[MR] The Mouse Tower Legend

[Garth Groff and Sally Sanford]

Noble Friends, Especially Lovers of Vengeance Tales,

Last night on the tube during an ad for Viking river cruises, I noticed
what appeared to be a tower standing in a river. Instantly, I thought of
the Mouse Tower (Mäuseturm) legend, though I'm not certain the tower in the
ad is the same (I will be checking next time I see the ad). No matter. The
story of the Mouse Tower is too good not to repeat.

As the tale goes, a 10th century ruler named Hatto II was a cruel
oppressor. He had a monopoly on all the grain in his lands. Then famine hit
and Hatto raised his prices for the grain. Some starving peasants who
pleaded for help were promised grain would be released to them inside a
barn Hatto owned. When the peasants entered the barn, the doors were
slammed shut behind them and the building set on fire. Hatto supposedly
gloated, "Hear the mice squeak!" in response to the peasants' cries of
terror.

Finally the people had enough, and Hatto fled to his toll tower in the Rhine.
He was followed by millions of hungry mice who gnawed their way through the
tower doors, then gnawed Hatto. Justice served, and a cautionary story was
born.

Well, it makes a great tale, but the nearly same story is told about a
Polish duke named Popiel II, and also a Count of Wörthschlössl Castle in
Bavaria. To make things even more confusing, there was a 10th century
Bishop of Mainz named Hatto I, who is also said to have been chomped by
rodents for his cruelty.

The tower in question stood in the Rhine River at Bingen am Rhine, Germany.
A tower on that islet dates to Roman times. Actually, there have been
several towers on this island, mostly used to collect tolls on
river shipping. The current Mäuseturm tower was actually a Prussian
military signal station and dates to 1855 (but is very castle-like, and
thus way cool).

Wikipedia offers the story and a photo of the present Mouse Tower at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mouse_Tower .

Similar "toll castles" are discussed at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toll_castle .

Yours Aye,


Mungo Napier, Laird of Mallard Lodge  🦆