A long etymological disquisition may seem a trifling matter; but what a
clear insight into historic truth, into the manners, the customs, and
the possessions of people of former ages, is sometimes obtained by the
accurate definition of even a single word. A pertinent instance will be
found in the true etymon of _Brytenwealda_, given by Mr. Kemble in his
chapter "On the Growth of the kingly Power." (_Saxons in Engl._ B. II.
c. 1.) Upon this consideration I must rest for this somewhat lengthy
investigation.
The word UNLAED, as far as we at present know, occurs only five times in
Anglo-Saxon; three of which are in the legend of Andreas in the Vercelli
MS., which legend was first printed, under the auspices of the Record
Commission, by Mr. Thorpe; but the Report to which the poetry of the
Vercelli MS. was attached has, for reasons with which I am unacquainted,
never been made public. In 1840, James Grimm, "feeling (as Mr. Kemble
says) that this was a wrong done to the world of letters at large,"
published it at Cassell, together with the Legend of Elene, or the
Finding of the Cross, with an Introduction and very copious notes. In
1844, it was printed for the Aelfric Society by Mr. Kemble, accompanied
by a translation, in which the passages are thus given.--
"Such was the people's
peaceless token,
the suffering of the _wretched_."
l. 57-9.
"When they of _savage spirits_
believed in the might,"
l. 283-4.
"Ye are _rude_,
of poor thoughts."
The fifth instance of the occurrence of the word is in a passage cited
by Wanley, Catal. p. 134., {431} from a homily occurring in a MS. in
Corpus Christi College, s. 14.:--
"Men ða leoçes can hep re3þ se hal3a se[~s] Io[~hs] þaep re
Hael. eode ofen þone bupnan the Ledpoc hatte, on in[=e]n aenne
p[.y]ptun. Tha piste se unlaesde iudas se þe hune to deaþe
beleaped haefde."