Published in 2003, ‘The Blue Fox’ (Icelandic: Skugga-Baldur) is a novel by Icelandic writer Sjón that won the ‘Nordic Council Literature Prize’ in 2005. Sjón, whose original name is Sigurjón Birgir Sigurðsson, made his literary debut at the age of 16 with his first collection of poems in a series of eight. He has also written five novels as well as songs for Icelandic singer Björk. ‘The Blue Fox’ is a novel about an Icelandic pastor and a fox hunt in which Sjón makes use of the Icelandic folktale to tell his story. One of the principal characters is the evil pastor Baldur Skuggason, and another key figure is the strange offspring of a cat and a fox: Sjón’s style has elements of a very unique Icelandic sense of humour. ‘The Blue Fox’ is a short novel takes place in Iceland in 1883, organised on a few sections: some pages only consist of a single written line, surrounded by large white surfaces calling to mind the Icelandic expanse. This concreteness can be said to look for a balance between prose and poetry. ‘Skugga-Baldur’ is also a contemporary novel which brings up some of today’s ethical questions: are the weak, deformed babies with developmental disorders welcome in a world where they could have been discarded already, prior to birth? According to the Adjudicating Committee, ‘The Blue Fox’ balances skilfully on the edge between poetry and prose: the novel weaves themes from Icelandic sagas and romantic narrative art into a fascinating story in which present day ethical questions stand out. The book was originally published by Bjartur and first published in the United States in 2013.
