[112] _Origins of Pictish Symbolism_, 1893.
One frequently finds on early Christian sculptured stones that the field on each side of the central cross is occupied by a writhing animal; of these numerous examples occur in the Isle of Man, where they are undoubtedly due to Scandinavian influence. This animal may be recognised in some cases as being a wolf, as on a cross at Michael (Plate VII., Fig. 5).
Two skeuomorphs attack the wolf. The influence of thong-work is seen in Plate VII., Fig. 1; this may be compared with Plate IV., Fig. 4, which is copied from a sculptured stone at Malew, also in the Isle of Man. The latter is one of several Manx skeuomorphs of leather or strap-work.
The withy-band is even more frequently depicted, and on a cross at Gosforth (Plate VII., Fig. 3) the wolf is being strangled by it.
The serpent or dragon also is frequently represented, indeed it seems as if the wolf and the serpent passed insensibly into one another, and nothing is easier than to confound the latter with twisted bands. So the animal fades away, till finally the skeuomorph triumphs, and only the ghost of a zoomorph remains in what, to ordinary eyes, is only an entwisted fibre (Plate VII., Fig. 11).
What then is the significance of this remarkable cycle? The explanation must be sought in the pagan-Christian overlap, at the time when the symbols of Norse mythology were being homologised with those of the Christian faith.
"Three mighty children to my father Lok Did Angerbode, the giantess, bring forth-- Fenris the wolf, the serpent huge, and me. Of these the serpent in the sea ye cast, Who since in your despite hath wax'd amain, And now with gleaming ring enfolds the world. Me on this cheerless nether world he threw, And gave me nine unlighted realms to rule. While, on his island in the lake, afar, Made fast to the bored crag, by wile not strength Subdued, with limber chains lives Fenris bound."
So, in the words of Matthew Arnold, spoke Hela to Hermod on his quest for the restoration of the slain Balder.
At the crack of doom, the Ragnaroks, Frey, Woden, Thor, and Tyr, are predestined to perish. A wolf shall devour the sun, and another shall swallow the moon, and the stars shall vanish out of heaven. Woden shall go first, and shall encounter Fenriswolf, but the wise, one-eyed god shall die. The hammer of the "friend of man" shall not avail against the sea-dragon, and though Thor fights Midgarthsorm, and shall slay him, he himself shall fall dead from the serpent's venom. Garm, the hell-hound, shall fasten upon the one-handed Tyr, and each shall kill the other. Frey shall fall before Swart, the giant with the flaming sword. Then shall Vidar spring forward, the mighty son of the Father of Victory, and shall rend the wolf asunder. "Vidar shall inhabit the city of the gods when all is over," as the giant said to Woden. "Vidar, who outlived the earth-fall, became," says Professor Stephens,[113] "a fitting emblem for that Almighty Lord who overcame Sin and Death," and he is represented on some sculptured stones as a divine Hart, trampling on Fenriswolf and Midgarthsorm.