So it begins. . .

wælcyrġe

1. a malevolent female demon
   • wælkyrian eagan = oculosgorgoneos
2. a sorceress, a female witch
   • her syndan wiccan & wælcyrian. (Wulfstan, Sermo ad Anglos, ca. 1015)

wæl – from the Old English –  “death, slaughter”

cyrġe = variant of ceosan – “to choose”.

Old English also has the compound wæl-cēasega “raven”, literally “chooser of the slain”.

 

 

 ‘O wild and wondrous midnight,
There is a might in thee
To make the charmèd body
Almost like spirit be,
And give it some faint glimpses
Of immortality!’ *

 

• Midnight by James Russell Lowell