Eider River

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Eider
The Eider near Tönning.
Origin	Schleswig-Holstein
Mouth	North Sea
Basin countries	Germany
Length	188 km

The Eider (German: Eider; Danish: Ejderen; Latin: Egdor or Egdore) is the longest river of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. The river starts south of Kiel near the shores of the Baltic Sea, but flows to the west, ending in the North Sea. The middle part of the Eider was appropriated for use as part of the Kiel Canal.<ref>The History of the City of Kiel, 1243 - 1945. British Kiel Yacht Club. Retrieved on 2006-03-16.</ref> After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, 476 AD, historical records become spotty, but by 600 AD, the pagan Jutes, Angles, and Saxons, all from near today's Schleswig-Holstein, had established kingdoms in England. The Jutes homeland was located in today's Denmark, north of the Eider, and possibly as far south as Schleswig as well, but that and Holstein were likely the home of the Angle peoples, who subsequently lent their name to England. The Saxons abutted the Angles, and it is likely the three were related tribes. In the early Middle Ages the Eider was the border between the Saxons and the Danes, as reported by Adam of Bremen in 1076. For centuries it divided Denmark and the Holy Roman Empire.<ref>Lawson, M.K. (1993). Cnut, The Danes in England in the Early Eleventh Century. New York: Longman. ISBN 0-582-05969-0.</ref> Today it is the border between Schleswig and Holstein, the northern and southern parts, respectively, of the modern German state of Schleswig-Holstein.