Schlei in the context of "Danes (tribe)"

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 Danevirke or Danework (modern Danish spelling: Dannevirke; in Old Norse: Danavirki, in German: Danewerk, literally meaning earthwork of the Danes) is a system of Danish fortifications in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. This historically important linear defensive earthwork across the neck of the Cimbrian peninsula was initiated by the Danes in the Nordic Iron Age about AD 650. It was later expanded multiple times during Denmark's Viking Age and High Middle Ages. The Danevirke was last used for military purposes in 1864 during the Second War of Schleswig.

The Danevirke consists of several walls, trenches and the Schlei Barrier. The walls stretch for 30 km, from the former Viking trade centre of Hedeby near Schleswig on the Baltic Sea coast in the east to the extensive marshlands in the west of the peninsula. One of the walls (named Østervolden), between the Schlei and Eckernförde inlets, defended the Schwansen peninsula.

Angeln (pronounced [ˈaŋl̩n] ; Danish: Angel) is a peninsula on the 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 from Sundeved and the island of Als in Denmark, and on the south by the Schlei, which separates it from Schwansen. The landscape is hilly, dotted with numerous lakes. The largest towns are Flensburg, Schleswig and Kappeln.

Angeln is notable for being the putative home of the Angles, a Germanic tribe that migrated to Great Britain during the Age of Migrations and founded the kingdoms of Mercia, Northumbria and East Anglia. The Angles would ultimately give their name to England.

Hedeby (Danish pronunciation: [ˈhe̝ːðəˌpyˀ], Old Norse: Heiðabýr, German: Haithabu) was an important Danish Viking Age (8th to the 11th centuries) trading settlement near the southern end of the Jutland Peninsula, now in the Schleswig-Flensburg district of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. Around 965, chronicler Ibrahim ibn Yaqub visited Hedeby and described it as "a very large city at the very end of the world's ocean."

Due to its unique position between the Frankish Empire and the Danish Kingdom, the settlement developed as a trading centre at the head of a narrow, navigable inlet known as the Schlei, which connects to the Baltic Sea. The location was favorable because there is a short portage of less than 15 km to the Treene River, which flows into the Eider with its North Sea estuary, making it a convenient place where goods and ships could be pulled on a corduroy road overland for an almost uninterrupted seaway between the Baltic and the North Sea and avoid a dangerous and time-consuming circumnavigation of Jutland, providing Hedeby with a role similar to later Lübeck. Hedeby was the second largest Nordic town during the Viking Age, after Uppåkra in present-day southern Sweden. The city of Schleswig was later founded on the other side of the Schlei. Hedeby was abandoned after its destruction in 1066.

Schleswig (UK: /ˈʃlɛsvɪɡ/, US: /-wɪɡ, -wɪk, -vɪk, ˈʃleɪsvɪk/, German: [ˈʃleːsvɪç] ; Danish: Slesvig [ˈsle̝ːsvi]; South Jutlandic: Sljasvig; Low German: Sleswig) is a town in the northeastern part of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is the capital of the Kreis (district) Schleswig-Flensburg. It has a population of about 27,000, the main industries being leather and food processing. It takes its name from the Schlei (Slien), an inlet of the Baltic Sea at the end of which it sits, and vik or vig which means "bay" in Old Norse and Danish. Schleswig or Slesvig therefore means "bay of the Schlei".

Kappeln (German pronunciation: [ˈkapl̩n] ; Danish: Kappel) is a town in the district of Schleswig-Flensburg, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is situated on the north bank of the Schlei, approx. 30 km (19 mi) northeast of Schleswig, and 35 km (22 mi) southeast of Flensburg. For the eastern Angeln and the northern Schwansen, Kappeln has center function.

Schwansen (German pronunciation: [ˈʃvanzn̩]; Danish: Svans or Svansø, meaning "swan island/peninsula") is a peninsula in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, protruding into the Baltic Sea. It is located between Eckernförde Bay to the south and the Schlei inlet to the north.

The Danish dialect South Jutlandic in the Angel Danish variant was still spoken in Schwansen around 1780 (the last time in the villages near the Schlei). Denmark lost Schwansen following the Second Schleswig War in 1864.