1. In the novel’s opening scene, as the Reverend Baldur Skuggason and the vixen interact, how do they balance the mutual danger with the fact that they find each other alluring?

2. How was your reading affected by the alternating points of view? How does the herbalist Fridrik B. Fridjónsson’s view of his community compare to what you see in the scenes of the Reverend Baldur and the vixen?

3. What does Hafdís Jónsdóttir’s childhood tell us about the culture that didn’t want to see her survive? What accounts for Fridrik’s unusual compassion toward her-—his Abba—and toward Hafdís’s sweetheart, Hálfdán Atlason, as well?

4. How did you interpret the conversations between the vixen and the Reverend Baldur? Reading the novel as a fable, what are its lessons?

5. How does the Reverend Baldur see his role as a religious leader? As he and the vixen debate electricity on pages 98–100, what do we discover about how their moral compasses are set? What do they believe is their source of “power”?

6. Discuss the landscape as if it were a character in the novel. In what ways is it threatening? In what ways is it enchanting?

7. In his letter in the book’s closing pages, what does Fridrik reveal to us about his Abba’s view of the world? Despite her dictionary, what emotions transcended language when Fridrik took her in?

8. When the Reverend Baldur meets his fate, is justice served? Is he destined to be the hunter, or the hunted?