Etymology

cp. OIcel ván ‘hope, expectation, expected place’ (fem.) < PGmc *wēnō; cp. the related OE wēn, Go wēns, OFris wēn (‘idea, opinion’). ME spellings <a> in beside <o> indicate ME /ɔ:/ < ON /ɑ:/ rather than an unrecorded native ō-stem OE *wōn in /o:/. The original sense of  ‘hope, expectation (of a favourable issue)’ developed in ME to give rise both to ‘expedient, course’ and ‘thing hoped for’ > ‘abundance, multitude; riches’. See also won (1). 

PGmc Ancestor

*wēnō

Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)

ván ‘hope, expectation, expected place’
(ONP ván (sb.))

Other Scandinavian Reflexes

Far vón, ván, Icel von, Norw vôn, ODan vån, OSw van, Sw dial vån, von

OE Cognate

wēn 'belief, hope, expectation'

Phonological and morphological markers

ON /ɑ:/ &lt; PGmc */e:/ (1)

Summary category

A1*

Attestation

Widespread from early ME, beginning with LB.Cal.

Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus

Gaw 1238, 1269 

The sense in both Gaw 1238 and 1269 has been debated. At 1238 (‘Yowre awen won to wale’) the current consensus follows TGD ‘course (of action)’ or the like or occasionally ‘pleasure, will’ (TG; AW ‘pleasure’; Madden, Morris ‘power, will’). 1269 wone is read as 'riches' in OED (following Morris), but subsequent commentators (with the exception of PS) have preferred ‘multitude, host’ (see TGD, AW, Vant 1269n, MED sense 3(c), and similarly GDS (‘abundance, company’).) McGee (435) alone reads another instance at Pat 436 ( 'for-to wayte on þat won what schulde worþe after'), which is usually interpreted as won (1) (n.)).

Bibliography

MED wōn(e (n.3) , OED wone (n.3) , HTOED , HTOED , Dance won (2), Bj. 83-4, de Vries ván, Mag. von, Bj-L. von, Bammesberger 136, Orel *wēniz (I), Kroonen *wēni-, AEW wœ̄n