"Gitcher peanuts, popcorn, Heimskringla..."

If a scholar of Norse mythology had been in the stands of Yankee Stadium on Tuesday night, he or she probably would have advised Yankees fans to not make too much out of the 5-3 victory against the Red Sox.

The result, after all, still left the Yankees trailing Boston by an imposing seven games in the American League East. But more significant, perhaps, was the pesky and distracting squirrel that scampered up and down the right-field foul pole during the game and that, according to Norse mythology, just might have foretold that the Yankees will not prevail over the Red Sox this season.

Believe it or not, the squirrel’s actions closely resembled those of Ratatosk, or “gnawing tooth,” a squirrel in Norse mythology that climbed up and down a tree that represented the world. Snorri Sturluson, an Icelandic scholar and poet, recorded the story in his 13th-century work “Prose Edda.”

As the story goes, Ratatosk carried insults as it traveled to opposite ends of the tree, fueling a rivalry between the evil dragon residing at the bottom of the tree and the eagle perched at the top.

“Oh, that’s perfect,” said Roberta Frank, a professor of Old Norse and Old English at Yale University, when told of the squirrel’s antics at the stadium.

Frank was born in the Bronx and is a Yankees fan. She said in a telephone interview yesterday that in the Bronx version of this myth, the Yankees would probably represent the eagle and the rival Red Sox would represent the dragon. The Yankees, after all, are the home team this week, more or less making them the good guys. And if there were a sports team identified with an eagle, it has to be the Yankees, who have begun any number of postseason games with a visit from Challenger, the bald eagle who swoops in from center field.


By Teddy Kider The New York Times

FULL ARTICLE

Thanks to Cryptomundo

Wikipedia has a selection of modern manifestations of Ratatosk. Image of horned squirrel above is from a 17th century Icelandic manuscript. Will we see Xeni Jardin using it as a "unicorn chaser" on Boing Boing one of these days?

A new mode of nature writing?

Madeleine Bunting writes in The Guardian on what she sees as a new way of writing about nature. She sees this as a visionary movement, where learning to pay attention to particulars has a redemptive quality that benefits both humans and the natural world (though I'm not sure that was a quality absent from previous modes of nature writing).

Bunting argues that books such as Mark Cocker's Crow Country, Kathleen Jamie's Findings, and Roger Deakin's Wildwood are "a new genre of writing. It doesn't quite fit to call it "nature writing", because what makes these books so compelling - and important - is that they put centre stage the interconnections between nature and human beings."

"The floods in Yorkshire last month were a sharp reminder of what happens when we don't understand the land on which we live. The sight of thousands of flooded homes made us realise what many previous generations would never have forgotten about the way in which water has to move through land. Renewing our relationship with the natural world, on which our wellbeing depends, is at the heart of this genre of writing - but it presses its case not with statistics and fear of apocalyptic scenarios of global warming, but with seduction, urging on readers an aesthetic case for the spectacular beauty that lies beyond their windscreen if they can be bothered to stop the car and get out.

It's the British equivalent in the 21st century to John Muir, the legendary writer who founded the US Sierra Club and Yosemite National Park, and who in 1901 wrote that "thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilised people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home". We may have hills rather than mountains, but that's what summer holidays should be about - going home."

Sounds like a good group of books to add to your reading pile. Bunting mentions that all of the writers she discussses have pebbles to hand, or lined up on their desks. What pebbles do you have lined up on your desk? I'm tending currently toward smooth, water-rounded stones nearest my desk; the fossils are six feet further away.

Pseudo-Elizabethan Placename Generator

Blearybarrow Snitterel Snapemore Babbingporte Ashead
Lindfield Locktonleigh Newdery Umbermount Wodeney
Huttonhope Cuddonshaw Woltonston Marshbrygg Foggford
Cravenlocke Throckstin Swainsreagh Marhearst Wolfdenwocky
Fishstocke Cheddarswich Follygrass Listerfork Cassyden
Wintergill Asplinchase Barmfens Beldansridge Colbyham
Crowsteeple Pinchcourse Brokesheaf Complincliff Augurland
Waldewake Bacuplark Deeringwedge Faldoveldt Winklebury

Et cetera.

Forget that you can hear the nearby bulldozers knocking down the homes of little woodland creatures, to be replaced by developments like "Quail Run" named after little woodland creatures they've replaced. Flee to the imagined past of The Olde Country. When my children were small, on the way to our occasional vacations in Bath, I'd sing to them when we passed the sign for Nimlet,

We go to the hamlet of Nimlet
Go to the hamlet of Nimlet
Go to the hamlet
Eat egglets and spamlets
Go to the hamlet of Nimlet

(It's folk music, dammit, it doesn't have to be brilliant, and I'm not Brightshadow) :)

Quote of the Day

“We all know exactly what it is like to be an Atheist. You are an atheist about Zeus, Ra, Thor, Allah, Brahma. I just go one god further.” -- Richard Dawkins to members of non-Pagan faith traditions

Viking ship reconstruction reaches Dublin

The Sea Stallion, a reconstruction of a Viking ship carrying a crew of 65, has reached Dublin after a seven week, 1000 mile sail from Denmark.

Firefox and Witchcraft - The Connection?

From the delightful xkcd: A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.

Concentration Camp Tarot Cards

Political prisoner Boris Kobe created tarot cards with images reflecting life in the concentration camp of Allach, a sub-camp of Dachau. The cards, done around 1945, are meticulous observations of individuals and groups.

The website of theCenter for Holocaust & Genocide Studies; at the University of Minnesota is hosting the images, the originals remain in Slovenia.

Thanks to Boing Boing

Bad Green Man, No Biscuit

James Coldwell, 49, disguised himself as a tree when he robbed a bank in Manchester, New Hampshire on Saturday. He had tree branches attached to his clothing and head with duct tape.

Quote of the day

"Thanks for coming, Mary, we loved your talk. Although I'm still perplexed as to how one would attach a phallus to a chariot." -- Anna

Merry Meet 2007

Hello to those of you who came here from the Merry Meet flyer. While I'm running behind on getting the Cafepress graphics up and running, I will have some photos of the stones at the U Mass Sun Wheel soon. Please bookmark and stop back!