BURN. A combined word from the Old Norse “to kindle” and the Old English “to be on fire.” The later expression “to burn one’s bridges” probably stems from the Civil War and a series of reckless cavalry raids. But in the end it was you who burned your bridges, not me—and then you were your own blaze. You died in the great fire that swept the floodwaters away, and your unfinished temple was consumed by the blaze like everything else.
