Note to Hjþ Lv 5VIII (HjǪ 11)
[1] bákn ‘monster’: This is the sense both here and in Anon (Vǫlsa) 12/8I, where the noun is used of the embalmed horse’s penis, Vǫlsi. Elsewhere the term is only recorded in the cpd sigrbákn ‘victory beacon’ (ÍF 23, 243; Andersson and Gade 2000, 440), where the context clearly indicates its status as a foreign expression. Here the basic sense of bákn is ‘beacon, signal’, as in other Germanic languages (cf. AEW, Fritzner: bákn; cf. OE bēacen ‘sign, portent’). The simplex is not recorded in ONP, though the verb bákna ‘give a sign’ is probably related. Ms. ÍBR5ˣ’s reading barn ‘child’ is not recorded in Skj A, but appears firm, though interpretation depends on the mark of abbreviation used for the middle two letters. Barn is inappropriate in context, unless used ironically.
References
- Bibliography
- Skj A = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15a. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. A: Tekst efter håndskrifterne. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1967. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
- AEW = Vries, Jan de. 1962. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2nd rev. edn. Rpt. 1977. Leiden: Brill.
- Andersson, Theodore M. and Kari Ellen Gade, trans. 2000. Morkinskinna: The Earliest Icelandic Chronicle of the Norwegian Kings (1030-1157). Islandica 51. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press.
- Fritzner = Fritzner, Johan. 1883-96. Ordbog over det gamle norske sprog. 3 vols. Kristiania (Oslo): Den norske forlagsforening. 4th edn. Rpt. 1973. Oslo etc.: Universitetsforlaget.
- ONP = Degnbol, Helle et al., eds. 1989-. A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose / Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog. 1-. Copenhagen: The Arnamagnæan Commission.
- ÍF 23-4 = Morkinskinna. Ed. Ármann Jakobsson and Þórður Ingi Guðjónsson. 2009.
- Internal references
- Wilhelm Heizmann (ed.) 2012, ‘Anonymous Lausavísur, Lausavísur from Vǫlsa þáttr 12’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1103.