<div>On Nashhwonk's chair as his antlers, Roy writes skeptically:</div>
<div>> He's sitting on his own head?? "Sitting in the very center of it [the Sleigh</div>
<div>> track], in a massive, high-backed chair of dark wood, was a man bigger than</div>
<div>> I had ever conceived that a man could be. He was facing me [. . .]"</div>
<div>> Nashhwonk later rose from the chair and walked around it. Is this incident</div>
<div>> "just a matter of how literal we're being"?</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Yes. If you accept that the Wiggikki are a wolf tribe, you should have no trouble accepting that Nashhwonk is a moose. All the animal tribes are humanoids that have weapons that are keyed to their real-wold animal counterparts. Mimmunka has a "polearm ending in cruel hooks, like fishhooks, made from the ribs of some large animal." These represent Mimmunka's claws. The Pamigaka have "short-handled tools with heavy, curved blades." These represent the Pamigaka's tusks.
</div>
<div> </div>
<div>On the meaning of Cutthroat's name:</div>
<div>> Okay, but the name was given to him *after* he departed the Sleigh *by* the</div>
<div>> wolfmen. They knew nothing of his past. [...]</div>
<div>> You earlier</div>
<div>> suggested that the "birthmark" was an analogue of Buck's forced submission</div>
<div>> by a rope around the neck. You also suggest the name Cutthroat is a</div>
<div>> reference to a hypothetical, past analogue of Buck's well-earned reputation</div>
<div>> as a man killer. And, yes, a symbol can represent more than one thing. The</div>
<div>> problem for me is, it is Cutthroat who is carrying the mark that should be</div>
<div>> on his victim(s). [...]</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Maybe I should be clearer about at what level I'm looking at the story when I make these claims. There's more than one symbol here, and more than one meaning for each. Ultimately, it's Wolfe who gave Cutthroat his name, and I'm looking for what *he* might have meant by it. Also, I'm keeping the "birthmark" and the nickname somewhat separate as symbols. And I still like Borski's "mark of Cain" interpretation." So I think Cutthroat's "birthmark" represents his exile via the Cain story and his loss of freedom via CotW. The name "Cutthroat" means "killer," so I think Wolfe is saying that this guy is a killer in some sense.
</div>
<div> </div>
<div>On the divinity of "you" in the story:</div>
<div>> He may not have regained it all, but he did remember who "you" was, and it</div>
<div>> was not the winged man, who was "with you".</div>
<div> </div>
<div>I don't read it this way. I think the "you" at the end of the story is plural, or collective. He sees some strange thing coming from the east, speculates that it's another sledge, but no, it couldn't be on this melting snow, and it's too large, so maybe the warmth revived Roller, but no it's even bigger than that, "As big as a hill, and there are *people standing on it*." (Emphasis mine.) Then he recognizes them for what they are: the Great Sleighers. And then he sees something strange: "Who is that tall man with you [
i.e., with y'all people standing on the Sleigh]?" So it's not necessary to assume that Cutthroat has remembered anything at all.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Matt G.</div>