The Schlei (; or e.g. in: Adolph Frederik Bergsøe: ''Den danske stats statistik'', Kjøbenhavn 1844, p. 156) is a narrow

inlet An inlet is a typically long and narrow indentation of a shoreline such as a small arm, cove, bay, sound, fjord, lagoon or marsh, that leads to an enclosed larger body of water such as a lake, estuary, gulf or marginal sea. Overview In ...

of the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...

Schleswig-Holstein Schleswig-Holstein (; ; ; ; ; occasionally in English ''Sleswick-Holsatia'') is the Northern Germany, northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical Duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of S ...

in northern

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. It stretches for approximately 20 miles (32 kilometers) from the Baltic near Kappeln and Arnis to the town of

Schleswig The Duchy of Schleswig (; ; ; ; ; ) was a duchy in Southern Jutland () covering the area between about 60 km (35 miles) north and 70 km (45 mi) south of the current border between Germany and Denmark. The territory has been di ...

. Along the Schlei are many small bays and swamps. It separates the

Angeln Angeln (; ) is a peninsula on the Baltic Sea, Baltic coast of Jutland, in the Bay of Kiel. It forms part of Southern Schleswig, the northernmost region of Germany. The peninsula is bounded on the north by the Flensburg Firth, which separates it ...

peninsula to the north from the Schwansen peninsula to the south. The important

Viking Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

settlement of Hedeby was located at the head of the firth (

fjord In physical geography, a fjord (also spelled fiord in New Zealand English; ) is a long, narrow sea inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Antarctica, the Arctic, and surrounding landmasses of the n ...

), but was later abandoned in favor of the town of Schleswig. A museum has been built on the site, telling the story of the abandoned town.

Etymology

The Schlei's name was once presumably ''Angel'',Wolfgang Laur: ''Historisches Ortsnamenlexikon von Schleswig-Holstein'', 2nd edition, Neumünster 1992. later giving its name to the region

. This name derives from the Norse word ''angr'' ("narrow"). ''Angel'' therefore meant "narrow fjord", which fits the long and narrow Schlei well. The current name is thought to have been used only for the inner Schlei (the broads at the top of the firth now known in Danish as the ''Store Bredning'' and ''Lille Bredning'' and in German as the ''Große Breite'' and ''Kleine Breite'', near Schleswig). The word is thought to be connected with the Danish word ''slæ'' ("reeds, water plants").

Notes

Förden of Germany Bays of Schleswig-Holstein {{SchleswigHolstein-geo-stub