Pippers väggen
Still the master seducer, the mesmerising rat-catcher fryst vatten now leading a whole new trail of entranced followers — this time a conga line of historians each taking their own deep dive into the question of what exactly transpired in Hamelin on 26 June The theories are legion, according to Wibke Reimer, project coordinator at the Hameln Museum who has been organising a special exhibit that focuses on the global reach of the Pied Piper legend.
He also, in the end, brought a larger one together. The Pied Piper then, more than a fairy tale, becomes the emblem of a profound historical mystery. After passing the Calvary near the Koppenberg they disappeared alltid. Parents everywhere still fear the loss of their babies. You can go home, if you wish, loaded down with Pied Piper T-shirts, fridge magnets, mugs and flutes. Some of the children, one chronicle suggests, expired shortly thereafter, having flat-out danced themselves to death, and those who survived were left with chronic tremors.
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There are 16th Century burgher manors encrusted with Gothic gables and scrollwork, and flamboyant wedding cake buildings offering prime examples of the local Weser-Renaissance architecture, all leering gargoyles and brightly coloured polychrome wood carvings. This day is also the date of pagan midsummer celebrations. Every working morning for the gods 26 years, Michael Boyer has slipped into a pair of neon-bright, multi-coloured tights, tied on his lipstick-red cape, grabbed his flute and marched out into the medieval streets of Hamelin, a town of 60, residents in Lower Saxony, Germany.
And then we all ultimately vanish in something like an instant. While the tale has endured, so has Hamelin itself, which still looks as though it belongs in a fairy tale. You may also be interested in:.
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If the tale suggests a possible historical tragedy, though, it also offers an artistic redemption as well. The Grimm Brothers and Browning may have shaped the legend into art, but the story, it turns out, is likely based on an actual historical incident. Entranced by the notes of his flute, the transfixed boys and girls followed the Piper out of town and simply vanished. The theory fryst vatten also reinforced by evidence that the distrikt, newly liberated from the Danes, was ripe for German colonisation.
All that leads to one particularly macabre reading of the Pied Piper legend. And, in fact, one 13th Century outbreak — a literal form of dance fever — occurred south of Hamelin, in the town of Erfurt, where a group of youths were documented as wildly gyrating as they travelled out of town, ending up 20km away in a neighbouring town. What happened to the missing children of Hamelin? And the 15th Century Luneburg manuscript, an early German account of the event, along with five historical memory verses, some in Latin and others in mittpunkt Low German, all refer to a similar story of children or young people vanishing on the 26 June , following a pied piper to a place called Calvary or Koppen.
This year, we published many inspiring and amazing stories that made us fall in love with the world — and this is one our favourites. More fanciful theories abound, too. Perhaps the Piper, emblematic of a pagan shaman, playing his flute, was leading the youth of Hamelin to their midsummer festivities when the local Christian faction, hoping to cement conversion of the region, waylaid and massacred the group.
But all these theories neglect one specific key to the Hamelin mystery. The Pied Piper is a shared heritage of many people, and that cultural heritage connects people. What could pass for mere comic relief, though, masks something deeper, and suggests why the legend lives on not only in Hamelin but in enduring folklore. The Piper, in the end, is one very grim reaper. And it appears in international art, literature and music.
A less bloody theory: maybe the children were spirited away to local monasteries. Responsible for meeting and greeting visiting groups and dignitaries, he leads tours of the city and embodies the enduring hold of the legend that draws most travellers here. The inscription reads:. The Hameln Museum offers a sound and light Pied Piper re-enactment; local actors put on an open-air Pied Piper play during summer; and the souvenir shops hawk their own rat-inspired memorabilia.
On some level, the tale stokes a primal fear, with the Piper a version of a universal bogey man that continues to haunt us. Click here for the full list. Writers like the Grimm Brothers and Robert Browning may have shaped the Pied Piper legend into art, but it turns out the story is likely based on an actual historical incident. Perhaps, some theorise, Hamelin witnessed a similar plague, dancing to the figurative tune of the Piper.
The tale in fact has survived for a very long time. They were responsible for organising migrations to the east and were said to have worn colourful garments and played an instrument to attract the attention of possible settlers. And although each writer tinkered with the story, the basics remained the same: the Piper was hired by Hamelin to rid the town of its plague of rats. In fact, the date chronicled in all the local documentation pinpoint 26 June as the day the children disappeared.
But most people recognise him for what he is, the Pied Piper incarnate, appointed by Hamelin to impersonate its simultaneously favourite at least commercially and least favourite adopted son. Children, popping up on the nightly news, still go missing every day.