The interview blunder raises an important question – What is the Rat King?

In a recent interview, Jordan Peterson tried to sound charming by explaining to his host what the Rat King was, but ended up reciting the scene from it. James Bond as if it were true. Yes, the ever-controversial Peterson has been criticized for this mistake, but it highlights the most interesting and potentially real thing that goes along with the name “The King’s Question”, but it’s not what you think.

Peterson’s mistake

During his recent appearance on This past weekend In the podcast, Peterson commented on Theo Von’s t-shirt, which featured an image of a rat crowned with a crown. After learning that Von’s friends call him the “King of the Rats”, Peterson begins an explanation of what exactly the Rat King is.

“Do you know what the Rat King is? “Oh my God, it’s a terrible story,” Peterson said confidently.

He then proceeded to retell – albeit without reference to the source – a half-remembered story about rats being turned into cannibals in order to kill other rats in a certain area.

“There is this theory, this theory, I don’t know if his people do this, but imagine your village is full of rats. So go grab 10 mice and throw them into a pit…soon there’s one mouse because he gets all the other mice, he’s the champion.”

Then, Peterson explains, you throw in ten more mice and repeat the process several times until you have one last mouse that now tastes like a mouse. Then you release this nasty creature to wreak havoc on your neighborhood’s rat population.

“And soon there are no rats in the village, really. So it was like the hardest of them all and then he learned to eat rats,” explained Peterson.

Even so, Bond fans have pointed out that Peterson’s description of the “Rat King” is very similar to the fictional story told by Javier Bardem’s villainous character. Heavy rain. And, unfortunately for Peterson, there’s no real evidence that this little anecdote has any basis in fact.

However, the name Rat King is associated with the possibility of a real rodent, which has nothing to do with the discovery of cannibalism but is very rare. You may or may not wish to continue.

All of you are the King of Guku

Rat Kings are giant rats or leaders of some imaginary subterranean realm built by vibrating forces. In fact, the Rat King refers to what is described in which a group of rats are caught by their tails and make a painful weight of the rodent. Although it is not clear whether the Rat Kings are an urban legend, there have been reports about them for centuries.

In the 1500s, stories of the Mouse Kings began to spread throughout Europe from Germany around the time Lutheranism was growing in influence. It seems that the people of the lower class were increasingly confused by the ruling elite, whom they called the Rat Kings – corrupt leaders exploiting the lives of the common people. It is believed that this idea comes from the name Rat king – the insult hurled at the Pope likened him to old mice who are supposed to build their nests between the tails of their younger subordinates. If the tails are attractive, the adult mouse would live off the labor of the young.

Martin Luther even referred to this parable when he said “at the end, there is the Pope, the king of rats right at the top.”

It seems that the idea has stuck.

But what evidence is there of this terrible union other than legend? Since then, different samples have appeared in different places. However, scientists and historians doubt that they are real examples of Rat Kings. This is because we cannot rule out fraud, especially when many examples come from historical periods where fraudsters liked to combine animals to create the remains of supposedly mythical creatures. However, Estonian researchers have identified 58 “authentic” examples of the Rat King, six of which can be viewed by the public today.

So far, this seems to have been documented only in black mice (Rattus rattus), but it has also been observed in other rodent species. In 1951, a zoo in South Carolina reported a “king of squirrels”. Then, in 2013, another group of mixed squirrels was kept in Canada and another group was recorded in the park in 2017.

If the Rat King phenomenon is true, then there are various reasons why this happened. Some have speculated that it is possible that the tails of rats are knotted at birth and then joined properly after birth. Some have said that mice can put their tails together to comfort each other when they are stressed. The idea here is that after that they accidentally get enmeshed. Finally, some believe that a mouse’s tails stick together for warmth. A mixture of sticky substances such as sap, food, frozen feces, and sebum then causes them to stick together.

Whatever the reasons, it seems that the Rat King may be something more real and more interesting than the villainous imaginations of the fictional Bond character.

All “explanatory” articles are verified by fact-checkers for accuracy at the time of publication. Text, images, and links may be edited, removed, or added later to keep information current.