1

Tree of mine, tree of mine,

Have you seen a girl

With a willy-willy wag, and a long-tailed bag,

Who's stole my money, all I had?'

This is from an English fairy tale "The Old Witch". This was said by a witch, when she run after a girl who stole a great bag of money of her and arrived at a tree which a girl hid behind. What's the meaning of "a willy-willy wag"?

Improve this question
1
  • 1
    I suspect Fumble is right, and it's more of a nonsense expression than anything else. By the way, I'd like to know what a long-tailed bag is, too.
    – J.R. ♦
    Commented Oct 19, 2017 at 21:26

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
4

It's a "nonsense expression" similar to with a hey nonny-nonny (which was "popularized" by Shakespeare), but I don't recall hearing OP's example before. Nearly all instances I can easily find online are specific to The Old Witch as cited by OP.

It doesn't really make any difference if some enterprising scholar manages to find etymological references suggesting it does (or did) mean something specific. If people today don't know what it means, it really doesn't mean anything.

Improve this answer
4
  • But it does have a little meaning, doesn't it? A wag can refer to the way someone walks or runs. The willy-willy part seems a bit silly-silly.
    – Ringo
    Commented Oct 19, 2017 at 19:47
  • 1
    For all we know, it could mean "with a pony-tail". stole is the past participle there, BTW.
    – TimR
    Commented Oct 19, 2017 at 20:44
  • 1
    @Ringo: But that's precisely my point! In OP's specific context, wag no more means "shake or sway" than it does "wives and girlfriends"! For what it's worth, here's a similar "nonsense" instance of with a willy-willy in "Ballads, Songs and Rhymes of East Anglia" which looks like a version of "OId McDonald Had a Farm". Arguably in that context it's an onomatapoeic representation of the sound of geese, but I seriously doubt there's was ever any meaning at all in the Old Witch context.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Oct 20, 2017 at 16:05
  • I suppose you're right. My thought was that the witch saw the girl running away and noticed the way she wagged, which is a little bit of a stretch maybe. I like the idea of the ponytail wagging. I guess there's a distinction between the author intending something which has become inscrutable and the author intending nothing at all. People who lived back then may have understood it better, but eithe way it's lost to us now.
    – Ringo
    Commented Oct 20, 2017 at 16:18

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .