Ætheling
Cyning (sovereign) |
Ætheling (prince) |
Ealdorman (Earl) |
Hold / High-reeve |
Thegn |
Thingmen / housecarl (retainer) |
Reeve / Verderer (bailiff) |
Churl (free tenant) |
Villein (serf) |
Cottar (cottager) |
Þēow (slave) |
Ætheling (
The term is an Old English and Old Saxon compound of aethele, æþele or (a)ethel, meaning "noble family", and -ing, which means "belonging to".[1] It was usually rendered in Latin as filius regis (king's son) or the Anglo-Latin neologism clito.
Ætheling can be found in the Suffolk toponym of Athelington.
Meaning and use in Anglo-Saxon England
During the earliest years of the Anglo-Saxon rule in England, the word ætheling was probably used to denote any person of noble birth. Its use was soon restricted to members of a royal family. The prefix æþel- formed part of the name of several
The annal for 728 in the
"Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum,
þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon."
Beowulf, lines 1-3
Ætheling was also used in a poetic sense to mean "a good and noble man". Old English verse often used ætheling to describe
Other uses and variations
The term was occasionally used after the
It was also sometimes translated into Latin as clito, as in the name of William Clito. It may have been derived from the Latin inclitus/inclutus, "celebrated".[4]
The historian Dáibhí Ó Cróinín has proposed that the idea of the rígdomna in early medieval Ireland was adopted from the Anglo-Saxon, specifically Northumbrian, concept of the ætheling.[5] The earliest use of tanaíste ríg was in reference to an Anglo-Saxon prince in about 628. Many subsequent uses related to non-Irish rulers, before the term was attached to Irish kings-in-waiting.
In Wales, the variant edling was used to signify the son chosen to be the heir apparent.
See also
Footnotes
- ^ Harper, Douglas (November 2001). "Atheling". Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved 3 July 2008.
- ^ public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Ætheling". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 290. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the
- ISBN 1-84383-008-6.
- ISBN 9781843836605– via Google Books.
- ISBN 0-582-01565-0.
Further reading
- Miller, S. (2003). "Ætheling". In Lapidge, Michael (ed.). The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-22492-0.