England's early E kings

Some cab begin with an A as much as they can be spelt with an E

Princepurple said:

Was there any particular reason why alot of the pre conquest kings began with the Letter E or AE? I can think of Egbert, Ethelwolf, Ethelbert, Ethelred, Ethelstan, Ethelbald, Edgar, Edmund, Edwy, Edward's the elder, confessor and martyr and others... was there a reason for the letter E?

Also, what did ethel mean? all of Eberts sons aside from Alfred had Ethel st the start of their names.

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Ethel or Aethel means noble (see the german edel). Ed means law, Eg means sword.

If one goes back early enough there is no 'Official' spelling so King Ecberht of Kent from whom we have the first laws written down in English, by Augustine or one of his followers, it can also be written Aethelberht.

Aethel means Noble but also 'of Royal Birth' while Ael is further down the pecking order, hence Aelfraed (Alfred the great) who was not expected to be King because he had four older brothers, all with Aethel at the beginning of their names, in fact had any of these brothers lived another ten years after Aethelwulf's death Alfred would not have become King because Aethelstan the eldest had male children and these would have been old enough to rule.

There were three King Eadward's in the pre Conquest times which become Edward in Plantagenet times the a of the dipthong just being dropped. Edward I being named in honour of Eadward III or Confessor as he is popularly known.

Aethelraed is famously Royal Council, but Raed can also mean good council or stretching it for the example 'someone with wisdom of council' hence Aethelraed the Unready or "Unraed" which means bad council in fact it is verging on being really offensive.

Although in my book Aethelraed the bleeding useless is near the mark lol.

æ is a Saxon letter, the 24th in the alphabet. It's not technically a combination of a and e but a thing in its own right.

Domhnall Balloch said:

æ is a Saxon letter, the 24th in the alphabet. It's not technically a combination of a and e but a thing in its own right.

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As is that letter that looks a bit like a "y" but is pronounced "th". So stop saying, "Ye olde drinking hole" - it's "The olde drinking hole"!

(I've been waiting for decades to get that off my chest. I feel better now.)

Anglo-Saxon elite names were often created by compounding two elements. For example we have "Æthel" meaning "noble" and "flæd" meaning "overflowing" to form the dithematic name Æthelflæd. In fact, within noble and royal families these dithematic names also alliterated, and could be used to link generations. Amongst the Mercian royal family, we find many names using a "C" form - Coenwulf, Ceolwulf, Cuthbert, Cenhelm, and also female names such as Cwenthryth. The East Saxon dynasty had a strong preference for "S" alliterating names: Saewara, Saethryth, and Siegberht. The West Saxons, however, favoured to an extent an "A" form and so we have Alfred and Æthelstan. Venerable Bede`s actual full name was "Beadhere" formed from "baed" meaning prayer and "here" meaning army.

This is an interesting thread, and I am sure we have a lot of intelligent Brits here to chime in on this. I took a British history class, both I and II, at the university last year. They were tough to slog through -- so much history to pack in each semester. Unfortunately, the first part of Brit history I was full of these names that were very difficult to track. I wish we had a class that only dove into this period of history to get a better understanding of these peoples and their kings.

I was wondering if you all can suggest some fine books written on these early kings and also the early period of history there? Also, Domhnall mentioned the Saxon alphabet and I was wondering if anyone could share that as well?

I was wondering if you all can suggest some fine books written on these early kings and also the early period of history there?

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The Earliest English Kings came out fairly recently, but there aren't many books on the Heptarchy as a whole, even though there's plenty about the dominant kingdoms: Wessex, Sussex, Essex, East Anglia, Mercia, Kent, and Northumberland. The Kingdom and People of Kent by Sue Harrington is really good.

Also, Domhnall mentioned the Saxon alphabet and I was wondering if anyone could share that as well?

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When they adopted the Latin alphabet - because of Irish missionaries - they used twenty-four letters, borrowing twenty-two from Latin and two from their earlier runic alphabet (the AE symbol and a crossed D). They didn't use Z and Q. It was much more Germanic than the Latin alphabet in English today, making liberal use of accents. This, for instance, is hilarious (and may not be entirely accurate, pronunciation-wise)