Unferð

In the Old English epic poem Beowulf, Unferth or Hunferth is a thegn (a retainer, servant) of the Danish lord Hrothgar. His name appears four times in the poem (always spelled Hunferð), at lines 499, 530, 1165, and 1488, as well as in line 980 by the appellation "the son of Eclafes". The name Unferth does not appear in any Old English manuscript outside of the Nowell Codex, which contains Beowulf, and the meaning of the name is disputed. Several scholarly theories about Unferth have been proposed. Unferth is also the name of a character in the modern novel Grendel by John Gardner, based upon the Beowulf epic.

Unferth's name can be understood in a number of ways. A common reading, by Morton W. Bloomfield is to see it as un + frith, "mar peace": similarly, J. R. R. Tolkien considered the name to mean Unpeace/Quarrel, or perhaps 'Unfriend'. However, Searle's Onomasticon Anglo-Saxonicum lists several mentions of medieval historic personages, such as bishops and archbishops, named Hunfrith. Another reading, by Fred C. Robinson, is to see it as un + ferth, "no wit".

Other scholars, such as R.D. Fulk, have suggested that Unferth’s name should not be associated with frið (peace) but with ferhð, which translates as “soul, spirit, mind, and life.” Fulk writes that it is difficult to assign significance to names in Beowulf because some of the characters involved are historical figures. However, Fulk argues that this can be done in the case of Unferth because the name Un-ferth is not known to appear in history, or in any manuscript other than the Nowell Codex. But the Chronicon Ex Chronicis, a 12th-century history of England, variously attributed to Florence of Worcester ("Florentii Wigorniensis") or to John of Worcester, mentions an 8th-century bishop of Winton whose name in Latin is given as "Hunfridus" and "Hunfertho".

The first element of the name, un, appears exclusively as hun in the sole manuscript of Beowulf. There is some question as to why hun appears when the author means un, and Fred C. Robinson suggests that this h is a Celtic scribal habit which indicates that u has a vocal function by adding an unpronounced graphic h. Fulk argues, however, that this use of the letter h does not appear anywhere else in the Beowulf manuscript.

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