Editorial note — APPENDIX.

The writer of the text has given a Latin termination to the name Guthlac, which word is purely Saxon. This name is derived from two Saxon words, i.e. Guth (Guð), war, and lac, an offering, or sacrifice. Guthlac means simply warfare, but as applied to this anchorite it must be regarded as a compound expressive of the character or deeds of the man. He was the son of a Mercian noble and a soldier, but he may have acquired the name after becoming a monk, if so, Guthlac signifies “an offering in (Christian?) warfare,” i.e., in the conflict of Christianity against Paganism.