SC - Blackberries, OED (WAS: Summertime Cerulean ...)

[Nanna Rögnvaldardóttir]

>Viking note:  the most commonly occuring term for "blue" in period Norse
>is "blar" and means an almost black shade of blue.  And there is a berry
>name "Blaber" in Old Norse, which Cleasby & Vigfusson translate as
>Vaccinium; and "a(th)alblaber" as Vaccinium myrtilllus (bilberry or
>whortleberry)


Bláber, at least those that grow here in Iceland, are of a similar blue
color as Amercian blueberries (the bothanical name is Vaccinium uliginosum).
They are smaller but tastier than the American berries. Aðalbláber
(bilberries, Vaccinium myrtillus) are dark blue, often almost black. They
are not as common here and are considered even better, as signified by their
name (aðal = main, which would mean "main blueberries". Bláber is of course
the source for the alternate Scottish and Northern English name blaeberry.

Nanna

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