On Fri, Sep 05, 2003 at 12:05:44PM -0700, David Silberstein <davids at kithrup.com> wrote: > On Fri, 5 Sep 2003, Matthew Hunter wrote: > >On Fri, Sep 05, 2003 at 11:20:18AM -0400, Casey Rousseau > ><casey at the-bat.net> wrote: > >> Two thoughts > >> 1) All the details about Brimford's familiar(s) could be > >> fabrication on Paarfi's part. Certainly, Loiosh, Rocza, and Ambrus > >> show no signs of being shape changers. > >We've never seen Ambrus in a situation where he might want to. > Bah. I strongly suspect that Paarfi, not knowing a whole lot about > witchcraft, misunderstood or misinterpreted the details of the events > at the (9th or 10th) Battle of Dzur Mountain, and pulled the animal > shape-shifting stuff out of his arse. Also possible... > >In modern forms of witchcraft (which are not necessarily related > >to Brust's), I've usually heard the distinction made about a > >warlock being a male witch. > What *I've* usually heard is that a male witch is a witch, and > "warlock" is used for a male witch by popular culture, which doesn't > understand witchcraft. A "modern" witch (wiccan) will often make that claim; a witch who (claims to) follow something older than wicca will usually, in my experience, claim the opposite. Of course, the same people in the latter category also often reject the whole "an it harm none" bit and probably don't mind the negative connotation. I suspect the actual fact is that "warlock" is a perjorative term usually applied by non-witches, and which has been adopted by the sort of people who don't mind pretending to be evil as a means of attaining social status, whether real or imagined; whereas wiccans tend to prefer a nonthreatening religious posture and so disclaim the term. > 2. The Devil; Satan. Obs. > Freq. in Cursor Mundi, where warlau occurs as a > genitive (:OE. wrloan). > > b. A devil, demon, spirit of hell. Obs. rare. As I understand it, the traditional "coven" (pre-wicca) contains 13 female witches and a single male warlock. Third-party accounts often claim the warlock was the Devil, summoned by the witches. > 3. A savage or monstrous creature (hostile to men). The word > is applied to giants, cannibals, mythic beasts, etc. Obs. That's a usage I've never encountered. -- Matthew Hunter (matthew at infodancer.org) Public Key: http://matthew.infodancer.org/public_key.txt Homepage: http://matthew.infodancer.org/index.jsp Politics: http://www.triggerfinger.org/index.jsp