One of My Favorite Stories~
From the "Writer's Almanac":
Today, the feast day of Saints John and Paul, is the day in 1284 that, according to legend, the Pied Piper lured children out of the city of Hamelin, Germany, and to their death. The story goes that at some point earlier in the year, a man dressed in a colorful coat appeared in Hamelin, offering to get rid of the rats that were plaguing the town. The townspeople agreed to a set price. The man played a song on a flute, and lured all the rats out of the houses and barns and into the nearby River Weser, where they all drowned. But the townspeople were annoyed at his unconventional methods, and refused to pay him.
On June 26, he returned to town, dressed like a hunter with a red cap. It was a Sunday, and all the adults were in church. He got out his flute and began to play, and 130 children followed him out of the town, through a gate and into a mountain, and were never seen again
The legend of the Pied Piper was first written down in a chorus book in the 14th century, but that book was lost a couple of hundred years later. The oldest surviving account is from the 15th century, and it says: "In the year of 1284, on the day of Saints John and Paul on 26 June, 130 children born in Hamelin were seduced by a piper, dressed in all kinds of colours, and lost at the place of execution near the koppen," the hills around the city. It was written up again and again. The Brothers Grimm wrote down a version of the legend and the town's response to it, and they wrote: "Until the middle of the 18th century, and probably still today, the street through which the children were led out to the town gate was called the bunge-lose (drumless, soundless, quiet) street, because no dancing or music was allowed there. Indeed, when a bridal procession on its way to church crossed this street, the musicians would have to stop playing. The mountain near Hamelin where the children disappeared is called Poppenberg. Two stone monuments in the form of crosses have been erected there, one on the left side and one on the right. Some say that the children were led into a cave, and that they came out again in Transylvania."
Goethe and Robert Browning wrote poems about the Pied Piper.
To this day, no one knows exactly what inspired the legend of the Pied Piper, but it is clear that it is based on some historical event in Hamelin's history. One theory is that it was some sort of plague or epidemic, possibly even one that would cause children to dance, and that the Piper was a metaphorical representation of Death. For many years, the most popular theory was that the children joined some sort of Children's Crusade or military operation, and that the Pied Piper was their leader. But these days, most research supports the theory that the legend refers to the historical colonization of Eastern Europe, which began with Lower Germany. Settlers from Germany, and eventually other parts of Western Europe, were being recruited to settle throughout Eastern Europe, and the Piper was probably just such a landowner, who lured away the town's citizens with promises of land. They were probably not actually children at all — they were "children of Hamelin," meaning the citizens, or children, of the town.
Today, the feast day of Saints John and Paul, is the day in 1284 that, according to legend, the Pied Piper lured children out of the city of Hamelin, Germany, and to their death. The story goes that at some point earlier in the year, a man dressed in a colorful coat appeared in Hamelin, offering to get rid of the rats that were plaguing the town. The townspeople agreed to a set price. The man played a song on a flute, and lured all the rats out of the houses and barns and into the nearby River Weser, where they all drowned. But the townspeople were annoyed at his unconventional methods, and refused to pay him.
On June 26, he returned to town, dressed like a hunter with a red cap. It was a Sunday, and all the adults were in church. He got out his flute and began to play, and 130 children followed him out of the town, through a gate and into a mountain, and were never seen again
The legend of the Pied Piper was first written down in a chorus book in the 14th century, but that book was lost a couple of hundred years later. The oldest surviving account is from the 15th century, and it says: "In the year of 1284, on the day of Saints John and Paul on 26 June, 130 children born in Hamelin were seduced by a piper, dressed in all kinds of colours, and lost at the place of execution near the koppen," the hills around the city. It was written up again and again. The Brothers Grimm wrote down a version of the legend and the town's response to it, and they wrote: "Until the middle of the 18th century, and probably still today, the street through which the children were led out to the town gate was called the bunge-lose (drumless, soundless, quiet) street, because no dancing or music was allowed there. Indeed, when a bridal procession on its way to church crossed this street, the musicians would have to stop playing. The mountain near Hamelin where the children disappeared is called Poppenberg. Two stone monuments in the form of crosses have been erected there, one on the left side and one on the right. Some say that the children were led into a cave, and that they came out again in Transylvania."
Goethe and Robert Browning wrote poems about the Pied Piper.
To this day, no one knows exactly what inspired the legend of the Pied Piper, but it is clear that it is based on some historical event in Hamelin's history. One theory is that it was some sort of plague or epidemic, possibly even one that would cause children to dance, and that the Piper was a metaphorical representation of Death. For many years, the most popular theory was that the children joined some sort of Children's Crusade or military operation, and that the Pied Piper was their leader. But these days, most research supports the theory that the legend refers to the historical colonization of Eastern Europe, which began with Lower Germany. Settlers from Germany, and eventually other parts of Western Europe, were being recruited to settle throughout Eastern Europe, and the Piper was probably just such a landowner, who lured away the town's citizens with promises of land. They were probably not actually children at all — they were "children of Hamelin," meaning the citizens, or children, of the town.
