--- "llama_nom" wrote:

> Hi Patricia, it certainly sounds like one of those. But I couldn't
> find the word in Cleasby / Vigfússon, so I wondered how far back it
> goes. There's no entry in Simek, although HR Ellis Davidson

mentions

> it Gods and Myths of Northern Europe, p. 147 as 'valknut' and

suggests

> that it might symbolise "the power of the god to bind and unbind."

I don't know where/when this word originated, but it might
be of interest to find out. It seems unlikely that it derives
from heathen tradition, so if we postulate a word "valknútr"
it doesn't really NEED to mean "knot of the slain" - it could
just as well mean "French knot", or "Celtic knot" (which sounds
plausible), or just "foreign knot". A "valbaugr" was a "French
ring", or just vaguely a "foreign ring", and there are many
words where val- indicates an origin in France, Normandy, or
Gaul. There is even an old word for the rat, "valska" or "völska",
i.e. "the french creature" - probably because the rat first came
to Iceland with French ships. You have at least one such word
in English, i.e. walnut (valhnot, valhneta), which means something
similar - "French nut", "Gallic nut", "foreign nut".

Regards,
Eysteinn