[5] bǫsl (f.): The meaning of the word may be ‘little twig’ (< Gmc *basulō; cf. basinn as a heiti for ‘tree’ (Þul Viðar 1/6) and New Norw. base ‘bush’; see Falk 1914b, 99-100). Alternatively, bǫsl (< bǫstl), may be derived from bast n. ‘string’ with the suffix ‑ul-, and hence ‘sth. put onto or thrown from a string’, i.e. ‘arrow’ (so Sturtevant 1926, 370).
References
- Bibliography
- Falk, Hjalmar. 1914b. Altnordische Waffenkunde. Videnskapsselskapets skrifter, II. Hist.-filos. kl. 1914, 6. Kristiania (Oslo): Dybwad.
- Sturtevant, Albert Morey. 1926. ‘Some Old Norse Etymologies’. MLN 41, 370-5.
- Internal references
- Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Viðar heiti 1’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 881.