Note 18 — Chapter IV · THE LATER YEARS OF JUSTINIAN’S REIGN [535-565 A.D.]
Reading edition
[This is the old theory, and Hodgking says, “I confess that, to me, the old-fashioned derivation, that which was accepted by Isidoreh and Paulus, still seems the most probable.” The word bard, usually allied to the Latin barba, “beard,” has also been referred to the old High German barta, “axe,” and to bord, “shore,” and some writers would translate Langobards as “Long-axe-men” or “Long-shore-men.”]