word as “bis”, in the line “bis bis bio”, in the cradle-song from Unst. (ts is a frequent development of ss in Norn words in Shetlandic.) bēti, following bitse, may almost be accepted as denoting a child, as in “Hushie baw bēti”, hush-a-bye my little child?, the introductory line in a lullaby from Conn. in which L.Sc. “hushie baw” corresponds to an older Norn “biss biss”. bēti might correspond to the Da. and Sw. dial. word batting, a child.
The first line also appears to have belonged to a lullaby, as enge bonge can be explained as “eignar barnit”, my own dear child, from O.N. eign, f., possession, with metathesis of gn to ng in Shetl. Cf. enk (ink, jenk, jink), sb., from O.N. eign, in Dictionary. The compound “eignabarn” is found in No. (lovable child: R.). Another word is “einkabarn (onka-)”, in Fær. (a dearly loved child). bonge for *bonne, the child, is easily explained through alliteration to the preceding enge. Such alliterations are fairly common in Norn folk-verses, especially in cases where all sense of the original meaning of the word has been lost, and the term appears to be simply gibberish. If enge bonge is “eignarbarnit”, lura must mean sleep! from *lúra, No. lura, vb., to sleep lightly, to have a little nap.
The remaining lines probably show traces of an actual charm-formula. The two lines: “bæl skola rina, bæl skola beti” are probably the remnants of such; in any case, they can be best explained as a charm to drive out sickness: *bǫli skulum renna, *bǫli[errata 1] skulum beita? the evil (the hurt) shall leak (stream) out, or we shall make the evil leak out? (cf. the foll.), we shall chase or subdue the evil.
bæl may be O.N. bǫl, n., hurt; evil; disaster. skola is the verb, O.N. skulu, to be obliged to. The twice repeated skola, to be obliged, must, indicates a spell.
O.N. beita, vb., prop. to cause to bite, thereafter (inter alia), to chase; subdue; kill.
The following two lines are not connected with the preceding ones, “andru” is doubtless the name of a man “Andrew”; “güd to bid”, went to invite; “bræti”: place-name?
gitse gitse gongi. gongi is O.N. ganga, vb., to go. If this should have any connection with the two preceding lines, gitse may be a metathesis of giste, O.N. gista, vb., to visit; call, through influence of the following bitse.
Valafjel.
fram såkəto (sɔkəto) dafa vɔgədə nȯitVâlafjel wəz tȯ‘rt (trȯt) o brȯƫa
hagəda wəzo hâla
vogədə nȯit (nȯt, nət), segə me das
(and) rūdə krɩŋədə âla.
Variant forms:
a) Vâlafjel wəz tȯ‘rt o brota
hâfatu wɩzo hâla
fram såkəto (sɔkəto) dafa vɔgədə nȯit
æn rūdə krɩŋədə âla.
