as has been correctly pointed out, the breaking of an oath
was of extreme importance at a time when a man's word was his bond.
The making of an oath was done with great care and consideration. However, what most people ignore (or are simply unaware of) is that the
definition of oathbreaker is NOT the only reference to the Warlock, and
indeed the Complete Oxford Dictionary has considerably more information. "This seems to have been the original sense of the present word,
but the special application to the Devil (either as a rebel, or a
deceiver) was already in OE the leading sense. The applications to
to sorcerers, with especial reference to the power of assuming
inhuman shapes, and to monsters (esp. serpents), appear to be
developments, partly due to Scriptural language, of the sense
"devil".
"The modern forms with final -(c)k are of obscure origin, for they
appear first in Sc. of the 16th c., and owe their spread to Sc.
writers, and so cannot represent, as has been assumed, a Southern
sound-substitution of (k) for the -ch (x) of some of the rarer
North and Sc. forms. From the first they they have been used in the
sense "wizard". Some other word, lost or not discovered , has perh.
influenced both form and sense." (OED 1991)
Thus in the 10th c. the monks had connected the Warlock to those who
worshiped the Old Gods (devils), and who refused to accept the Christian
God, or did so in a superficial manner (deceitful). They had indeed been
recognised as rebels. What is also recognised is that the word was
already old in the 10th c. there are many references which do not seem to make any sense. One of
these is the association with the word Charlock which applies to various
field weeds, and especially to species of the genus Sinapis, Mustard.
Mustard is a very common weed and is obviously associated with the Sun
(hot taste, small yellow flowers). It is also a very good blood purifier
and its use as a compress to relieve congestion of the lungs would have
been very handy in cold, misty climates such as Northern European Winter
and Melbourne in Summer.
Another reference is in connection to binding or securing. To warlock
(or warlocke) was to secure (a horse) as with a fetterlock. It is also
used in reference to securing a load onto a cart. In rural South
Australia where I grew up, bales of wool are loaded onto a semi-trailer
and secured with a length of rope, in the very simple but effective
manner of running a loop of rope around the entire load, then tightening
it with a windlass of two short poles set at cross angles to each other.
The rope is looped over the end of one pole and twisted around it with
the other. We call this a Spanish Windlass at home, but it is obviously
the same method with a different name. A Warlock is also used to mean a cairn or pile of stones (in
Scandinavian regions) which apparently served as beacons (lighthouses)
or as markers of territory. Another use of the term meant that a man
"warlocked" was magically immune to wounds inflicted by certain weapons
(commonly iron), which developed into the idea of being War-lucked.
Lastly the term meant "to bar against hostile invasion". So a warlocked
nation was one which was protected (by Warlocks) against invasion,
rather than being embroiled in a war inside its territory.
It must be acknowledged that much of my research has shown that the
Warlock was a warrior whose lifestyle was frequently violent and short.
It is easy to either glorify his acts of valour, or accuse him of being
a thug, revelling in bloodshed. What is more difficult is to recognise
the middle path between extremes, and recognise that in the "Good Old
Days" life was extraordinary difficult and frequently short; that
violence was a way of life and death. Men and Women had very different
roles to those of today, and indeed that may be good reason in itself to
repudiate the idea of the Warlock. But I believe that in those days men
and women were more secure in their roles. Women ran the household and
indeed frequently were the owners of the land. Women probably had more
power and control over their lives than they do now.
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