First glimpses of the Pied Piper

 
The earliest existing account of the Pied Piper of Hamelin is found in the Lueneburg manuscript (c. 1440–50):

Anno 1284 am dage Johannis et Pauli
war der 26. junii
Dorch einen piper mit allerlei farve bekledet
gewesen CXXX kinder verledet binnen Hamelen gebo[re]n
to calvarie bi den koppen verloren

In the year of 1284, on the day of Saints John and Paul
on 26 June
130 children born in Hamelin were seduced
By a piper, dressed in all kinds of colors,
and lost at the place of execution near the hills.

Illustration: "The oldest picture of the Pied Piper copied from the glass window of the Market Church in Hameln/Hamelin Germany (ca.1300-1633) Painting by Augustin von Moersperg (1592)." -- Wikipedia

Everybody else has a theory -- what do you think really happened?

Comments

[Jake]

Is it just me or does the Pied Piper look suspiciously like John Wayne Gacy ?

[gail]

You're right, actually. And whatever happened to those kids, it did not involve Candyland -- except as possibly a lure.

[The Blue Unicorn]

We're going to Candy mountain, Charlie.. It's full of sweets and joy.. and joyness.

Follow us, kids!

[Ana]

Sold into slavery.

[Jake]

Does seem to correlate to some extent with the Children's Crusade tales of the early 13th century..

[Kathleen Art]

Could the children be isolated from the village because they were contaminated with "the plague"?

[gail]

I think I'd go with the slavery option because that's the only one that offers the Pied Piper an economic advantage. (Lots of children were sold into slavery during the Children's Crusade, for instance -- lured away with promise of adventure and then sold for immense profit.)

[gail]

Plague victims were isolated within their own houses and neighborhoods rather than sent out of the town. Soldiers would often be stationed at both ends of a block and nobody got out or in until everybody inside was dead and the homes could be decontaminated or burned down.

[zoe]

i think that the pied piper is acctually a clown, because of his colours, they are just like the typical clown, which every child is afraid o, its almost like a sixth sense, instinct, passed down among children across the centuries.

[Gobx]

the music gives a sense of hope, love and happiness but the children can only hear the part which gives that sense its sort of hipnosis