ANGLI, ANGLII or ANGLES, a Teutonic people mentioned by Tacitus in his Germania (cap. 4o) at the end of the 1st century, without precisely indicating their geographical position. With six other tribes, including the Varini (the Warni of later times), they worshipped a goddess named Nerthus, whose sanctuary was situ ated on "an island in the Ocean." Ptolemy in his Geography (ii. I I. § i5), half a century later, locates them between the Rhine, or rather perhaps the Ems, and the Elbe, as one of the chief tribes of the interior. This indication cannot be correct. They seem to have lived on the coasts of the Baltic, probably in the southern part of the Jutish peninsula. Striking affinities to the cult of Ner thus are found in Scandinavian, especially Swedish and Danish, religion. The island of Nerthus was probably Sjaelland (Zealand). According to Bede the Angli before they came to Britain dwelt in a land called Angulus, and similar evidence is given by the Historia Brittonum. King Alfred and the chronicler Aethelweard identified this place with the district which is now called Angel in the province of Schleswig (Slesvig). During the 5th century the Angli invaded Britain (see BRITAIN, Anglo-Saxon).
The large cremation cemetery at Borgstedterfeld, in the province of Schleswig between Rendsburg and Eckernf orde, has yielded many urns and brooches closely resembling those found in heathen graves in England. The great deposits at Thorsbjaerg (in Angel) and Nydam contained large quantities of arms, ornaments, articles of clothing, agricultural implements, etc., and in the latter case even ships. By the help of these discoveries we are able to recon struct a fairly detailed picture of English civilization in the age preceding the invasion of Britain.
Hist. Ecc. i. 1 5 ; King Alfred's version of Orosius, i. I § § 12, 19 ; Aethelweard's Chronicle, lib. i. For traditions concerning the kings of Angel, see under OFFA (i) . L. Weiland, Die Angeln (1889) ; A. Erdmann, fiber die Heimat and den Namen der Angeln (Upsala, 189o—cf. H. Moller in the Anzeiger fiir deutsches Altertum and deutsche Litteratur, xxii. 129 seq.) ; A. Kock in the Historisk Tidskrift (Stockholm), 1895, xv. p. 163 seq.; G. Schiitte, Var Anglerne Tyskere? (Flensborg, 19oo) ; H. Munro Chadwick, The Origin of the English Nation (Cambridge, 1907) ; C. Engelhardt, Denmark in the Early Iron Age (London, 1866) ; J. Mestorf, Urnen f riedha f e in Schleswig-Holstein (Hamburg, 1886) ; S. Muller, Nord ische Altertumskunde (Ger. trans., Strassburg, 1898), ii. p. 122 seq.; see further BRITAIN, Anglo-Saxon.