Ratatoskr- Norse CreatureCreature · Beast"The Drill-Tooth"
Also known as: Ratatosk, Rata-toskr, and Rattatoskr
Description
A squirrel runs up and down Yggdrasil carrying insults between the eagle perched at its crown and the dragon Níðhöggr gnawing at its roots. His name means "Drill-Tooth," and he never rests.
Mythology & Lore
The Insult-Bearer
The Grímnismál names him in a single stanza: Ratatoskr, the squirrel who runs on the ash of Yggdrasil, carrying the eagle's words down to Níðhöggr and the dragon's words back up to the heights. Snorri, retelling the scene in Gylfaginning, adds that the words are slanderous, that Ratatoskr does not merely relay messages but stirs enmity between the two. He is a gossip on a cosmic scale.
His name means "Drill-Tooth" or "Bore-Tooth" in Old Norse, from rata ("to travel" or "to bore through") and toskr ("tooth" or "tusk"). Whether the name refers to his gnawing nature or to the sharpness of the words he carries, the sources do not say.
The eagle at Yggdrasil's crown surveys the nine worlds. Níðhöggr, far below, gnaws the roots that hold those worlds together. Between them, a squirrel scurries with slander. The sources say nothing of what the insults contain, nothing of whether Ratatoskr invents them or merely repeats them, nothing of his fate at Ragnarök. He runs. The tree endures. The words keep coming.
Relationships
- Associated with