[348]. wicke tunes, monasteries and other religious houses: OE. wīctūn, which translates L. atria, ‘introite in atria ejus,’ ‘ingangað on his wic-tunas,’ Ps. xcv. 8, xcix. 3: in form the ME. word is possibly influenced by wīce, office; wike occurs three times in ON.
[349]. to, at; see 163/241.
[351]. prostes: that is, seculars, upe londe, in their parishes, as distinguished from the clerks (l. 347), who are either monks or canons.
[353]. Repeated from ON 484. wat (hwat), as far as; an adverbial acc. of extent: comp. ‘wet we on þisse middelerd liuien,’ OEH 11/2, as long as; ‘also wat se we sinegen,’ OEH ii. 101/29, as soon as; ‘also wat swo þe þridde dageð,’ id. 103/26: see ‘alwat,’ 15/84, 215/26.
[354] begins a paragraph with large initial in both MSS., but it goes with the preceding line ‘heo walde neoþeles ȝefe answere.’ The owl’s language was threatening. Comp. ‘Þe niȝtingale at þisse worde, | mid sworde an mid speres orde, | ȝif ho mon were, wolde fiȝte,’ ON 1067; ‘men weorreð mid þreo kunne wepnen, mid scheotunge, mid speres ord ⁊ mid sweordes egge,’ AR 60/14.
[356]. ⁊—schelde goes with orde.
[358]. ilete: see 165/281.
[363]. þah, not in J, is necessary to the sense.
[365]. awille, to their pleasure.
[367]. Added at bottom of leaf. awolde, in the woodland; for though by her place of birth she was weak in woodcraft, she had learnt wisdom from the men among whom she had been brought up.