Warlock
Warlock:
The Anglo-saxon meaning, ‘oath-breaker’ is the most common use of the word. The label has fallen from use and is often seen as a derogatory title.
In the Scots dialect the word warlock, means a ‘cunning man’ or ‘male white witch’, it is rarely used today, if at all.
An Old Norse word ‘vardlokkur’. There are debates about the exact meaning of the word in it’s original form. However there are several mythological tales about the Vardlokkur guarding the gates of knowledge. In these legends, the Vardlokkur were the wise men, the Shaman of divine knowledge who protected that wisdom and guarded it with their lives. The magick of the Shamanic warlocks is to understand the nature of daemons/spirits and they would devour these spirits obtaining their essence, drawing on their knowledge and keeping the sacred wisdom safe. Some also call the vardlokkur the Norse Guards or Guardians, the warriors of the spiritual community.
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.
In the North East of England there is another definition, "taken from Old Norse rather than Old English, and comes from 'varth-lokkr' meaning (essentially) 'one who locks (something) in' or 'one who encloses'." As a term of honour, it is used to describe "an exorcist or a magician who traps and disposes of unwanted entities".
Other definition still abound from the claim that the word refers to a scalplock of hair as a marker; or a witch, male or female who broke the sacred oath, to do evil.
Warlock n : the official dictionary definition of a warlock is as follows: "a male version of a witch, wizard, magician or conjurer."
The Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary is defined: "1 : a man practicing the black arts: sorcerer; “ ”2 : conjurer".
Whatever its hypothetical etymology, it is nowadays *not* used to indicate a traitor. And any who choose to self-identify as a warlock are saying nothing at all about their ability to keep oath.
Based on Scandinavian etymology, it seems that ÒwarlockÓ meant not Òoath-breakerÓ or even ÒwizardÓ but Òspirit-songsÓ
According to An Icelandic-English Dictionary, by Richard Cleasby (rev. by Gudbrand Vigfusson, 2nd ed. by Sir William A. Craigie) (Oxford: Claren Press, 1982 [1957]), the meaning is as follows: Warð-Lokkur (fm.pl. ) = Ward-songs, guardian-songs, charms, (or better, wyrd songs, in the other form: Urðar-Lokkur).
The compilers of Modern English dictionaries seem so very ignorant of the role the Scandinavian languages played in the development of English in England and Scotland.
If, as is posited in many Modern English dictionaries, the word "warlock" comes from a ME "warloghe" from OE "wærloga", then the Modern form we should expect to see would be something like warlow, or werlow, since the tendency to move from 'gh' to 'w' is strong in English, and from 'gh' to 'ck' unknown. This is a trait it shares with Danish, and to provide an example, the Old Swedish "lagh" (meaning "law") is spelled in Modern Danish "lag" but pronounced "law" and in English, orthography and pronunciation are again in sync, with the form "law." That "gh" in the Middle English form "warloghe" indicates a uvular fricative, that is a g that is pronounced as if one were gargling (as in Dutch "gulder"). That aspirated "g" is what, in English, is usually exchanged for a "w". Other examples in English: "through", "drought", etc.
In the Old Norse tale, Eiriks saga Rauða (The Saga of Eirik the Red, mid 14th century), the term "varðlokkur" appears in the context of a prophecy-session at a farm in Greenland. It is used to mean a song of conjuring. When the two constituent terms are split, we see "varð" which had by that time the sense of a spirit, and "lokkur" or a song of luring or attracting. In Modern Swedish, the term "lock" is used for the pastoral songs that are sung to call the cows home from the meadow -- "kolock". In just this same way, the song to attract or call the "varð" or spirit, was the "varðlokkur". Gradually, with time, the term for the song and for the singer became interchangable, i.e., the same term was used for both. Semantically, we can interpret the term as "enchanter, conjurer."
Now, is all of this linguistically feasible? Yes, and here's why: The term varðlokkur is a compound noun. The consonantal combination "rðl" could never occur otherwise. As it is, this consonantal cluster is very difficult, even in Norse, so the tendency is to simplify. Since in Old Norse, the rolled "r" followed by the liquid "l" would have organically produced the medial "ð", this consonant is the most likely candidate for deletion. Also, word initial "v" was commonly anglicized into word initial "w" in English.
Examples: vård = ward, vurm = worm, vatten = water, ved = wood, etc. And finally (and in my mind, most convincingly) the geminate "k" at the end of the Norse is reflected in the "ck" of the English. Orthographic tendencies in English tend to reflect "kk" as "ck". Lastly, the nominative "ur" ending in Old Norse is superfluous in English, as we had abandoned case endings long before.
And the fact that the Scottish and East Anglian coasts had been battered by Scandinavian raiders for quite some time prior to the word's first attestation in *English* adds historical probability to linguistic possibility. In fact we now know that the Scandinavian's actually settled in Scotland and interbred with the picts.
