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The story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin, Germany fascinated me some years ago and made me want to visit Hamelin the last time I was in Europe. To review, the town was having a problem with rats in 1284 and enlisted the help of the Piper. The Piper played a magical tune on his flute, forcing the rats to come out of the buildings in a trance and follow the Piper as he led them out of the town. But when it came time to “pay the Piper”, the town reneged, and so the Piper struck back. Coming back to the town, he again played a tune on his flute which caused the nearby children to follow him as he led them away. A number theories about the origin of the tale are mentioned in the article The Lost Children of Hamelin. Unfortunately, because of the lack of evidence from the 13th century, we cannot be certain about who the Piper was, or what the account was based upon. I think that one of the most compelling understandings of the tale is that it was largely allegorical and related to stories of disease carried by rats, such as the Black Death - something which could decimate a town's population, including large numbers of children. "Paying the Piper" suggests the larger moral lesson of being grateful to God, as well as paying one's debts even in times of trouble.
you may want to listen to the podcast 'Stuff You Missed in History Class', particularly March 9, 2009 they did one entitled: Was There Really a Pied Piper of Hamelin? I copy/pasted the description here for you:"Everyone knows the story of the Pied Piper -- but how much of this legend is factual? Learn more about the fact and fiction behind the story of the Pied Piper in this podcast from HowStuffWorks.com."
I think I downloaded a bunch of the podcasts from “Stuff you missed…” from Itunes a few months ago…will have to check to see if I got that one about the Pied Piper.
There may be some truth in the Pied Piper story. See http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article7139575.ece. At certain points in the late Middle Ages, there were companies of mercenaries, pilgrims and traveling musicians (who could have learned to play something like a bagpipe since they came to Europe via the Crusades). A piper (who played a larger bagpipe) would have been likely to travel with a mercenary band. It is certainly possible that someone learned this trick with rats and bagpipes and used it to his financial advantage. It might be possible that he or his mercenary buddies took the children in the town to use as “recruits” much as the armies do in Africa. Of course, this is total speculation, but it seems to be the simplest solution to me.This would not be the only instance where this was done. The Russian army took Jewish boys at age 12 (before the Bar Mitzvah). Most boys taken that way never returned - this was one reason for some of the mass emigrations during the mid to late 1800's; also one reason for the many Jewish boys who played instruments, which was partly to gain entrance into a gymkhana - which in turn exempted boys from military service.
Bassetmom, that's a very good observation and interesting link that you provided. That is a good point about the playing of bagpipes and the expulsion of rats. I would add that the “recruitment” of children (a la the Children's Crusade) probably did provide some sort of basis for the Pied Piper story to one degree or another. I do think that the ultimate story was likely a blending of accounts put into narrative form to provide some larger moral lesson(s).
