- Rat king (folklore)
Rat kings are phenomena said to arise when a number of
rat s become intertwined at theirtail s, which become stuck together withblood , dirt, andexcrement . The animals reputedly grow together while joined at the tails. The phenomenon is particularly associated withGermany , where the majority of instances have been reported.Most authors presume the creatures are legendary and that all supposed physical evidence is hoaxed, such as mummified groups of dead rats with their tails tied together. Reports of living specimens remain unsubstantiated. No known scientific study has been performed on this topic.
Displays
Specimens of purported rat kings are kept in some museums. The museum
Mauritianum inAltenburg (Thuringia) shows the largest well-known mummified "rat king", which was found in 1828 in a miller's fireplace atBuchheim . It consists of 32 rats. Alcohol-preserved rat kings are shown in museums inHamburg ,Hamelin ,Göttingen , andStuttgart . A rat king found in 1930 inNew Zealand , displayed in theOtago Museum inDunedin , was composed of immature "Rattus rattus " whose tails were entangled by horse hair. [cite web | url = http://www.otagomuseum.govt.nz/rat_king.html | title = Rat King | accessdate = 2007-06-09 | author = | authorlink = | date = | format = | work = Galleries > Animal Attic | publisher = Otago museum | pages = | language = | quote = The Otago Museum’s rat king: This display features a family of Rattus rattus, discovered in the 1930s. They had fallen from their nest in the rafters of a shipping company shed, and were immediately followed to the floor by a parent who vigorously defended the young. ] Relatively few rat kings have been discovered; depending on the source, the number of reported instances varies between 35 and 50 finds.The earliest report of rat kings comes from 1564Fact|date=May 2007. If real, the phenomenon may have diminished when the
brown rat ("Rattus norvegicus") displaced theblack rat ("R. rattus") in the 18th century. Sightings have been sporadic in the modern era; most recently comes anEstonia n farmer's discovery in the Võrumaa region [cite journal |url=http://www.kirj.ee/public/Ecology/2007/issue_1/bio-2007-1-7.pdf |author=Miljutin A |title=Rat kings in Estonia |journal=Proc. Estonian Acad. Sci. Biol. Ecol |volume=56 |issue=1 |pages=77–81 |year=2007] onJanuary 16 ,2005 .Most extant examples are formed from black rats ("R. rattus"). The only find involving
sawah rat s ("Rattus rattus brevicaudatus") occurred onMarch 23 ,1918 , inBogor onJava , where a rat king of ten young field rats was found. Similar attachments 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. The Tartu Ulikooli Zooloogiamuuseum (Museum of Zoology in Tartu, Estonia) has a specimen. The Zoological Institute of the University of Hamburg allegedly owns a specimen.Fact|date=January 2007The rat king discovered in 1963 by the farmer P. van Nijnatten at Rucphen (Netherlands) as published by cryptozoologist M. Schneider consists of seven rats. X-ray imagescite news |url=http://www.museumkennis.nl/nnm.dossiers/museumkennis/i003328.html |title=Rat king Rucphen |last=Rucphen |first=Rat king |work=Rucphen |date=2007-01-21 |accessdate=2007-01-21 ] show formations of
callus at the fractures of their tails which according to proponents show that the animals survived an extended period of time with the tails tangled.In popular culture
Historically, rat kings were seen as an extremely bad omen, particularly associated with plagues. This is a reasonable conclusion if they are formed naturally, since large populations of rats housed in insufficient space generally bring with them disease and pestilence. 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 the rats’ 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 mindset: "
The Nutcracker ", byPyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , adapts a tale byE. T. A. Hoffmann that features a seven-headed "Mouse King" as the villain. Another example is thefairy tale "Rattenkönig Birlibi", byErnst Moritz Arndt .Today, the rat king appears in novels such as
China Miéville 's "King Rat", "The Tale of One Bad Rat " byBryan Talbot , "Ratking" byMichael Dibdin , "Peeps" byScott Westerfeld , "Rats and Gargoyles " byMary Gentle and "The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents " byTerry Pratchett . A rat king portentously appears in a sub-section of the same name inE. Annie Proulx 's fictional work "Accordion Crimes ".* In
Lars von Trier 's film "Epidemic", the rat king is an omen for the upcoming disease.* In
Alan Moore 's and Ian Gibson's comic book series "Halo Jones ", the Rat King was a weapon of war, a super-intelligent collective of five rats with entwined tails who were able to communicate via a computer terminal.* In an episode of the American
sitcom "30 Rock ", a character claims to have seen a rat king and goes on to describe the definition of a rat king, multiple rats with permanently entwined tails, but then goes on to say it then becomes a large multiple headed rat, to iterate the common misconception about Rat Kings. [cite web|url=http://www.tvfodder.com/30_rock/archives/2006/12/30_rock_jack_meets_dennis_1.shtml|title=30 Rock |last=Rock |first=30 |work=30 Rock:Jack Meets Dennis |date=2006-12-03 |accessdate=2006-12-03]* The
Rat King is also the name of a recurring character in theTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise. He is an enigmatic sometimes villain with telepathic control over rats.* In 1993, German artist
Katharina Fritsch exhibited a large scale sculpture/installation titled "Rattenkönig" (Rat-King) at the Dia Center for the Arts in New York City.References
External links
*fr icon [http://www.museum.nantes.fr/pages/03-apercu/apercuroiderat.htm Photo and X-ray of rat king in the Museum of Nantes]
*de icon [http://people.freenet.de/mauritianum/sam_rattk.htm Photo of rat king in Altenburg]
*nl icon [http://www.museumkennis.nl/nnm.dossiers/museumkennis/i003328.html Photos and X-ray of rat king of Rucphen in the Naturalis museum]
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