I dont agree, when saying blámaðr, that was used in old norse and in
Icelandic up to this century, then it meant a man with black skin. Arabs
were called márar or tyrkjar if I am not mistaken.

Heiðrún

----- Original Message -----
From: "Hrimalf" <hrimalf@...>
To: <norse_course@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, May 28, 2002 7:46 PM
Subject: [norse_course] Re: Bluemen/Africans


> OK - this is an interesting thread; as I'm not as
> experienced at Old Norse as others I won't comment on
> the colour variation theme but I had a thought: surely
> the folk we are talking about are North African not
> Sub Saharan African? I mean, obviously a few would be
> people with Sub Saharan ancestors (like we have Black
> English people here now) but not all. And North
> Africans would be a mixture of Berber, Moor, Roman,
> Jewish, etc. Not too much Arab ancestry I would guess
> because the Arabs hadn't entered North Africa yet (Am
> I right about this?) But then Berbers, for example, I
> think resemble Arabs to a large degree anyway? Then
> again, even if the folk we're discussing weren't as
> dark as you'd think an 'African' would be maybe the
> Norse folk would describe them as such because
> compared to themselves they were extremely dark
> skinned. What do others think about this?
>
> Hrimalf
>
> PS Anyone got Saga references for these Africans at
> all? Its a subject I'm most interested in.
>
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