Ratatosk (Ratatoskr in Old Norse, believed to mean “drill tooth”) is the Insult Squirrel in the stories of Yggdrasil. Ratatosk’s sole purpose in the myths is to spend his days running up and down the Ash tree between the Eagle (unnamed in the myths, but female and named Hank in my tattooed pallete of the stories) at the tree top and Níðhöggr in the roots. He spreads rumors & hearsay between/about the two. He is, at his core, and insult squirrel.
Multiple Sclerosis is a bizarre disease - that’s all there is to it. A person’s immune system begins attacking the myelin coating on their nervous system, causing problems for the nervous system. The nervous system is a messaging system. It is the tool your brain and body use to tell each other what to do, how things feel, how to react to stimuli,etc. M.S. has the effect of “stripping the wires,” making it difficult for accurate messages to make their way through a person’s “messaging system” so that a body will behave the way it should.
A wise friend pointed out that my plan to add the insult squirrel to my collection of ink might possibly mean that M.S. is my Insult Squirrel.
I laughed heartily. I laughed not because it was silly, but because Of Course! Of course M.S. is my Insult Squirrel! He spends his days running up and down, spreading mixed messages through my nervous system. And because he’s a sort of silly adorable animal character in my mythical stories, I can appreciate that he’s only just doing his job.
My Ratatosk is based loosely on a real species of Nordic squirrel who has rather large pointed & puffy ears.
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