Mouserinks Family

Mouserinks Family is the familyship between Madam Mouserinks and the Mouse King from the Nutcracker fandom.

The Nutcracker and the Mouse King - E.T.A. Hoffmann
Madam Mouserinks was an obnoxious mouse lady who lived with the parents of Princess Pirlipat in the castle without permission. To justify her stay, she told everyone who would listen that she was the sister of the Queen, which was not true, as evidenced by them being different species. Nonetheless, she told everyone that she shall be referred to as “Mouse Queen”. So when it came to the celebration of Pirlipat’s birth, the Mouse Queen invited herself and bothered the actual Queen while she was preparing meat for the guests. She insisted on getting some herself, but the Queen was in a good mood, so she gave her permission. However, the Queen did not expect the mouse to bring all of her relatives, including her seven sons, who greedily ate all the bacon the Queen prepared.

Once the King found out about it, he ordered court inventor Drosselmeyer for a swift execution. Drosselmeyer brought a mouse trap he invented, designed to lure in a group of mice and decapitate them all at once. However, the Mouse Queen escaped the trap unscathed, but being the sole survivor drove her mad. She swore revenge on the royal family and snuck into baby Pirlipat’s nursery, placing a curse on the young princess. When her parents found her, they were relieved that Pirlipat was unharmed, but devastated when they found out that she was cursed to become uglier every year. So Drosselmeyer took the blame for the Mouse Queen’s curse and was exiled, told not to come back before he could find a way to break the curse. It took Drosselmeyer fifteen years, but he eventually found out that a young man, who had never shaved nor won boots, had to crack the mythical nut Krakatuk (which only a boy of such requirements could crack), hand the kernel to the princess for her to eat with his eyes closed and then walk seven steps backwards without stumbling or opening his eyes for the curse to disappear.

However, when Drosselmeyer’s Nephew was chosen and was indeed the only one who could crack the nut, the boy happened to step on Madam Mouserinks while walking backwards, his spiked heel impaling her. So the curse on Pirlipat was lifted, but the nephew absorbed it instead, turning into the titular Nutcracker. To add insult to injury, Mouserinks used her last words to place a curse on the Nutcracker, her seven-headed son shall always find him every night and turn him into wooden splinters with his teeth. This is where the titular Mouse King enters the story, with his desire to kill the Nutcracker explained as wanting to avenge his mother’s death. However, the Mouse King shows a sadistic side to young Marie Stahlbaum, who was given the Nutcracker as a gift and was his appointed guardian by both her father and her godfather Drosselmeyer. In the end, the Mouserinks family was wiped out when Marie gave the Nutcracker a toy sword to defend himself.

Fanon
The Mouserinks family is not much in focus in fanworks of the original story, most likely because the backstory involving Madam Mouserinks is hard to adapt on stage.

Though the original text keeps the reason for the Mouse King having seven heads ambiguous, many think that he's his mother's failed attempt at resurrecting her seven sons.

When the Mouse King is given a proper name instead of just a title, his last name is often "Mouserinks", his first name is not agreed on.

Fandom

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