Burns uses it in his "Ode to a Haggis" in which he speaks disparagingly of the non-haggis eater (code for Sassenach!)
Poor devil! see him owre his trash,
As ******** as a wither'd rash,
His spindle shank, a guid whip-lash,
His nieve a nit;
Thro' bluidy flood or field to dash,
O how unfit!
But mark the Rustic, haggis-fed,
The trembling earth resounds his tread.
Clap in his walie nieve a blade,
He'll make it whissle;
An' legs, an' arms, an' heads will sned,
Like taps o' thrissle.
It also comes up in the Scandinavian game hnefatafl - fist board game. The king piece is called the hnefi perhaps because he is "unarmed"; perhaps because that's how players chose sides in the game, picking one fist or the other in an effort to pick the king.