Three and a half stars, rounding up to four. I've shelved this as historical fiction, despite the fantastic elements towards the end of the novella. The transformation of the priest is something that could be interpreted in multiple ways, I think, but my own interpretation is that he just went insane, and it couldn't have happened to a more deserving character. It's the worst fate for him, so I think that's possibly influencing my classification - I want him to come to an awful end! And insanity is no doubt the end that he would hate the most.

Generally, though, this is a bleak little novella, set in 1880s Iceland. Everything is cold and miserable and lonely, and people are terrible to each other, with one major exception. I can't even say that Fridrik, who is one of the two decent people here, should have been more centred within the narrative, because of the fox and the priest, who are the other two main characters in this very sparsely populated fable, he is the most admirable and the least compelling. He's still interesting, mind you, but I was invested in that horrible priest getting his comeuppance, and more invested still in the fox. I'd never heard of blue foxes before this - or at least I have, under the name of Arctic foxes, but I didn't realise that some of them could appear blue, so I've learned something here. That's always good.