“[Dumézil], apparently referring to the ancient Palatine pomerium (a sacred boundary beyond which the urban auspices, auspicia urbana, could not be taken; […]) notes in addition another liminal and primitive area dedicated to Volcanus:

. . . there was a still more ancient place of worship, and, before the incorporation of the Capitol into the city, this place had been located, if not outside the city limits, at least at them. At the foot of the southeast flank of the Capitol, between the Comitium and the Forum, there was a small open space, called the Volcanal, with an altar open to the sky, the area Volcani. Here the devouring fire mounted guard at one of the extremities of the Forum, and to it were entrusted the duties of mystical cleansing, particularly in connection with the misdeeds of its celestial brother, the fulmen.”
[Woodard – Indo-European Sacred Space; the Dumézil section assumedly from ‘Archaic Roman Religion’]

[…]

We would also, of course, observe the salient situation for the South spacing in two other fashions – first, as applies that ‘Guardian’ typology, at TS VI 2 7 5 we encounter the Salavrka clade. These are, depending upon whether it is the Sālāvṛka (सालावृक) or Śālāvṛka (शालावृक) which is spoken of, the Wolves of the [Ritual[ Enclosure (‘of the Boundary’, indeed!) … or the Temple Wolves, respectively.

This, per my reading for the relevant portion for the Ynglinga Saga, should seem resonant with the ‘Hofgylðir’ [“Temple-Wolf”] encountered within the major recension for the Ynglinga Saga (21) … and should prove additional relevant to our purposes in light of the fact that when the (soon-to-be-warm-for-the-rest-of-his-life) king Olaf (“the tree-feller”) is being sacrificed to Odin (“gáfu hann Óðni”), it is via this stated vector that Olaf is devoured. As Odin is Agni (Agni being Rudra – and note also Agni’s deed with the Raptor (Shyena) Form to bring the Empowering Elixir, relative to Odin’s Eagle-styled cognate feat … inter many alia), and Agni is within a Ritual Flame, you see how this begins to fit together.

We would also observe the similarly Sentinel ‘Temple Wolf’ phenomenon attested for Apollo [c.f. Aelian De Natura Animalium X 26 G; Pausanias X 14]; and, for that matter, the canine-envisaged Agni-Rudra Aspect that is Vastospati – the protector of the ritual enclosure.

It would be interesting, perhaps, to contemplate viz. that ‘Volcanal’ / ‘Volcani’ designation for the Roman correlate, this situation as to the Salavrkas and our Temple Wolf.

Why so?

A rather obscure etymological proposal for the root to ‘Vulcan’ – which links it (perhaps unsurprisingly) to Sanskrit ‘Ulkā’ (उल्का – ‘Torch’ or ‘Meteor’) [per Paul Kretschmer’s ‘Einleitung in die Geschichte der griechischen Sprache’ – “Lat. Volcānus von einem verlorenen *volcā Feur = skr. ulkā́ Feuerbrand.” ] … and from there, to the Proto-Indo-European for ‘Wolf’: *ulkʷ-o- (or, per the reconstruction utilized by V.I. Abaev, *wolkʷos : Abaev presenting an intriguing apparent Alan (i.e. post-Scythian-ish) smith-figure by the name of Wærgon as a suitably obvious exemplar for his illustration [and to this, we would add with further interest the observation by one Torsten Pedersen with relation to the “khrusoworgos”, “gold-smith” [“Ku-Ru-So-Wo-Ko”, per Davies in Colloquium Mycenaeum] occurrent within Linear B]; and with space for the comment of one Lopes Filho as to a potential *wlkwonos for the underpinning to ‘Vulcanus’, effectively rendering Him, as Lopes-Filho put it … “Lord of the She-Wolf”. Or, you know, Vastospati, for reasons I intend to explain at some other time).

Perhaps this assists in explicating that most interesting remark of Aelian elsewhere in the passage aforementioned [X 26] that the Wolf is the ‘Beloved of the Sun’ (Scholfield translation, “λέγουσι δὲ φίλον Ἡλίῳ εἶναι αὐτόν”); it certainly does little harm to the observed (potential) overlap of both those terms for the Wolf and those for Light which one finds within the Ancient Greek and with affixion to Apollo (and also Zeus) in particular – λύκειος (‘Lykeios’ – ‘(of the) Wolf’ / ‘Wolfy’, or ‘Lycian’; Zeus having Λυκαῖος or Λύκαιος / ‘Lykaios’) relative to λευκός (‘Leukos’ – ‘Light’) etc.

(And see Beekes’ … illuminating point viz. Ancient Greek λύγξ (that is – a lynx) with relation to PIE *Leuk- [alternatively reconstructed as *Lewk- – it refers to both ‘light’ and to ‘seeing’], wherein he somewhat frustratedly observes “an exact formal correspondence with λύκος [‘lykos’ – i.e. ‘wolf’] is found in the North-Germanic name of the lynx [which is] from IE *luko- […] However, one would of course prefer to connect the widespread name of the wolf, which is preserved in e.g. Skt. vṛ́ka-, Lith. vil̃kas, OCS vlъkъ, Go. wulfs, Alb. ulk. λύκος can be derived from IE *ulkʷo- if we assume metathesis. A comparable problem is found with Lat. lupus.” We would suggest with relation to what Beekes has just set out that the ‘resonance’ to be observed here between these terms for ‘Light’ and for ‘Lyka-‘ (so to speak) is entirely uncoincidental …)

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An excerpt from our recent “On Algiz, Alcis, Ullr, The Germanic Iteration Of Indo-European Sacred Space, And Its Dread Protector”