Unferð

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. 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. Fulk argues, however, that this use of the letter h does not appear anywhere else in the Beowulf manuscript.

In Old English, un usually functions as a negative prefix. However, in certain contexts the meaning must be interpreted as 'abnormally', rather than 'not' (cf. German Untiefe, un-depth, which may mean either an excessive or an insufficient depth, or Old English unhar, "very old"). This use of un could add new possibilities to the meaning of the name Unferth. Despite the vast amount of research that has gone into the etymology of Unferth's name, there can be no easy consensus about its meaning.