Porcupine, Badger, Beaver and Rodents in Myth, Mythology and Folklore
by From the viewpoint of the lay observer, rats and mice have always seemed a sort of paradigm for other animals. This extends even to creatures that are not rodents—so pigeons are called “rats with wings”; deer, “rats with hooves”; and bats, “mice with wings”.
The badger is often thought of as a small bear, and it is one of many animals that have taken the place of the bear in forecasting the coming of spring. The end of the winter was originally indicated by the return of the bears from hibernation. As these large animals became scarce, they were replaced in Germany and much of Britain by the badger. According to a German proverb, “the badger peeps out of his hole on Candlemass Day, and, if he sees the sun shining he draws back into his hole” (Santino, p. 58). In the United States, the woodchuck or groundhog has replaced the badger in forecasting spring. On February 2, the groundhog will lift its head out of its hole. If it sees its shadow, the groundhog will return to its hole and winter will linger six more weeks, but if the groundhog comes out, spring is at hand. The most beloved rodent in the Northern Hemisphere, however, is the squirrel. It is primarily the squirrel’s long bushy tail that differentiates squirrels from rats, yet what a difference that makes in the way the two are regarded. Rats may often be feared and despised, yet squirrels are such a part of our yards and parks that these places would appear desolate without them. Nevertheless, squirrels have been the subject of many ambivalent legends. For the Ainu of Japan, they represented the discarded sandals of the god Aioina, which would never rot, perhaps because squirrels move in spurts that are like footsteps. Malaysians believed squirrels were produced, like butterflies, from the cocoons of caterpillars, and they thought the dried penis of a squirrel was a powerful aphrodisiac. In Norse mythology, the squirrel Ratatosk was the bringer of rain and snow. It moved up and down the tree of life Yggdrasil, constantly trying to stir up strife between the eagle at the top and the serpent at the base.
In Irish mythology, the goddess Medb has a bird perched on one shoulder and a squirrel on the other, her messengers for the earth and sky. The habit of hoarding nuts made squirrels symbols of avarice in some medieval bestiaries, but Victorian books of natural history often praised squirrels for their thrift. Today, squirrels thrill urban dwellers with their spectacular leaps between trees or runs along telephone lines over busy highways. Every now and then a squirrel will turn and stare at a person, with a gaze that suggests curiosity but neither fear nor anger. Because they seem completely untroubled by human presence, they reassure us that perhaps we have not alienated ourselves too much from the natural world after all.
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