Shadow fox

Shadow fox (Icelandic Skugga-Baldur ) is the title of a short novel published in 2003 by the Icelandic author Sjón (full name: Sigurjón Birgir Sigurðsson). In 2005 the author was awarded the Nordic Council's Literature Prize for this .

content

The plot of the story is spread over a total of 11 days in January or March of the year 1883. The four chapters are titled with dates, which specify the period of action. The second chapter is out of the ordinary in that it also describes events that take place before the other sections.

I. (January 9-11, 1883)

Pastor Baldur Skuggason is on the hunt for a vixen. For several days he follows the animal through the wintry landscape. The vixen almost escapes him several times, but he can always find her trail. When a snowstorm approaches, the hunter decides to let himself be snowed in. The next morning he discovers the vixen again and follows her all day. It starts to snow again and the priest is covered again by the snow. He lies in the same place for eighteen hours, so that he can hardly be seen in the field. Finally the hunter puts his finger on the trigger.

II. (January 8–9, 1883)

It is winter in Dalur. Hálfdán Atlason, "Pastor Baldur's simpleton", comes to Friðrik B. Friðjónsson at the Brekka farm. Hálfdán has come to pick up a woman's body. When he learns that the dead woman is his beloved Abba, he bursts into tears.

After he and Friðrik have had tea (something completely new for Hálfdán), they go outside to load the already closed coffin onto the sledge. The hastily assembled coffin is light and not particularly beautiful. Friðrik gives Hálfdán a letter for the pastor. However, he emphasizes that Hálfdán should only give it to the clergyman after the funeral. In the letter, Friðrik informed Pastor Baldur Skuggason that he wanted a simple funeral. He also mentions that the night before he had dreamed of a vixen who is said to be in the valley. Then the funeral procession is ready and Hálfdán leaves.

On April 17, 1868, a Saturday, a large cargo ship without a crew appeared off the coast of Reykjavík. The ship had apparently been looted by pirates and then drifted around the sea without a leader. After boarding the ship, the townspeople found, in addition to a huge cargo of oil, a young girl chained below deck. The apparently pregnant girl was brought ashore and sent to Reykjavík. Three weeks later Friðrik B. Friðjónsson came to Iceland by mail ship. While taking a walk he met the girl who was locked in a shed with an old teacher. Friðrik learned that the girl had given birth to a child a week earlier. When she smiled at him, he was seized by a happy feeling and he finally took care of the girl.

Friðrik B. Friðjónsson studied natural history in the Danish capital Copenhagen from 1862 to 1865, but without obtaining a degree. Later he worked there for three years in a pharmacy, where he had made it up to the drug assistant and was responsible for the narcotics archive. In the summer of 1868 he had basically only come to Reykjavík to sell his late parents' farm. Then he would have gone back to Denmark if the fate had not entrusted poor Abba to him and he had not stayed at his parents' farm in Iceland because of her. During his studies in Denmark, Friðrik had heard about the examinations of Doctor John Langdon Down, so he knew immediately what was going on with Abba. In Iceland, children with Down syndrome were typically killed immediately after birth. Occasionally, however, a few children survived, who were then often abandoned by their parents and left to their fate.

Pastor Baldur Skuggason asked Friðrik not to take Abba to the service. Abba, who loved to sing, was very unhappy about it. Since then, Friðrik and Abba haven't had much to do with the people of the community.

Now Friðrik is sitting in his room and opening the package that Abba had with him the whole time. It was the only item she had when she was found, but she never let go of it. When he loosens the cord and unpacks the canvas, many pieces of wood come to light. He notices that they fit together like pieces of a puzzle and starts putting them together. Over time, an elongated, high-walled box is created that is colored white on the inside and black on the outside. In addition, there is a quote from Ovid: "Omnia mutantur - nihil interit." ("Everything changes - nothing passes.")

When Friðrik is done, he sees that the assembly has resulted in a beautiful coffin. And while the pastor buries a few kilos of cow dung and a sheep skeleton, Friðrik buries his foster daughter in the coffin he has assembled on the land of his farm. When he finishes, he reads two poems in memory of Abba.

After he went into the house, his cat Litli-Frikki asked for entry. Shortly afterwards, Friðrik sees through the window how the pastor sets off from his homestead to hunt.

III. (January 11-17, 1883)

The priest's shot echoes through the valley and the vixen is thrown through the air. The hunter stuffs the precious animal under his coat. But the shot triggered an avalanche on top of the mountain, which is now racing towards Baldur. He is carried away, but manages to keep his head up. When the snow masses come to a standstill, however, he is stuck in the snow. While he tries to tear himself away, two ravens land next to him, hoping for a possible carrion.

When he has finally freed himself from the snow, a second avalanche is released up on the slope, pulling the pastor over a ledge into the depths. In this way Baldur is thrown into a crevasse.

When the pastor comes to he is locked in the cold room. He knows that he cannot survive very long and tries to reassure himself by reciting rímur and poetry. After a few days he suddenly hears the vixen talking to him. Apparently she wasn't dead at all and now she seems to be fine again. But the animal is cheeky and provokes Baldur, who then kills her a second time with the knife. Then he pulls the fox's fur off, which turns out to be much larger than it initially seemed. The pastor strips naked and slips into his fox fur. Slowly the proportion of people in him decreases and he finally becomes a Skugga-Baldur , a mythical figure.

IV. (March 23, 1883)

Friðrik writes a letter to a friend in Copenhagen informing him of Abba's death. He also reports that Pastor Baldur Skuggason was missing in the mountains a few days ago. He believes that this incident will lead to a rethinking of the rural pastors' living conditions. Apparently the pastor made the hunt for foxes a habit out of pure money addiction.

Friðrik then gives his friend a list of words that Abba used when they were found. He also describes how he found out about Abbas origins: Once he had a visit from the tramp Sölvli Helgason, who told him about Abba (whom he called Laufey). Sölvli found her completely neglected in the highlands of Kjölur when she was about seven years old. During the next two years that he moved around with her, he had built a small coffin for her until he could finally locate her family. When he passed there a few years later, the conditions were appalling: the mother had poisoned himself and the father had sold the daughter to foreign sailors while he was preparing himself for Bible school. That man was Baldur Skuggason. He had received a shotgun and a sack of shotgun pellets for his daughter.

Friðrik apologizes that the letter is so sad. He closes with the information that he has "inherited" the boy Hálfdán Atlason from the rectory, who now lives with him and is just as simple-minded as efficient.

interpretation

Skugga-Baldur resembles Sjón's earlier works in many ways. Similar to his previous novels, this book is not particularly extensive. Sometimes there is only a single sentence on individual pages. This creates a fragmented narrative style, especially in the first and third parts. In return, the language is very artful and looks precisely chosen. Here the poet's origins become clear.

Elements from the Icelandic folklore tradition

The book is subtitled Þjóðsaga , which can be translated as folk tales or folk tales. This designation is reflected in the narrative: the narrator uses a variety of stylistic devices that are typical of Icelandic folk tales. The language is rather out of date and the choice of words is reminiscent of folk tales. Numerous motifs from legends are taken up for this purpose.

The most important is certainly the Skugga-Baldur (the German title shadow fox is unclear because there is no allusion to the legend): A Skuggabaldur (as a name for the animal without a hyphen) is a mythical figure that is a cross between cat and Fox is. The Skuggabaldur is the descendant of a male cat and a fox. (If the mother is a cat and the father is a fox, one speaks of Skoffin.) The animal is a mixture of domestic and wild animals. The mythical figure is a border crosser and can also be interpreted in a figurative sense as a mixture of man and nature.

Legend has it that a hunter once caught a Skuggabaldur. Just before the hunter killed the animal, it asked him to tell the house cat that he had killed a Skuggabaldur. When the man got home, he told his cat about the crime. This then jumped at his throat and tore his head off.

The text also contains numerous allusions to Nordic mythology . The pastor calls one of the ravens that come to him the "Bird of Odin". This points to the Norse god Odin , who was always accompanied by the two ravens Hugin and Munin . These are sent out by him and tell him about the events in the world.

The different names of the people also contain references to the mythological heritage (see the next section).

Meaning of personal names

• Baldur Skuggason

The pastor's name is a direct allusion to the figure of Skuggabaldur, whose name is simply reversed here. If the name is read as the Icelandic patronymic , it means "shadow son". So the name has a dark connotation. The first name Baldur refers to the deity of the same name Balder (also Baldur, Baldr, Phol). Baldur is the Nordic god of light and purity.

This results in a double characteristic for Baldur Skuggason: He is the combination of light and shadow.

• Friðrik B. Friðjónsson

Sjón, whose full name is Sigurjón Birgir Sigurðsson, often plays with his own identity in his works. Friðrik B. Friðjónsson is an analogy to Sigurjón B. Sigurðsson. Iceland is also hiding in the name. friður (peace). Friðrik Friðjónsson can be understood as a speaking name and in this reading indicates his peaceful, calm personality (in contrast to Pastor Baldur, who, as a hunter, stands for quarrels and war).

• Degradation

Friðrik sometimes refers to Abba as Hafdís. From the list of words he sent his friend in the letter, it becomes clear that Abba's name means Hafdís in their language. Translated, this name means "sea goddess" (from Iceland. Haf = sea or dís = goddess). This is an allusion to Abba's origins, as she did indeed come from the sea (that is, she was washed ashore in a ship). At the end of the book it becomes clear that Abba was baptized Laufey by her parents. This designation also indicates a divine origin. Laufey is another name for the goddess Nál, Loki's mother . At the same time, however, the name is also an allusion to Abba's relationship with Pastor Baldur. His mother's name was Nál Valdimarsdóttir. Abba / Laufey therefore bears the same name as their grandmother - a practice that is still very common in Icelandic naming today.

• Hálfdán Atlason

The pastor's boy also has a speaking name: Hálfdán is made up of hálfur (half) and -dan (Dane, Danish) and basically means "half Dane", i.e. H. a second generation Dane. The name refers abroad, which could explain Hálfdán's preference for tea. At the same time, it conceals a criticism of the Danes who had ruled Iceland for centuries and who are indirectly referred to as simple-minded and stupid. The patronymic also refers to the mainland: Atli is the Nordic name for the historical Hun king Attila .

Interpretative approaches

Due to its lyrical components, the narrative does not offer a clear approach to interpretation. Rather, the book provides different motifs that are expressed in the plot.

The whole book operates with opposites of various kinds, which often give both the plot and the characters a bipolar structure:

• The different chapters are clearly drawn in different colors. The descriptions of the pastor's hunt appear in a white light (snowstorm, avalanche, cave in the glacier), while the other two chapters describe much darker rooms (prison cell, the dark room in the courtyard). The contrast between black and white thus permeates the various areas of action on a meta level.
• Baldur Skuggason and Friðrik B. Friðjónsson appear as opponents who act against each other and have appropriate character traits. While Baldur is a symbol for the warlike in humans and for nature, Friðrik represents a peaceful, civilized culture.
• The contrast between old and new or between the traditional and the contemporary runs through the whole story. Friðrik, who studied abroad and is more of a Dane in terms of appearance, forms a clear contrast in the rough Icelandic landscape.

However, these opposites are counteracted in many places, which prevents a simple interpretation. Thus, as described above, the pastor himself appears as a contrast of light and shadow; H. of black and white. At the same time, he is the person who is clearly described as a dark, negative character, but who moves in a white room all the time.

The motif of opposites is also reflected on a narrative level: the form of the story combines elements (motifs and vocabulary) from the folk saga tradition with a modern, almost surreal narrative style.

In some cases, socially critical aspects can also be recognized in the story. This is most clearly expressed in the figure of Abba: She is a child with Down syndrome. The story goes that such children were usually suffocated by the midwife before their first breath. Subsequently, these children were recorded as stillbirths, which meant that children with Down syndrome basically never even existed in Iceland. This can be seen as a criticism of current prenatal diagnostic practices. According to Sjón himself, it is still the case today that practically no children with Down syndrome are born in Iceland.

swell

1. ^ Sjón 2007: p. 44
2. ↑ Guðrun Bjartmarsdóttir 2006: p. 128f.
3. ↑ Ibid.
4. ^ Sjón 2007: p. 91
5. ↑ Review of Skuggabaldur on the FM4 homepage  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  

literature

• Sjón: Shadow fox . S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-10-075120-1 . (German translation; Icelandic original title: Skugga-Baldur )
• Sjón: Skugga-Baldur. Þjóðsaga . 4th edition, Bjartur Publishing House , Reykjavík (Iceland) 2005, ISBN 9979-774-78-9 . (Icelandic; original edition)
• Guðrún Bjartmarsdóttir (Ed.): Bergmál. Sýnisbók íslenskra þjóðfræða . 3rd edition, Verlag Mál og menning, Reykjavík (Iceland) 2006, ISBN 9979-3-0973-3 . (Icelandic)