Orð og tunga - 01.06.2010, Page 129

Kirsten Wolf: Green and Yellow
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Moreover, in Sgrla saga sterka, a dragon adorning a ship is described
as being painted with all kinds of colors, green and white, yellow and
blue, pale [see below] and black ("málaðr með alls konar ýmisligum
litarhætti, grœnum ok hvítum, gulum ok blám, bleikum ok svQrtum"
3:386.4-5).
Finally, grœnn occurs once in Illuga saga Gríðarfóstra (3:418.9) to de-
scribe the color of the troll-woman Gríðr's eyes (augu). The compound
laufgrœnn appears twice in connection with armor: once to describe
the color of the strap or belt (fetill) of a shield (Elis saga ok Rósamundu
4:64.14) and once to describe the color of a helmet (hjálmr, Elis saga ok
Rósamundu 4:7.1-2).
There are altogether nineteen examples of gulr in the mythical he-
roic sagas and the romances. In more than a third of these, the adjec-
tive describes aspects of a person's physical appearance:
9. Gulr
Classification Referent
Physial appearance aridlit
auga
hár
tQnn
Number of examples
1 (Saga af Tristram ok ísQnd
1:156.3)
2 (SQrla saga sterka 3:371.25,
Jarlmanns saga okHermanns
6:192.20)
2 (Egils saga einhenda 3:335.1,
Vilmundar saga viðutan
6:18.6)
2 (Konráðs saga keisarasonar
3:304.7; Jarlmanns saga ok
Hermanns 6:192.20)
In both Egils saga einhenda and Vilmundar saga viðutan, the yellow hair
is likened to silk ("hárit gult sem silki"). Although there are no ref-
erences to yellow silk in the texts excerpted, the slips of the Arna-
magnaean Commission's Dictionary show that this expression is quite
common. Examples include "hárit mikit ok gult sem silki" (Orkneyinga
saga 41.5-6), "hárit mikit ok gult sem silki" (Heimskringla 2:213.3),13
and "gult hár sem silki" (Heimskrmgla 3:225.6). Examples of hair that
13Ewing (2006:157) refers to the phrase in Heimskringla and argues that while some
silks were dyed, som "might also have been left undyed in their natural golden
colour."