Though, this is not the end of the calendar - as I have (preliminary) defined it - this is only the 5th of the 6 periods.

In Nordic mythology there is a squirrel, Ratatosk, by running up and down the tree at the center of the world.

Why a squirrel? Of course it is true that squirrels often pass their time running up and down trees, but why tell about it in this myth?

I look for clues in English Etymology:

"Squirrel ... rodent of genus Sciurus, or subfamily Sciurina ... Gr. skíouros, prob. f. skiā SHADE + ourā tail."

Is the idea in the Nordic myth also to express shadow and tail? A squirrel often has a reddish hue (at least in Sweden) and would therefore serve pretty well as a symbol for the sun, a little sun-cat.

At the end of the half-year we find the wooden spear of Odysseus, the world tree. At the end = tail of the half-year (only summer counts as a true 'year') we find that shadows are increasing.