84 ratatosk
R atatosk
The squirrel that scampered up and
down the World Tree, Yggdrasil. He spread gossip
and carried insults between Nithog, the dragon who
nibbled at the roots of the tree, and the eagle that sat
in the topmost branches.
R ati (Traveler)
The carpenter’s tool, known as an
auger or drill, which Odin, in disguise, uses to drill
a hole through the mountain Hnitbjorg. Odin pro-
duces Rati as he is trying to trick the giant Baugi into
helping him get a drink of the mead of poetry. Odin
commands Baugi to drill a hole through Hnitbjorg so
Odin may enter the place where the giant Suttung
keeps the mead. Though Baugi tries to hide the hole,
Odin finds it, turns into a serpent, and quickly slithers
through the mountain. Baugi throws Rati at Odin but
misses, and Odin succeeds in getting the mead.
Snorri Sturluson tells the story in the beginning
of S kaldskaparmal , part of his P rose E dda . (See also
“The Mead of Poetry” under Odin.)
raven A large, black bird, Corvus corax, a member
of the crow family. The raven is commonly found
in northern Europe, North America, and northern
Asia. The raven was a symbol of Odin, chief god
among the Aesir gods. Odin kept two ravens, Hugin
(Thought) and Munin (Mind). Odin sent these ravens
out into the world each daybreak, and they returned
by breakfast time to tell Odin of what they had seen
and learned. In an early Norse poem, H rafnagaldur
O dins (Odin’s Raven Chant), Odin sends the ravens to
the underworld to investigate the disappearance of
the goddess Idunn.
The raven was a common symbol in many
mythologies, sometimes as a sign of evil owing to
its habits as a scavenger and sometimes as a sign of
good. In Norse mythology, ravens played both roles.
As representatives of Odin’s mind and thoughts,
ravens symbolized his power to see into the future.
As symbols of the battlefield, they represented Odin’s
welcoming to his palace, Valhalla, the spirits of slain
human heroes who died in battle. Viking war flags
carried symbols of ravens as Odin’s servants.
R egin
Son of the magician Hreidmar and brother
of Fafnir and Otr. Regin was a wise and fierce dwarf,
skilled in magic.
After Fafnir killed Hreidmar and stole the hoard
of gold the family had received from the gods Odin,
Hoenir, and Loki as payment for Otr’s death, Regin
spent his life seeking his deceitful brother. In the
poem R eginsmal , Regin journeys to the court of
Hjalpreck, where he meets the young hero Sigurd.
Regin raises the boy to be strong and fierce, with the
intention of having Sigurd hunt down Fafnir, now in
dragon form, and kill him. In the poem F afnismal ,
this plan of revenge comes to fruition when Sigurd
slays the dragon. However, Sigurd also kills Regin
after he learns that the dwarf has only used him for
the long-awaited vengeance.
Snorri Sturluson tells the story of the killing of
Otr, Regin’s brother, in S kaldskaparmal . The story
is depicted in a famous runestone, or rock carving,
found in Sodermanland, Sweden.
R eginsmal (The
Ballad of Regin; Regin’s
Poem) A poem within the C odex R egius of the
P oetic E dda . Reginsmal tells part of the story of
Regin, a dwarf and foster father to the hero Sigurd,
whose story is also told in the V olsunga S aga . It is
one of the heroic poems (see heroic legends) in the
later portion of the Poetic Edda.
Reginsmal begins with the mythical tale of the death
of Regin’s brother Otr at the hands of the gods Odin,
Loki, and Hoenir. It continues with the story of Loki’s
theft of Andvari’s gold and the death of Regin’s father,
Hreidmar, at the hands of his son and the brother of
Otr and Regin, Fafnir. Fafnir hoards the gold in which
the gods had wrapped Otr’s body, the treasure of the
family, and turns himself into a dragon to guard it.
Regin tells Sigurd all of this in Reginsmal.
Then Regin encourages Sigurd to ask the king for
a horse and a sword. Finally, Regin tells Sigurd to
seek out and kill the dragon, Fafnir, a successful feat
for which Sigurd becomes famous.
The poems Fafnismal and Sigrdifuml, also parts
of the P oetic E dda , continue the story of Sigurd,
paralleling the story told in the Volsunga Saga. Some
translators and scholars believe that these three
poems were originally one work and were broken
up by the medieval scribes who worked with and
copied the manuscripts that became the Codex
Regius.
R ig The main character in R igsthula , an ancient
poem, part of the P oetic E dda . The introduction to
this poem in the surviving manuscripts says Rig is
the god Heimdall, but modern scholars agree that
an editor of the manuscript made that assumption
and addition.
Rig-Heimdall and the Races of Men Heimdall
was the Watchman of the Gods. He seldom left his
post on Bilrost, the Rainbow Bridge. One day, at
Odin’s suggestion, Heimdall went down to Midgard