The story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin is well known. This dark European folktale with unsettling themes of ingratitude and terrible vengeance has been told and retold for generations. The tale goes something like this:
In the year 1284, there was a serious rat problem in Hamelin, which was at that time a prosperous port on the river Weser in Lower Saxony, Germany. Barges full of corn and wheat arrived every day which was ground in the mills and made into bread and cakes in the bakeries. But the rats came and ate all the corn and the wheat, and the bread and the cakes, and there were fleas everywhere. Life in Hamelin became a nightmare. Desperate for a solution, the town mayor announced a prize of one thousand gold guilders to anyone who could free Hamelin of the rats.
The very next day a mysterious man in bright colorful clothing arrived in town. He claimed to be a rat-catcher, and he promised to get rid of all the mice and rats in Hamelin for the promised sum. The “Pied Piper” then took out a small fife from his pocket and began to play a tune. And as the townsfolk watched in awe, thousands of rats came scurrying out of houses and gutters and warehouses and bakeries and began to follow the Pied Piper. Still playing his fife, the Piper led the mass of mesmerized rats out of town and into the Weser River where they jumped one by one into the water and drowned.
When the Pied Piper returned to the town square to collect his prize, the mayor laughed and gave him only fifty guilders. Enraged, the Piper stomped out of town but not before swearing revenge.
A few days later was Saint John and Paul's day, and while the adults were in church, the piper returned dressed in green and began playing a different tune. This time time it wasn’t rats or mice but the town’s children who came running and dancing towards him. The swarm followed him into the mountain where he disappeared along with the children. Only a lame who couldn’t follow quickly enough, a deaf who couldn’t hear and a blind child remained behind. A total of one hundred thirty children were lost that day.
For a long time, the legend of the Pied Piper was mere folktale kept alive by generation after generation of Hamelin residents until the tale started receiving broader audience through the retelling by the Brothers Grimm. But the tale is much more than fiction. There are evidences that suggest that something deeply traumatic did happen in the German town on 26th of June 1284.
Evidences from the past
We know the precise date from an inscription on a stained-glass window on the town’s church, which stood on the town’s square until it was destroyed in 1660. The window bore the image of a piper and the words: “In the year 1284, on the day of John and Paul, it was the 26th of June, came a colourful Piper to Hamelin and led 130 children away.” The date appears again in Hamelin’s town chronicle. Against the year 1384, the entry simply said, “It is 100 years since our children left.”
The True Story Behind ‘The Pied Piper of Hamelin’
The story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin is well known. This dark European folktale with unsettling themes of ingratitude and terrible vengeance has been told and retold for generations. The tale goes something like this:
In the year 1284, there was a serious rat problem in Hamelin, which was at that time a prosperous port on the river Weser in Lower Saxony, Germany. Barges full of corn and wheat arrived every day which was ground in the mills and made into bread and cakes in the bakeries. But the rats came and ate all the corn and the wheat, and the bread and the cakes, and there were fleas everywhere. Life in Hamelin became a nightmare. Desperate for a solution, the town mayor announced a prize of one thousand gold guilders to anyone who could free Hamelin of the rats.
The very next day a mysterious man in bright colorful clothing arrived in town. He claimed to be a rat-catcher, and he promised to get rid of all the mice and rats in Hamelin for the promised sum. The “Pied Piper” then took out a small fife from his pocket and began to play a tune. And as the townsfolk watched in awe, thousands of rats came scurrying out of houses and gutters and warehouses and bakeries and began to follow the Pied Piper. Still playing his fife, the Piper led the mass of mesmerized rats out of town and into the Weser River where they jumped one by one into the water and drowned.
When the Pied Piper returned to the town square to collect his prize, the mayor laughed and gave him only fifty guilders. Enraged, the Piper stomped out of town but not before swearing revenge.
A few days later was Saint John and Paul's day, and while the adults were in church, the piper returned dressed in green and began playing a different tune. This time time it wasn’t rats or mice but the town’s children who came running and dancing towards him. The swarm followed him into the mountain where he disappeared along with the children. Only a lame who couldn’t follow quickly enough, a deaf who couldn’t hear and a blind child remained behind. A total of one hundred thirty children were lost that day.
For a long time, the legend of the Pied Piper was mere folktale kept alive by generation after generation of Hamelin residents until the tale started receiving broader audience through the retelling by the Brothers Grimm. But the tale is much more than fiction. There are evidences that suggest that something deeply traumatic did happen in the German town on 26th of June 1284.
Evidences from the past We know the precise date from an inscription on a stained-glass window on the town’s church, which stood on the town’s square until it was destroyed in 1660. The window bore the image of a piper and the words: “In the year 1284, on the day of John and Paul, it was the 26th of June, came a colourful Piper to Hamelin and led 130 children away.” The date appears again in Hamelin’s town chronicle. Against the year 1384, the entry simply said, “It is 100 years since our children left.”
https://www.amusingplanet.com/2018/12/the-true-story-behind-pied-piper-of.html
So interesting!