Note to Þul Grýlu 1III
[2] Skaufhali: Lit. ‘tassel-tail’, from skauf n. ‘sheaf of corn’ (hence metaphorically ‘sheaf-like tail’, ‘fox’s brush’; cf. CVC: skauf) and hali m. ‘tail’; cf. skaufi ‘tailed one’, l. 4 below). Skaufhali is first and foremost known as the protagonist of Skaufhala bálkr (‘Bálkr about Tassel-tail’; Svart SkaufVIII). In that poem, the fox is humanised as an old outlaw mortally wounded on his last hunt, and he recites his ævikviða ‘life-poem’ to his wife, detailing his life before he dies.
References
- Bibliography
- CVC = Cleasby, Richard, Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and W. A. Craigie. 1957. An Icelandic-English Dictionary. 2nd edn. Oxford: Clarendon.
- Internal references
- Kari Ellen Gade 2017, ‘ Svartr á Hofstöðum, Skaufhala bálkr’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 948. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=3349> (accessed 7 May 2024)