A Saga of the Latter-Day Hwicce
Here's the conceit: that modern-day witches derive (at some remove or other) "off of" the old Hwicce tribe (and kingdom) of Anglo-Saxon days. Historical or not, be it admitted, it does make one fine story.
Welcome to the life of a full-time witch and amateur linguist.
Some time back, I'd riffed, along these lines, off of the first line of Beowulf:
Hwaet, wé Seax-Hwicca in [something, begins with S]-dagum...
Lo, we Knife-Witches in [something, begins with S]-days...
I knew that the word that I couldn't remember had to begin with S, because it needed to alliterate with seax: that's how ancient Germanic poetry works, by initial rhyme. But what that word was, I couldn't remember.
(Why “Knife-Witches”? Well, the context required a weapon—“Lo, we Spear-Danes” is how Beowulf begins—and modern witches are preeminently a People of the Knife, which we generally call “athame.” Of course, the old Hwicce were a People of the Knife as well; their kinfolk the Saxons were named precisely for their characteristic knife, the seax. It's also an hommage of sorts to the original Anglo-Saxon witchery of modern times, Uncle Bucky's Seax-Wicca.)*
Seeking the phrase, I search my computer files.
Nada.
Fine. I search my on-line posts on the topic, certain that I've used the phrase as a tantalizing epigraph somewhere or other.
Gornisht.
In increasing desperation, I pick up my little black sketchbook and scan entries on the left-hand side, working (in proper witchly fashion) backwards in time, from the most recent back to the beginning of the volume.
(The left-hand side is where I jot phrases and seed ideas; the right is for longer and more developed thoughts.)
Af klum.
Grinding my teeth, I reverse, scanning entries on the right-hand pages, working from the beginning. It's a slow and difficult process; I keep getting distracted by memorable phrases and ideas that I'd like to expand on.
Finally, about 20 pages in, I give up. “I'm turning in,” I think. “I'll keep going in the morning.”
At that very moment I find what I'm looking for, there at the bottom of the page.
Hwaet, wé Seax-Hwicca in síð-dagum...
Lo, we Knife-Witches in these latter days...
Sometimes the gods speak through meaningful coincidence.
But wait: there's more.