Gripla - 20.12.2005, Page 255

REFLECTIONS ON THE COLOR OF ESAU’S POTTAGE OF LENTILS 253
H[istoriale], he inserts additional information from I[sidore’s] E[ty-
mologiae] on the subject in question.2
The Norse compiler claims that Esau was called Edom because the lentils he
ate were ‘raudar edr bleikar,’ and at the end of the passage, he specifies that
Edom means ‘bleikr edr blodligr.’ Only raudar and blodligr translate identifi-
able words in the Latin text. There is nothing in the Latin text(s) corre-
sponding to the hue adjective bleikr, which, as evident from the Arna-
magnaean Commission’s Ordbog (s.v. bleikr), as well as other Old Norse-
Icelandic dictionaries, denotes different hues according to its context.3 Ac-
cording to the Ordbog, bleikr appears most frequently in the meaning „bleg (º:
med mindre intens farve end den naturlige, ?bleget // pale (º: of weak or
reduced color), wan, ?bleached“, as in, for example, „gevr hon [sólin] af ser
litit lios oc bendir firir me› bleikum lit margs mannz feig›“ (Alexanders saga
1925:70.32-71.1) and „stundum var hann raudr sem blod en stundum bleikr
sem bast edr blarr sem hel edr fπlr sem nárr suo at ymsir flessir litir færduzst
j hann suo bra honum vid“ (Flateyjarbók 1860-1868. 2:136.35-37). However,
the term is also commonly used in the meaning „blond, lys // blond, fair, light-
coloured“ (translation offered by the Ordbog), as in, for example, „Alex-
annder s(on) Priami var huitr ahaurunnd h‡r madr herdimikill. sterkr oc stor-
radr harid bleikt oc bla augun“ (Trójumanna saga 1963:66.11-12) and „Fƒgr er
hlí›in, svá at mér hefir hon aldri jafnfƒgr s‡nzk, bleikir akrar ok slegin tún“
(Njáls saga 1954:182.20-22).4 When used to describe the color of horses and
cows, the term means, according to the Ordbog, „lys, ?lys gråbrun, ?bleggul,
?skimlet (~ fr. vair) // [...] light-coloured, ?fawn, ?pale yellow, dappled (~ fr.
vair)“; examples of the term being used to describe the color of these animals
include „fiví næst ri›u fram or konungs fylking Riker ok Marant, annarr á
bleikum hesti en annarr á grám“ (Karlamagnúss saga 1860: 302.38-39) and
„ek sá hér upp rísa at Hofi uxa bleikan, mikinn ok skrautligan“ (Vápnfir›inga
saga 1950:48.18-19).
In the passage concerning Esau’s selling of this birthright for a pottage of
lentils, the term bleikr does not, according to the Arnamagnaean Commis-
2 Astås (1991:81) notes that „From a collation of I[sidore’s] E[tymologiae]-passages in the
Stjórn I text with variant readings in Lindsay’s edition, we learn that the IE-manuscript of the
Old Norse compiler can be traced back to the Carolingian C-manuscript (10th century).“
3 Cleasby and Vigfusson (1957) and Fritzner (1973).
4 Cf. Alexanders saga 1925:27. For a discussion of this phrase, see Lönnroth (1970) and
(1976:123, 151, 160).