Weird, Hey?
My interest in the derivation and meaning of the
English word ‘weird’, nowadays a word still very much in vogue, was initially
aroused by a television programme on the archaeology of Wales that described
how a narrow path and ledge were painstakingly cut in the granite of a Welsh
mountainside to enable a few, undoubtedly important, people to view the
colourful northern lights, visible in the sky at certain times of the year,
from an elevated vantage point. The
word ‘weird’ was mentioned as a term of religious significance in the old
Druidic Celtic religion of the Welsh that preceded the introduction of
Christianity to England by several centuries.
In other words, ‘weird’ is a colourful old English word that harks back
to our forgotten pagan past.
Apparently, the term ‘weir,’ that is, to dam up a stream or river by
erecting a stone wall across its banks, is derived from ‘weird’. So, even in ancient Celtic religion, there
is an interesting connection between bodies of water and the idea of the supernatural
or divine evoked in religious thought and practice. The Christian rite of baptism using consecrated or Holy water is
originally of Celtic origin. Hence, we
can still appreciate the significance of the divine in the process of becoming
a person identified by a name. In fact,
modern-day depth psychologists point out that the Self is imbued with an aura
of the religious or spiritual. Right up
to Roman times, quantities of metal, weapons, pottery and coins were regularly
deposited in the Thames by travellers endeavouring to assuage the water spirits
before attempting to cross the river.
Weird is derived from the Old English ‘wirde’ or
‘werde’ which, in turn, comes from the Anglo-Saxon ‘wyrd,’ from ‘weoran’ to be
or become, referring to fate, fortune or one of the three Fates and akin to the
Old Saxon ‘wurd’, meaning fate, and the Old High German ‘wurt’ (hence, the
English word ‘worth’). In addition to
fate or destiny, weird also refers to a prediction as well as a spell or charm
used in witchcraft. Witches were still
being burned at the stake in seventeenth century England. The Fates were referred to as the ‘weird
sisters’ and Shakespeare uses this expression for the three witches in Macbeth
- “The weird sisters, hand in hand, Posters of the sea and land”.
Manton Hirst
Amathole Museum