Introduction: The compound ‘wundenlocc’ (locks that have been wound) is applied to ‘hair’ four times across two Old English poems: once in Riddle 2) (onion) and three times in Judith. In all of these instances, its meaning has been subject to debate because it is not clear whether wunden indicates hair that has been braided or hair that is curly. Several scholars prefer the sense ‘braided’, including Joseph Bosworth and T. Northcote Toller, J. R. Clark Hall, Elinor Teele, and Patrick Murphy. Others prefer the sense ‘curly-haired’, including Craig Williamson, S. A. J. Bradley, John P. Hermann, and Susan Kim. Some, as is the case with Mark S. Griffith and F. Tupper, offer both options. Given the context of these instances as well as that of similar compounds and collocations, which I shall outline below, in my view the ‘curly hair’ reading appears to be the sounder of the two.
The first occurrence, from the famously double-entendre onion riddle, reads:
Felep sona
mines gemotes, seo be mec nearwad,
wif wundenlocc. (lines 9a-11a)
(Immediately she feels my might, she who confines me, the wundenlocc woman.)
This poem refers to the beautiful daughter of a ‘ceorl’ (line 6b) (freeman) who either places an onion in her food-bag, according to the accepted solution, or forces herself upon an unwilling penis, according to the double-entendre solution. The descriptor, ‘wundenlocc’, is not directly relevant to the riddle-subject, although, alliterating with both line 11’s ‘wif’ (woman) and ‘waet’ (wet), it does help point to both the domestic and double-entendre contexts of the onion/penis.
Old English ‘wundenlocc’ hair in context
By Megan Cavell
Medium Ævum, Vol.82:1 (2013)
Introduction: The compound ‘wundenlocc’ (locks that have been wound) is applied to ‘hair’ four times across two Old English poems: once in Riddle 2) (onion) and three times in Judith. In all of these instances, its meaning has been subject to debate because it is not clear whether wunden indicates hair that has been braided or hair that is curly. Several scholars prefer the sense ‘braided’, including Joseph Bosworth and T. Northcote Toller, J. R. Clark Hall, Elinor Teele, and Patrick Murphy. Others prefer the sense ‘curly-haired’, including Craig Williamson, S. A. J. Bradley, John P. Hermann, and Susan Kim. Some, as is the case with Mark S. Griffith and F. Tupper, offer both options. Given the context of these instances as well as that of similar compounds and collocations, which I shall outline below, in my view the ‘curly hair’ reading appears to be the sounder of the two.
The first occurrence, from the famously double-entendre onion riddle, reads:
Felep sona
mines gemotes, seo be mec nearwad,
wif wundenlocc. (lines 9a-11a)
(Immediately she feels my might, she who confines me, the wundenlocc woman.)
This poem refers to the beautiful daughter of a ‘ceorl’ (line 6b) (freeman) who either places an onion in her food-bag, according to the accepted solution, or forces herself upon an unwilling penis, according to the double-entendre solution. The descriptor, ‘wundenlocc’, is not directly relevant to the riddle-subject, although, alliterating with both line 11’s ‘wif’ (woman) and ‘waet’ (wet), it does help point to both the domestic and double-entendre contexts of the onion/penis.
Click here to read this article from Medium Ævum
See also Megan Cavell’s website The Riddle Ages
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