Note 5 — Chapter VI
Reading edition
In this part of Norway the wolf is known by no other name. Like graa-been (grey-legs) elsewhere in Norway, so here skrüb is a euphemism for wolf. The word is evidently derived from skrübba, to scrub, and alludes to the rough dressing or scrubbing to be expected at the claws of that beast. This disinclination to use the real name “ulv,” is no doubt due to the ancient superstition of the “varulf” (wer-wolf).
Oh! was it wer-wolf in the wood, Or was it mermaid in the sea, Or was it man or vile woman, My own true love, that misshaped thee? A heavier weird shall light on her Than ever fell on vile woman, Her hair shall grow rough and her teeth grow lang, And on her fore feet shall she gang.
See Grimm. Deutsche Mythologie, 1047. In the war of 1808 it was commonly believed in Sweden that those of their countrymen who were made prisoners by the Russians were changed by them into wer or were-wolves, and sent home to plague their country. The classical reader will remember the Scythian people mentioned by Herodotus, who all and several used to turn wolves for a few days in every year. The Swedes go still further in their reluctance to call certain animals by their real names. Not only do they call the bear the old one, or grandfather, and the wolf grey-foot, but the fox is blue-foot, or he that goes in the forest; the seal is brother Lars, while such small deer as rats and mice are known respectively as the long-bodied and the small-grey.