taver

11:37 Jul 22, 2012 

... wispy strands... maybe?

11:18 Jul 20, 2012 

I meant that you beat me to the reference. :)

I don't think that any of the explanations matches Jeppe Aakjær's use of 'taver' precisely. I would understand it as a creative use of the general gist of all the meanings of 'taver', i.e. fibre, trævler, totter etc.

The tricky thing in your text, as I see it, is that it says that the smoke rises straight up, but also that it has 'taver', which in my understanding would indicate that the smoke is somewhat 'frayed'. This is why I suggested 'strands' as something that could both go straight up and be frayed.

Not a very precise answer, I'm afraid, hence my low rating of my own answer!

11:06 Jul 20, 2012 

Do you mean you agree that 3) makes most sense? I get this image of light ash glowing in the smoke.

10:59 Jul 20, 2012 

Great minds think alike... or something... ;)

10:54 Jul 20, 2012 

http://ordnet.dk/ods/ordbog?query=Tave,2

I think 3) makes most sense, but still open to other offers - especially for the English :)