Remains to be seen

You never quite know what you will find on the southern shore of Prospect Park's lake. Today, for example, we found a portal to the underworld. 

I have long revered this blasted willow alongside the lake shore; standing within its hollow trunk, one half expects to find entry to another realm. Today, another creature beat me to it. The little fellow rested peaceably in the soft wood chips within the cavity, so perfectly arranged that I wondered whether some kind soul had respectfully laid him out there. (Child tartly dismissed this possibility: "Mom, who picks up a dead squirrel and lays it inside a tree trunk?" I dunno--me, if I'd thought of it.)

Although I have managed over a lifetime to dodge the tiresome study of mythology, something about this majestic tableau rang a bell. Dead warriors, trees...strains of Wagner came to mind as we ambled back. Wasn't there some tree of life in Norse mythology?

Yes, indeed, good old Yggdrasil, whose roots reach down to other worlds. But it gets better: There's a squirrel named Ratatorsk ("drilling tooth," they must have had squirrels in their attic, too) who zips up and down the mighty tree, conveying gossip and insults from the dragon at Yggy's base to the eagle that perches in its crown. Right here in Brooklyn, Ratatorsk had found his Valhalla!

A brief Internet search, by the way, revealed that I am apparently the only person in the Western world who has not heard of Ratatorsk; he is a mammalian multimedia icon. This powerhouse of Norse branding pops up in several hot graphic novels (Hellboy and Sandman) and has lent his name to a Scandinavian shamanism network (don't ask), a Norwegian Forest Cat breeding firm, and a Wii video game, as sharply chronicled by this blogger.

Here, in honor of the fallen, is our Brooklyn avatar: Scratatorsk.

Image: 17th Century Icelandic manuscript, Arni Magnusson Institute

Mashup: Apologies to Blue Sky Studios; concept by Catherine Walker