Orð og tunga - 01.06.2013, Page 138

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Orð og tunga
4 The Color Orange in Icelandic
Before the introduction of the fruit orange and, consequently, the
term appelsínugulur, Icelanders appear to have used a variety of terms
to describe orange-colored objects, largely compounds of red and yel-
low.
Ordbog over det norrone prosasprog (ONP) lists five examples of
rauðbleikr. Kirsten Wolf (2010:123) suggests that bleikr was used to de-
scribe the hue yellow before the introduction of the term gulr. Accord-
ingly, rauðbleikr could be considered a compound of red and yellow.
The citations in ONP, dating from the late thirteenth to the late four-
teenth century,13 are used to refer to hair, a beard, and two gemstones
(sardonyx and jacinth), all of which may be perceived as orange-col-
ored. While Cleasby and Vigfússon's translation of rauðbleikr as 'red-
dish' (1874:484) is acceptable, it conceivably refers to a color in the
range between red and yellow.
The most frequently used term for the color orange in Icelandic
(besides the now prevalent term appelsínugulur) is rauðgulur 'red-yel-
low/ which appears three times in ONP and fifty-three times in ROH.
The oldest occurrence in ONP is from a testament written in Oslo
on April 13, 1331 (DN 1855:111.148).14 It refers to a pallklæde 'carpet/
covering' and could describe a solid orange color or a red and yellow
pattern. The other occurrences are in Sturlunga saga (AM 122 a fol.,
cl350-1370) and Karlamagnús saga (AM 180 d fol., cl700),15 respective-
ly, and both describe the color of hair (ONP). As with rauðbleikr, these
instances describe objects that can be conceived of as orange-colored.
ROH, which contains examples from after the middle of the sixteenth
century, lists occurrences of rauðgulur dating from 1545 to 1977. Until
the end of the seventeenth century, the term was almost exclusively
used to denote the color of hair, clothing and fabrics, particularly altar
linens. The adjective was later associated with a larger variety of ob-
jects, although its use for ginger-colored hair still prevailed (see ROH
13 One of the examples is found in AM 447 4to, a late seventeenth-century manu-
script containing Eyrbyggja saga (see ONP). The occurrence of rauðbleikr in this
case cannot be dated to the thirteenth to fourteenth century with certainty since it
could be a post-medieval variant.
14 Since the example is taken from a Norwegian source, it cannot be included in this
study, which focuses on Icelandic. It is nonetheless mentioned for completeness.
15 As with AM 447 4to (see fn. 13), the occurrence of rauðgulr in this case cannot be
dated to the Middle Ages with certainty because the citation exists only in a post-
medieval manuscript (AM 180 d fol.).