A posteriori

Wên and Wu conventions have had a powerful influence on later forms of Chinese drama. Contrast with No plays and karagöz puppet-theater.

WERGELD: An alternative spelling for wergild. See wergild, below.

WERGILD (Anglo-Saxon, lit. "man-gold," also spelled wergeld): The legal system of many Germanic tribes, including the Anglo-Saxons. This tradition allowed an individual and his family to make amends for a crime by paying a fine known as wergild to the family of another man whom he had injured or killed. The price varied depending upon the nature of the injury and the status of the injured man. Surviving laws of Wihtfrid (8th century CE) show how elaborate the wergild system had become by the ninth century. Wihtfrid included a varying price in silver for each tooth knocked out during a fight. If an individual could not or would not pay the wergild, the injured family was considered within its traditional rights to kill a member of the culprit's family of similar rank and status. This process often led to extended blood-feuds lasting several generations. The concerns of wergild appear prominently in Anglo-Saxon poems such as Beowulf, in which the supernatural predations of the monsters are figured in the legalistic language associated with this practice. See also peace-weaver. NB: Wergild should not be confused with Danegeld, the practice of paying extortive Vikings to go away without attacking.

WEST GERMANIC: A sub-branch of the Germanic family of languages including Dutch, English, and German, in contrast with the North Germanic sub-branch (including Old Norse, Norwegian, and Icelandic) and the East Germanic sub-branch (which included the now extinct language of Gothic).

WEST SAXON: The Old English dialect spoken in Wessex.

WESTERN: A literary and cinematic genre marked by numerous conventions. The usual setting is a short main street in a dust-blown frontier village of the American west during the 1800s. Traditionally, the protagonists wear white hats and the antagonists wear black hats. Conventional characters include Mexican bandits, stereotypical Plains Indians bedecked in feathered headresses, a town drunkard, a local madame who assists the protagonist, and so on. Often, the thematic concern is a struggle between law and lawlessness, between communal health and chaotic individualism. Historical accuracy usually comes second place to action, and the dramatic climax often takes the form of a dual or gunfight at high noon. "Spaghetti westerns" are a cinematic subgenre of the western film consisting of those films overseen by Italian directors and filmed completely or partly in Italy--including a large number of Clint Eastwood westerns from the 1960s and 1970s. Recent writers of westerns include Louis Lamour, Walter Van Tilburg Clark, A. B. Guthrie, Conrad Richter, and H. L. Davis.