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Author
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Comment
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cwfaerie
Registered User
(3/8/06 9:30 pm)
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The Pied Piper
My husband asked me about "The Pied Piper" (his favorite tale) this morning, and I know very little about it. A quick internet search tells me that it is a folktale (or legend), and that Robert Browning's version came from the Grimms. But when I checked my Complete Grimms (Zipes), I couldn't find it. Does anyone know other titles that the tale could be listed by or good sources for finding out more information? Thanks!
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Van45us
Registered User
(3/8/06 11:13 pm)
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Re: The Pied Piper
Here is a Pied Piper homepage with links galore:
www.ims.uni-stuttgart.de/...piper.html
and then good old Wikipedia (which even mentions Jane Yolen's novel):
www.ims.uni-stuttgart.de/...piper.html
I always was intruiged with this story, and prefered the theory that the Piper was a 13th Century bohemian type who the children followed off to live in their own commune, away from their parents. Hope the above links help.
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Writerpatrick
Registered User
(3/9/06 9:35 am)
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the true story?
The story I heard is that the tale started at the time they found the bones of a number of children at the bottom of a cliff, possibly the victim of a serial molester/murderer. The tale was a way to explain it. (Of course you'll never hear the board of tourism using that one.)
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storyteller
Registered User
(3/9/06 9:47 am)
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Re: the true story?
I always liked this story as a child but couldn't help feeling sorry for the parents...and the boy on crutches who got left behind to tell the story. Boohoohoo. I remember the picture book with the boy, exhausted, sitting watching the other kids go off into the beautiful mountains where a wall opened up and they all went in. Magical and sad. The true story must have been real sad.
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Erica Carlson
Registered User
(3/9/06 3:12 pm)
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Re: The Pied Piper
Here's an older thread that might be of interest -
Pied
Piper thread from 2004
Best,
Erica
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Van45us
Registered User
(3/9/06 7:34 pm)
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Re: The Pied Piper
Wow - I'd forgotten that thread from two years ago. It's also interesting that there was a Pied Piper legend from Newton in Britain, in the mid-14th century. There is some historical basis for the events in both this town and Hamelin, or at least more so than many traveling legends that adapt to other areas after originating in one place. While it is fun to speculate about the cause behind these stories, it can also be dangerous in that it causes revisionist theories to take the place of far less complicated ones. Whereas a Pied Piper magicking all the town's children away into Faerieland is unlikely from a realist standpoint, so is the story of a seriel killer, or a landslide (which "just happens" to kill almost every child in town and no adults), or the plague taking all the kids and no one else. I don't think those who came up with those ideas really gave them serious thought. While anything is possible, they would definitely fall into the realm of the incredible.
If this actually happened, it probably happened closely to the way it was reported, but for reasons we don't know. I'd like to know more about the supposed village or town not far from Hamelin that may be the descendents of the children who left, as that is the most likely answer. Much like the Children's Crusade, which may have included as many young adults as it did little kids, this exodus may have included adults as well. Maybe to start a new town because Hamelin was having financial (or who knows what) problems. In any case, maybe someday someone will give this legend the attention it needs to provide better answers, or proof of any of the wilder speculations.
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cwfaerie
Registered User
(3/9/06 11:13 pm)
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Re: The Pied Piper
All very good info, thank you.
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searsmith
Registered User
(3/24/06 2:55 pm)
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Re: The Pied Piper
The well-known Dracula source scholar, Radu Florescu, has just published a volume on the sources of the pied piper legend: In Search of the Pied Piper (Athena Press Pub., 2005), 244 pp.
www.amazon.com/gp/product...e&n=283155
I've just started reading this and am really enjoying it.
Kelly
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Rosemary Lake
Registered User
(3/24/06 4:26 pm)
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Re: The Pied Piper
[[ and the boy on crutches who got left behind to tell the story. Boohoohoo. I remember the picture book with the boy, exhausted, sitting watching the other kids go off into the beautiful mountains where a wall opened up and they all went in. Magical and sad. The true story must have been real sad. ]]
I expect someone just made up that part. :-) Iirc a lame person left behind (or coming in late) is a motif also used in tales quite different from this. And I'm sure there have been millions of stories about what happened to him afterwards, that mended his fortunes.
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Van45us
Registered User
(3/27/06 9:14 pm)
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Re: The Pied Piper
Searsmith, thanks a lot for the link to that book - looks like a much needed in-depth research into the topic. I'll have to get that.
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