede recorded that the Angles moved lock, stock and barrel leaving Angeln to be colonised from North and South by the Jutes and the Saxons, respectively. Subsequently word got back to the "new" Angles that there was more than enough land to go around so many of them came too. The Jutes settled in Kent, The Saxons in Wessex, Essex, Sussex, Middlesex and subsequently in Somerset. The Angles in the lands north of theThames, where the North Folk and the South Folk of the East Angles are still remembered in the names Norfolk and Suffolk. Anglian influence also extended into South East Scotland as far as Edinburgh. I'm remembering all this from a long time ago, so I'd suggest you check it out from other sources. I can't quite remember who populated Mercia although I think they were Angles as well.

[Lil O'lady]

Dundurn gives a good summary. Another additional point is that there does not appear to be a concept of 'nationality' until much later in history, say 1500 - 1600 in this country. So the Angles, Saxons etc saw themselves as clans or tribes rather than 'one people'. So they would name the territiories they lived in, but lack a single identifying word for the whole of the island and people of Britain.
The massive migrations of people of which the Angles were a part were triggered by the Goth and Hun migrations and attacks across Asia and Europe, and it is likely that the Angles were one of several groups who did a flit rather than face the tender attentions of Attila's chums and who were able to take advantage of the 'security gap' that arose in fringe provinces of the Roma Empire, like Britannia, as the central Roman authority fell apart.

[zbearspirit]

Thanks for your answers it's a shame that pupils in our schools have no idea of a countries ancestry.