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Warlocking??

To: alt.magick.tyagi,alt.religion.wicca,alt.wicca,alt.pagan,alt.religion.wicca,alt.religon.pagan
From: Joseph Stifel 
Subject: Re: Warlocking??
Date: Sun, 02 Mar 2003 06:04:31 GMT

lorax666 wrote:

> 50030301 VII
>
> on "warlock" and the novel "warlocking"
> =========================================
>
>
>                 to warlock
>
> which apparently means "to black ball" or "ostracize,
> excommunicate from one's social niceties, etc.". is this
> relatively new?
>
> Joseph :
> > as a dictionary definition of "warlock" is "traitor"....
>
> naw, the DEFINITION in lots of dictionaries is 'male witch',
> which I think is funny. yeah, the etymology has oath-breaker
> from the Old English (~liar).

from my websters:

warlock (wor lik), n.  1.  a man aided by the Devil in practicing magic
arts; sorcerer.  2.  a fortuneteller ....(who knew?)..... or conjuror.
[ME warloghe, -lach.  OE. waeroga oath breaker, devil.  equiv. to waer
-covenant + loga -betrayer (deriv. of l(e)ogan to lie)]

from the Oxford etymology dictionary:

warlock traitor (archaic), scoundrel;  The Devil (archaic); savage or
monstrous creature OE; sorcerer.  wizard XIV century.   OE waerloga (=OS
warlogo), f. OE. war -covenant = OHG. wara truth.  ON. varar pl. solemn
promise, vow.

and something i don't understand

grade of the base of the leogan  LIE.

ME. warlow(e)  (repr. OE. warloga) was superseded by the SC. var.
warlo(c)k in the 16th century.

    Traitors are usually executed, however in the case of a traitorous
minion of the devil this may be a little more difficult to accomplish,
unless one is betraying The Devil and then i think He would deal with it
more effectively than a disgruntled internet poster. If one is hunting
down a sorcerer one better be prepared to have sorcery used against one.

--
Joseph ( That old Son of a Witch ) Count de Money.



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From: willdockery@blackplanet.com (Will Dockery)
Newsgroups: alt.lucky.w,alt.magick,alt.magick.tyagi,alt.pagan,alt.religion.wicca
Subject: "Warlock" - Old Norse "var'lokkur," : Spirit Song!
Date: 2 Mar 2003 18:01:57 -0800
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"Warlock" from the Old Norse "var'lokkur," : Spirit Song!

In the Norse, it was the word for: Spirit Song! 
It's pretty well known my affection for the Norse Gods, Balduur in 
particular... so it goes against the grain (the word Warlock came to 
be "bad" because the Brits said so... you see, the Norse Vikings used 
to invade England every year or so, so a Warrior Poet would be 
considered not so great... kind of see the drift?) Warlocks 
apparently worship both Goddess and God.

(Collected through the web):

"Warlock (rarely used, for male Witches) is from the Old Norse 
varlokkur, spirit song (not oath-breaker). 

03.10.00 / Sarah Elaine / rainbow_ga@w... 
Maybe you can help me with an answer, I hope. I have heard that 
Warlock did not always mean "oath breaker". Old Norse word 
was "vardlokkur", which means ,"Guard of the gates of knowledge." It 
would be very interesting if you or any of your members have any more 
information on this subject.

05.10.00 / Dietmar Nix / d.nix@g...
Digging in names of the ancient world, one seldom meets postmodern 
phantasy like the "guard of the gates of knowledge". Such names 
better fit to Hollywood since the early eighties. I regard it as very 
unlikely to estimate that old folks could have had such sort of worms 
in their brain while giving a name for a place. At least, the 
word "Vardlokkur" does not include any slight hint to the given 
explanation. Having English as part of the Westgerman languages, 
finding it settled by Angeln and Sachsen coming from a region today 
north Germany, I just compare Warlock with the early states of middle-
high German representing the medieval state of language after the 
first phonetic shift combining the Westgerman languages. So Warlock 
seems to be better explained with "vart / verte" what is the venture 
either for travel or for robbery. The "lokkur" could be regarded in 
connection with "loch", what meant a hidden place. Therefore Warlock 
could be understood as the hide-spot for robbing or war ventures. 
This also better reflects the state of mind, present in this region 
in early times of war with the old celts of Britannica. 

06.10.00 / Sarah Elaine / rainbow_ga@w... 
Thank you for your information. Still I find that in my journey of 
the name Warlock is from the Old Norse vardlokkur, "spirit song" (not 
Oath-breaker"). The magik of the Warlock was/is to ward off evil 
spirits and to "lock" or "bind" them up, keeping wisdom safe. In the 
Scots dialect the word Warlock means a `cunning man` or `male white 
witch`, it is rarely used today. In most part due to the Anglo-saxon 
meaning, `oath breaker`. This "label" has caused Warlock to be seen 
as a derogatory title. History of `witches`, will always , to a great 
degree, be a mystery. I feel this leads to a goal that can never be 
fully attained, but that can be approached without limit. 

05.10.00 / Dietmar Nix / d.nix@g...
Good hints on the Norse context. We agree, that "oath-breaker" is 
obviously not the background of Warlock. Neither oath nor break is 
given inside this term, therefore is result of analogy to another 
term via meaning, like sketched in your hints on Scotland. I only 
canīt get a link between "vard" and "spirit song". In medieval time 
this is not tracable at the continent with a state of language still 
close to the Northern roots. Unfortunately not finding Warlock on a 
map of the British island I canīt tell whether it is situated in the 
North or South. Maybe the language of the Celts had been different 
from the Norse. For sure the language of the Saxons and Angels had 
been close to the Norse, but both tribes conquered the South of 
Britain replacing the Roman culture, that ended up at the Hadrianīs 
Wall South of Scotland, making the borderline to the old Celtic 
culture, also in later times. Observation: "lokkur" is close to the 
Roman "loquor" (speaking) and "vart" meant the adventurous travel, so 
that the "vardlokkur" would be a bard, singing stories of adventures. 
Bards sang their stories and didīnt tell them. Maybe this is 
the "spirit song"? "Spirituals" are not known in the Germanic ancient 
world, they came up first in the mystics of Middle Ages. That is much 
too late for this part of language history. History of language is a 
mystery as our cultures donīt trace back in written facts that far. 
But the mystery-zone starts before Middle Ages that is earlier than 
the 7th century. Those times donīt concern the magic-hunt, that took 
place about 1000 years later. 

15.10.00 / Willem de Blécourt / willem@p...
My UNIVERSAL DICTIONARRY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE (from 1936) 
explains "Warlock" as: `traitor' or `sorcerer', derived from the Old 
English "waer" (truth) and "loga" (liar). In German these would 
be "Wahr" und "Luege", thus: someone who lies the truth, or presents 
lies as truth, or makes truth out of lies. I have an instinctive, 
post-modern liking for this kind of interpretation: it sounds 
completely magical.

17.10.00 / Bill Ellis / wce2@p...
According to my old etymological source, the Middle English forms of 
the word were "warlawe" or "warloghe" with the Anglo-Saxon form 
being "waerloga," meaning "traitor" not "magician." There may be an 
Old Norse word "vardlokkur" that is superficially similar, but 
the "d" that would make the first part cognate with "ward" (= door, 
gate) does not appear in the early records. So the first root 
is "waer" (= an oath to be faithful or truthful; G: Wahr[heit]) 
Likewise, the consonant sound for the word "loc" or "lokke" (= 
something that guards a door or keeps it shut) was already a hard K 
sound in Anglo-Saxon, not the soft gutteral "w" "gh" or "g" sound 
attested in the manuscripts where the word is actually attested. So 
the second root is "leogan" ("[tell a ] lie"; G: luegen) not "loc" 
("lock"). 
So as romantic as "ward-locker" and "robber's hole" sound, the 
traditional "oath-breaker" derivation is probably correct: "waer" = 
sworn allegiance to one's overlord, religious vows to one's God, 
+ "leogan" (lie, violate trust, deceive, be unfaithful), thus one who 
has broken his vows to the Lord and secretly made a pact with His 
enemy, a traitor to God, a devil worshipper. 

Warlock

Another definition of the word was most commonly used up the eastern 
side of England, and especially in the North East, taken from Old 
Norse rather than Old English, and comes from "varth-lokkr" meaning 
(essentially) "one who locks (something) in" or "one who encloses" 
and is used for an exorcist or a magician who traps and disposes of 
unwanted entities. As such, it is a term of honour.
Still other definitions include the claim that the word refers to a 
scalplock of hair worn as a marker by one who could see the wyrd. The 
word is still used in it's common dictionary definition of a male 
witch. People on various sides of the debate argue vehmently that one 
or the other of these definitions is completely right, or completely 
wrong.

Warlock
The word warlock is derived from the Middle English word "warloghe," 
and Old English word "wrloga," which meant an oath breaker during the 
medieval times. The word is from two words: wr (meaning a pledge) and 
logan (meaning to lie). 

In modern fantasy, warlocks are often just another word for spell-
caster, and are often assumed to be evil. In Dungeons and Dragons, 
warlock is a title given to experienced magicians. 

The television show "Bewitched" used the term "warlock" for male 
witches, and it's probably through the show's popularity that this 
misinterpretation flourished. 

Another story of how the word came to be associated with witchcraft 
is this:
In the late 1500's a Scot went against the wishes of his clan a 
became a catholic priest. Well this did not sit well with his clan so 
he was cast out. This however did not cause him to be called a 
warlock ( WARLOCK : Gaelic/ Scottish for traitor. ). During an 
outbreak of so-called witchcraft, when people accused others of being 
witches to keep themselves from being burned, someone named this 
scottish priest as a witch. I could not find out if he was burned or 
escaped but the text did make note that more than 50 people did. The 
priest's clan banished him, branded him a warlock (traitor), and no 
longer spoke his name.

Another definition of the word is said to have originated on the 
eastern side of England, and especially in the North East, taken from 
Old Norse rather than Old English, and comes from "varth-lokkr" 
meaning (essentially) "one who locks (something) in" or "one who 
encloses" and is used for an exorcist or a magician who traps and 
disposes of unwanted entities. As such, it is a term of honour.
Further definitions include the claim that the word refers to a 
scalplock of hair worn as a marker by one who could see the wyrd.
The word is still used in its common dictionary definition of a male 
witch or sorceror. People on various sides of the debate argue 
vehmently that one or the other of these definitions is completely 
right, or completely wrong.

The word Warlock became associated with one who had made a pact with 
the devil.

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