Showing posts with label Pied Piper. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pied Piper. Show all posts

Jun 1, 2012

Pied Piper

Below is an excerpt from the famous Grimm brothers version of the very famous tale of the Pied Piper in which the small German town of Hamelin loses all of its children to the Piper when the mayor refuses to pay him for ridding the town of rats.

“The long procession of children soon left the town and made its way through the wood and across the forest till it reached the foot of a huge mountain. When the piper came to the dark rock, he played his pipe even louder still and a great door creaked open. Beyond lay a cave. In trooped the children behind the pied piper, and when the last child had gone into the darkness, the door creaked shut.”

Here is a quote from the wall of the Piper’s House in Hamelin today: “In the year of 1284, on the day of Saints John and Paul, the 26th of June, 130 child­ren born in Hamelin were seduced by a piper, dressed in all kinds of colors, and lost at the calvary near the koppen.”

The story is largely true, with some exaggerated parts. Many theories abound as to the factual events of that day, but the most logical seems to be that the piper represents death (death was depicted as a skeleton wearing pied clothing in the middle ages) and that the children who died were killed by the plague.

Pied means 'having two or more colors'. The word comes from middle English and is taken from the word “magpie.” Thus, the pied piper was a man wearing clothing of many colors.