Studies in the Diction of Layamon's Brut

Æðele ‘fame, glory, high repute; might, power; honour’ etc. OE æðelu (indecl. in Sing.; constantly used in PL and declined as a Strong Neuter) ‘nobility of birth, high lineage, origin’; in spiritual sense, ‘virtue, noble qualities of mind and character’. Cp. the speech of Hrothgar's messenger to Beowulf:— Eow het secgan sige-drihten min, / aldor East-Dena, þæt he eower æþelu can Beow. 391-2; and again that of Ælfwine in the Battle of Maldon 216-7:— Ic wylle mine æþelo eallum gecyþan, / þæt ic wæs on Myrcon miccles cynnes, etc. The spiritual force of this word is well exhibited in a passage from Boethius quoted by Bosworth-Toller:— Ryht æþelo biþ on þam mode, næs on þam flæsce. Æðelu has the sense of ‘standing, rank, status, rights’ in him on leodsceare / frumbearnes riht freobroþer oþþah (= oþtēah ‘took away‘?) / ead and æðelo Exodus 337-9. The word is used in Beowulf of qualities of mind and character, conceived of perhaps as naturally betokening illustrious birth: — Gecyste þa cyning æþelum god, / þeoden Scyldinga, þegne betstan Beow. 1870-1, in the account of Hrothgar's taking farewell of Beowulf

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