Etymology
The first syllable of the term bretwalda may be related to 'Briton' or 'Britain' and would thus mean 'sovereign of Britain' or 'wielder of Britain'. The word may be a compound containing the Old English adjective brytten (from the verb breotan meaning 'to break' or 'to disperse'), an element also found in the terms bryten rice ('kingdom'), bryten-grund ('the wide expanse of the earth') and bryten cyning ('king whose authority was widely extended'). Though the origin is ambiguous, the draughtsman of the charter issued by Æthelstan used the term in a way that can only mean 'wide ruler'.
The latter etymology was first suggested by John Mitchell Kemble who alluded that "of six manuscripts in which this passage occurs, one only reads Bretwalda: of the remaining five, four have Bryten-walda or -wealda, and one Breten-anweald, which is precisely synonymous with Brytenwealda"; that Æthelstan was called brytenwealda ealles ðyses ealondes, which Kemble translates as "ruler of all these islands"; and that bryten- is a common prefix to words meaning 'wide or general dispersion' and that the similarity to the word bretwealh ('Briton') is "merely accidental". "Bretwalda" may also be a derivation of the Germanic "Breit Walter". "Breit" meaning wide, and "Walter" meaning ruler. Denoting far/wide reaching power and influence.
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