The Mouse King - Nutcracker Series

The Mouse King
The Nutcracker Series

In the original story written by E. T. A. Hoffmann, the evil Mouse King has seven heads. Awesome. It looks like some ballet companies choose to portray the multi-header King whilst others stick to the less frightening single-headed mouse. That said, the Mouse King is based on a real phenomenon where rats' tails become entangled and they are unable to break free of each other. In folklore, rat kings are associated with various superstitions and were often seen as a bad omen—you don’t say…