Angul (or Angel) is a figure in Nordic mythology who, according to the Gesta Danorum was the ancestor of the Danes, along with his brother Dan. He was also the ancestor of the Angles in Denmark, who later migrated to Great Britain, naming the land they settled England.
Saxo Grammaticus' Gesta Danorum describes how the two sons of Humble, Angul and Dan, are the forefathers and founders of the Danes. Together, they became rulers of their realm through the support of their kinsmen but did not use the term "king". [1]
Angul is then described as also being the ancestor of the Angles, who later migrated to Britain, naming the region England after Angul:
| Latin text [2] | Elton & Powell translation [1] | Friis-Jensen and Fisher translation [3] |
|---|---|---|
| Of these two, Angul, the fountain, so runs the tradition, of the beginnings of the Anglian race, caused his name to be applied to the district which he ruled. This was an easy kind of memorial wherewith to immortalise his fame: for his successors a little later, when they gained possession of Britain, changed the original name of the island for a fresh title, that of their own land. This action was much thought of by the ancients: witness Bede, no mean figure among the writers of the Church, who was a native of England, and made it his care to embody the doings of his country in the most hallowed treasury of his pages; deeming it equally a religious duty to glorify in writing the deeds of his land, and to chronicle the history of the Church. | Old reports maintain that the English race arose from this Angel, who had his name given to the region he governed, resolving to pass on an undying recognition of himself by an easy kind of memorial. His descendants later conquered Britain and substituted the new title of their own land for the island's original name. This action was highly thought of in past ages. One witness to this is Bede, a major contributor to Christian literature, who as an Englishman, took pains to bring his country's history into the sacred treasury of his books, considering it in equal piety both to pen the deeds of his motherland and to write about religion. |
Though not mentioning Angul, his brother Dan is referred to in other other medieval works as the ancestor of the Danes. In the Chronicle of Lejre Dan, the son of King Ypper of Uppsala, becomes king of the Danes, while his brothers Nori and Östen become kings of Norway and the Swedes. [4] Consistent with this, in Jordanes' Getica , written in the 6th century, the Danes, of the same tribe as the Swedes, are said to have emigrated from Sweden to Denmark in ancient times. [5] Unlike other accounts such as the Prose Edda, Gesta Danorum makes the founders of the Danish royal line descended from humans rather than gods. [6]
In contrast to many other writers at the time that traced the descent of the nation in question to the Trojans, Saxo favoured heathen forefathers from the land itself. This was possibly intended to show that the Danes were independent from, and equal, to the Romans. [7] [8] It has been argued that Dan and Angul resembling Romulus and Remus, fitting into a wider system of parallels between the accounts in Gesta Danorum and Roman tradition. [8] It is unclear when Saxo conceived of Dan and Angul as having lived, with the Chronicle of Lejre recording that Dan lived at the time of Emperor Augustus, while Saxo puts them over twenty generations before him. This would be a further similarity with Romulus and Remus, with whom they would have been roughly contemporaries by his account. [9]
It has been further proposed that Saxo included Angul in his account of the origin of the Danes to emphasise the close connection between the Danes and the English. [10] This is consistent with earlier Old English literature that shows that the history of the Angles during and before the migration from the Danish region was remembered and seen as part of the history of the English more widely. [11] It has also been noted that along with the works of Bede, Saxo refers to the writings of Dudo and Paul the Deacon who discuss the origins of the Normans and the Langobards, who, like the English, can be seen as having descended from the Danes. [12]
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Gesta Danorum is a patriotic work of Danish history, by the 12th-century author Saxo Grammaticus. It is the most ambitious literary undertaking of medieval Denmark and is an essential source for the nation's early history. It is also one of the oldest known written documents about the history of Estonia and Latvia.
Saxo Grammaticus, also known as Saxo cognomine Longus, was a Danish historian, theologian and author. He is thought to have been a clerk or secretary to Absalon, Archbishop of Lund, the main advisor to Valdemar I of Denmark. He is the author of the Gesta Danorum, the first full history of Denmark, from which the legend of Amleth would come to inspire the story of Hamlet by Shakespeare.
The Danes were a North Germanic tribe inhabiting southern Scandinavia, including the area now comprising Denmark proper, northern and eastern England, and the Scanian provinces of modern-day southern Sweden, during the Nordic Iron Age and the Viking Age. They founded what became the Kingdom of Denmark. The name of their realm is believed to mean "Danish March", viz. "the march of the Danes", in Old Norse, referring to their southern border zone between the Eider and Schlei rivers, known as the Danevirke.
The Warnow is a river in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in Germany. It flows into the Baltic Sea near the town of Rostock, in its borough Warnemünde.
Dan (or Halfdan) is the name of one or more legendary earliest kings of the Danes and Denmark, mentioned in medieval Scandinavian texts.
Lotherus (Lother) was one of the earliest kings of Denmark according to Saxo Grammaticus's Gesta Danorum.
Chronicon Lethrense is a small Danish medieval work from the 12th century, written in Latin.
Dan I was the progenitor of the Danish royal house according to Saxo Grammaticus's Gesta Danorum. He supposedly held the lordship of Denmark along with his brother Angul, the father of the Angles in Angeln, which later formed the Anglo-Saxons in England.
Humblus was one of the earliest kings of Denmark according to Saxo Grammaticus's Gesta Danorum.
Skjöldr was among the first legendary Danish kings. He is mentioned in the Prose Edda, in Ynglinga saga, in Chronicon Lethrense, in Sven Aggesen's history, in Arngrímur Jónsson's Latin abstract of the lost Skjöldunga saga and in Saxo Grammaticus' Gesta Danorum. Under the name Scyld he also appears in the Old English poem Beowulf. The various accounts have little in common.
Gram was one of the earliest legendary Danish kings according to Saxo Grammaticus' Gesta Danorum. His history is given in more detail than those of his predecessors. Georges Dumézil argued that Gram was partially modelled on the god Thor, in particular his defeat of Hrungnir and subsequent encounter with Gróa.
Dan II is one of the legendary Danish kings, the son of Offa of Angel, described in Saxo Grammaticus' Gesta Danorum.
Dan III is one of the legendary Danish kings described in Saxo Grammaticus' Gesta Danorum.
Frotho II is one of the legendary Danish kings described in Saxo Grammaticus' Gesta Danorum.
Fridlevus I is one of the legendary Danish kings described in Saxo Grammaticus' Gesta Danorum.
Hrœrekr Ringslinger or Ringscatterer was a legendary 7th-century king of Zealand or Denmark, who appears in Chronicon Lethrense, Annals of Lund, Gesta Danorum, Sögubrot, Njáls saga, Hversu Noregr byggðist, Skjöldunga saga, and Bjarkarímur. Connection with such historical figures such as Horik I, who ruled Denmark around 854 for a dozen or so years, or the founder of the Rurik dynasty is fraught with difficulty.
Freawine, Frowin or Frowinus figures as a governor of Schleswig in Gesta Danorum and in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as an ancestor of the kings of Wessex, but the latter source only tells that he was the son of Friðgar and the father of Wig.
Webiorg, Wigbiorg or Veborg, was a legendary Scandinavian shieldmaiden who, according to the sagas, participated in the Battle of Bråvalla, which occurred in Sweden in approximately 750. She was of Swedish or Danish origin.
Rusla, also known as the "Red Woman" from Middle Irish Ingean Ruagh, was a legendary Norwegian shield-maiden mentioned in the Gesta Danorum or "History of the Danes" of Saxo Grammaticus and in the Irish annals. According to Saxo, Rusla was the daughter of a fifth or sixth century king of Telemark called Rieg, and sister of Tesandus (Thrond), who was dispossessed of his throne by a Danish king named Omund. Rusla formed a pirate fleet to attack all Danish ships as revenge for the affront to her brother. Rusla was always accompanied by another woman, Stikla, who was her deputy in all raids. Stikla turned to piracy to avoid marriage, and her name is the origin of the Norwegian city of Stiklestad.
Wetheman or Vedeman was a Danish nobleman who in 1151 or 1152 founded a lay confraternity in Roskilde to help fight the pagan Wends. A layman, he was its first commander and led the defence of the coast from Wendish pirates. He also played a prominent role in the crusades and wars of King Valdemar I and Bishop Absalon of Roskilde. In 1164, the king put him in charge of the town of Wolgast after its capture.