Angul (or Angel) is a figure in

Nordic mythology Norse, Nordic, or Scandinavian mythology, is the body of myths belonging to the North Germanic peoples, stemming from Old Norse religion and continuing after the Christianization of Scandinavia as the Nordic folklore of the modern period. The ...

who, according to the '' Gesta Danorum'' was the ancestor of the

Danes Danes (, ), or Danish people, are an ethnic group and nationality native to Denmark and a modern nation identified with the country of Denmark. This connection may be ancestral, legal, historical, or cultural. History Early history Denmark ...

, along with his brother Dan. He was also the ancestor of the Angles (or English) in

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

, who later migrated to Great Britain, naming the land they settled

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

Attestations

''Gesta Danorum''

Saxo Grammaticus 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 ...

' Gesta Danorum describes how the two sons of Humble, Angul and Dan, are the forefathers and founders of the

. Together, they became rulers of their realm through the support of their kinsmen but did not use the term "king". Angul is then described as also being the ancestor of the Angles, who later migrated to Britain, naming the region

ultimately after Angul:

Interpretation and discussion

Relationship to other Germanic tribal beginnings

Though not mentioning Angul, his brother Dan is referred to in other medieval works as the ancestor of the Danes. In the

Chronicle of Lejre ( Danish: English: ''Chronicle of Lejre/Leire'') is a small Danish medieval work from the late 12th century, written in Latin. Themes Unlike '' Chronicon Roskildense'', which deals primarily with information presented as real historical facts ...

, Dan, the son of King Ypper of

Uppsala Uppsala ( ; ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the capital of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inhabitants in 2019. Loc ...

, becomes king of the Danes, while his brothers Nori and Östen become kings of

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

and the

Swedes Swedes (), or Swedish people, are an ethnic group native to Sweden, who share a common ancestry, Culture of Sweden, culture, History of Sweden, history, and Swedish language, language. They mostly inhabit Sweden and the other Nordic countries, ...

. Consistent with this, in

Jordanes Jordanes (; Greek language, Greek: Ιορδάνης), also written as Jordanis or Jornandes, was a 6th-century Eastern Roman bureaucrat, claimed to be of Goths, Gothic descent, who became a historian later in life. He wrote two works, one on R ...

' ''

Getica ''De origine actibusque Getarum'' (''The Origin and Deeds of the Getae''), commonly abbreviated ''Getica'' (), written in Late Latin by Jordanes in or shortly after 551 AD, claims to be a summary of a voluminous account by Cassiodorus of the ori ...

'', written in the 6th century, the

, of the same tribe as the

, are said to have emigrated from Sweden to Denmark in ancient times. Unlike other accounts such as the

Prose Edda The ''Prose Edda'', also known as the ''Younger Edda'', ''Snorri's Edda'' () or, historically, simply as ''Edda'', is an Old Norse textbook written in Iceland during the early 13th century. The work is often considered to have been to some exten ...

, Gesta Danorum makes the founders of the Danish royal line descended from humans rather than

gods A deity or god is a supernatural being considered to be sacred and worthy of worship due to having authority over some aspect of the universe and/or life. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines ''deity'' as a God (male deity), god or god ...

Inclusion by Saxo Grammaticus

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. It has been argued that Dan and Angul resembling

Romulus and Remus In Roman mythology, Romulus and (, ) are twins in mythology, twin brothers whose story tells of the events that led to the Founding of Rome, founding of the History of Rome, city of Rome and the Roman Kingdom by Romulus, following his frat ...

, fitting into a wider system of parallels between the accounts in Gesta Danorum and Roman tradition. 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 Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian (), was the founder of the Roman Empire, who reigned as the first Roman emperor from 27 BC until his death in ...

, 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. 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. 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. It has also been noted that along with the works of Bede, Saxo refers to the writings of

Dudo Dudo (Spanish for ''I doubt''), also known as Cacho, Pico, Perudo, Liar's Dice, Peruvian Liar Dice,
at dice-play.com Cachito, or Dadinh ...

and

Paul the Deacon Paul the Deacon ( 720s 13 April in 796, 797, 798, or 799 AD), also known as ''Paulus Diaconus'', ''Warnefridus'', ''Barnefridus'', or ''Winfridus'', and sometimes suffixed ''Cassinensis'' (''i.e.'' "of Monte Cassino"), was a Benedictine monk, sc ...

who discuss the origins of the

Normans The Normans (Norman language, Norman: ''Normaunds''; ; ) were a population arising in the medieval Duchy of Normandy from the intermingling between Norsemen, Norse Viking settlers and locals of West Francia. The Norse settlements in West Franc ...

and the Langobards, who, like the English, can be seen as having descended from the Danes.

Citations

Bibliography

Primary

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Secondary

* * * * * {{Legendary progenitors Legendary kings of Denmark Semi-legendary kings of Sweden Founding monarchs in Europe Legendary progenitors Legendary monarchs