All of them were killed by the time they were examined. Ī rat king discovered in 1963 by a farmer at Rucphen, Netherlands, as published by cryptozoologist M. Alcohol-preserved rat kings are shown in museums in Hamburg, Göttingen, Hamelin, Stuttgart, Strasbourg and Nantes.Ī rat king found in 1930 in New Zealand, displayed in the Otago Museum in Dunedin, was composed of immature black rats whose tails were entangled by horse hair. The museum Mauritianum in Altenburg, Thuringia, shows the largest well-known mummified "rat king", which was found in 1828 in a miller's fireplace at Buchheim. Specimens of purported rat kings are kept in some museums. Most extant examples are formed from black rats ( Rattus rattus). The earliest report of rat kings comes from 1564.
Rat king depicted in 16th-century woodcut Īn alternative theory states that the name in French was rouet de rats (or a spinning wheel of rats, the knotted tails being wheel spokes), with the term transforming over time into roi des rats, because formerly French oi was pronounced or similar nowadays it is pronounced. Conrad Gesner in Historia animalium (1551–58) stated: "Some would have it that the rat waxes mighty in its old age and is fed by its young: this is called the rat king." Martin Luther stated: "finally, there is the Pope, the king of rats right at the top." Later, the term referred to a king sitting on a throne of knotted tails.
The term was not originally used in reference to actual rats, but for persons who lived off others. The original German term, Rattenkönig, was calqued into English as rat king, and into French as roi des rats.
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