THE WOLF IN THE MIND

A. S. Byatt, Ragnarok: The End of the Gods  (Edinburgh & New York: Canongate, 2011) ("Both sun and moon were hotly pursued by wolves, with open jaws, snapping at their heels, loping across emptiness. The story did not mention any creation of wolves; they simply appeared, snarling and dark. They were a part of the rhythm, of things. They never rested or tired. The created world was inside the skull, and the wolves in the mind were there from the outset of the heavenly procession." Id. at 28. "And the wolf? Wolves run strongly through the forest of the mind. Humans heard the howling in the dark, an urgent music, a gleeful reciprocal chorus; the loping, padding, tireless runners are both out of sight and inside the head. There, too, are the bristling coats, the snout, the teeth, the blood. Firelight, and the light of the full moon are reflected in in human eyes, glittering in the dark, specks of brightness in deep shadows. Human respect wolves, the closeness and warmth of the pack, the ingenuity of the chase, the calling and growling, messages from the throat. Odin in Asgard had two tamed cubs at his feet, to which he threw meat he did not eat. Wolves are free and monstrous: wolves are the forebears of dogs, which are creature of the hearth and hunt, who have replace the pack leader with a human one. Humans and gods made their own packs to hunt down and kill the wolf packs. Maybe cubs were taken from a lair when the parents have been slaughtered, and fed milk and meat, and brought in from the wild. Maybe a solitary cub sat on its haunches at the edge of a clearing and howled, and was taken in by a woman, and fed and tamed. They point their snouts at the moon, and howl." Id. at 49-50. "Gods and men, driven by the wolf in the mind, and the snakes at the roots of the tree, had hunted both creatures remorselessly, destroying their lairs and holes, cleaning them out. And as they hunted the grey wolves in the forests, slaughtering cubs, spearing their dams, so Fenris's kindred in the Ironwood grew wilder and more monstrous." Id. at 99-100. "From the Kettlewood, where Loki lay bound amongst the geysirs--which still spouted hot--came a louder howl of wolves, wolves in the wood, wolves padding over the snow, wolves with blood on their fangs, wolves in the mind." "Wind Time, Wolf Time, before the world breaks up." "That was the time they were in." Id at 134-135.) "Odin advanced on the Fenris-Wolf, balancing his ash-spear, Gungnir. The wolf's hackles bristled. His mean eyes glittered. He yawned. The god drove the spear into the gaping jaws. The wolf shook himself, snapped the spear, took three steps forward, gripped the great god, shook him, broke him, swallowed him." Id. at 142.).