What is blood meridian ending?

Blood Meridian is a novel written by American author Cormac McCarthy, published in 1985. The ending of the novel is notoriously ambiguous, leaving many questions unanswered and details up for interpretation.

The novel follows a teenager known only as "the Kid," as he joins a violent gang of scalp hunters led by the enigmatic and brutal Judge Holden in the American Southwest in the 1850s. The gang engages in acts of extreme violence, including massacres of indigenous people, and becomes increasingly savage and barbaric as the novel progresses.

At the novel's conclusion, the Kid and the Judge are the only surviving members of the gang. The two engage in a violent confrontation, which results in the Kid's death. The Judge is later seen dancing alone in the darkness, and the novel ends with the enigmatic line: "He never sleeps, the judge. He is dancing, dancing. He says that he will never die."

Many interpretations of the ending have been suggested, some seeing it as a statement on the bleak and violent nature of human existence, while others see it as a commentary on the ever-present nature of evil and the futility of trying to escape it. Whatever the interpretation, the ending of Blood Meridian is widely regarded as one of the most haunting and mysterious in American literature.