Warlock
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A warlock is a male practitioner of witchcraft.[1]
Etymology and terminology
[edit]The most commonly accepted etymology derives warlock from the Old English wǣrloga, with the first known source is the Heliand and does not mean "breaker of oaths" or "deceiver".
The form wærloga|wǣrloga]] is a short form of the previous plural wârlogan pronounced wær-loh-an. Wâr is akin to vir (man). Log, also as lag (lah) is the source of the word law as in byrlog (town law and later as bi-law). It is entirely a masculine word. The singular was wârlog. Warlog was translated as Warloh, it became Warloch through later German and related roots giving its Present form. The meaning is men of laws or simply lawmen, a term applied in the sense of a magistrate (one who administers the laws).
The source of the plural word wârlogan is the Heliand. Heliand is a combination of Old Saxon Heli which can mean both heal and holy as the base meaning is to make whole, though it is often glossed with the word Savior (One who saves/salvages). The specific phrase cited often from this text is:
Te hui gi warlogan quat hie, undot min so fruocno, Ne scal iu that te frumu werthan,Than welliu ik iu te waron quat hie. To who you lawmen quote he, and me so wise, no shall you that I to from worths, then well you I you to warn quote he.
Its a very thick and archaic form of linguistics difficult for most to understand today with clarity. However the following also breaks each word down to its parts:
e - “To/the”
hui - “who/how”
gi - “you” (plural only)
warlogan - “lawmen” (plural only)
quat - “quote/said”
hie - “he”
undot - “and”
min - “my/me”
so - “so”
fruocno - “fruitful” or “wise”
Ne - “No/Not”
scal - “shall”
iu - “you” (singular/plural)
that - “that”
te - “to/the”
frumu - “begins/beginning”
werthan - “worthy”
Than - “Then”
welliu - “well/will you”
ik - “I”
iu - “you” (singular/plural)
te - “to/the”
waron - “warn”
quat - “what/quote/said”
hie - “he”
To give a more intelligible modern without betraying the original text it transliterates as:
"How can you lawmen quote him and my wisdom? You shall not let this begin worthy, so then I will warn you, quote he."
Some sources will claim its related to the word for outlaw. Útlog is outlaw. Óth breker means oath breaker. So that alone disproves the false meaning. Regardless if it is as it was, later spelled warloga or warloge or any of the other variations, it doesn't change the gender of the word at all. Variations of spelling include:
Warlowe, warlou, werlou, werlawe, warlouʒ, warloghe, warlau, warlawe, warlagh(e), werlau(ghe) warlach, warlag, warloc, warlok, warlage, warthel-, werlok, wirlok, warlaʒes, worlais, warlais, and werlahen.
Related Terms of Activity:
Warlockery, Warlockcraft/Warloghecræft, Warlocked
It must be understood what the Heliand is. It is a poem as more of a Catholic Christian Allegory written in Old Saxon style. It is all related to how the Pharisees who are called "lawmen or men of the law" quote their Torah (the book of laws and traditions in Judaism)and try to use it to catch Jesus in a theological and philosophical trap. The same are later called breakers of the covenant and traitors and sons of the Devil which is how the word that came to be spelled as Warlock over the centuries was used as a gloss for Pharisees, Sadducees and the Scribes to name a few though the word means nothing of the like. Case in point.
The Scottish Origin claim never notes the actual source of that claim and often proceeds with such as:
[2] The term came to apply specially to the devil around 1000 AD.[3] In early modern Scots, the word came to refer to the male equivalent of a "witch" (which can be male or female, but has historically been used predominantly for females).[4][page needed] The part where it is often claimed The term may have become associated in Scotland with male witches owing to the idea that they had made pacts with Auld Hornie (the devil) and thus had betrayed the Christian faith and broke their baptismal vows or oaths.[5]
The actual source is John Dryden, an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright from the 1600’s CE. Year of Quotation: Between 1672-1673 CE.
Warlock, in Scotland is applied to a man whom the vulgar suppose to be conversant with spirits, as a woman who carries on the same commerce is called a witch.
This has been documented in such as the April 15th, 1755 CE. Original Edition "A Dictionary of the English Language" Page 2243 where Warlock is spelled Warluck for reasons unknown. The same source is likewise cited in the First Edition “A dictionary of the Scottish Language” published on January 1, 1818. Perhaps the reason it is never cited is because it counters the claims of the gender neutrality of Warlock and Witch as the female counterpart which goes back to 893 in the Domboc. There is also of course the other assumed fallacy of the association of Warlock with Vardlokkur. This is bad etymology and a disregard for the source of the information with is the Saga of Erik the Red, who was active around 980s CE and is mentioned as a type of sung prayer to call upon and bind a protection upon those present.
varð-lokkur is a combination of varð which is the same as ward with the base meaning of guard and protect and only used figuratively when applied to persons, places or things with lokkur being the source of the word locker, as in something that binds, holds or fasten things together, from the base form lok, also spelled loc, but can and has been used figuratively for a place of storage. It is seldom mentioned that Icelandic does not use the letter 'c' and in fact in native form is Íslenska. Failing to consider these facts the usual following content is often applied by erroneous assumptions and regurgitation of the same errors between sources simply copying the same mistakes without better research.
From this use, the word passed into Romantic literature and ultimately into 20th-century popular culture. A derivation from the Old Norse varð-lokkur, "caller of spirits", has also been suggested,[6][7][8] but the Oxford English Dictionary considers this implausible owing to the extreme rarity of the Norse word and because forms without hard -k, which are consistent with the Old English etymology ("traitor"), are attested earlier than forms with a -k.[2]
History
[edit]Although most victims of the witch trials in early modern Scotland were women, some men were executed as warlocks.[9][10][11]
In his day, the Scottish mathematician John Napier (1550–1617) was often perceived as a warlock or magician because his interests in divination and the occult, though his establishment position likely kept him from being prosecuted.[12][13]
References
[edit]- ^ "Definition of warlock". English Oxford Living Dictionaries. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on July 24, 2012. Retrieved 29 December 2018.
- ^ a b "Warlock". Oxford English Dictionary (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. 1989.
ON. varðlokkur wk. fem. pl. ... incantation, suggested already in Johnson, is too rare (? occurring once), with regard to the late appearance of the -k forms, to be considered.
- ^ Harper, Douglas. "warlock". Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved 11 August 2020.
- ^ McNeill, F. Marian (1957). The Silver Bough: A Four Volume Study of the National and Local Festivals of Scotland. Vol. 1. Glasgow: William Maclellan.
- ^ Howard, Michael (2013). "7". Scottish Witches and Warlocks (1st ed.). Three Hands Press. p. 91.
It is possible that it became associated with wizards and male witches in Scotland in the sense that someone who made a pact with Auld Hornie had betrayed the Christian faith and broken their baptismal vows. In that respect they were considered to be an 'oath breaker', a traitor and an enemy of the Church.
- ^ Cleasby, R.; Vigfusson, G. (1874). An Icelandic-English Dictionary. London: Macmillan.
- ^ Olsen, M. (1916). Maal Og Minne. Oslo: Bymalslaget.
- ^ Loewe, M.; Blacker, C. (1981). Oracles and Divination. London: George Allen & Unwin. p. 130.
'Vardlokkur' […] is related to the Scots dialect word 'warlock', wizard, and the meaning is thought to relate to the power to shut in or enclose"
- ^ Thomas Thomson, A History of the Scottish People from the Earliest Times (1896), page 286: "Where one man suffered as a warlock, ten women at least were executed as witches."
- ^ Robert Chambers, Domestic Annals of Scotland: From the Reformation to the Revolution (1874), page 244
- ^ Journal of Jurisprudence and Scottish Law Magazine (1891), Execution of the Judgment of Death, page 397: "We read (Law's Memor. Pref. lix.) that 'one John Brugh, a notorious warlock (wizard) in the parochin of Fossoquhy, by the space of thirty-six years, was worried at a stake and burned, 1643.'"
- ^ Roger A. Mason, Scots and Britons: Scottish Political Thought and the Union of 1603 (2006, ISBN 0521026202), page 199
- ^ Julian Havil, John Napier: Life, Logarithms, and Legacy (2014, ISBN 1400852188), page 19