From: xigung
Message: 4108
Date: 2004-01-29
--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, Daniel Bray <dbray@...> wrote:
> Heill, Gerald,
>
> It's quite common that different languages have different ideas about
> colour. Irish, for instance, uses 'glas' for both green and blue -
there
> is no distinction between the two - at least not in the language.
>
> 'Blár' is both blue and blue-black, whereas 'svartr' covers dark brown
> and brown-black, thus 'blár' can be applied to ravens, but I think in
> clothing would cover something like navy blue to woad blue (a very
> common blue dye of the time). Truly black clothing I believe was very
> rare to non-existent in the Middle Ages.
>
> Gerald Mcharg wrote:
>
> > Good evening all
> >
> > Will you pardon me if I don't submit my translation this time? I've
> > done it in pen and ink (biro, really) but I find it's a long
> > mechanical process putting it on computer at a time when I'm in the
> > process of translating Egil's Saga - I've got half of it done and
it's
> > very exciting.
> > However, bleary-eyed as I am from just finishing Chapter 54, It's
very
> > refreshing to read other people's Hrafnkels and their observations on
> > the blue/back dress code. The first reference I came across to blue
> > being black was second hand. It's mentioned as a foot note in 'the
> > Long Ships', a novel by Frans G.Bengtsson, translated from the
Swedish
> > by Michael Meyer in 1955, I think. Here it is mentioned that negroes
> > were referred to by the vikings as 'blue men'.
> > From my own observations, I've noticed that the colour of persons
with
> > the very blackest of skins and the hair of some white people which is
> > of the deepest black colour, can in some circumstances, by a trick
> > of light, appear blue. Whether this applies to clothes or not, I
don't
> > know. Is there anyone in the field of optics who could shed some
light
> > on this?
> > In the Iliad and other works in AncientGreek, the word 'glaukos' can
> > be construed as 'grey' or 'blue', so the matter of colour confusion
> > isn.t restricted to the northern world
> > Cheers
> > Jed
> >
>
> Kveðja,
> --
>
> Daniel Bray
>