The Disturbing True Story of the

Pied Piper of Hamelin

Many are familiar with the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Few realise however, that the
story is based on real events, which evolved over the years into a fairy tale made to scare
children.
For those unfamiliar with the tale, it is set in 1284 in the town of Hamelin, Lower Saxony,
Germany. This town was facing a rat infestation, and a piper, dressed in a coat of many
coloured, bright cloth, appeared. This piper promised to get rid of the rats in return for a
payment, to which the townspeople agreed too. Although the piper got rid of the rats by
leading them away with his music, the people of Hamelin reneged on their promise. The
furious piper left, vowing revenge. On the 26 th of July of that same year, the piper returned
and led the children away, never to be seen again, just as he did the rats. Nevertheless, one
or three children were left behind, depending on which version is being told. One of these
children was lame, and could not keep up, another was deaf and could not hear the music,
while the third one was blind and could not see where he was going.
The earliest known record of this story is from the town of Hamelin itself depicted in a stained
glass window created for the church of Hamelin, which dates to around 1300 AD. Although it
was destroyed in 1660, several written accounts have survived. The oldest comes from the
Lueneburg manuscript (c 1440 50), which stated: In the year of 1284, on the day of Saints
John and Paul on June 26, by a piper, clothed in many kinds of colours, 130 children born in
Hamelin were seduced, and lost at the place of execution near the koppen.

The supposed street where the children were last seen is today
called Bungelosenstrasse(street without drums), as no one is allowed to play music or dance
there. Incidentally, it is said that the rats were absent from earlier accounts, and only added
to the story around the middle of the 16 th century. Moreover, the stained glass window and
other primary written sources do not speak of the plague of rats.
If the childrens disappearance was not an act of revenge, then what was its cause? There
have been numerous theories trying to explain what happened to the children of Hamelin. For
instance, one theory suggests that the children died of some natural causes, and that the Pied
Piper was the personification of Death. By associating the rats with the Black Death, it has
been suggested that the children were victims of this plague. Yet, the Black Death was most
severe in Europe between 1348 and 1350, more than half a century after the event in
Hamelin. Another theory suggests that the children were actually sent away by their parents,
due to the extreme poverty that they were living in. Yet another theory speculates that the
children were participants of a doomed Childrens Crusade, and might have ended up in
modern day Romania, or that the departure of Hamelin's children is tied to the Ostsiedlung, in
which a number of Germans left their homes to colonize Eastern Europe. One of the darker
theories even proposes that the Pied Piper was actually a paedophile who crept into the town
of Hamelin to abduct children during their sleep.
Robert Browning: Poems Summary and
Analysis of "The Pied Piper of Hamelin"
Summary
The speaker introduces the lovely river town of Hamelin in Brunswick and tells of its serious vermin
problem 500 years before. Rats had overrun the city, to the point that the public demanded of the
Mayor and "our Corporation" that the rats be destroyed or else the people would remove them from
power.
The Mayor and Corporation have a stressful meeting, but can discover no viable option until "the
strangest figure" arrives. He is extremely gangly, garbed in bizarrely colored clothing, and old-
fashioned. They also notice he has a flute hanging around his neck, which he continues to finger while
they talk. He explains that he has heard of their problem and has a "secret charm" that leads creatures to
follow him when he wants. He says he uses his talent "on creatures that do people harm" and asks for
one thousand gilders if he can rid the town of rats. They quickly up his offer to 50,000 gilders.
The piper heads outside and begins to play his flute. Almost immediately, the rats come out from
everywhere and follow him as he plays and dances through the streets, until he finally gets to the river
and leads them all to their deaths by drowning. Only one rat escapes, and the speaker tells how that rat
swam to family and told the story of the Piper for the rest of his days.
Hamelin is overjoyed and immediately sets to repairing itself, but the Piper interrupts their merriment
to request his 1,000 gilders. The Mayor and Corporation, suddenly wondering whether they ought to
pay a vagabond such money, apologize patronizingly and then offer him only 50 gilders. Angry, the
Piper makes a veiled threat, but the Mayor blows him off.
The Piper heads out into the street and again begins to play his flute. However, this time it is not rats,
but the children of the town who begin to follow him. The adults find themselves unable to move as
they watch the children dancing along behind the Piper as he heads out of town. Finally, the adults are
able to move and decide to follow at a distance, assuming he will sooner or later have to stop playing.
But when the Piper reaches a nearby mountain, a magic portal opens and all the children disappear with
him into it. The speaker then tells of one boy, whose lame foot prohibited him from keeping up and
who was thus left behind. He remains sad and distraught the rest of his days for not having glimpsed
whatever promise lay in the Piper's song.
Hamelin, having suffered a great tragedy in losing all its children, tried to send word to the Piper that
they would pay his fee, but to no avail. They made laws to commemorate the memories of the children
and have rebuilt since then. The speaker adds a note that there is a "tribe of alien people" in
Transylvania whose legends tell how their forbearers once rose "out of some subterranean prison,"
though nobody in the tribe understands the meaning of the legend.
The final short stanza is addressed to "Willy," and the speaker insists upon the importance of keeping
promises.

Analysis
This wonderful poem is perhaps most notable for its playfulness. It uses a delightful and simple rhyme
scheme, and the length of each stanza varies so that the story's rhythm is constantly changing. Mostly, it
follows the classic fairy tale of the Pied Piper, keeping to the same two morals.
The first moral is: "If we've promised them ought, let us keep our promise." Simply put, a man ought to
keep his word. When the Mayor and Corporation failed to deliver to the Pied Piper what he had earned,
they were counting on their power and authority to save them from any retribution, but of course
discovered the opposite to be true.
The second moral appears in the penultimate stanza: "Heaven's gate/Opens to the rich at an easy
rate/As the needle's eye takes a camel in!" A paraphrase of the Biblical verse that makes wealth and
holiness mutually exclusive, this poem suggests that concerns with worldly goods money and power
will pollute a person. Notice that, even before the Mayor and Corporation betray the Piper, their
concern for the town does not flare up until the public threatens rebellion. Those who hired the Piper
were solely concerned with material life, and their decisions ended up costing the entire town its
happiness.
The poem subtly makes a comment on economics and politics in this way. First, the use of the word
"Corporation" makes the poem more updated than the classic tale. The suggestion is that a population is
ruled not only by its government (personified by the Mayor) but also its economic systems (represented
by the Corporation). In the poem, these entities do not control the population through deceit but rather
with the support of the population. The people in this poem are content to stay quiet until their safety is
explicitly threatened, at which point they make demands of the Mayor and Corporation. Considering
that Browning lived in an age of European revolutions, it is an interesting element that seeps in and
makes the poem contemporary to his Victorian period.
Finally, one can also see in this poem Browning's fascination with artists and their relationships to their
public. In this poem, the Piper is remarkable not only for his talent, but because he is able to achieve
his "charm" not through magic but simply by the profundity of his musical talent. In his song, the
children are not duped but rather believe in a wonderful world, suggesting the power of art to evoke in
us wonderful visions. However, the flip side is that the misuse and disrespect of art can make life all the
more terrible. Not only was the Piper betrayed in terms of money, but his art was not respected fully;
rather it was treated as a tool. When this happens, he shows the town how terrible that tool can be if the
artist is not given due credit for his abilities. Though the poem is not entirely shaped in this direction, it
is an intriguing way to link this lovely little children's poem into one of Browning's most pervasive
fascinations.