Nidhogg dragon stpries9/25/2023 ![]() ![]() Lindow adds that "in the sagas, a person who helps stir up or keep feuds alive by ferrying words of malice between the participants is seldom one of high status, which may explain the assignment of this role in the mythology to a relatively insignificant animal". John Lindow points out that Yggdrasil is described as rotting on one side and as being chewed on by four harts and Níðhöggr, and that, according to the account in Gylfaginning, it also bears verbal hostility in the fauna it supports. Hilda Ellis Davidson, describing the world tree, states the squirrel is said to gnaw at it-furthering a continual destruction and re-growth cycle, and posits the tree symbolizes ever-changing existence. Theories Īccording to Rudolf Simek, "the squirrel probably only represents an embellishing detail to the mythological picture of the world-ash in Grímnismál ". ![]() He tells slanderous gossip, provoking the eagle and Nidhogg. The squirrel called Ratatosk runs up and down the ash. Between its eyes sits the hawk called Vedrfolnir. Ratatoskr is described in the Prose Edda 's Gylfaginning 's chapter 16, in which High states thatĪn eagle sits at the top of the ash, and it has knowledge of many things. Henry Adams Bellows translation: Ratatosk is the squirrel who there shall run On the ash-tree Yggdrasil From above the words of the eagle he bears, And tells them to Nithhogg beneath. In the Poetic Edda poem Grímnismál, the god Odin (disguised as Grímnir) says that Ratatoskr runs up and down Yggdrasil bringing messages between the eagle perched atop it and Níðhöggr below it:īenjamin Thorpe translation: Ratatösk is the squirrel named, who has run in Yggdrasil's ash he from above the eagle's words must carry, and beneath the Nidhögg repeat. Sturtevant concludes that "the fact that the word occurs only in the name Rata-toskr is no valid evidence against this assumption, for there are many hapax legomena of native origin, as is attested by the equivalents in the Mod Scandinavian dialects." Modern scholars have accepted this etymology, listing the name Ratatoskr as meaning "drill-tooth" (Jesse Byock, Andy Orchard, Rudolf Simek ) or "bore-tooth" ( John Lindow ).Īttestations A red squirrel in an evergreen tree in Norway However, Sturtevant says that the Old Norse proper name Tunne (derived from Proto-Norse *Tunþē) refers to "a person who is characterized as having some peculiar sort of tooth" and theorizes a Proto-Germanic form of -toskr. Sturtevant says that Bugge's theory regarding the element -toskr may appear to be supported by the fact that the word does not appear elsewhere in Old Norse. form of Rati*) is used in Háv (106, 1) to signify the instrument which Odin employed for boring his way through the rocks in quest of the poet's mead " and that " Rati* must then be considered a native word meaning "The Borer, Gnawer" ". Īccording to Albert Sturtevant, " far as the element Rata- is concerned, Bugge's hypothesis has no valid foundation in view of the fact that the word Rata (gen. Bugge proposed that the -toskr element is a reformation of the Old English word tūsc ( Old Frisian tusk) and, in turn, that the element Rata- represents Old English ræt ("rat"). Sophus Bugge theorized that the name Ratatoskr is a loanword from Old English meaning " Rat-tooth." Bugge's basis hinges on the fact that the -toskr element of the compound does not appear anywhere else in Old Norse. According to Vigfússon, Ratatoskr means "tusk the traveller" or "the climber tusk." He says that the name of the legendary drill Rati may feature the same term. Guðbrandur Vigfússon theorized that the rati- element means "the traveller". The element toskr is generally held to mean "tusk". The name Ratatoskr contains two elements: rata- and -toskr. Ratatoskr is attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson. In Norse mythology, Ratatoskr ( Old Norse, generally considered to mean "drill-tooth" or "bore-tooth" ) is a squirrel who runs up and down the world tree Yggdrasil to carry messages between the eagles perched atop Yggdrasil, and the serpent Níðhöggr, who dwells beneath one of the three roots of the tree. Although unexplained in the manuscript and not otherwise attested, in this image Ratatoskr bears a horn or tusk. Norse mythical animal A 17th century Icelandic manuscript depicting Ratatoskr. ![]()
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