*Ø* Blogmanac July 22, 1376 | The Pied Piper came to Hamelin
(Dates vary widely) The Pied Piper came to Hamelin (Hamlin), Brunswick, Germany, and led the children out of town.
The story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin was popularised in English by the poet Robert Browning in his narrative poem of that name.
It comes from an old German legend translated into English in 1605 by Richard Verstegan, who gave this as the date. (A 14th-century account gives the date as June 26, 1284.) The oldest remaining source is a note in Latin prose, made one and a half centuries later (1430-1450) as an addition to a 14th-century manuscript from Lüneburg.
We do know that something remarkable happened in medieval Hamelin that changed the town forever. Somehow, 130 of the town's children were taken away, and the grief imprinted itself on the village's soul such that even the town church had a stained-glass window installed that showed the children being led away by this stranger.
The stranger, dressed in pied, or multicoloured, clothing, offered to rid the town of Hamelin of its plague of rats, for an agreed price. He played his pipe and the rats followed his beguiling tune down to the WeserRiver, all drowning. The burghers of Hamelin refused to pay the piper, so he began piping his charming song and the town’s children, entranced, followed him to a mountain cave, which as if by magic sealed itself shut.
Many people have proposed explanations for the famous legend. Perhaps the most likely is that the Bishop Bruno of Olmütz (now Olomouc) went on a Crusade recruitment drive for his diocese. Many family names in Olomouc bear a strikingly similarity to those in Hamelin.
According to one writer, early editions of Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable ascribed the origin of the expression ‘to pay the piper’ (to be made accountable) to the Hamelin legend, but in the centenary edition did not. (It does appear in the online Dictionary, here.)It is probably more likely that the expression derives from the practice of paying itinerant pipe musicians for a song, as in the fuller expression, ‘He who pays the piper calls the tune”. More on this by Prof. Wolfgang Mieder.
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(Dates vary widely) The Pied Piper came to Hamelin (Hamlin), Brunswick, Germany, and led the children out of town.
The story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin was popularised in English by the poet Robert Browning in his narrative poem of that name.
It comes from an old German legend translated into English in 1605 by Richard Verstegan, who gave this as the date. (A 14th-century account gives the date as June 26, 1284.) The oldest remaining source is a note in Latin prose, made one and a half centuries later (1430-1450) as an addition to a 14th-century manuscript from Lüneburg.
We do know that something remarkable happened in medieval Hamelin that changed the town forever. Somehow, 130 of the town's children were taken away, and the grief imprinted itself on the village's soul such that even the town church had a stained-glass window installed that showed the children being led away by this stranger.
The stranger, dressed in pied, or multicoloured, clothing, offered to rid the town of Hamelin of its plague of rats, for an agreed price. He played his pipe and the rats followed his beguiling tune down to the WeserRiver, all drowning. The burghers of Hamelin refused to pay the piper, so he began piping his charming song and the town’s children, entranced, followed him to a mountain cave, which as if by magic sealed itself shut.
Many people have proposed explanations for the famous legend. Perhaps the most likely is that the Bishop Bruno of Olmütz (now Olomouc) went on a Crusade recruitment drive for his diocese. Many family names in Olomouc bear a strikingly similarity to those in Hamelin.
According to one writer, early editions of Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable ascribed the origin of the expression ‘to pay the piper’ (to be made accountable) to the Hamelin legend, but in the centenary edition did not. (It does appear in the online Dictionary, here.)It is probably more likely that the expression derives from the practice of paying itinerant pipe musicians for a song, as in the fuller expression, ‘He who pays the piper calls the tune”. More on this by Prof. Wolfgang Mieder.
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Pip Wilson posted item above at 11:29 AM | Permalink
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