Orð og tunga - 01.06.2013, Qupperneq 167

Kirsten Wolf: Basic Color Terms in Old Norse-Icelandic
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all compounds, and derivations of the color adjectives (that is, nouns
and verbs) are excluded, the sequence also remains the same, except
that svartr is more common than blár and hvítr. The sequence for all
the eight basic color terms is then as follows: rauðr (28.9%) > svartr
(18.6%) > blár (18.3%) > hvítr (18.0) > grár (9.8 %) > brúnn (2.8%), grœnn
(2.6%) > gulr (1.0%).
Njáls saga and Laxdœla saga have more than 50 occurrences of color
terms and are followed by Egils saga Skalla-Grímssonar and Fóstbrœðra
saga with 36-40 occurrences. They are also among the longest sagas.
Bárðar saga Snæfellsáss, Bjarnar saga Hítdœlakappa, Eiríks saga rauða,
Eyrbyggja saga, and Grettis saga have between 21 and 35 occurrences
of color terms. Fljótsdœla saga, Flóamanna saga, Gísla saga Súrssonar,
Gunnars saga Keldugnúpsfífls, Gunnlaugs saga ormstungu, Harðar saga
ok Hólmverja, Heiðarvíga saga, Kjalnesinga saga, Kormáks saga, Króka-Refs
saga, Reykdœla saga ok Víga-Skútu, Svarfdœla saga, Þorskfirðinga saga,
Vatnsdœla saga, and Víga-Glúms saga have between 11 and 20 occur-
rences of color terms. Sagas with 6-10 occurrences comprise Banda-
manna saga, Finnboga saga ramma, Grœnlendinga saga, Hallfi'eðar saga,
Hrafrkels saga Freysgoða, Þórðar saga lireðu, Valla-Ljóts saga, Vápnfirðinga
saga, and Víglundar saga. Droplaugarsona saga, Hávarðar saga Isfirðings,
Hœnsa-Þóris saga, Ljósvetninga saga, Þorsteins saga hvíta, and Þorsteins
saga Síðu-Hallssonar have five or fewer occurrences; the four last-men-
tioned sagas are also the ones with the least variety of color terms.
Only Eyrbyggja saga and Laxdœla saga have all the eight color terms,
and this is if toponyms, bynames, all compounds, and derivations of
the color adjectives are included. In Fljótsdœla saga, Fóstbrœðra saga,
and Njáls saga, seven color terms are represented. In Bárðar saga Snæ-
fellsáss, Eiríks saga rauða, Finnboga saga ramma, Flóamanna saga, Gísla
saga Súrssonar, and Víga-Glúms saga, six color terms are represented.
Sagas with five different color terms comprise Bjarnar saga Hítdœlakap-
pa, Egils saga Skalla-Grímssonar, Grettis saga, Harðar saga ok Hólmverja,
Heiðarvíga saga, Kormáks saga, Reykdœla saga ok Víga-Skútu, Svarfdœla
saga, and Víglundar saga. Vápnfirðinga saga has occurrences only of
rauðr, Þorsteins saga hvíta and Þorsteins saga Síðu-Hallssonar have oc-
currences only of hvítr, Ljósvetninga saga has occurrences of rauðr and
hvítr, and Hœnsa-Þóris saga has occurrences of rauðr, hvítr, and svartr.
With toponyms, bynames, all compounds, and derivations of the
color adjectives excluded, the representation of the eight basic color
terms in the individual Sagas of Icelanders is illustrated in Table 9.