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The Roman Empire under Hadrian (ruled 117-138), showing the location of the Anglii then inhabiting the neck of the Jutland peninsula (Denmark)

The Angles is a modern English term for a Germanic people who took their name from the ancestral cultural region of Angeln, a district located in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. The Angles were one of the main groups that settled in Britain in the post-Roman period, founding several of the kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England, and their name is the root of the name "England".

Name[link]

The name of the Angles is first recorded in Latinized form, as Anglii, in the Germania of Tacitus. The name is usually derived from a toponym, Angeln, from a Germanic word *anguz meaning "narrow" (of an estuary) or "angular" (of the shape of the Jutland peninsula).

Gregory the Great in an epistle simplified the Latinized name Anglii to Angli, the latter form developing into the preferred form of the word. The country remained Anglia in Latin. King Alfred's (Alfred the Great) translation of Orosius' history of the world uses Angelcynn (-kin) to describe England and the English people; Bede used Angelfolc (-folk); there are also such forms as Engel, Englan (the people), Englaland, and Englisc, all showing i-mutation.

Greco-Roman historiography[link]

Strabo and Pliny[link]

Two important geographers, Strabo and Pliny, are silent concerning the Angles. Their reasons for this exclusion was their consideration of the south shore of the Baltic to be terra incognita, "unknown land." However, both Strabo and Pliny describe that shore. Since the Angles took a geographic name, they possibly had other names not based on geography.

Strabo's mention of the Battle of Teutoburg Forest places his knowledge in the final years of Augustus' reign and after, which is the early first century. Strabo (7.2.1, 4 and 7.3.1) states that the Cimbri still live on the peninsula (Jutland) where they always did, even though some of them liked to wander. Beyond the Elbe the coastal people are unknown in Strabo's work, but south of them are the Suebi from the Elbe to the Getae (Goths). Strabo worked eastward from the Rhine.

Pliny, on the other hand, worked from east to west (4.13.94). His description leaves the Black Sea, crosses the Ripaei mountains to the shore of the northern ocean, and follows it westward to Cadiz. In the first direction is Scythia, where the Sarmati, Venedi, Scirii, and Hirri are located, as far as the Vistula. Then the Inguaeones, (the "people of Yngvi"), begin. Baunonia (Bornholm) is an island opposite Scythia. Cylipenus, probably the Bay of Kiel, is described, and from there a gulf called Lagnus, which is on the frontier of the Cimbri. Its location is not known, but it was possibly in the Angeln region.

In Pliny, the Inguaeones consisted of the Cimbri and the Teutones (the Chauci as well, but they were not in this region). If Lagnus was situated on the Cimbrian frontier and after Kiel, then Angeln must have been in the territory of the Teutones. They were perhaps not named "Angles" at that time; however, the territory of the Teutones probably included the Vorpommern and the region south to the Elbe (mainly Holstein), accounting for the implied larger range of the Angles in later sources.

Tacitus[link]

The map shows both the Angeln peninsula (to the east of Flensburg and Schleswig) and the Schwansen peninsula (south of the Schlei).

Possibly the first instance of the Angles in recorded history is in Tacitus' Germania, chapter 40, in which the "Anglii" are mentioned in passing in a list of Germanic tribes. He gives no precise indication of their geographical situation but states that, together with six other tribes, they worshiped a goddess named Nerthus, whose sanctuary was located on "an island in the Ocean". The other tribes are the Reudigni, Aviones, Varini, Eudoses, Suarini and Nuitones,^[1] which together are described as being behind ramparts of rivers and woods,^[2] i.e., inaccessible to attack. As the Eudoses are the Jutes, these names probably refer to localities in Jutland or on the Baltic coast, in which case their inhabitants would be Cimbri or Teutones for Pliny. The coast contains sufficient estuaries, inlets, rivers, islands, swamps and marshes to have been then inaccessible to those not familiar with the terrain, such as the Romans, who considered it unknown, inaccessible, with a small population and of little economic interest.

The majority of scholars believe that the Anglii lived on the coasts of the Baltic Sea, probably in the southern part of the Jutish peninsula. This view is based partly on Old English and Danish traditions regarding persons and events of the 4th century, and partly on the fact that striking affinities to the cult of Nerthus as described by Tacitus are to be found in pre-Christian Scandinavian, especially Swedish and Danish, religion.

The account in Germania is inconsistent with Strabo's and Pliny's on a major point. Tacitus called the Baltic the Suebian Sea and viewed the seven tribes that included the Anglii as Suebi. For Pliny the Suebi were among the tribes of Herminones in central Germany. For Strabo, the Suebi were to the south of the coast. The Suebian language developed into Old High German, while the Angles and Jutes were among the speakers of Old Saxon.

Ptolemy[link]

Ptolemy in his Geography (2.10), half a century later, presents a somewhat more complex view. The Saxons are placed around the lower Elbe, which area they could have reached merely by an extension of the Saxon alliance. East of them are the Teutones and also a dissimilation of them, the Teutonoari, which denotes "men" (wer); i.e., "the Teuton men." These Teutons or Teuton men appear to have been in Angeln and the land around it.

The Angles, as such, are not listed at all. Instead there are Syeboi Angeilloi, Latinized to Suevi Angili, located south of the middle Elbe. Owing to the uncertainty of this passage, there has been much speculation regarding the original home of the Anglii. One theory is that they or part of them dwelt or moved among other coastal people perhaps confederated up to the basin of the Saale (in the neighbourhood of the ancient canton of Engilin) on the Unstrut valleys below the Kyffhäuserkreis, from which region the Lex Angliorum et Werinorum hoc est Thuringorum is believed by many to have come. The ethnic names of Frisians and Warines are attested in the neighborhood names of this Saxon or Swabian lands.

A second possible solution is that these Angles of Ptolemy are not those of Schleswig at all. According to Julius Pokorny the Angri- in Angrivarii, the -angr in Hardanger and the Angl- in Anglii all come from the same root meaning "bend", but in different senses. In other words, the similarity of the names is strictly coincidental and does not reflect any ethnic unity beyond Germanic. The Suevi Angeli would have been in Lower Saxony or near it and, like Ptolemy's Suevi Semnones, were among the Suebi at the time.

Medieval historiography[link]

Manuscript of Bede

Bede states that the Anglii, before coming to Great Britain, dwelt in a land called Angulus, "which lies between the province of the Jutes and the Saxons, and remains unpopulated to this day." Similar evidence is given by the Historia Brittonum. King Alfred the Great and the chronicler Æthelweard identified this place with the district that is now called Angeln, in the province of Schleswig (Slesvig) (though it may then have been of greater extent), and this identification agrees with the indications given by Bede.

In the Norwegian seafarer Ohthere of Hålogaland's account of a two-day voyage from the Oslo fjord to Schleswig, he reported the lands on his starboard bow, and Alfred appended the note "on these islands dwelt the Engle before they came hither".^[3] Confirmation is afforded by English and Danish traditions relating to two kings named Wermund and Offa of Angel, from whom the Mercian royal family claimed descent and whose exploits are connected with Angeln, Schleswig, and Rendsburg. Danish tradition has preserved record of two governors of Schleswig, father and son, in their service, Frowinus (Freawine) and Wigo (Wig), from whom the royal family of Wessex claimed descent. During the 5th century, the Anglii invaded Great Britain, after which time their name does not recur on the continent except in the title of Suevi Angili.

The Angles are the subject of a legend about Pope Gregory I which apparently has roots in history. Gregory happened to see a group of Angle children from Deira for sale as slaves in the Roman market. Gregory inquired about their background. When told they were called "Anglii" (Angles), he replied with a Latin pun that translates well into English: “Bene, nam et angelicam habent faciem, et tales angelorum in caelis decet esse coheredes” ("It is well, for they have an angelic face, and such people ought to be co-heirs of the angels in heaven"). Supposedly, he thereafter resolved to convert their pagan homeland to Christianity.^[4]

Archaeology[link]

The province of Schleswig has proved rich in prehistoric antiquities that date apparently from the 4th and 5th centuries. A broad cremation cemetery has been found at Borgstedterfeld, between Rendsburg and Eckernförde, and it has yielded many urns and brooches closely resembling those found in pagan graves in England. Of still greater importance are the great deposits at Thorsberg moor (in Angeln) and Nydam, which contained large quantities of arms, ornaments, articles of clothing, agricultural implements, etc., and in Nydam even ships. By the help of these discoveries, Angle civilization in the age preceding the invasion of Great Britain can be fitted together.

Angle kingdoms in England[link]

Angles, Saxons and Jutes throughout England

According to sources such as the History of Bede, after the invasion of Great Britain, the Angles split up and founded the kingdoms of the Nord Angelnen (Northumbria), Ost Angelnen (East Anglia), and the Mittlere Angelnen (Mercia). H.R. Loyn has observed in this context that "a sea voyage is perilous to tribal institutions,"^[5] and the apparently tribally-based kingdoms were produced in England. In early times there were two northern kingdoms (Bernicia and Deira) and two midland ones (Middle Anglia and Mercia). As a result of influence from the West Saxons, the tribes were collectively called Anglo-Saxons by the Normans, the West Saxon kingdom having conquered, united and founded the Kingdom of England by the 10th century. The regions of East Anglia and Northumbria are still known by their original titles to this day. Northumbria once stretched as far north as what is now southeast Scotland, including Edinburgh, and as far south as the Humber Estuary.

The rest of that people stayed at the centre of the Angle homeland in the northeastern portion of the modern German Bundesland of Schleswig-Holstein, on the Jutland Peninsula. There, a small peninsular area is still called "Angeln" today and is formed as a triangle drawn roughly from modern Flensburg on the Flensburger Fjord to the City of Schleswig and then to Maasholm, on the Schlei inlet.

See also[link]

Ancient Germanic culture portal

• Angeln
• List of Germanic peoples

References[link]

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Hector Munro Chadwick (1911). "Angli". In Chisholm, Hugh. Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

Notes[link]

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (September 2009)

Lee Ranaldo
Background information
Birth name	Lee M. Ranaldo
Born	(1956-02-03) February 3, 1956 (age 56) Glen Cove, Long Island, New York, USA
Genres	Alternative rock, noise rock, experimental rock, no wave
Occupations	Musician, Songwriter, Producer
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, bass guitar, drums
Years active	1980–present
Labels	Neutral, Ecstatic Peace!, Homestead, SST, Enigma, DGC, SYR, Interscope
Associated acts	Sonic Youth, The Cribs, Text Of Light
Notable instruments
Fender Jazzmaster Fender Telecaster Deluxe Gibson Les Paul

Lee M. Ranaldo (born February 3, 1956) is an American singer, guitarist, writer, record producer, and visual artist, best known as a co-founder of the alternative rock band Sonic Youth. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked Ranaldo and his Sonic Youth bandmate Thurston Moore the 33rd and 34th Greatest Guitarists of All Time, respectively.^[1]

Biography[link]

Ranaldo was born in Glen Cove, Long Island, and graduated from Binghamton University. He has three sons, Cody, Sage and Frey, and is married to the experimental artist Leah Singer.

Ranaldo started his career in New York in several bands and joining the electric guitar orchestra of Glenn Branca. Among Ranaldo's solo records are Dirty Windows, a collection of spoken texts with music, Amarillo Ramp (For Robert Smithson), pieces for the guitar, and Scriptures of the Golden Eternity. His books include several with art or photography by Leah Singer, including Drift, Bookstore, Road Movies, and Moroccan Journal: Jajouka excerpt (from a full-length book of writings on Moroccan travels and music). Ranaldo has also published Jrnls80s (published by Soft Skull Press), as well as a book of poems, Lengths & Breaths, with photography by Cynthia Connolly. His most recent book of poetry, Against Refusing, was published by Water Row Press in April 2010 with cover artwork by Leah Singer. His visual+sound works have been shown at galleries and museums in Paris, Toronto, New York, London, Sydney, Los Angeles, Vienna, and elsewhere.

Ranaldo has produced albums for artists including Babes in Toyland, You Am I, Magik Markers, Deity Guns, and Dutch art rock-ensemble Kleg. He has edited a volume of tour journals from the 1995 Lollapalooza Tour written by himself, Thurston Moore, Beck, Stephen Malkmus, Courtney Love, and others.

Glacial is a band consisting of Ranaldo, guitarist David Watson and drummer Tony Buck. In 2010 Ranaldo released the solo album Maelstrom From Drift on Three Lobed Recordings with guest appearances of Tony Buck and David Watson.

Collaborations[link]

Ranaldo has also worked with jazz drummer William Hooker on improvised music, and reading and improvising poetry.

His main side projects are Drift and Text of Light.

Drift is a duo with his wife Leah Singer, with whom he has performed many live installation pieces with improvised music. This collaboration, utilizing live manipulated 16mm film projections, electric guitar and recited texts, occupied the duo from the early 90s until late 2005, when they re-created the performance as an art installation at Gigantic Art Space, a gallery in New York City. Since then the pair have been performing a new piece entitled "iloveyouihateyou", a combination installation and performance work that has been presented in the US and Europe.

Text of Light was founded in 2001 by Lee Ranaldo, Alan Licht, Ulrich Krieger, Christian Marclay and William Hooker. The core group is Ranaldo, Licht and Krieger with changing DJs (Marclay, DJ Olive, Marina Rosenfeld) and drummers (Hooker, Tim Barnes, Steve Shelley). The music is free improvised and mostly played along with, but not really referencing, films by Stan Brakhage. The name for the band comes from Brakhage's film The Text of Light.^[2]

In 2007 Ranaldo collaborated with British rock band The Cribs on their third album Men's Needs, Women's Needs, Whatever. Ranaldo performs a spoken word piece against the track "Be Safe".

Ranaldo made an appearance in the 2008 feature documentary by Nik Sheehan about Brion Gysin and the Dreamachine entitled FLicKeR.

Equipment[link]

Moonlander guitar.

Ranaldo usually uses Fender Jazzmaster, Telecaster Deluxe electric guitars and sometimes Gibson Les Pauls, with radically alternative tunings, and modifications. One of his Jazzmasters has a single coil pickup installed between the bridge and the tailpiece to exploit the resonating chiming sounds on that area of string at these so called tailed bridge guitars.

In 2007 Yuri Landman built for Ranaldo the Moonlander, a biheaded electric guitar with 18 strings: 6 normal strings and 12 sympathetic strings.^[3]

Since Ranaldo and Moore, together with Elvis Costello and J. Mascis, are known for being key figures in the popularisation and resurrection of the Fender Jazzmaster, Fender introduced in 2009 a special Lee Ranaldo signature edition of a transparent blue version, together with a transparent green one for Thurston.^[4]

Printed works[link]

• Bookstore and Others (Paperback) - Lee Ranaldo, Leah Singer, Hozomeen Press (April 1995), ISBN 978-1-885175-06-9
• Drift (box set with DVD) - Lee Ranaldo, Leah Singer, Gigantic ArtSpace (2005), ISBN 978-1-933045-34-4
• Ground Zero: New Yorkers Respond (Paperback) - Lee Ranaldo, David Amram, Frank Messina, Wasteland Press (August 15, 2002), ISBN 978-0-9715811-7-3
• Hello from the American Desert (Paperback) - Lee Ranaldo, Curt Kirkwood, Silver Wonder Press (November 2007)
• JRNLS80s (Paperback) - Lee Ranaldo, Soft Skull Press (1998), ISBN 978-1-887128-31-5
• Lengths & Breaths (Paperback) - Lee Ranaldo, Cynthia Connolly, Water Row Press (August 2004), ISBN 978-0-934953-79-5
• Moroccan Journal (Hardcover) - Lee Ranaldo, Fringecore (1999), ISBN 978-90-76207-52-0
• Moroccan Journal: Jajouka excerpt (Unknown Binding) - Lee Ranaldo, Leah Singer, Ring Tarigh for the Literary Renaissance (1997), ASIN: B0006RJF80
• Online Diaries : the Lollapalooza '95 tour journals (Paperback) - Beck, Courtney Love, Stephen Malkmus, Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo, Mike Watt, David Yow, Soft Skull Press (1996), ISBN 978-1-887128-20-9
• Road Movies (Paperback) - Lee Ranaldo, Leah Singer, Soft Skull Press (Nov 30, 2004), ISBN 978-1-932360-73-8
• Against Refusing (Hardcover) - Lee Ranaldo, Water Row Press (April 2010), ISBN 978-0-934953-84-9

Discography[link]

This biographical section of an article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (July 2010)

Solo albums

• From Here to Infinity (1987)
• Scriptures of the Golden Eternity (1993) (Recorded 1988-1989)
• Dirty Windows (1999) (Recorded 1991-95)
• Amarillo Ramp (For Robert Smithson) (2000) (Recorded 1990-95)
• Outside My Window The City Is Never Silent - A Bestiary (2002) (Recorded 1991-95)
• Music For Stage And Screen (2004)
• Ambient Loop For Vancouver (2006)
• Maelstrom From Drift (2008)
• Between The Times And Tides (2012)

Singles & EP's

• A Perfect Day EP (1992)
• Broken Circle / Spiral Hill EP (1994)
• Countless Centuries Fled Into The Distance Like So Many Storms [12] (2008)

Compilations

• East Jesus (1995)

Collaborations with William Hooker

• Envisioning (1995)
• The Gift Of Tongues (also with Zeena Parkins) (1995)
• Clouds (1997)
• Bouquet [also with Christian Marclay] (2000)
• Out Trios Volume One: Monsoon (also with Roger Miller) (2003)
• Oasis Of Whispers (also with Hall) (2005)
• The Celestial Answer (2005)

Collaborations with others

• MMMR (also with Loren Mazzacane Connors, Jean-Marc Montera & Thurston Moore) (1997)
• New York - Ystad (with Thurston Moore, Steve Shelley, Mats Gustafsson) (2000)
• New Life After Fire (For Tom Thomson) (With Dave Dyment) (2003)
• Four Guitars Live (Ranaldo / Giffoni / Moore / Cline0 (2006)

Live Recordings

• Fuck Shit Up (with Thurston Moore & Christian Marclay) (2000) [Live]
• Text Of Light (a band which included Alan Licht, Christian Marclay, Tim Barnes, Ulrich Krieger, William Hooker) (2004)

References[link]

Lee's interview for Slovak music magazine Novy Popular (in English), 2010

External links[link]

• Lee Ranaldo: The Bridge published on the Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine @ Ubuweb