Hjþ Lv 5VIII (HjǪ 11)/1 — bákn ‘monster’
Hvert er þat bákn, er í bjargi sitr
ok sér of konungs …?
Enga veit ek þér ámátligri
alna fyrir jörð ofan.
Hvert bákn er þat, er sitr í bjargi ok sér of … konungs? Ek veit enga alna ámátligri þér fyrir ofan jörð.
Who is that monster who sits on the rock and looks down on the king’s …? I know no female born more loathsome than you on the face of the earth.
readings
[1] bákn: barn ÍBR5ˣ
notes
[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.