Notes and Queries, Number 27, May 4, 1850 | Page 7

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 ea leo?es can hep re3t se hal3a se[~s] Io[~hs] taep re Hael. eode ofen tone bupnan the Ledpoc hatte, on in[=e]n aenne p[.y]ptun. Tha piste se unlaesde iudas se te hune to deate beleaped haefde."
In Grimm's Elucidations to Andreas he thus notices it:--
"Unlaed, miser, improbus, infelix. (A. 142. 744. _Judith_, 134, 43.). A rare adjective never occurring in Beowulf, Coedmon, or the Cod. Exon., and belonging to those which only appear in conjunction with un. Thus, also, the Goth. unleds, pauper, miser; and the O.H.G. unlat (Graff, 2. 166.); we nowhere find a lêds, laed, lat, as an antithesis. It must have signified _dives, felix_; and its root is wholly obscure."
In all the Anglo-Saxon examples of unlaed, the sense appears to be _wretched_, _miserable_; in the Gothic it is uniformly _poor_[1]: but poverty and wretchedness are nearly allied. Lêd, or laed, would evidently therefore signify _rich_, and by inference happy. Now we have abundant examples of the use of the word ledes in old English; not only for _people_, but for _riches_, _goods_, movable property. Lond and lede, or ledes, or lith, frequently occur unequivocally in this latter sense, thus:--
"He was the first of Inglond that gaf God his tithe Of isshue of bestes, of londes, or of lithe."
_P. Plouhm_.
"I bed hem bothe lond and _lede_, To have his douhter in worthlie wede, And spouse here with my ring."
_K. of Tars_, 124.
"For to have lond or _lede_, Or _other riches_, so God me spede! Yt ys to muche for me."
_Sir Cleges_, 409.
"Who schall us now geve londes or _lythe_, Hawkys, or houndes, or stedys stithe, As he was wont to do."
_Le B. Florence of Rome_, 841.
"No asked he lond or _lithe_, Bot that maiden bright."
_Sir Tristrem_, xlviii.
In "William and the Werwolf" the cowherd and his wife resolve to leave William
"Al here godis Londes and ludes as ether after her lif dawes."
p. 4
In this poem, ludes and ledes are used indiscriminately, but most frequently in the sense of men, people. Sir Frederick Madden has shown, from the equivalent words in the French original of Robert of Brunne, "that he always uses the word in the meaning of _possessions_, whether consisting of tenements, rents, fees, &c.;" in short, wealth.
If, therefore, the word has this sense in old English, we might expect to find it in Anglo-Saxon, and I think it is quite clear that we have it at least in one instance. In the _Ancient Laws and Institutes of England_, vol. i. p. 184., an oath is given, in which the following passage occurs:
"Do spa to lane beo té he tinum I leat me be minum ne 3ypne le tines ne laedes ne landes ne sac ne socne ne tu mines ne teapst ne mint ic te nan tio3."
Mr. Thorpe has not translated the word, nor is it noticed in his Glossary; but I think there can be no doubt that it should be rendered by _goods_, _chattels_, or _wealth_, i.e., movable property.
This will be even more obvious from an extract given by Bishop Nicholson, in the preface to Wilkin's _Leges Saxonic?_ p. vii. It is part of the oath of a Scotish baron of much later date, and the sense here is unequivocal:--
"I becom zour man my liege king in land, _lith_[2], life and lim, warldly honour, homage, fealty, and leawty, against all that live and die."
Numerous examples are to be found in the M.H. German, of which I will cite a few:
"Ir habt doch zu iuwere hant Beidin liute unde lant."
_Tristr._ 13934.
"Und bevelhet ir liute unde lant."
_Iwein._ 2889. {432}
"Ich teile ir liute unde lant."
_Id._ 7714.
And in the old translation of the Liber Dialogorum of St.