Hiraeth Grimoire
Longing to answer the call of the Void
- May 21, 2022
- 154
The Wolf and the Blade
First, the Eskimo coats his knife blade with animal blood and allows it to freeze. Then he adds another layer of blood, and another, until the blade is completely concealed by frozen blood. Next, the hunter fixes his knife in the ground with the blade up. When a wolf follows his sensitive nose to the source of the scent and discovers the bait, he licks it, tasting the fresh frozen blood. He begins to lick faster, more and more vigorously, lapping the blade until the keen edge is bare. Feverishly now, harder and harder the wolf licks the blade in the arctic night. So great becomes his craving for blood that the wolf does not notice the razor-sharp sting of the naked blade on his own tongue, nor does he recognize the instant at which his insatiable thirst is being satisfied by his OWN warm blood. His carnivorous appetite just craves more—until the dawn finds him dead in the snow!
My Analysis of the Story
I found this Eskimo folk tale to be a relevant allegory to tell the story of our collective predicament. Smiles withhold tears that have far deeper roots, beautiful surfaces conceal terrible depths, and every newborn's cradle is a grave, to paraphrase the words of Emil Cioran, Friedrich Neitzche, and Sarrah Perry. The masses willfully or unknowingly choose the trap of ignorance by turning a blind eye to the horrors of life, thereby sealing their fate to a deceitful end, driven by false hopes. Then there are sufferers who awaken to the great lie, and choose to create their own lies in order to cope with the bitter truths, ultimately falling prey to their own trappings of deception. And lastly, there are few in number those noblest of sufferers, who see and know the many-faced hunter, having survived an array of traps. What these special ones realize is that all is a trap, thus they choose to face the blade in its stark nakedness, thereby finding salvation in death.
Best regards fellow sufferers!
