æðeling, m.n: son of a king, one of royal blood, a nobleman. (“ath-eh-leeng”)
August 29 is the Decollation (beheading) of John the Baptist. The saint is referred to as an æðeling in the Old English Menologium.
Swylce eac wide byð / eorlum geypped æþelinges deað / ymb feower niht, se þe fægere iu / mid wætere oferwearp wuldres cynebearn, / wiga weorðlice.
– Old English Metrical Calendar (Menologium), lines 156b-160a
Likewise after four nights, the death of a nobleman is widely revealed to men, of the fighter who in the past fittingly and worthily sprinkled the royal Child of heaven with water.
– translation by Kazutomo Karasawa
K. Karasawa, The Old English Metrical Calendar (Menologium) (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2015)
