Pied Piper of Hamelin
Legendary piper who lured rats and children from Hamelin.
Last updated
When the citizens refused to pay him, he used his magic pipe to lead away their children.[1] A piper in multicolored attire was employed by Hamelin to catch rats, according to the Pied Piper legend.[2] A manuscript from 1370, written in Latin by the monk Heinrich of Herford, contains a version describing an event in Hamelin in 1284.[3][4]
Quick Facts
- Field
- Folklore and legend
- Nationality
- German (Hamelin, Lower Saxony)
- Known for
- Leading rats and then children out of Hamelin with a magic pipe
Facts from the source article.
Key facts and history
The people of Hamelin began reckoning years after the departure and disappearance of their children.[5][4] The Middle Ages is the period from which the legend originates.[2] The initial accounts tell of a piper wearing multicolored ("pied") clothes, who was engaged by the town as a rat catcher.[2] After the townspeople broke their promise to pay him, the piper took revenge by using his pipe's magic to lead away their children.[1]
An early German narrative of the occurrence is provided by the Lüneburg manuscript, dating from approximately 1440–50.[6] According to that manuscript, a handsome, well-dressed man of thirty years came into Hamelin through the West Gate.[5][4] Playing a silver pipe, he attracted 130 children, who followed him out through the East Gate to a place called the execution place or Calvary.[5][4] At that location, the children disappeared without any trace being found.[5][4]
What the cited sources add
The Medievalists.net account notes that for more than 700 years, Hamelin has remembered a terrible event where around 130 children vanished without explanation.[4] It states that in the sixteenth century we begin to get more accounts of the events in Hamelin.[4] The Zimmer Chronicle, written by Count Froben Christoph von Zimmer, expands the story with the inclusion of rats.[4] The Medievalists.net source reports that some historians believe the story might have originated with young men from Hamelin who were killed at the Battle of Sedemunder in 1259.[4]
The University of Pittsburgh source records an inscription on a house in Hameln stating that in 1284 on the Day of John and Paul, a piper wearing clothes of many colors abducted 130 children.[7]
References
- Wikipedia, "Pied Piper of Hamelin" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Pied piper – Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary", Merriam-webster.com (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Pied Piper of Hamelin" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Hanif, "Was the Pied Piper of Hamelin real?", ARY News, 3 January 2015 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Pied Piper of Hamelin" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Richter, "John H. Richter Collection 1904-1994" (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Medievalists.net, "The Pied Piper of Hamelin: A Medieval Mass Abduction?", Medievalists.net, 2014-12-08. facts only, no text reused. medievalists.net
- Wikipedia, "Pied Piper of Hamelin" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Medievalists.net, "The Pied Piper of Hamelin: A Medieval Mass Abduction?", Medievalists.net, 2014-12-08; Mieder, "Tradition and Innovation in Folk Literature", Routledge, 2015-08-11; "The Lüneburg Manuscript – The original manuscript published digitally. HAB – Handschriftendatenbank – Handschrift lg-rb-theol-2f-25", diglib.hab.de (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Pied Piper of Hamelin" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Illustrated in Rattenfänger von Hameln (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- "The Pied Piper of Hameln and related legends from other towns", University of Pittsburgh. facts only, no text reused. pitt.edu
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Pied Piper of Hamelin (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
More in Mythological & Legendary Figures
Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Pied Piper of Hamelin (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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