Ice and Fire animal project: Wolves

[butterbumps!]

Thanks guys!

One thing I meant to point out and didn't is that Jon's wolf dream in DwD I tells us why Ghost was separated from the others: "Once they had been six, five whimpering blind in the snow beside their dead mother, sucking cool milk from her hard dead nipples whilst he crawled off alone." So, Ghost wasn't rejected by his litter mates; he crawled off on his own.

I think it's a somewhat significant revelation, as Jon frequently equivocates between feeling as though he came to the NW as an outcast and feeling like the choice was his. It's also worth noting that by Ghost's having wandered off, it enabled all of the wolves lives to be saved, as if knowing that removing himself from the pack was the only way to save the pack.

Lykos-- I hadn't realized the garnet- pomegranate connection, but it makes sense.

Mladen- I have a slightly different take on the Fist's history, but it's based on my pet crackpot that the Others are corrupted men. Ringforts aren't really "forts," that is, they're circular enclosures to delimit cities/ dwelling circles inside. Jon thinks of the Ringfort as a historical battle ground, and there may well have been battles fought there, but a ringfort itself is a seat of political power. The wall itself was a passive defense system to hinder easy theft of livestock and the like from the outside. My guess is that the Fist was some sort of a city with a king in the past (non crackpot portion) and that at some point, Others were created from men via sacrifice within (crackpot portion). I don't know that I think this is the "origin" of Others, but I think some serious ice magic/ sacrifice happened there.

[Mladen]

Mladen- I have a slightly different take on the Fist's history, but it's based on my pet crackpot that the Others are corrupted men. Ringforts aren't really "forts," that is, they're circular enclosures to delimit cities/ dwelling circles inside. Jon thinks of the Ringfort as a historical battle ground, and there may well have been battles fought there, but a ringfort itself is a seat of political power. The wall itself was a passive defense system to hinder easy theft of livestock and the like from the outside. My guess is that the Fist was some sort of a city with a king in the past (non crackpot portion) and that at some point, Others were created from men via sacrifice within (crackpot portion). I don't know that I think this is the "origin" of Others, but I think some serious ice magic/ sacrifice happened there.

Something like Orcs and Elves in Tolkien`s mythology, where Orcs originates from Elves tortured with black magic? So, GHost would have sensed dark magic that happened there, and didn`t like it? Interesting... That would also explain that Ghost serves as neither ice nor fire in Jon. He is afraid of ice magic, but also loses himself in fire magic.

[The Sleeper]

I am not that sure that Ghost's refusal to climb the Fist was about fear of the place itself. For one thing he is not particularly afraid of wights. When left on his own he led Jon to the cache of dragonglass and that horn buried at the foot of the hill. In other words, he had more important business.

Another interpretation was that he was trying to hint what would happen in the place. After the massacre is done Ghost climbs the Fist on his own just when Rattleshirt was threatening Jon.

[butterbumps!]

Something like Orcs and Elves in Tolkien`s mythology, where Orcs originates from Elves tortured with black magic? So, GHost would have sensed dark magic that happened there, and didn`t like it? Interesting... That would also explain that Ghost serves as neither ice nor fire in Jon. He is afraid of ice magic, but also loses himself in fire magic.

I wasn't thinking the Orc connection exactly, but I see what you mean.

I am not that sure that Ghost's refusal to climb the Fist was about fear of the place itself. For one thing he is not particularly afraid of wights. When left on his own he led Jon to the cache of dragonglass and that horn buried at the foot of the hill. In other words, he had more important business.

Another interpretation was that he was trying to hint what would happen in the place. After the massacre is done Ghost climbs the Fist on his own just when Rattleshirt was threatening Jon.

Yea, and that's what I'd been pointing out as really curious. Ghost isn't afraid of wights where other animals are. Yet Ghost freaks out, but other animals go into the ringfort easily enough. It's more than pressing business from the passage, it seems. Ghost is strangely freaked out: "“But when they reached the ringfort, Ghost balked again. He padded forward warily to sniff at the gap in the stones, and then retreated, as if he did not like what he’d smelled. Jon tried to grab him by the scruff of his neck and haul him bodily inside the ring, no easy task; the wolf weighed as much as he did, and was stronger by far. “Ghost, what’s wrong with you?” It was not like him to be so unsettled. In the end Jon had to give it up.”

Ghost is willing to go up into the ringfort on important business twice, but the place clearly unsettles him.

[Mladen]

I wasn't thinking the Orc connection exactly, but I see what you mean.

I was thinking in that direction, not precisely the same situation...

Yea, and that's what I'd been pointing out as really curious. Ghost isn't afraid of wights where other animals are. Yet Ghost freaks out, but other animals go into the ringfort easily enough.

How about this? Wights can be sensed by all animals, because they are product of some sort of magic. It`s corporeal, and most animals can see it. Ghost as direwolf, braver than others, can`t be intimidated by them, while other animals can. But the Fist is perhaps origin of that magic, place of powerful force, deeply rooted in history and mythology, and animals can`t sense it, but Ghost can, and that`s why he is so dearful. Maybe the thing is that Ghost can indeed sense the origin of Others and some dark ice magic, and that`s what frightens him.

[The Sleeper]

Ghost is willing to go up into the ringfort on important business twice, but the place clearly unsettles him.

It unsettles him the first time. Since he is off camera the second time we don't really know.

[butterbumps!]

It unsettles him the first time. Since he is off camera the second time we don't really know.

It unsettles him the first 4 times, actually. Note is taken that Ghost won't climb 3 times. When Jon goes to find him, Ghost is willing to come to Jon, but the ascent and arrival at the ring wall drives the wolf crazy and he goes off. We don't see his reaction the two times he makes it in (and on the occasion of leading Jon to the dragonglass, he leaves rather hastily).

[The Sleeper]

It unsettles him the first 4 times, actually. Note is taken that Ghost won't climb 3 times. When Jon goes to find him, Ghost is willing to come to Jon, but the ascent and arrival at the ring wall drives the wolf crazy and he goes off. We don't see his reaction the two times he makes it in (and on the occasion of leading Jon to the dragonglass, he leaves rather hastily).

That would still fit with his fear being due to the masscre that was going to happen at the Fist. What I had in mind as second time is when Mance summons Jon to the Fist to survey the carnage. The scene ends with Ghost appearing over the wall. We have no way of knowing of Ghost was still afraid.

[butterbumps!]

That would still fit with his fear being due to the masscre that was going to happen at the Fist. What I had in mind as second time is when Mance summons Jon to the Fist to survey the carnage. The scene ends with Ghost appearing over the wall. We have no way of knowing of Ghost was still afraid.

That could be, but he was definitely fearful of something. Mladen had already presented the possibility that it was due to his sensing the impending massacre, which is why I gave an alternative theory regarding the history of the Fist.

One reason I'm not sure if the fear was due to his sensing the impending massacre alone is the fact that he was so willing to leave Jon in this scenario. Normally, when Ghost and the other wolves sense a threat to their doubles, the wolves freak out when they're separated from that double. In this case, Ghost separates himself from Jon, and doesn't try to pull Jon away from the danger until the 5th time.

I think it's perfectly reasonable that Ghost was on a mission to find the dragonglass and wouldn't come into the fort because he needed to find it first. The problem I have with that is the fact that Ghost was willing to come to Jon presumably to stay with him when Jon had left the Fist to find him, and only flipped out once inside the ringfort, clearly frightened.

[The Sleeper]

That could be, but he was definitely fearful of something. Mladen had already presented the possibility that it was due to his sensing the impending massacre, which is why I gave an alternative theory regarding the history of the Fist.

One reason I'm not sure if the fear was due to his sensing the impending massacre alone is the fact that he was so willing to leave Jon in this scenario. Normally, when Ghost and the other wolves sense a threat to their doubles, the wolves freak out when they're separated from that double. In this case, Ghost separates himself from Jon, and doesn't try to pull Jon away from the danger until the 5th time.

I think it's perfectly reasonable that Ghost was on a mission to find the dragonglass and wouldn't come into the fort because he needed to find it first. The problem I have with that is the fact that Ghost was willing to come to Jon presumably to stay with him when Jon had left the Fist to find him, and only flipped out once inside the ringfort, clearly frightened.

The sequence of events goes like this: Jon tries to drag Ghost to the Fist a couple of times, before he gives up, alllowing Ghost to go off presumably to hunt. Later than night Ghost returns to Jon on top of the Fist and leads him to the cache. Next chapter Jon meets with Qhorin Halfhand, after they had spent an amount of time fortifying the Fist. Ghost is mentioned to be off hunting, as it is night and is expected back by dawn. My assumption is that Ghost's comings and goings from the Fist did not present further problems.

On the other hand there is a sense of trepidation in that chapter shared by Jon and the ravens. Mormont's raven in particular keeps screaming "Dead. dead".

[Winterfellian]

Lovely and insightful look at the Ghost-Jon dynamic butterbumps! I particularly like your take of Ghost acting/channeling Jon’s consciousness and the contrast between Jon and Rickon’s direwolves.

About Ghost's Coloring…

I think butterbumps’ assertion that Ghost’s coloring is a nod to the connection to Bloodraven is spot on. However, unlike her, I actually do subscribe to the idea of Ghost preserving Jon’s soul after the events in ADWD; but I don’t think this is necessarily foreshadowed only in the name Ghost, but rather in the description of the wolf itself, mainly – the blood and bone line.

Blood has been considered for many millennia as chamber of the human soul. I read somewhere that in Egypt it was believed that blood was the vehicle of consciousness, and as butterbumps! points out, unlike any of the other direwolves, Ghost acts as Jon’s own conscience on more than one occasion.

On the other hand, bones are associated with mortality and transition. They are our last vestige and a symbol for that which is relatively permanent since it is what remains when the rest is turn to dust. For some Christians the destruction of bones is forbidden, for they believe that without them resurrection is not possible.

In Bran’s last ADWD chapter we find out that:

When the singers died, they went into the wood, into leaf and limb and root, and the trees remembered

The trees become the vestigial bones that remain behind once a singer or a greenseer such as Bloodraven passes on, with the essence of their souls and knowledge flowing through the weirwood net like a bloodstream.

Going back to Ghost, his appearance suggests both a chamber for the soul in the bloodlike color of his eyes (incidentally eyes are often refer to as windows of the soul ;) ) and a singular vestige that remembers that which was lost in the whiteness of his fur.

Just like there are no albino wolves, we haven’t yet seen a person being brought back with their souls intact. Most of what they were is chipped away in the process. So I think Jon’s “unique wolf quality” will play into this- being the first resurrected person (using the term loosely for lack of a better word) who’s soul will still be intact because it would be preserved in the blood and bone looking Ghost. And just like the trees, Ghost, or rather Jon’s consciousness, flowing inside him like a bloodstream, will remember. Just to be clear, I don’t expect him to be exactly the same when he’s back but rather that the essence of his soul, both the good and the bad, will still be there and we will be spare any kind of UnJon figure.

Furthermore, the first time Jon notices Ghost similitude with the weirwoods is at the grove with the nine weirwood trees in AGOT. Why never before? There was a weirwood at WF too and Jon and Ghost seem to be together a lot. I believe the reason is because that grove is going to play a part in Jon’s resurrection or awakening. After all, like Jon himself notes Ghost and by default himself belongs to the Old Gods.The first time Jon notices this resemblance he only notes the similitude with the trees and is disquieted by the thought. However the second time around he adds the blood and bone description and takes, not only comfort, but also a reaffirmation of his identity from this.

[Sigurður Ingi]

Thank you Mladen for open this great forum and one thing I have been wondering is that connecting gods and others I think the others are descendants of children of forest that lost in Long Night and instead of doing the same as other children of the forest did they went north hoping that they would take lands of ancestors back similar maybe to Blackfyres.

but that is not my reason for posting is because since I come from country in Scandinavia where we learn from the young age about Nordic myth like Fenrir wolf which was so big that even the Nordic gods feared him and had to chain him so he would not kill them.

Another thing about him is that he is son of Loki common known as enemy in Nordic myth but is interesting that it was foretold that Fenrir would kill Odin high god of Nordic myth in Ragnarok. (the end of world)

I have been wondering about one thing that you said that wolfs and humans are enemies so what is your taken on dogs who are considered human's best friends and loyal servants but what I find Ironic is that heir of Bolton is using dogs who are sometimes considered tamed wolf.

And Again I find this forum great.

[Mladen]

Thank you Mladen for open this great forum and one thing I have been wondering is that connecting gods and others I think the others are descendants of children of forest that lost in Long Night and instead of doing the same as other children of the forest did they went north hoping that they would take lands of ancestors back similar maybe to Blackfyres.

but that is not my reason for posting is because since I come from country in Scandinavia where we learn from the young age about Nordic myth like Fenrir wolf which was so big that even the Nordic gods feared him and had to chain him so he would not kill them.

Another thing about him is that he is son of Loki common known as enemy in Nordic myth but is interesting that it was foretold that Fenrir would kill Odin high god of Nordic myth in Ragnarok. (the end of world)

I have been wondering about one thing that you said that wolfs and humans are enemies so what is your taken on dogs who are considered human's best friends and loyal servants but what I find Ironic is that heir of Bolton is using dogs who are sometimes considered tamed wolf.

And Again I find this forum great.

Thank you for the kind words. I truly believe that all contributors are happy to hear we are all doing great job. After all, alone I couldn`t be able to do all of this.

As for dogs, in Bolton case it`s just an animal deprived of any symbolical or mythological conotation. What`s far more more interesting is that there is a person, and even entire House that is strictly connected to dogs. I am speaking of House Clegane and Hound of course. So, while Ramsay`s beaches is just that, the true symbolism of dogs can be found in Clegane brothers. And that`s something we`ll deal with when the time comes in adjacent Ice and fire animal project.

snip

Winterfellian, my dear, as always you give us so much to think about... I can only :bowdown: to this post. I have to think about this before having anything intelligent to reply.

[The Black Hawk]

Alright I have to admit I have never read your topics before I read this one first and thought this fucking awesome. I like how you didn't put all one long post and how you broke it down and made more readable then what I learn from a godamn science book. I also love how incorporate myths to and not only put the science into I am very impressed I should I started reading these sooner.

[Sigurður Ingi]

Thank you for the kind words. I truly believe that all contributors are happy to hear we are all doing great job. After all, alone I couldn`t be able to do all of this.

As for dogs, in Bolton case it`s just an animal deprived of any symbolical or mythological conotation. What`s far more more interesting is that there is a person, and even entire House that is strictly connected to dogs. I am speaking of House Clegane and Hound of course. So, while Ramsay`s beaches is just that, the true symbolism of dogs can be found in Clegane brothers. And that`s something we`ll deal with when the time comes in adjacent Ice and fire animal project.

Winterfellian, my dear, as always you give us so much to think about... I can only :bowdown: to this post. I have to think about this before having anything intelligent to reply.

I always thought of Clegane history of becoming lords interesting since it is said that Kettle master saved I think father of Tywin Lannister with his dogs from Lion which I find interesting since Lion is symbol of Lannisters that Clegane grandfather / father saved Tywin Lannister's father from Lion is very ironic.

[ARYa_Nym]

Thank you Mladen for open this great forum and one thing I have been wondering is that connecting gods and others I think the others are descendants of children of forest that lost in Long Night and instead of doing the same as other children of the forest did they went north hoping that they would take lands of ancestors back similar maybe to Blackfyres.

but that is not my reason for posting is because since I come from country in Scandinavia where we learn from the young age about Nordic myth like Fenrir wolf which was so big that even the Nordic gods feared him and had to chain him so he would not kill them.

Another thing about him is that he is son of Loki common known as enemy in Nordic myth but is interesting that it was foretold that Fenrir would kill Odin high god of Nordic myth in Ragnarok. (the end of world)

I have been wondering about one thing that you said that wolfs and humans are enemies so what is your taken on dogs who are considered human's best friends and loyal servants but what I find Ironic is that heir of Bolton is using dogs who are sometimes considered tamed wolf.

And Again I find this forum great.

Yes, Sandor and Arya argue about what dogs do to wolves and vice versa. I was going to mention this later. Jon also says dogs and wolves are not the same kind. They do not belong to one another.

Arya's "husband" Ramsay has dogs who hunts wolves and more than once in Arya's wolf dreams Nymeria has killed dogs. & another time:

“I heard how this hellbitch walked into a village one day…a market day, people everywhere, and she walks in bold as you please and tears a baby from his mother’s arms…They tracked her to her lair with a pack of wolfhounds, and barely escaped with their skins. Not one of those dogs came back, not one.”

Arya's secondary identification is with the cat who generally hate dogs unless they were raised together. I know she will meet Dany so hopefully Dany stops referring to Ned as a dog before that.

[ARYa_Nym]

This is a lot of info so I'll split it up in to parts.

Part 1

Arya Stark: The Night Wolf

Wolves are known as fierce predators. They are also wild animals. Wolves are hunters and have become the hunted so much so that they are near extinction. In some folktales they often use disguises or pretend to be something they are not to deceive their victims before they kill them. These are all present in Arya’s arc.

The obvious attribute of the wolf is its nature of a predator, and correspondingly it is strongly associated with danger, destruction, making it the symbol of the warrior on one hand, and that of the devil on the other.

The images conveyed in wolf folktales vary: in many they are depicted as ruthless and fierce; in others they have an image of nobility and loyalty. In Norse Mythology, the Fenrir was a symbol of chaos who eventually swallows Odin whole. However, the wolf was also associated with warriors, and Odin had two wolves as loyal companions.

Wolves in mythology are often portrayed as cunning, malicious harbingers of destruction and death.

^At some point in the story all of these attributes can apply to Arya. Arya will become ruthless. She was always described as a fierce little girl. She was naturally loyal. In terms of nobility she is a Stark and the name Arya: "Aryan" /ˈɛərɪən/ is an English language loanword derived from the Sanskrit ārya ('noble').^[1][2][3]

Arya has had moments where she was cunning when she made Jaqen help her while at Harrenhal and when she tricked the guard in order to escape Harrenhal.

Quoting from Leviticus and Deuteronomy, the Malleus Maleficarum states that wolves are either agents of God sent to punish sinners, or agents of the Devil sent with God's blessing to harass true believers to test their faith.^[12]

The FM see themselves as agents meant to do the MFG’s will.

“Death is not the worst thing,” the kindly man replied. “It is His gift to us, an end to want and pain. On the day that we are born the Many-Faced God sends each of us a dark angel to walk through life beside us. When our sins and our sufferings grow too great to be borne, the angel takes us by the hand to lead us to the nightlands, where the stars burn ever bright. Those who come to drink from the black cup are looking for their angels.”

As for the devil Arya was called an evil child by Jaqen when she named him and even at WF she was described as being wicked.

Nymeria and her pack were described as monstrous, terrible, demonic, and hellish:

“I have been spared that, Seven save me, but I have heard them in the night, and more than once. So many voices . . . a sound to curdle a man’s blood. It even set Dog to shivering, and Dog has killed a dozen wolves.” He ruffled the dog’s head. “Some will tell you that they are demons. They say the pack is led by a monstrous she-wolf, a stalking shadow grim and grey and huge. They will tell you that she has been known to bring aurochs down all by herself, that no trap nor snare can hold her, that she fears neither steel nor fire, slays any wolf that tries to mount her, and devours no other flesh but man.”

“She says there’s this great pack, hundreds of them, mankillers, The one that leads them is a she-wolf, a bitch from the seventh hell.” A she-wolf. Arya sloshed her beer, wondering. Was the Gods Eye near the Trident? She wished she had a map. It had been near the Trident that she’d left Nymeria..."

“I heard how this hellbitch walked into a village one day…a market day, people everywhere, and she walks in bold as you please and tears a baby from his mother’s arms…They tracked her to her lair with a pack of wolfhounds, and barely escaped with their skins. Not one of those dogs came back, not one.”

"It's said that direwolves once roamed the north in great packs of hundred or more, and feared neither man nor mammoth, but that was long ago and in another land. It is queer to see the common wolves of the south so bold. "Terrible times breed terrible things, my lord." Bolton showed his teeth in something that might have been a smile.”

Shaggydog has been described as a demon as well btw.

“…Shaggydog had come slavering out of the darkness like a green-eyed demon. The wolf was near as wild as Rickon;”

Rickon would be the other Stark child who is wild like Arya.

“His baby brother had been wild as a winter since he learned Robb was riding off to war…even punched Old Nan when she tried to sing him to sleep…”

Nymeria has another underworld connection.

“She had yellow eyes. When they caught the sunlight, they gleamed like two golden coins.”

In Greek mythology, Charon, the ferryman, wore wolf ears. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, the goddess Ishtar had the power to turn enemies into wolves. Hecate, the goddess of Death, was shown as wearing three wolf heads.

The ferryman Charon is believed to have transported the souls of the newly dead across this river into the underworld, though in the original Greek and Roman sources, as well as in Dante, it was the river Acheron that Charon plied. Dante put Phlegyas over the Styx and made it the fifth circle of Hell, where the wrathful and sullen are punished by being drowned in the muddy waters for eternity, with the wrathful fighting each other.

In ancient times some believed that placing a coin in the mouth^[2] of the deceased would help pay the toll for the ferry to help cross the Styx river which would lead one to the entrance of the underworld. If some could not pay the fee it was said that they would never be able to cross the river.

In the series wolves were compared to silent sisters who care for the dead.

“The wolves were grey, and so were the silent sisters; together they stripped the flesh from the fallen.”

Arya is a keeper of the dead in the House of Black and White. She spends more time with the dead than with the living and washes and strips the dead.

As for wolves being associated with being a harbinger of death this topic has been discussed in relation to Arya in the Arya’s relationship with death thread.

The Ghost of High Heart sees Arya as someone who will bring death.

Warrior-"The Warrior was Renly and Stannis, Rob and Robert, Jaime Lannister and Jon Snow. She even glimpsed Arya in those lines, just for an instant."

Warriors have strength in battle. They fight and protect. Wolves have typically been associated with warriors.

From the Dunk and Egg novels:

“The Warrior had the most candles burning, as might be expected during a tourney; many a knight would have come here to pray for strength and courage before they chanced the lists.”

"The Warrior hates cravens." Arya said that she could never love a coward when she named a horse Craven.

Roose Bolton also said that it was strange to see wolves so bold. It’s Nymeria’s presence that gives her pack courage.

Inanna is the goddess of love - but not marriage. She is connected with extramarital sex and sensual affairs, prowling streets and taverns for sexual adventure.^[14] In the Babylonian epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh points out Inanna's infamous ill-treatment of her lovers. Inanna also has a very complicated relationship with her lover, Dumuzi, in "Inanna's Descent to the Underworld" (c.f. "Inanna's Descent to the Underworld").^[15]

She also is one of the Sumerian war deities: "She stirs confusion and chaos against those who are disobedient to her, speeding carnage and inciting the devastating flood, clothed in terrifying radiance. It is her game to speed conflict and battle, untiring, strapping on her sandals."^[16] Battle itself is sometimes referred to as "the dance of Inanna."

In the death thread I posted an analysis to compare Arya to the Sumerian goddess who has an association with war. Arya doesn’t compare to Inanna completely but the goddess is like a culmination of various Greeks goddesses only she is their predecessor so Arya would have lots of differences as well as similarities.

"I don’t know as much about the traditional myths of Koschei and Yelena, or Koschei and Marya, but what this made me think of was Inanna, the Sumerian goddess, descending to the depths, shedding layers as she goes – first clothes, then skin, then self. Marya’s initial trip in Deathless echoes this more subtly, but the shedding – and subsequent rediscovering – of self continues throughout the novel. There are rituals, going in and coming out, repetitions and reiterations as there must be in myth, but it still remains the story of a woman giving all for — what? With Inanna, we never get to know....

When Koschei entices Marya away from her home in unglamorous then-Petrograd, he requires her silence and obedience as he both cossets and chastises her. He gives her everything, showers her with gifts, and she starts to become half-demon herself, but she must also learn not to drown in it, to assert herself in turn, to grow from the lessons he and his country teach her."

http://incurablebluestocking.wordpress.com/2012/10/28/deathless-by-catherynne-m-valente/

This reminds me of Arya's arc especially the KM telling her the price is all of you and the identity crisis.

Innana loses power in her descent into the underworld. Arya is gaining power from the darkness.

-Death and Destruction- Germanic literature used special conventions to depict a standard scene such as the death and destruction of a battlefield. Once of these conventions was the use of the Beasts of Battle theme¹, mentioning ravens, eagles and wolves in order to suggest the impending carnage of the battle². These animals were well-known to the Germanic peoples as scavengers of the battle-field, and were associated in pagan times with the God of Battle and Lord of the Slain, Óðinn or Wotan³.

The last and perhaps most fearsome of the Beasts of Battle was the wolf, also a carrion-eater. The wolf familiars of Óðinn were named Freki and Geri, Ravener and Greed.²⁸ The Scandinavians called wolves hrægifr, "corpse-trolls," and gave the wolf "a central position in Old Norse mythology and poetry, always with negative connotations."²⁹ The wolf was the very embodiment of slaughter and murder, for "whoever lost in the fight, the wolf was always the winner."³⁰

In pagan belief, the end of the world was to be a vargold, a "wolf-age," a time of "a world dominated by all kinds of evil forces,"³¹ when "brothers will battle to the bloody end, and sister's son their sib betray . . . ere the world crumbles."³² In the end, the sun and moon would be devoured by supernatural wolves, and Tyr, God of Law and War, with Óðinn, chief of all the gods, would likewise be consumed by the greatest and most fearsome wolves, Garmr and his sire Fenrir.³³

<a href="http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/beasts.shtml">http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/beasts.shtml

To the Vikings the wolf symbolized slaughter and murder.

"I see you," she whispered. "I see you, wolf child. Blood child. I thought it was the lord who smelled of death . . .

The Ghost of High Heart to Arya

[ARYa_Nym]

Part 2

In the Arya’s relationship with death thread and the water motif thread Arya’s links to death and destruction have been discussed.

“That night she lay in her narrow bed upon the scratchy straw, listening to the voices of the living and the dead whisper and argue as she waited for the moon to rise. They were the only voices she trusted anymore. She could hear the sound of her own breath, and the wolves as well, a great pack of them now. They are closer than the ones I heard in the godswood, she thought. They are calling to me.”

Water in particular can be a force of life but it can also be a force of destruction.

The KM mentioned oppositional forces to Arya once:

“Women bring life into the world. We bring the gift of death. No one can do both.”

It is from this background that such descriptions as ulfhuguð, "with a wolf's mind, cruel," and ylfskyr, "wolfish, dangerous" were derived.³⁴ The image of the wolf was also considered fitting to describe a dangerous man,³⁵ and thus was associated with outlaws and berserkers (see the Viking Answer Lady article on Berserkergang). The felafæcne deor ("very treacherous beast") of the Old English poem Maxims I was a companion to outlaws, and the Norse law codes describe felons as vargar, "wolves," and their sons as vargsdropi, "wolf's-get."³⁷ As Crossley-Holland states, "no other monster so embodied destruction."³⁸

<a href="http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/beasts.shtml">http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/beasts.shtml

They were associated with outlaws and beserkers. The first time Arya openly reclaimed being a Stark she was a captive with the outlaws the BWB. For a brief moment Arya also considered being an outlaw with them but she decides against it because they weren’t pack.

Berserker is usually a word that has come up concerning Jon from time to time showing anger and extraordinary strength like when he attacked Ser Alliser Thorne.

Berserkers (or berserks) were Norse warriors who are reported in the Old Norse literature to have fought in a nearly uncontrollable, trance-like fury, a characteristic which later gave rise to the English word berserk. Berserkers are attested to in numerous Old Norse sources. Most historians believe that berserkers worked themselves into a rage before battle, but some think that they might have consumed drugged foods.

The Úlfhéðnar (singular Úlfheðinn), another term associated with berserkers, mentioned in the Vatnsdœla saga, Haraldskvæði and the Völsunga saga, were said to wear the pelt of a wolf when they entered battle.^[1] Úlfhéðnar are sometimes described as Odin's special warriors: "[Odin’s] men went without their mailcoats and were mad as hounds or wolves, bit their shields…they slew men, but neither fire nor iron had effect upon them. This is called 'going berserk.^[2]'" They are depicted wearing, with the pelt from a wolf and a spear as distinguishing features.[2] In addition, the helm-plate press from Torslunda depicts (below) a scene of Odin with a berserker—"a wolf skinned warrior with the apparently one-eyed dancer in the bird-horned helm, which is generally interpreted as showing a scene indicative of a relationship between berserkgang… and the god Odin^[3]" with the pelt from a wolf and a spear as distinguishing features.^[4]

To "go berserk" was to “hamask” which translates as “change form," in this case, a with the sense "enter a state of wild fury" and one who could transform as a berserker was typically thought of as “hamrammr” or “shapestrong.^[7]” )

Berserkers were wolf skinned warriors who would go into a state of wild fury on their victims. When Arya killed the Tickler it can be said that she went berserk although she doesn’t have superhuman strength.

The Tickler by the way made her feel as if she were a lamb so one of the hunted.

“The direwolf was the sigil of the Starks, but Arya felt more a lamb, surrounded by a herd of other sheep. She hated the villagers for their sheepishness, almost as much as she hated herself.”

Arya hates any perceived weakness. She hates the position of the prey and the hunted. She switched roles when she killed the Tickler. He became the slaughtered lamb and she was the wolf.

Before she killed the Tickler she was terrified. That fear turned into fury. When the Tickler noticed her he gave her a look that said soon, I will slaughter you little lamb but he did not expect Arya to turn into a wolf. It was a kill or be killed situation.

Arya classified her time as a sheep as something that she wasn’t truly. She really was a wolf. While in Harrenhal she was pretending to be someone she is not. She was a lamb ready for slaughter but later became the wolf. In ADWD, Nymeria does kill a shepherd and his flock. Arya thought the fear in the man’s eyes was beautiful.

Although Aesop used wolves to warn, criticize and moralize about human behaviour, his portrayals added to the wolf's image as a deceitful and dangerous animal.^[245] This is mirrored in the Bible, where wolves are referenced thirteen times as symbols of greed and destructiveness.^[246] Much of the symbolism Jesus used in the New Testament revolved around the pastoral culture of Israel, and explained his relationship with his followers as analogous to that of a good shepherd protecting his flock from wolves. An innovation in the popular image of wolves started by Jesus includes the concept of the wolf in sheep's clothing, which warns people against false prophets.^[247]

Dante included a she-wolf, representing greed and fraud, in the first canto of the Inferno.

The Wolf and the Lamb—The presence of the wolf in the Bible and the effect this symbolism has had on the animal. The wolf, in Christianity was seen to be the Devil. This was because it slaughtered the holy lamb unmercifully.

The wolf was seen as the devil and showed the lamb no mercy. Arya has been perceived as to not be very merciful towards her victims and in some other situations.

“Kill them all, she thought fiercely. She bit her lip so hard she tasted blood. Kill every single one. “

"A spasm of pain twisted his face. "Do you mean to make me beg, bitch? Do it! The gift of mercy...avenge your little Michael..." "Mycah." Arya stepped away from him. "You don't deserve mercy."

Sandor says a real wolf would finish him but a wolf is not seen as merciful. Killing him at that moment would have been mercy.

"The Hound watched her saddle Craven through eyes bright with fever. Not once did he attempted to rise and stop her. But when she mounted, he said, "A real wolf would finish a wounded animal." Maybe some real wolves will find you, Arya thought. Maybe they'll smell you when the sun goes down. Then he would learn what wolves did to dogs. "You shouldn't have hit me with an axe," she said. "You should have saved my mother." She turned her horse and rode away from him, and never looked back once."

As for finishing a wounded animal Sandor is right in the sense that wolves typically prey on the weak.

The wolf is an opportunistic hunter and will seek to catch the easiest and most vulnerable animal; it naturally seeks out the sick, the weak, the genetically inferior, the old and the young.

Within her pack some of the people Nymeria preys on are weak as she also preys on innocents.

Wolf vs. Dog- Arya and the Hound often argued over what wolves do to dogs and what dogs do to wolves.

When Nymeria was rumored to have killed a baby wolfhounds were sent after her and all of the dogs were killed. Arya’s “husband” Ramsay has dogs who are trained to fight wolves.

Wolves kill dogs on occasion, with some wolf populations relying on dogs as an important food source.^[262] Wolves generally outmatch dogs, even large ones, in physical confrontations, because of their larger heads and teeth and stronger bites.^[269][270] Also, the fighting styles of wolves and dogs differ significantly: while dogs typically limit themselves to attacking the head, neck and shoulder, wolves make greater use of body blocks, and attack the extremities of their opponents.^[271]

“But if her nights were full of wolves, her days belonged to the dog. Sandor Clegane made her get up every morning, whether she wanted to or not. He would curse at her in his raspy voice, or yank her to her feet and shake her.”

“She was no one’s daughter now. She was no one…She was only some girl who ran with a dog by day, and dreamed of wolves by night.”

In ASoS Jon remarked that there is a difference between the two.

“They’re dogs and he’s a wolf,” said Jon. “They know he’s not their kind.” No more than I am yours.”

As adults, wolves have been shown, most of the time, to be largely unpredictable, and will sometimes display aggressive behaviour toward small animals and children. Pure wolves can never be fully trusted with children because, unlike dogs, they lack any alteration of their predatory behavior. These behaviors are genetically encoded and thus cannot be eliminated by socialization or training. At best, these inherent behaviours can only be suppressed.^[5] Wolves have a strong incentive to rise up the pack hierarchy, as only the dominant pair may breed, thus they will instinctively challenge their owner for pack status after reaching adult age.^[1] In the wild, wolves usually disperse from their pack upon reaching adulthood, but as this is mostly impossible in captivity, conflict avoidance behaviour is not an option. In such scenarios, it is not unusual for wolves to attack their owners or pen mates.^[1]

Due to their talent at observational learning, adult captive wolves can quickly work out how to escape confinement,^[3] and need constant reminding that they are not the leader of their owner/caretaker, which makes raising wolves difficult for people who raise their pets in an even, rather than subordinate, environment.

Wolves are unpredictable and aggressive in comparison to dogs. This applies to Arya. Wolves are unable to change their predatory behavior unlike dogs.

Dogs are generally obedient. A wolf would rather be free. There is a tale from Aesop’s fables called the Wolf and the Dog which shows this well. This can relate to Arya’s life. Even at Winterfell Arya had to try to fight to be free. A “normal” life is if she marries like she was supposed to.

Her parents and septa had a hard time getting her to assume her role. I’ve always felt that positive reinforcement would have worked better than what they were doing but that is a more modern approach.

Wolves are most responsive toward positive conditioning and rewards,^[10] though simple praise is not sufficient as in most dogs.^[11]

Even with the FM Arya rejects offers of marriage or a normal life as Cat of the Canals where she could have a family. Nymeria is rumored to have refused to mate and it was noted that she acts like an alpha male and if she wants to keep her power she can’t allow another alpha male.

In researching the behavior of wolves I found that it’s usually only the alpha females who mate and the other females do not.

Though many females in a pack are able to have pups, only a few will actually mate and bear pups. Often, only the alpha female and male will mate, which serves to produce the strongest cubs and helps limit the number of cubs the pack must care for. The other females will help raise and “babysit” the cubs.^a

Because only the alpha pair of a wolf pack usually mates, there is a natural kind of birth control at work. This benefits the entire pack by keeping its numbers limited to a size that can be supported by the available food supply in the territory.

“Arya was a trial, it must be said. Half a boy and half a wolf pup… I despaired of ever making a lady of her.”

" Lady Smallwood fussed at the bodice of the gown. "Now you look a proper young lady." I'm not a lady, Arya wanted to tell her, I'm a wolf.”

If they do mate they will also mate with the alpha male.

Sometimes other pack members besides the alpha pair will mate. Among tundra wolves, subordinate females often become pregnant. In most such cases the alpha male is the father of all the pups.

"Septa Mordane wouldn't even know me, I bet. Sansa might, but she'd pretend not to. "My mother's a lady, and my sister, but I never was.”

Arya says that her mother and sister are ladies but she never was. As said earlier in the thread researchers later found that the power structure amongst wolves isn’t as rigid as once thought and alphas are mainly just the father and mother of the pack.

Arya has continuously rejected this mother/family role. If we were to compare her to wolves if she is not the alpha female/the mother then it’s actually natural that she would not want to mate. In Nymeria’s case it could be because she wants to hold on to her power/dominant position.

[ARYa_Nym]

Part 3

Lone Wolf-As an animal, a lone wolf is a wolf that lives independently rather than with others as a member of a pack.

In the animal kingdom, lone wolves are typically older wolves driven from the pack, perhaps by the breeding male, or young adults in search of new territory. Many young wolves between the ages of 1 and 4 years leave their family to search for a pack of their own (this has the effect of preventing inbreeding), as in typical wolf packs there is only one breeding pair. Some wolves will simply remain lone wolves; as such, these lone wolves may be stronger, more aggressive and far more dangerous than the average wolf that is a member of a pack. However, lone wolves have difficulty hunting, as wolves' favorite prey, large ungulates, are nearly impossible for a single wolf to bring down alone. Instead, lone wolves will generally hunt smaller animals and scavenge carrion. Occasionally, a lone wolf will encounter another lone wolf of the opposite sex, and the two may start a new pack.^[1]

One of the meanings for the name aria is solo but of course her name is actually Arya which has a different meaning as mentioned earlier.

Lone wolves can actually go off and make a pack of their own. It’s interesting to note that they can be driven from the pack. Nymeria had to be forced away from the rest of the Starks by Arya herself. Nymeria then went on to find her own pack.

“Even a blind man could see that wolf would never have left you willingly.” “…I told her to run, to go be free, that I didn’t want her anymore. There were wolves for her to play with, we heard them howling, and Jory said the woods were full of game, so she’d have deer to hunt…I felt so ‘shamed , but it was right, wasn’t it?” “It was right,” her father said. “And even the lie …was not without honor.”

A similar concept is the lone wolf of a particular group, who spends enough time with a group to be considered a member but not enough time to be very close to the other members. Such people tend to not take part in the group activities or "get-togethers".

While in KL Arya felt isolated from her pack. She would also lock herself up in her room.

“If only she could climb like Bran, she thought; she would…run away from this horrible place, away from Sansa and Septa Mordane and Prince Joffrey…She could find Nymeria in the wild woods below the Trident, and together they’d return to Winterfelll, or run to Jon on the Wall. She found herself wishing that Jon was with her now. Then maybe she wouldn’t feel so alone.”

There are two different types of lone wolfs, the imposed loner and the preferred loner. The first type doesn’t wish to be alone, but because he is rejected by society, he is alone. The second type prefers solitude and derives contentment, even pleasure, from it.

I’ve said previously that after Arya felt rejected by Gendry and Hot Pie she started to embrace being alone.

“When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies, but the pack survives. She had no pack, though. They had killed her pack, Ser Ilyn and Ser Meryn and the queen, and when she tried to make a new one all of them ran off, Hot Pie and Gendry and Yoren and Lommy

Greenhands, even Harwin, who had been her father’s man.”

“The old gods are dead, she told herself, with Mother and Father and Robb and Bran and Rickon, all dead. A long time ago, she remembered her father saying that when the cold winds blow the lone wolf dies and the pack survives. He had it all backwards. Arya, the lone wolf, still lived, but the wolves of the pack had been taken and slain and skinned.”

Being with the BWB and the Hound wouldn’t make her feel like a wolf or in a pack because she is a captive. That is not a strong position so in her mind not a position of a wolf.

“…she was his captive. …She had been better off as Squab. No one would take Squab captive, or Nan, or Weasel, or Arry the orphan boy. I was a wolf, she thought, but now I’m just some stupid little lady again.”

While at a weirwood she hears a wolf and then starts to hear her father’s voice speaking to her. Ned was the one who told Arya to value the pack. Ned is reminding her that a wolf is strong. It should be noted that she wants to be as strong as Robb who after Ned died would have been the alpha male.

“…far…off, beyond the godswood and the haunted towers and…Harrenhal, from somewhere out in the world, came the long lonely howl of a wolf. …Then, so faintly, it seemed as if she heard her father’s voice. “When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies, but the pack survives.” “But there is no pack,” she whispered to the weiwood. Bran and Rickon were dead, the Lannisters had Sansa, Jon had gone to the Wall. “I’m not even me now, I’m Nan.” “You are Arya of Winterfell, daughter of the north. You told me you could be strong. You have the wolf blood in you.” “The wolf blood.” Arya remembered now. “I’ll be strong as Robb. I said I would.” …I am direwolf, and done with wooden teeth.”

The lone wolf dies:

The mortality rate among disperser wolves is extremely high. These lone wolves must hunt for prey by themselves - a significant disadvantage to an animal used to searching for food with the assistance of fellow pack members. Another danger is that they may be attacked by a wolf pack upon whose territory they are trespassing.

Arya mentioned finding Nymeria in the wild woods in AGoT. I took this as foreshadowing for a later date.

Many wild wolves die before they reach five years of age. Very few exceed nine years of age. In captivity, wolves can live up to 16 years.

Both Arya and Nymeria are wild. Nymeria and Arya are very much alike in appearance and personality. Ned warned Arya about the negative results the wildness had in the fate of his siblings.

“Arya was still going on, brushing out Nymeria’s tangles…The wolf wriggled in her grasp and Arya scolded her. “Stop that, I have to do the other side, you’re all muddy.”

Queen Nymeria/Nymeria/Arya were all hunted and had to flee with the former by the Valyrians and the latter two by the Lannisters.

I had mentioned that Queen Nymeria gathered her people along the Rhoyne while Nymeria both used the Trident as a base.

Queen Nymeria was from Ny Sar: “This is Ny Sar, where the Mother gathers in her Wild Daughter, Noyne,” said Yandry,”

Of the Starks Arya is the wild daughter and Nymeria is becoming more wild than her siblings.

Unrelated to wildness but to Nymeria and Arya: A wolf will spend approximately one-third of its time on the move.

Queen Nymeria is a story of a journey. It’s about someone who had to be on the move for her very own survival. Arya has been traveling for a good portion of the series and it only temporarily stops while she is in training in Braavos.

Bran called Queen Nymeria a witch queen. Arya is learning how to make potions, uses magic, and will learn some sorcery with the FM.

Wolves were sometimes associated with witchcraft in both northern European and some Native American cultures: in Norse folklore, the völva (witch) Hyndla and the giantess Hyrrokin are both portrayed as using wolves as mounts, while in Navajo culture, wolves were feared as witches in wolf's clothing.^[242]

Getting back on track Arya and Nymeria both later became vicious killers. Through the warg bond they influence one another.

Ned warned Arya against the wildness and the wolf’s blood.

“You have a wildness in you child. “The wolf’s blood,’ my father used to call it. Lyanna had a touch of it, and my brother Brandon had more than a touch. It brought them both to an early grave.” “Lyanna. You remind me of her sometimes. You even look like her.” “She was…beautiful, and willful, and dead before her time.”

“This willfulness of yours, the running off, the angry words, the disobedience…at home, these were only the summer games of a child. Here and now, with winter soon upon us, that is a different matter. It is time to begin growing up.”

Wolf’s blood-The Vikings wore wolf skins and drank wolf blood to take on the wolf’s spirit in battle. They also viewed real wolves as battle companions or hrægifr (corpse trolls).^f

Eastern European and Scandinavian peoples have traditionally painted wolves in mythology as bloodthirsty and demonic. The modern English word "wolf" is said to derive from the ancient Gothic term for "murderer," which is "varg." According to ancient Germanic practice, murderers were often driven from the community and forced to live alone in the wilderness, bereft of all contact with or assistance from their communities. Some scholars believe that this practice may offer a clue to the origins of werewolves in folklore, since these banished murderers were said to have entirely lost their humanity.

The first time Arya kills it’s because a boy recognized her although that kill wouldn’t qualify as murder. “I knows her, oh yes. The wolf girl.” He identifies her as a wolf.

Theon Stark was called the Hungry Wolf for being at a constant of war. He can be an example of a bloodthirsty wolf.

“Are you hungry, child?”

Yes, she thought, but not for food.

Oberyn Martell would say something similar to Tyrion.

[ARYa_Nym]

Part 4

“Her dreams were red and savage…They thought they were hunting her, she knew with all the strange sharp certainty of dreams, but they were wrong. She was hunting them. She was no little girl in the dream; she was a wolf, huge and powerful, and when she emerged from beneath the trees in front of them and barred her teeth in a low rumbling growl, she could smell the rank stench of fear…the other wolves came hurtling from the darkness and the rain, a great pack of them, gaunt and wet and silent. “

“She remembered her own childish disappointment, the first time she laid on eyes on Eddard Stark. She had pictured him as a younger version of his brother Brandon, but that was wrong. Ned was shorter and plainer of face, and so somber. He spoke courteously enough, but beneath the words she sensed a coolness that was all at odds with Brandon, whose mirths had been as wild as his rages. Even when he took her maidenhood, their love had more of duty to it than of passion.”

“Someone’s been down here stealing swords. Brandon’s is gone as well.” “He would hate that…Brandon loved his sword. He loved to hone. I want it sharp enough to shave the hair from a woman’s cunt,’ he used to say. And how he loved to use it. ‘A bloody sword is a beautiful thing,’ he told me once.”

Arya was compared to her uncle by Ned.

"Brandon was different from his brother, wasn’t he? He had blood in his veins instead of cold water. More like me. "

He apparently asked Rhaegar to come out and die. His first response was to kill. That is often Arya’s first response as well. Lyanna’s first response was also violent as well in the case of the squires. She beat them up before she entered the tourney.

It was said that a wolf shows extreme loyalty and may sacrifice itself for the pack. Both Brandon and Arya have forgone personal safety in an effort to save someone from their pack-Catelyn at the Twins, Rickard in KL.

Brandon’s rages were wild so he may have been capable of a Tickler moment himself but we’ll never know.

Loyalty- “Wolves she thought again. Like me. Was this her pack?”

Ever since Ned’s speech to her Arya was very pack oriented.

Throughout a good portion of a good of the books until ADWD she has a desire to get back to her pack and a desire to make a pack of her own until AFFC.

Wolves are generally easier to tame than other wild canids, as they maintain infant attachments to family members and owners much longer, and also form secondary attachments to strangers much more readily.^[7] However, in contrast to dogs, which are usually accepting of strangers throughout their lives, treating them almost as an extension of their pack, wolves become increasingly xenophobic and intolerant of strangers not part of their immediate pack as they age.^[271]

I don’t think she is like Catelyn in the sense that her warmness only extends to her immediate family which is actually wolf like behavior but Arya is aware of the distinction.

“If Sansa was gone too, there were no more Starks but her. Jon was on the Wall a thousand leagues away, but he was a Snow, and these different aunts and uncles the Hound wanted to sell her to, they weren't Starks either. They weren't wolves.”

She stated that Jon and her Tully relatives weren’t wolves like her.

Jon himself has rejected calling himself a wolf in ADWD. Despite this she was closest to Jon.

Her wolf mirrors the close relationship she has with him.

“…his white wolf moved to meet them. Nymeria stalked closer on wary feet. Ghost, already larger than his litter mates, smelled her, gave her ear a careful nip, and settled back down.”

“Nymeria was helping…But when she smelled Ghost, she sat down on her haunches and yelped at them.” Arya glanced behind her, saw Jon, and jumped to her feet. She threw her skinny arms tight around his neck.”

Nymeria and her pack also represent unconditional love to her. At times she questions the love her family members.

AGoT:“The wolf pup loved her, even if no one else did.”

Again, it also mirrors her feelings about Jon.

"Jon will want me, even if no one else does..."

“That was the best part, the dreaming. She dreamed of wolves most every night. A great pack of wolves, with her at the head. She was bigger than any of them, stronger, swifter, faster. She could outrun horses and outfight lions. When she bared her teeth even men would run from her, her belly was never empty long, and her fur kept her warm even when the wind was blowing cold. And her brothers and sisters were with her, many and more of them, fierce and terrible and hers. They would never leave her.”

People leave her or disappoint her. In her mind the wolves don’t. She includes her instructors dying on her or simply leaving as in Jaqen’s case although he offered her to go with him. She definitely was upset by Gendry and Hot Pie leaving her.

“Jaqen was gone, though. He’d left her. Hot Pie left me too, and now Gendry is leaving. Lommy had died, Yoren had died, Syrio Forel had died, even her father had died, and Jaqen had given her a stupid iron penny and vanished.”

One time Arya howled at wolves and it’s possible that she communicated with Nymeria’s pack.

“When the largest of the wolves lifted its head and howled back, the sound made Arya shiver.”

The wolf's powers of memory were described by George Mivart, who reported that a tame wolf was able to recognize its master after a three-year absence.^[128]

The Hunt- I’ve already mentioned that wolves are hunters. Of the Greek and Roman goddesses Arya is most like Diana/Artemis with their Egyptian counterpart being the goddess of cats Bastet.

“Diana's nature was as varied as her many associations. As goddess of forests and hunting, she was considered to be pure and virginal. Yet she could also be arrogant and vengeful. As goddess of the moon, she had a changeable, unpredictable nature. As goddess of the dark world of the dead, she was unforgiving and bloodthirsty.”

From evita:

• Animals sacred to Artemis are horses, dogs, bears, wolves, snakes, fish, swan, vulture, crow, dolphin.
  

• Plants sacred to Artemis include, walnut tree, oak tree.
  

• Artemis’ Powers include transformation, judgment, natural law, instinct, prophecy, healing, …magic, psychic abilities, purification, weather changing, death bringer, hunter of souls, action, temperance,
  

• Places associated with Artemis include lakes, marshes, streams, woodlands, ocean [braavos and the Riverlands].
  

• Objects associated with Artemis are water, moon, lightning, thunder, bow and arrow, javelin, torch, masks and facepaint.
  

There are actually three goddess associated with the moon in Greek mythology. Artemis is the goddess of the crescent moon, Hecate is the goddess of the new moon and the dark side of the moon, and Selene is everything in between.

http://asoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/topic/76013-arya-no-one-and-the-water-motif-in-braavos/page__st__60#entry3754903

Artemis has the power of transformation and is also a goddess of the moon. The wolf is sacred to her. Arya as a FM embodies the moon because she constantly changes her face just like the moon does and becomes no one (faceless) when the moon is black (phaseless). Her symbol is also the bow and arrow.

“I’m going to learn to shoot a bow, Arya thought. She loved swordfighting, but she could see how arrows were good too. “

Berserkers and werewolves are also shape shifters who transform themselves btw. The latter changes at the full moon. Arya, as said becomes a FM at the new moon. Through the FM Arya can wear the faces of the dead.

Both Hecate and Artemis are depicted with a pack that joins them in the hunt. Arya as we know has a pack who hunts except she uses wolves instead of dogs.

A difference to wolves:

“Her nights were lit by distant stars and the shimmer of moonlight on show, but every dawn she woke to darkness. She opened her eyes and stared up blind at that black that shrouded her, her dram already fading. So beautiful. She licked her lips remember. The bleeding of the sheep, the terror in the shepherd’s eyes, the sound the dogs had made as she killed them one by one, the snarling of her pack. Game had become scarcer since the snows began to fall, but last night they feasted. Lamb and dog and mutton and the flesh of man. Some of her little grey cousins were afraid of men, even dead men, but not her. Meat were meat, and men were pray. She was the night wolf. But only when she dreamed.”

Jon/Ghost notes:

“Many a night his sister’s pack gorged on the flesh of sheep and cows and horses, the prey of men, and sometimes even on the flesh of man himself.”

Arya and Nymeria specifically show a difference to wolves in that wolves actually do not typically hunt humans. Looking it up I found that wolves were described as timid around humans.

Most wolves do not see humans as possible prey; this is why wolf attacks on people are very rare. For some reason, however, European wolves seem to display more aggression to humans than their North American counterparts.

Nymeria is the only one of the direwolves that hunts people. She preys on enemies and innocents alike.

The biggest threats to wolves are humans as they are the main cause of them becoming endangered species.

Studies in Canada, Italy and the United States show that from 60-90% of wolf mortality has been through human causes.

http://wolfology1.tripod.com/id16.htmhttp://wolfology1.tripod.com/id16.htm