Orð og tunga - 01.06.2010, Page 132

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Orð og tunga
use of the color term in the later skaldic poems and the Sagas and
pættir of Icelanders is interesting, for from the frequent reference to
gold (gull, a later derivative of *ghel-) in Old Norse-Icelandic litera-
ture, gulr might perhaps be expected to be common.18 Yet, gold, when
assigned a color, is usually described as being red, as in, for example,
Gibbons saga ("váru þær með rauðu gulli búnar" 38.8), and indeed,
in the Skdldskaparmál section of his Edda Snorri claims that in ken-
nings gold is called fire of arm or joint or limb, since it is red ("gull er
kallat í kenningum eldr handar eða liðs eða leggjar, því at þat er rautt"
143.19-20). On a few occasions, the adjective bleikr is used about gold.
In Hauksbók and AM 194 8vo, it is said about a stone ("crisopacius")
that it glows as fire in the night but that during the day it is like "bleikt
gull" (22.8 and 81.8). The statement in Rauðúlfs páttr in Saga Óláfs ko-
nungs hins helga that red and pale gold have nothing in common ex-
cept for the name ("rautt gull ok bleikt gull á ekki saman nema nafn
eitt" 2:677.11) suggests a distinction; indeed, in Cleasby-Vigfússon's
An lcelandic-English Dictionary (s.v. gull) bleikt gull is translated as "yel-
low gold." Despite the association of gold with the color red (Ander-
son 2000:5), derivatives of gidl (gull-, gullinn, gylltr) seem to be the
primary terms used to describe the color yellow in the earliest Old
Norse-Icelandic literary works, though it is difficult to determine with
preciseness when they should be regarded as color words, and when
they suggest gilded or overlaid with gold. Laurenson (1882:15) argues
that gullbjartr in Grímnismál st. 8 (about ValliQll) and Hárbarðsljóð st. 30
(about a woman), algullinn in Hymiskviða st. 8 (about a woman) and
Fpr Skírnis st. 19 (about apples), and the description of the yellow-
crested cock (Gullinkambi) in Vgluspá st. 43, "may be read in the stricter
sense of golden-yellow hue," but that gidl- suggests gilded or over-
laid with gold in Oddrúnargrátr st. 28 (the golden-hoofed horses), Hel-
gakviða Himdingsbana I st. 42 (the mare with the golden bit), Atlakviða
st. 5 (the gilded prows), Guðrúnarkviða II st. 16 (the gilded boars), VqIu-
spá st. 61 (the golden chequers), Hávamál st. 105 (the golden throne),
Helgakviða Hundingsbana II st. 19 (the golden war banners), Helgakviða
Hundingsbana II st. 45 (the gold-adorned lady), and possibly Helgakviða
of the color term in the lausavísa by Bjgrn Ásbrandsson Breiðvíkingakappi should
probably be regarded as suspect.
18The color term is rare also in Old English poetry. Mead (1899:198) states that "of
the use of geolo only four instances occur, and three of these are plainly conventional."