Note to GunnLeif Merl I 16VIII
[5] hœknir ‘vicious’: A hap. leg., whose meaning and origin are uncertain but whose core sense has been stated as ‘greedy’ (LP: hœkinn; cf. CVC: hækinn). Finnur Jónsson translates with a query as kraftig ‘powerfully’ in Skj B; Merl 2012 has heftig ‘violently’. But if the etymological connection with hákr conjectured in LP is correct, the meaning might rather be ‘vicious, relentless’; cf. the ONP citation (ÍF 12, 303): Var hann því kallaðr Þorkell hákr, at hann eirði hvárki í orðum né verkum, við hvern sem hann átti ‘He was called Þorkell hákr because he never spared anyone in words or deeds with whom he had dealings’. The word hákr is attested only in nicknames; for (inconclusive) conjectures as to its core meaning and etymology see AEW: hákr.
References
- Bibliography
- Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
- AEW = Vries, Jan de. 1962. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2nd rev. edn. Rpt. 1977. Leiden: Brill.
- LP = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1931. Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis: Ordbog over det norsk-islandske skjaldesprog oprindelig forfattet af Sveinbjörn Egilsson. 2nd edn. Copenhagen: Møller.
- CVC = Cleasby, Richard, Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and W. A. Craigie. 1957. An Icelandic-English Dictionary. 2nd edn. Oxford: Clarendon.
- ONP = Degnbol, Helle et al., eds. 1989-. A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose / Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog. 1-. Copenhagen: The Arnamagnæan Commission.
- ÍF 12 = Brennu-Njáls saga. Ed. Einar Ólafur Sveinsson. 1954.
- Merl 2012 = Horst, Simone, ed. 2012. Merlínússpá. Merlins Prophezeiung. Munich: Herbert Utz Verlag.