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A rat king is a ficticious beast said to arise when a number of rats become intertwined at the tails, and are joined with blood, dirt, and excrement. Consequently, the animals grow together, joined at the tails, which are often broken. The phenomenon is particularly associated with Germany, where the majority of instances have been reported.
Discoveries
Specimens of purported rat kings are kept in some museums. The museum Mauritianum in Altenburg (Thuringia) shows the largest well-known mummified "rat king", which was found in 1828 in the fire-place of a miller in Buchheim. It consists of 32 rats. Alcohol-preserved rat kings may be viewed in museums in Hamburg, Hameln, Goettingen and Stuttgart. Altogether, the number of well-known finds of rat kings is small. Depending upon source, it varies between 35 and 50 finds.
The earliest report of rat kings comes from 1564. With the displacement of the black rat by the brown rat in the 18th century, the phenomenon has died down. For instance, since the beginning of the 20th century, there have been fewer sightings of rat kings, the most recent find dating from April 10, 1986 and comes from a French discovery in the Vendée.
The "rat king" arises particularly in the black rat (Rattus rattus). The only find involving sawah rats (Rattus rattus brevicaudatus) occurred on March 23, 1918 in Bogor on Java, where a rat king of ten young field rats was found. Similar gluings have been reported in other species: in April 1929, a group of young forest mice (Apodemus sylvaticus) was reported in Holstein, and there have been reports of squirrel kings, of which the Zoological Institute of the University of Hamburg allegedly have a specimen. Rat kings are not to be confused with conjoined twins, which arise in several species. With the rat king, the animals are said to grow together only after birth and are completely separate during birth.
Reception
Historically, rat kings were seen as an extremely bad omen, particularly associated with plagues. Such events also occurred, since rat kings arise only if too many rats exist and are according insufficient space for new buildings. With an increase in the size of the rat population comes an increase of the chance of outbreak of disease, for example the Black Death, which is spread by rat fleas.
The term "rat king" has often led to the misconception of a king of rats. This idea has been particularly appealing to the literary and artistic mind set: the The Nutcracker by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky is set to a tale by E.T.A. Hoffmann which features a mouse king as the villain. Another example is the fairy tale Rattenkönig Birlibi by Ernst Moritz Arndt.
Today, the rat king is occasionally used as a monster in horror novels (James Herbert - The Rats), but the word "rat king" alone seems to have a certain attraction; thus, for example, the British writer James Clavell's debut novel, King Rat. A fictional treatment of the rat king legend and the supposed power over other rats can be found in Terry Pratchett's novel The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents.
Etymological reference
It is occasionally asserted that "rat king" is derived from the French roi de rats; or possibly from rouet de rats (wheel of rats). However, this seems improbable, since the rat king is a predominantly German phenomenon. It is therefore more likely that the French designation was taken from the German.
de:rattenkönig
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