But when he arose next morning, he heard that an
army of rats had eaten all the corn in his granaries, and was
now advancing to storm the palace. Looking from his window, he
saw the roads and fields dark with them, as they came with
fell purpose straight toward his mansion. In frenzied terror
he took his boat and rowed out to the tower in the river. But
it was of no use: down into the water marched the rats, and
swam across, and scaled the walls, and gnawed through the
stones, and came swarming in about the shrieking Bishop, and
ate him up, flesh, bones, and all. Now, bearing in mind what
was said above, there can be no doubt that these rats were the
souls of those whom the Bishop had murdered. There are many
versions of the story in different Teutonic countries, and in
some of them the avenging rats or mice issue directly, by a
strange metamorphosis, from the corpses of the victims. St.
Gertrude, moreover, the heathen Holda, was symbolized as a
mouse, and was said Go lead an army of mice; she was the
receiver of children's souls. Odin, also, in his character of
a Psychopompos, was followed by a host of rats.[20]
[20] Perhaps we may trace back to this source the frantic
terror which Irish servant-girls often manifest at sight of a
mouse.
As the souls of the departed are symbolized as rats, so is the
psychopomp himself often figured as a dog.
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