The dire wolf is not actually a mythical creature but a real one, that lived in north america during the ice age. It was similar to a modern grey wolf except bigger and more heavy-set, adapted to hunting the giant animals that existed at the time. Like the animals it hunted, the dire wolf went extinct at the end of the ice age, around 10,000 years ago.
I don't know if there's any real connection between that prehistoric wolf and the song's subject matter. I do know that the modern newfoundland wolf, a subspecies of the grey wolf, was hunted to extinction in 1911. I doubt that was intended as a parallel though
StolenShadows-
The dire wolf is not actually a mythical creature but a real one, that lived in north america during the ice age. It was similar to a modern grey wolf except bigger and more heavy-set, adapted to hunting the giant animals that existed at the time. Like the animals it hunted, the dire wolf went extinct at the end of the ice age, around 10,000 years ago.
I don't know if there's any real connection between that prehistoric wolf and the song's subject matter. I do know that the modern newfoundland wolf, a subspecies of the grey wolf, was hunted to extinction in 1911. I doubt that was intended as a parallel though