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

say, that when he had
the measles, his nurse gave him a roasted mouse to cure him.
SCOTUS.
* * * * *
THE ANGLO-SAXON WORD "UNLAED."
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."
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. unlât (Graff, 2.
166.); we nowhere find a lêds, laed, lât, 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 þé he þinum I leat me be minum ne 3ypne le þines
ne laedes ne landes ne sac ne socne ne þu mines ne þeapst ne mint ic þe
nan þio3."
Mr. Thorpe has not translated the word, nor is it noticed in