Orð og tunga - 01.06.2010, Page 121

Kirsten Wolf: Green and Yellow
111
and Kay, suggests an introduction of grœnn before gnlr (Wolf 2007).
On the other hand, gidr is attested as a color adjective in Proto-Indo-
European (*ghel- ["that which is yellow"]) and Proto-Germanic (*gel-
waz),2 whereas grœnn ("the color of growth," derived from the verb
"to grow," [Proto-Indo-European *ghre-] of vegetation) is not attested
until Proto-Germanic (*gro:njaz).3 4
2 Data for the usages of green and yellow in Old
Norse-Icelandic literature
The data for the usages of grœnn and gulr are drawn from the slips
of the Arnamagnaean Commmission's Dictionary f as well as from the
following texts, which I have excerpted: the Poetic Edda (ed. Neckel
1983), the corpus of skaldic poetry (ed. Finnur Jónsson 1912-1915),
Snorri's Edda (ed. Finnur Jónsson), the Sagas of Icelanders (see ap-
pendix I), the íslendinga þættir (see appendix II), the mythical-heroic
sagas (see appendix III), and the romances (see appendix IV).
2.1 Green and yellow in the Eddas
As noted by Laurenson (1882), gulr is not in evidence in the Poetic
Edda, and the cases in which grœnn is named are few. In all cases, the
2In the Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Pokomy defines *ghel- as
"glánzen, schimmem," and, as a color adjective "gelb, griin, grau oder blau",*ghel-
is widely attested as a root for color terms, words for "bile" and "gold," and for
the names of distinctively colored animals and plants. In most languages, it covers
yellow, but in some languages it suggests green or green-yellow (e.g., Sanskrit hári-
[blonde, yellow, green-yellow], Greek chlo:rós [green], Italic albinus [green-yellow],
and Breton glaz [green]). The overwhelming testimony of most branches of the Indo-
European family points to the color yellow or green, and with the root's frequent
association with words meaning "gold" or "shine" (e.g., Sanskrit híranya- [gold], Old
High German glenzen [to shine], Old Irish glé [shining], and English gold) it seems
likely to be a Proto-Indo-European root with a primary meaning of yellow (Jackson
Crawford, pers. communication). See also the íslensk orðsifjabók, s.v. gulur) and Kay
(1975:201).
3íslensk orðsifjabók, s.v. grænn).
4I am grateful to Eva Rode of the Amamagnaean Commission's Dictionary for
providing me with xeroxed copies of the slips. Only occurrences in those texts that I
have not excerpted have been included.