[ hap]
The editor of Winchester notes the following about the use of parun and parunele in the text (p.52): “[...] the meaning of these words is very uncertain. They obviously denote parts of harness. Du Cange, s.v. paronus, which he defines as a stake, or bar, of wood, adds ‘nostris vero Paronne, Parronne et Peronne, aratri palanga tractoria, Palonneau ubi de curribus sermo est’. H. Noisy, Dictionnaire du patois normand (Caen, 1885), says: ‘Paronne s.f., collier pour les bêtes de trait. Le sens du mot a varié, Paronne s’est dit pour palennier, pièce de bois à laquelle on attache l’extrémité postérieure des traits de chevaus, attelés a une charrue, une herse etc.,’ i.e. the whipple-tree or ‘spreader’ of a plough, and the splinter-bar, or drawing-bar, of vehicles. I think we must regard as less probable the meaning of ‘collar’; it is only known in Norman, and it does not readily suggest a meaning for the diminutive, parunele. In the other meaning paronne is of wider use, and the two words may well denote the different sizes of drawing-bar used in cart and in plough harness.”