My 1986 copy of Webster's Third defines "stang" as
follows:
2. dial Brit: pole, bar.
3. chiefly Scot: pang.
I do not share the general puzzlement about VN's use of
the word. Perhaps because the word is fairly common in Dutch and used in several
expressions as well? Perhaps, but not entirely.
We have it on record that Nabokov didn't care
whether a word was rare, obsolete or dialectical, as long as it suited his
needs.
One may as well wonder why he did use houghmagandy in
the same novel; was it because of the alliteration and assonance only? I don't
think so. Why did he use "ganch" in ADA instead of "impale"? I could go on and
on.
I like to think that, as has been pointed out before,
the feel of steel the word evokes (cold and hard) may have been decisive
for VN; furthermore, on a cold night a stang will sting the hand
more.
It has been noted before that PF contains a striking
amount of dialect words, chiefly Scottish ones. The line preceding the one
containing the word in quiestion has "Lochanhead", lochan is a
diminutive of the Scottish loch, and lochan means pond. There
is a defamiliarization at play here on a verbal level similar to the existential
one experienced by Hazel.
A.
Bouazza.