This is a myth of Ratatoskr. For the uninitiated he is the squirrel who runs up and down the world tree Yggdrasil to carry messages between the eagle perched atop Yggdrasil, and the serpent Níðhöggr who dwells beneath one of the three roots of the tree.
This myth does not appear in the Poetic Edda, it like many myths are told mostly by bards. Past down verbally and embellished by each teller as the story gets told again and again. The first time I heard it was at a gathering known as Hail And Horn at Ravens Knoll some time between 2013 and 2015. I credit it to a young man by the name of Scott if my memory serves me correctly. And now on to the story.
Ratatoskr as we do know from the Eddas is a squirrel. He runs up and down Yggdrasil carrying messages between the Eagle perched upon its top, and the serpent Níðhöggr who resides beneath. Ratatoskr would get very hungry and constantly would be gathering food as he ran up and down Yggdrasil. When he reached the top of the tree to deliver messages or latest barb to the eagle from Níðhöggr he would have to open his mouth to speak and in doing so would drop all the acorns and such he had gathered on his way up. These would fall and invariably drop on some unsuspecting travelers head. Ratatoskr would try to apologize but in his excited state all that would come out of his mouth would be chittering. This as you could imagine would be returned by yelling and things being thrown back at poor Ratatoskr by the passersby. Ratatoskr would receive messages from the eagle and begin is trip back down the tree again gathering food as he went. Sometimes his mouth would be full so he would just knock acorns and the like on to the ground and again these would sometimes hit people. He would try to apologize but again with his mouth full all that came out of it would be the contents of his cheeks, and more chittering.
When Ratatoskr reached the ground he would try to gather up what he had dropped, and stash the food in the nearest hole. Usually these holes were Dwarf Mines. He would have so many pine cones, acorns and other seeds he would some times fill these holes to capacity. This would infuriate the Dwarves. As sometimes they would get trapped in the mines under tonnes of seeds, or their mines would be so full they would have to dig them out again so they could resume work. This might seem trivial but all this having to redo work that was all ready done meant the dwarves were delayed in other tasks, such as making weapons, jewelry and the like for the Gods and the realm of man. So now the Gods were furious because they were not getting their trinkets.
In the mean time Ratatoskr would deliver the messages from the eagle to Níðhöggr and the whole process would repeat. If your wondering why the squirrel did this to begin with it may have something to do with an agreement between the eagle and Níðhöggr that allowed Ratatoskr to travel up and down Yggdrasil and not be eaten as he reached the top or the bottom.
So at this point we have the realm of man, and the Aesir, and the Vanir and many others furious with this poor squirrel. They would chase him with brooms, throw rocks at him, empty out his caches of food. So now is he not only running up and down all day to gather food, exchanging messages so he does not get eaten he is having to run for his life to. Well one day he decided to stop and stop he did. The 9 realms rejoiced no longer did they have this insidious fury little creature acosting them on their walks. No longer did the dwarves have to dig themselves out of their holes and dig new ones to get back to their mining. Every one started to get their bobbles and weapons when they were supposed to. Things we great.
The seasons passed, Winter, spring etc. For two passings of the seasons no one saw Ratatoskr and no one cared. Then things started to happen. You see few new trees, few new strawberries and the like were appearing. The forest creatures were now starving because no new plants were growing. The spring rains came and there were mud slides and flooding the likes of which the 9 realms had ever seen. Yggdrasil was heavily laden with seeds, the ground at its roots softened and eroded by flooding. The dwarven mines were pools.
The eagle would perch upon the top of Yggdrasil and Yggdrasil would shake. Níðhöggr would coil around the base of Yggdrasil to try hold it steady but in doing so would clamp around it so tightly that Yggdrasil began to starve for water. Yggdrasil was dying. The eagle would begin to flap his great wings as he held tightly to Yggdrasils top in his attempt to hold Yggdrasil upright. The winds from his flapping were causing remaining trees to topple. No one in the 9 realms understood what was happening and blamed each of the other realms for the current state of affairs. Ragnarok was coming.
The Aesir gathered in preparation they believed as others that Ragnarok had arrived. They went to Odin, all father, the All Knowing and pleaded with him to do something. Yggdrasil is dying they said, the animals are starving, we have nothing to hunt, we cannot gather food. We have no weapons because the dwarves cannot get into their mines. All the realms are hurting.
Odin looked around and he saw the devastation, he travelled the 9 realms and it was the same every where. On his travels he realized something was missing but could not quite figure out what. He went to Yggdrasil and indeed it was dying. He could feel Níðhöggr straining to hold up the great tree, he could see the eagle perched upon its top flapping his wings his attempt to hold the tree upright. Where was Ratatoskr?
Odin sat at the base of Yggdrasil for a day, no Ratatoskr, he sat there for a week, no Ratatoskr. After two weeks he stood up and went to the Aesir and asked if anyone has seen the squirrel and they all replied they had not. But they all had replied they were happy that he was gone. Again he went to the dwarves and asked the same and the response was the same.
Odin asked the eagle and Níðhöggr when they last saw Ratatoskr and their response was we have not seen him for two passing’s of the seasons. It was then Odin realized what was going on. He put out a call to the 9 realms to have Ratatoskr found. Nearly a month went by and indeed it looked like Ragnarok had arrived but finally Ratatoskr was found. Odin went to him and asked why he went away.
Ratatoskr recanted his story, he was tired of being chased, being yelled at, having stones thrown at him, having his food caches destroyed. He was tired of running up and down the tree all day and being loathed by the all the realms. But mostly he was tired and hungry and just wanted to sleep and eat. Odin looked at him and apologized to Ratatoskr. Odin explained to Ratatoskr that the 9 realms cannot survive without him. For even though Ratatoskr was small he did many important jobs that seemed insignificant on the surface, but overall they have a major impact on the welfare of the the 9 worlds. Odin then went on to say he will speak to the dwarves, and all the realms and explain that they need to be kind to Ratatoskr for without him the end would come. Ratatoskr agreed to go back to work, as he truly did miss it. The realms grumbled but the eagle and Níðhöggr were happy they could have their fun poking at each other again, and pass other messages about. The realms slowly returned to normal, Food was plentiful for all. The world tree recovered.
SO the Next time you see a squirrel… Be patient be understanding. For without him Ragnarok will come.
