Orð og tunga - 01.06.2013, Page 169

Kirsten Wolf: Basic Color Terms in Old Norse-Icelandic
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4 Conclusion
The most striking difference between these sequences and the evo-
lutionary order proposed by Berlin and Kay and modified for Old
Norse-Icelandic by Wolf (2006, 2009, and forthcoming) is the promi-
nence of rauðr. An explanation for the relative infrequent use of svartr
and hvítr in comparison with rauðr may be that in the case of the two
achromatic basic color terms there are near-synonyms, such as dokkr
and myrkr (for svartr) and Ijóss, fagr, and possibly bleikr (for hvítr),
which have not been considered in this study, whereas rjóðr is the only
near-synonym for rauðr and occurs only once (Kormáks saga 230.15).8
Blár, too, is very common, but, as argued by Wolf (2006: 74), it orig-
inally meant simply a dark color and did not attach firmly to the blue
spectrum until the late fourteenth century. Considering the fact that
the vast majority of the Sagas and pættir of Icelanders are believed
to have been composed before the late fourteenth century, most of
the occurrences of blár in these works should, therefore, probably be
grouped with svartr, which would make svartr the most commonly
used color term. Accordingly, the order of frequency for the first four
(five) color terms is likely as follows: black (svartr/blár) > white (hvítr)
> red (rauðr) > grey (grár), which is in line with the above proposed
sequence for Old Norse-Icelandic.
With regard to the last three color terms, brúnn, grœnn, and gulr,
the frequency study supports the above proposed sequence in that
gulr as a color term should be assigned a late stage and after grœnn
and brúnn. Indeed, as argued by Wolf (2010:123), "while yellow (gulr)
certainly existed, the color was expressed primarily by means of de-
rivatives oígull prior to the thirteenth century."
The dating of the Sagas of Icelanders is a controversial matter,
but there seems to be general agreement to date the composition of,
for example, Egils saga Skalla-Grímssonar to the first half of the thir-
teenth century, that of Eyrbyggja saga and Laxdœla saga to around the
middle of the thirteenth century, and that of Njáls saga and Hrafnkels
saga Freysgoða to the last quarter of the thirteenth century. Also, most
scholars regard Bárðar saga Snæfellsáss, Finnboga saga ramma, Fljótsdœla
saga, Flóamanna saga, Grettis saga, Harðar saga ok Hólmverja, Hávarðar
saga ísfirðings, Kjalnesinga saga, Króka-Refs saga, Svarfdœla saga, Þórðar
saga hreðu, and Víglundar saga as postclassical sagas.
8 This is discounting compounds and derivations of rjóðr.