*Ø* Who was the Pied Piper?
July 22, 1376 The Pied Piper came to Hamelin (Hameln), a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, and led the children out of town.
The story of the Pied Piper (Rattenfänger) of Hamelin was popularised in German by the Brothers Grimm and 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 Weser River, 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 ...
This is just a snippet of today's stories. Read all about today in folklore, historical oddities, inspiration and alternatives, with many more links, at the Wilson's Almanac Book of Days, every day. Click today's date when you're there.
July 22, 1376 The Pied Piper came to Hamelin (Hameln), a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, and led the children out of town.
The story of the Pied Piper (Rattenfänger) of Hamelin was popularised in German by the Brothers Grimm and 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 Weser River, 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 ...
This is just a snippet of today's stories. Read all about today in folklore, historical oddities, inspiration and alternatives, with many more links, at the Wilson's Almanac Book of Days, every day. Click today's date when you're there.
Pip Wilson posted item above at 2:42 PM | Permalink
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