Dunstan

by Conn Iggulden

On a final note, the fact that the name of Ethelred the Unready actually meant ‘Nobel counsel’ (Æthel-ræd) the ‘Ill-counselled’ (Un-ræd) must be one of the earliest jokes, if not the earliest, in the English language. ‘Old Good-Advice, the badly advised’ is a fair approximation.

I have often wondered what it was that made Ethelred so ‘unready’. Interesting to find out that the old English word actually used doesn’t mean ‘unready’ at all. Clearly a satirical joke of the period.