Page "Bretwalda" Paragraph 21

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 ".