England - Angel land

I wonder how many people know that England was originally called Angel-land. I didn't until I read it in an article yesterday; in Dutch it's called Engeland and "engel" in Dutch is angel, though I never thought about it before.

You misread the article methinks, England is named after the Angles, a tribe that settled here, not Angels.

Deffo Angels as most of us girls are on here

Angels for sure!

Actually, I didn't misread the article, definitely said angel-land, will have to do some research on that to see if they're right!

Tirsh you are right they are right we are all angels

Just done a quick check and apparently there are lots of variations:

"there are several likenesses of form and meaning attested in Old English literature: King Alfred's (Alfred the Great) translation of Orosius uses Angelcynn (-kin) to describe England and the English people; Bede, Angelfolc (-folk); there are also such forms as Engel, Englan (the people), Englaland and Englisc"
"Anglia , the medieval Latin name for England Latin from Anglii (Angel(s) from blond hair blue eyes"

Danni, let's just leave it at that .......we're all angels (the females anyway)

Englaland, is that for the footballers?

Trish and others of the opposite gender,I don't believe in angels,yet my mother and father were both of Anglo-Saxon stock but neither of them had blonde hair.Now both my younger sister and myself started as blondes,my hair went to mousy while my sister remained the same but she was far from what your normal perception of what an angel should be.

There was once a bad man known as "der weisse Engel" the white angel,also known as the "Angel of Death" "Toten Engel". Funnily enough he had Bavarian roots. Joseph was his name.

I know a nice Angel...

I liked that series 'No Angels'.

J1,you are not getting him confused with Dr.Josef Mengele,because he was also known as the "Angel of Death"? Probably the only connecction there is that he came from the same part of the world as our early ancestors,I don't think my mother had him on her Christmas card list.

Really aussie roy, who's confused? Dr. Josef Mengele.

I guess this pope had a penchant for young boys.

Pope Gregory in the sixth century first witnessed blonde hair, blue eyed boys awaiting sale in a Roman slave market. The Romans enslaved thousands of white inhabitants of Great Britain, who were also known as Angles. Pope Gregory was very interested in the looks of these boys therefore asking their origin. He was told they were Angles from Briton. Gregory stated, “Non Angli, sed Angeli.” (Not Angles but Angels).

Not much changed?

Dave,I have now corrected my little error but in the meantime you may find it necessary to check your information. It is allegedly true that someone referred to the Angles slaves as being more like angels but it is my understanding that they,the Angles,were settlers in Britain after the had left and that they were not native Britons.Don't just take my word for it,see the following text from a reliable source :- "The Angles is a modern English word for a Germanic-speaking 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".

Of course I mean Mengele, Roy.

all i know is that i am, and proud to be english.

.......... and an angel

following the last ice-age Britain -all of it was populated by tribes from Western Europe.These tribes would have been made up of Angles/Saxons/Jutes as well as those tribes that we call the Ancient Britons or Celts.The word CELT is a 16/17th century invention and has no bearing on the tribes that inhabited these islands .
What happened post Romano Britain is that there was an influx of the Germanic tribes.
Prior to this influx there were already blond and red haired people in all areas of Britain.

Vera,I don't wish to argue with you but I think you will find that the Angles and the Saxons did not arrive,in other words invade,in Britain until the 5th century ME.

roy,
The major influx was as you say but these islands were populated after the ice-age by tribes from all over western europe.