The concept of this monstrous creature is said to have existed for centuries. It may have its origin in an old belief which states that elderly rats known for their wisdom would sit on the entangled tails of his fellow rats. The rat was believed to have been treated as royalty by other rats, hence giving rise to the term "rat king."
The majority of stories about the rat king originate from Germany and has also been reported in other countries such as france, poland, the Netherlands, Estonia, and Indonesia. Two factors coincide in the areas where rat kings had been found, the first being cold winters, while the second being the presence of the black rat, 'Rattus rattus.' It is worth to mention that the rat king found on Java, Indonesia, is by far the only one not consisting on black rats, instead, this rat king is made up of sawah rats, Rattus, rattus brevicaudatus.
New research in Physical Anthropology has revealed that the ancient population that once inhabited Easter Island, famous for its more than 1,000 walking Moai statues, had a diet based on Polynesian rat (kiore), strangely lacking a diet based on seafood that traditionally distinguished Polynesian cultures. The island (also called Rapa Nui) is located in the South Pacific and is the most isolated inhabited land mass on Earth.
Considering that rat kings are regarded as bad omens, they were often killed immediately out of fear of disease. The Black Death, though not caused by the black rats themselves, was spread to humans by the specific fleas they carried. One of the largest mummified rat kings is displayed in the Mauritianum Museum in Alten'Burg, Germany. This particular rat king has 32 individual rats stuck together.
Many are familiar with the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Few realize however, that the story is based on real events. It is set in 1284 in the town of Hamelin, Lower Saxony, Germany. the town was facing a rat infestation, and a piper, dressed in a coat of many colored, bright cloth, appeared. This piper promised to get rid of the rats in return for a payment, to which the townspeople agreed too. Athough the piper got rid of the rats by leading them away with his music, the people of Hamelin reneged on their promise. The piper left vowing revenge. On the 26th of July of that same year, the piper returned and led the children away, never to be seen again, just as he did the rats. Nevertheless, three children were left behind, one of these was lame and could not keep up, another was deaf and could not hear the music, while the third one was blind and could not see where he was going.
By associating the rats with the Black Death, it has been suggested that the children symbolically were the innocent victims of these plague that severely hit Europe between 1348 and 1350, more than half a century after the event in Hamelin.
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