Orð og tunga - 01.06.2013, Page 154

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Orð og tunga
Section 2 examines the basic color terms in the order of their fre-
quency in the Sagas and pættir of Icelanders. Section 3 summarizes
the data in illustrations and tables. Considerations and conclusions
are presented in section 4.
2 Quantitative study
In the following, the eight Old Norse-Icelandic basic color terms are
examined in the order of their frequency in the Sagas and þættir of
Icelanders,1 which is as follows: rauðr, hvítr, blár, svartr, grár, grœnn,
brúnn, and gulr. Bynames (which are marked with an asterisk in Ta-
bles 1-8) and toponyms are counted only once (with more than one
occurrence marked with an "í" following the reference), and refer-
ence is made to the earliest occurrence of the name in a given saga or
páttr. Personal and animal names are mentioned and referred to but
excluded from the count, since naming traditions rather than color
may have been a consideration, at least as far as personal names are
concerned. Compounds such as rauðbrúnn or gulgrœnn are listed un-
der both rauðr and brúnn and gulr and grœnn, respectively. Derived
words, such as hvítingr and blána, are included, as are etymologically
related words, such as sorti.
2.1 Rauðr
Rauðr is by far the most frequently used color term. Altogether, there
are 184 occurrences. This is excluding the personal names Rauðr,
Rauðfeldr, Rauða-bjprn, and also Rauðgrani (which appears as a name
for Odin in Bárðar saga Snæfellsáss 163.5f) and Heiðarauðr (which ap-
pears as the name of a horse in Fljótsdœla saga 256.17). Of these 184
occurrences, 48 are compounds, 13 being toponyms.
1 References in the following are all to the Islenzk fornrit editions. Some of the texts
contain no color terms. These comprise Bergbúa þáttr, Brands þáttr prva, Draumr
Þorsteins Síðu-Hallssonar, Egils þáttr Síðu-Hallssonar, Gull-Ásu-Þórðar þáttr, Stjgrnu-
Odda draumr, Stúfs þáttr, Þormóðar þáttr, Þorsteins þáttr Austfirðings, Þorsteins þáttr
forvitna, Þorsteins þáttr sggufróða, and Qgmundar þáttr dytts. References are to page
and line numbers. In cases where two versions of a given text are presented syn-
optically, reference is given to both, e.g., hvítaváðir in Víga-Glúms saga 97.33/98.1.