Ratatoskr was the squirrel that runs up and down the trunk of the world-tree Yggdrasil — the small, restless messenger who carries insults and slander between the eagle at the tree's crown and the dragon Nidhogg at its roots, forever stirring the feud between them. One of the most charming and curious figures in Norse myth, he is the gossip-bearer of the cosmos, the mischief that runs the length of the world-tree.
The Squirrel of the World-Tree
Ratatoskr (Old Norse Ratatoskr, perhaps “drill-tooth” or “bore-tooth,” or “climber-tusk”) was a squirrel who lived upon Yggdrasil, the great ash-tree that holds up and connects all the Nine Worlds. His task — or his mischief — was to run continually up and down the enormous trunk of the tree, the whole vast length of the cosmos, carrying messages between its top and its bottom. He was small and quick and never still, a flash of fur racing the height of the world-tree, the one creature who travelled freely between the crown and the roots.
The Bearer of Insults
The messages Ratatoskr carried were not kindly ones. At the topmost branches of Yggdrasil sat a great eagle (with a hawk perched between its eyes); at the deepest root gnawed the dragon Nidhogg. These two ancient beings — the eagle of the heights and the dragon of the depths — were locked in a bitter feud, hurling insults at one another across the impossible distance of the tree. And it was Ratatoskr who carried their spite between them: running down to bear the eagle's scornful words to Nidhogg, then running back up to carry Nidhogg's threats and curses to the eagle, keeping the quarrel alive and fanning the malice at both ends. The little squirrel was a stirrer of strife, a tale-bearer who delighted in carrying slander, ensuring the feud between the dragon and the eagle never died.
The Mischief of the Cosmos
Ratatoskr is a wonderful example of the rich, living detail of the Norse cosmic vision. The world-tree Yggdrasil was not a dead structure but a living thing, teeming with creatures — the eagle at its crown, the dragon at its root, four stags browsing its leaves, and the restless squirrel scurrying between them. Ratatoskr gives this grand cosmology a touch of liveliness and even humour: the great tree of the worlds has, running up and down it, a gossiping squirrel carrying insults between a dragon and an eagle, a small embodiment of mischief and discord woven into the very structure of the cosmos.
The Gossip of the World-Tree
Ratatoskr endures as one of the most beloved small figures of Norse myth — the squirrel messenger of Yggdrasil, the bearer of insults between the eagle and the dragon, the restless stirrer of cosmic strife. He embodies the Norse love of detail and discord, the sense that even the great tree that holds up the worlds has its own quarrels and gossip; and he remains a delightful image of mischief at the heart of the cosmos: a squirrel, forever running the length of the world, carrying spite from root to crown and back again.
Up and down the whole length of the world-tree runs a single squirrel, carrying insults between the eagle at the crown and the dragon at the root — the gossip-bearer who keeps the cosmos quarrelling.