I've been reading the Nibelungenlied, and I have a question about a usage I find there, and have in the past found in Volsunga Saga and in several old Scottish ballads.

They refer to "red gold" or "glede-red gold" and "red gold hammered helmets", and so on.

To me, as colors, red and gold and different, and the metal gold is not red but--you guessed it--gold colored, not red.

Can someone make this confuzlement plainer to me? Why "red gold"? Or maybe it's "What is 'red gold'?"

Dave Oesterreich