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{{short description|German legend}}
{{redirect|Pied Piper|other uses|Pied Piper (disambiguation)|and|Pied Piper of Hamelin (disambiguation)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2020}}
[[File:Pied piper.jpg|thumb|1592 painting of the Pied Piper copied from the glass window of Marktkirche in Hamelin]] 
[[File:Hameln1.jpg|thumb|Postcard {{lang|de|"Gruss aus Hameln"}} featuring the Pied Piper of Hamelin, 1902]]

The '''Pied Piper of Hamelin''' ({{langx|de|der Rattenfänger von Hameln}}), also known as the '''Pan Piper''' or the '''Rat-Catcher of Hamelin''', is the [[title character]] of a [[legend]] from the town of [[Hamelin]] (Hameln), [[Lower Saxony]], [[Germany]].

The legend dates back to the [[Middle Ages]]. The earliest references describe a piper, dressed in multicoloured ("[[wikt:pied|pied]]") clothing, who was a rat catcher hired by the town to lure rats away<ref>{{cite news | url=http://arynews.tv/en/pied-piper-hamelin-real | title=Was the Pied Piper of Hamelin real? | first=Anees |last=Hanif | date=3 January 2015 | work=ARY News | access-date=6 June 2015}}</ref> with his magic [[Pipe (instrument)|pipe]]. When the citizens refused to pay for this service as promised, he retaliated by using his instrument's magical power on their children, leading them away as he had the rats. This version of the story spread as folklore and has appeared in the writings of [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe]], the [[Brothers Grimm]], and [[Robert Browning]], among others. The phrase "pied piper" has become a metaphor for a person who attracts a following through charisma or false promises.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pied%20piper |title=Pied piper&nbsp;– Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary |publisher=Merriam-webster.com |access-date=7 December 2011}}</ref>

There are various theories about the origin and symbolism of the Pied Piper. Some suggest he was a symbol of hope to the people of Hamelin, which had been subjected to [[Plague (disease)|plague]]; he drove the rats from Hamelin, saving the people from the epidemic.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.hameln.de/de/der-rattenfaenger/die-rattenfaengersage/deutungsansaetze-zur-sage/ | title=Deutungsansätze zur Sage: Ein Funken Wahrheit mit einer Prise Phantasie | language=de | website=Stadt Hameln | access-date=29 December 2017}}</ref>

[[File:Palace Hotel Pied Piper Mural.jpg|thumb|1909 [[Maxfield Parrish]] mural of the Pied Piper of Hamelin at the Palace Hotel, San Francisco]]

==Plot==
In 1284, while the town of Hamelin was suffering from a [[rat]] infestation, a piper dressed in multicoloured ("pied") clothing appeared, claiming to be a rat-catcher. He promised the burgermeister a solution to their problem with the rats. The [[burgermeister]], in turn, promised to pay him 1,000 [[guilder]]s for the removal of the rats. The piper accepted and played his pipe to lure the rats into the [[Weser|Weser River]], where all the rats drowned.<ref name="UoP">{{cite web | url=http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/hameln.html#grimm245 | title =The Pied Piper of Hameln and related legends from other towns |editor-first=D. L.|editor-last=Ashliman | publisher = University of Pittsburgh |access-date=29 December 2017}}</ref>

Despite the piper's success, the burgermeister reneged on his promise and refused to pay him the full sum (reputedly reduced to 50 guilders) even going so far as to blame the piper for bringing the rats himself in an [[extortion]] attempt. Enraged, the piper stormed out of the town, vowing to return later to take [[revenge]]. On Saint [[John and Paul]]'s day, while the adults were in church, the piper returned, dressed in green like a hunter and playing his pipe. In so doing, he attracted the town's [[child]]ren. One hundred and thirty children followed him out of town and into a mountains’ cave, after which they were never seen again. Depending on the version, at most three children remained behind: one was [[Physical disability|lame]] and could not follow quickly enough, the second was [[Deafness|deaf]] and therefore could not hear the music, and the last was [[Visual impairment|blind]] and therefore unable to see where he was going. These three informed the villagers of what had happened when they came out from church.<ref name="UoP"/>

Other versions relate that the Pied Piper led the children to the top of Koppelberg Hill, where he took them to a beautiful land,<ref>{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Hameln|volume=12|pages=876}}</ref> or a place called [[Koppenberg]] Mountain,<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.trivia-library.com/b/true-story-the-pied-piper-of-hamelin-never-piped.htm | title=True Story The Pied Piper of Hamelin Never Piped| date=1975–1981 | first1=David | last1=Wallechinsky | first2=Irving | last2=Wallace | work=The People's Almanac | publisher=Trivia-Library.Com | access-date=4 September 2008}}</ref> or Transylvania. In yet other versions, he made them walk into the [[Weser]] as he did with the rats, and they all [[Drowning|drowned]]. Or, the Piper returned the children after extorting payment, or the children were returned only after the villagers paid several times the original payment in gold.<ref name="UoP"/><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.hameln.de/de/der-rattenfaenger/die-rattenfaengersage/die-sage-nach-den-bruedern-grimm/ | title =Die wohl weltweit bekannteste Version | website = Stadt Hameln |language=de |access-date=29 December 2017}}</ref>

The Hamelin street named {{lang|de|Bungelosenstrasse}} ("street without drums") is believed to be the last place that the children were seen. Ever since, music or dancing is not allowed on this street.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Cuervo |first1=Maria J. Pérez |title=The Lost Children of Hamelin |url=https://www.dailygrail.com/2019/02/the-lost-children-of-hamelin/ |website=The Daily Grail |access-date=1 April 2019 |date=19 February 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Pearson |first=Lizz |title=On the trail of the real Pied Piper |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4277707.stm |publisher=BBC |access-date=1 April 2019 |date=18 February 2005}}</ref>

==Background==
{{further|List of literary accounts of the Pied Piper}}
[[File:Rats of Hamelin.jpg|thumb|The rats of [[Hamelin]]. Illustration by [[Kate Greenaway]] for [[Robert Browning]]'s "The Pied Piper of Hamelin"]]

The earliest mention of the story seems to have been on a stained-glass window placed in the Church of Hamelin {{circa|1300}}. The window was described in several accounts between the 14th and 17th centuries.<ref>{{cite book|author=Reader's Digest|title=Reader's Digest the Truth about History: How New Evidence is Transforming the Story of the Past|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oVQYl6QGq7IC&pg=PA294|year=2003|publisher=Reader's Digest Association|isbn=978-0-7621-0523-6|page=294}}</ref> It was destroyed in 1660. Based on the surviving descriptions, a modern reconstruction of the window has been created by historian Hans Dobbertin. It features the colourful figure of the Pied Piper and several figures of children dressed in white.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.guobetty.com/blog/2021/2/6/pied-piper-of-hamelin | title=Pied Piper of Hamelin | date=6 February 2021 }}</ref>

The window is generally considered to have been created in memory of a tragic historical event for the town; Hamelin town records also apparently start with this event.{{citation needed|date=January 2024}}

Although research has been conducted for centuries, no explanation for the historical event is universally accepted as true. In any case, the rats were first added to the story in a version from {{circa|1559}} and are absent from earlier accounts.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.museum-hameln.de/museum/rattenfaenger.php | title=Der Rattenfänger von Hameln | website=Museum Hameln | language=de | access-date=29 December 2017 | archive-date=7 June 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160607112230/http://www.museum-hameln.de/museum/rattenfaenger.php | url-status=dead }}</ref>

=== 14th-century Decan Lude chorus book ===
[[Decan Lude]] of Hamelin was reported {{circa|1384}} to have in his possession a chorus book containing a [[Latin]] verse giving an eyewitness account of the event.<ref>{{cite book|last=Krogmann|first=Willy|title=Der Rattenfänger von Hameln: Eine Untersuchung über das werden der sage|date=1934|publisher=E. Ebering|page=67|language=de}}</ref>{{Explain|reason=What the eyewitness account says? Please clarify|date=February 2022}}

===15th-century Lüneburg manuscript===
The Lüneburg manuscript ({{circa|1440–50}}) gives an early German account of the event.<ref name=":0">Illustrated in [[Rattenfänger von Hameln]]</ref> An article by [[James P. O'Donnell]] in ''The Saturday Evening Post'' (24 December 1955) tells how an elderly German researcher, Heinrich Spanuth, discovered the earliest version of the story in the [[Lüneburg|Luneberg]] city archives in 1936.  

On the back of the last tattered page of a dusty chronicle called ''The Golden Chain'', written in Latin in 1370 by the monk [[Heinrich von Herford|Heinrich of Herford]], there is written in a different handwriting the following account:<ref>{{Cite book |last=Richter |first=John Henry |url=https://archive.org/details/johnhenryrichter_57_reel57/page/n9/mode/2up |title=John H. Richter Collection 1904-1994 |collaboration=Leo Baeck Institute Archives |language=de}}</ref><blockquote>''Here follows a marvellous wonder, which transpired in the town of Hamelin in the diocese of Minden, in this Year of Our Lord, 1284, on the Feast of Saints John and Paul. A certain young man thirty years of age, handsome and well-dressed, so that all who saw him admired him because of his appearance, crossed the bridges and entered the town by the West Gate. He then began to play all through the town a silver pipe of the most magnificent sort. All the children who heard his pipe, in the number of 130, followed him to the East Gate and out of the town to the so-called execution place or Calvary. There they proceeded to vanish, so that no trace of them could be found. The mothers of the children ran from town to town, but they found nothing. It is written: A voice was heard from on high, and a mother was bewailing her son. And as one counts the years according to the Year of Our Lord or according to the first, second or third year of an anniversary, so do the people in Hamelin reckon the years after the departure and disappearance of their children. This report I found in an old book. And the mother of the Dean Johann von Lüde saw the children depart.''<ref>{{Cite web|last=Medievalists.net|date=2014-12-08|title=The Pied Piper of Hamelin: A Medieval Mass Abduction?|url=https://www.medievalists.net/2014/12/pied-piper-hamelin-medieval-mass-abduction/|access-date=2021-12-13|website=Medievalists.net|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Mieder|first=Wolfgang|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8uxWCgAAQBAJ&dq=Here+follows+a+marvellous+wonder%2C+which+transpired+in+the+city+of+Hamelin+in+the+diocese+of+Minden%2C+in+the+Year+of+Our+Lord+1284%2C+on+the+Feast+of+Sts.+John+and+Paul.&pg=PA46|title=Tradition and Innovation in Folk Literature|date=2015-08-11|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-37685-9|language=en}}</ref>''<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Lüneburg Manuscript – The original manuscript published digitally. HAB – Handschriftendatenbank – Handschrift lg-rb-theol-2f-25|url=https://diglib.hab.de/?db=mss&list=ms&id=lg-rb-theol-2f-25&catalog=Fischer&image=00539|access-date=2021-12-15|website=diglib.hab.de|quote="Et mater domini Johannis de Lude decani vidit pueros recedentes" '''Notes to the quote:''' He was a Stiftsdechant, which, in German, can also be written Dekan and Dekant. In English this position is called Dean. He was a dean, not a deacon.}}</ref>''{{#tag:ref|O'Donnell translates the name "Johann von Lüde" as "John of Luede" (the original Latin sentence goes: "Et mater domini Johannis de Lude decani vidit pueros recedentes"), uses the description "Calvary Cross", and makes no mention of an execution place. O'Donnell also writes that the piper plays on a "magic silver flute". Both O'Donnell and Wolfgang Wieder write "the Weser Gate" instead of "the West Gate". All three sources translate ''decani'' with "deacon", but  he was a Stiftsdechant, which in German can also be written Dekan and Dekant. In English this position is called Dean. Johann von Lüde was a dean, not a deacon.|group="note"}}</blockquote>

=== Rattenfängerhaus ===
It is rendered in the following form in an inscription on a house known as {{lang|de|Rattenfängerhaus}} (English: "Rat Catcher's House" or [[Pied Piper's House]]) in Hamelin:<ref name=":0" />

{{verse translation|lang=de|anno 1284 am dage johannis et pauli war der 26. juni dorch einen piper mit allerley farve bekledet gewesen cxxx kinder verledet binnen hameln geboren to calvarie bi den koppen verloren|(In the year 1284 on the day of [Saints] John and Paul on 26 June 130 children born in Hamelin were lured by a piper clothed in many colours to [[Calvary]] near the Koppen, [and] lost)}}

According to author Fanny Rostek-Lühmann this is the oldest surviving account. {{lang|de|Koppen}} ([[High German]] {{lang|de|[[Kuppe]]}}, meaning a knoll or domed hill) seems to be a reference to one of several hills surrounding Hamelin. Which of them was intended by the manuscript's author remains uncertain.<ref name="Lühmann">{{cite web|last=Rostek-Lühmann|first=Fanny|title=Der Rattenfänger von Hameln|url=http://hinrich-luehmann.de/der-rattenf%C3%A4nger-von-hameln-f-r-l/|access-date=14 January 2018|publisher=Hinrich Lühmann}}</ref>

=== The Wedding House ===
A similar inscription can be found on the "Wedding-house" or Hochzeitshaus, a fine structure erected between 1610 and 1617<ref>{{Cite web|title=Museum Hameln – 400 years Hochzeitshaus|url=https://museumhameln.de/dauerausstellung_engl_fnz26/|access-date=2021-12-16|language=de-DE}}</ref> for marriage festivities, but diverted from its purpose since 1721. Behind rises the spire of the parish church of St. Nicholas which, in the words of an English book of folklore, may still "enwall stones that witness how the parents prayed, while the Piper wrought sorrow for them without":<ref>{{Cite book|last=Folklore Society (Great Britain)|url=https://archive.org/details/folklore03folkuoft/page/228/mode/2up|title=Folklore|publisher=London, Folk-lore Society|others=Robarts - University of Toronto|year=1890 }}</ref>

{{verse translation|lang=de|Nach Christi Geburt 1284 Jahr <br>Gingen bei den Koppen unter Verwahr <br>Hundert und dreissig Kinder, in Hameln geboren <br>von einem Pfeiffer verfürt und verloren|In the year of Our Lord 1284 <br>went into the Koppen under custody <br>130 children born in Hamelin<br> by a piper seduced and lost}}

=== The Town Gate ===
A portion of the town gate dating from the year 1556 is currently exhibited at the Hamelin Museum. According to Hamelin Museum, this stone is the oldest surviving sculptural evidence for the legend.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Commemorative stone (New Gate Stone) – Hameln Museum|url=https://museumhameln.de/dauerausstellung_engl_ma18/|access-date=2021-12-16|language=de-DE}}</ref> It bears the following inscription:<ref>{{Cite book|last=Mieder|first=Wolfgang|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8uxWCgAAQBAJ&dq=Anno+1556+%2F+Centu%5Bm%5D+ter+denos+C%5Bum%5D+mag%5Bus%5D+ab+urbe+puellos+%2F+Duxerat+a%5Bn%5Dte+a%5Bn%5Dnos+272.+Condita+porta+fuit&pg=PA48|title=Tradition and Innovation in Folk Literature|date=2015-08-11|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-37686-6|language=en}}</ref>

{{verse translation|lang=de|Anno 1556 / Centu[m] ter denos
C[um] mag[us] ab urbe puellos /
Duxerat a[n]te a[n]nos 272.
Condita porta fuit|In the year 1556, 
272 years after the magician 
stole 130 children from the city, 
this gate was founded.}}

=== Verses in the monastery at Hamelin ===
The Hamelin Museum writes:<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Hameln Museum – The Pied Piper in Literatur and Arts: The Children's Exodus|url=https://museumhameln.de/dauerausstellung_engl_rf09/|access-date=2021-12-16|language=de-DE}}</ref><blockquote>In the mid 14th Century, a monk from Minden, Heinrich von Herford, puts together a collection of holy legends called the "Catena Aurea".  It speaks of a "miracle" that took place in 1284 in Hamelin.  A youth appeared and played on a strange silver flute.  Every child that heard the flute, followed the stranger.  They left Hamelin by the Eastern gate and disappeared at Kalvarien Hill.  This is the oldest known account of this occurrence. Around this time a verse of rhyme is found in "zu Hameln im Kloster".  It tells about the children's disappearance.  It is written in red ink on the title page of a missal.  It bewails "the 130 beloved Hamelner children" who were "eaten alive by Calvaria".  The original verses are probably the oldest written source of this legend.  It has been missing for hundreds of years.''{{#tag:ref|''Catena Aurea'' in Latin is the same as ''The Golden Chain'' in English|group="note"}}''</blockquote>However, different versions of transcriptions of handwritten copies still exist. One was published by Heinrich Meibom in 1688.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Meibom|first=Heinrich|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SpZ-HDhhiH0C&dq=Im+Jahr+MCCLXXXIV.+na+Christi+gebort/+Tho+Hameln+worden+uthgevort/&pg=PA80|title=RERVM GERMANICARVM TOM. III. Dissertationes Historicas varii argumenti & Chronica Monasteriorum Saxoniae nonnulla continets MEIBOMIIS Auctoribus|date=1688|publisher=Typis & Sumptibus Georgii Wolffgangi Hammii, Acad. Typogr.|language=la}}</ref> Another was included by Johann Daniel Gottlieb Herr under the title Passionale Sanctorum in ''Collectanea zur Geschichte der Stadt Hameln''. His manuscript is dated 1761.<ref name="Scutts">{{Cite web|last=Scutts|first=Julian|title=Ad fontes: A Timeline of Accounts of the Pied Piper Story|url=https://www.academia.edu/5547586}}</ref> There are some Latin verses which had a prose version underneath:<ref>{{Cite book|last=Folklore Society (Great Britain)|url=https://archive.org/details/folklore03folkuoft/page/242/mode/2up|title=Folklore|publisher=London, Folk-lore Society|others=Robarts - University of Toronto|year=1890 |pages=242}}</ref>

{{verse translation|lang=de|Maria audi nos, tibi Filius nil negat. 
Post duo C. C. mille post octoginta quaterue
—Annus hic est ille, quo languet sexus uterque—
Orbantis pueros centumque triginta Joannis
Et Pauli caros Hamelenses non sine damnis,
Fatur, ut omnes eos vivos Calvaria sorpsit,
Christi tuere reos, ne tam mala res quibus obsit.

Anno millesimo ducentesimo octuagesimo quarto in die Johannis et Pauli perdiderunt Hamelenses centum et triginta pueros, qui intraverunt montem Calvariam.|Mary, hear us, for your Son denies you nothing. 
1284 is that year when members of 
both sexes languish (through weakness), 
the year of the day John and Paul, which the 130 dear children of Hamelin swept away 
and not without doom. 
It is said that Calvary swallowed them alive. 
Christ, protect the guilty so that no similar evil fate overtake them.<ref name="Scutts">{{Cite web|last=Scutts|first=Julian|title=Ad fontes: A Timeline of Accounts of the Pied Piper Story|url=https://www.academia.edu/5547586}}</ref>

In the year one thousand two hundred and eighty-four, on the day of John and Paul, the Hamelin lost a hundred and thirty children who entered Calvary mount.}}

=== 16th- and 17th-century sources ===
Somewhere between 1559 and 1565, Count [[Froben Christoph von Zimmern]] included a version in his {{lang|de|[[Zimmern Chronicle|Zimmerische Chronik]]}}.<ref>F. C. von Zimmern [attr.]: ''Zimmerische Chronik'', ed. K. A. Barack (Stuttgart, 1869), vol.&nbsp;III, pp. 198–200.</ref> This appears to be the earliest account which mentions the plague of rats. Von Zimmern dates the event only as "several hundred years ago" ({{lang|de|vor etlichen hundert jarn}} {{sic}}), so that his version throws no light on the conflict of dates (see next paragraph). Another contemporary account is that of [[Johann Weyer]] in his {{lang|la|De praestigiis daemonum}} (1563).<ref>{{cite book|last=Weyer|first=Johannes|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TgQ6AAAAcAAJ|title=De Praestigiis Daemonum, Et Incantationibus ac veneficiis|year=1568|access-date=14 January 2018}}</ref>

== Theories ==
[[File:Pied Piper2.jpg|thumb|left|The Pied Piper leads the children out of Hamelin. Illustration by Kate Greenaway for Robert Browning's "The Pied Piper of Hamelin"]]

=== Natural causes ===
{{anchor|A plague}}
A number of theories suggest that children died of some natural causes such as disease or starvation,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Wolfers |first1=D. |title=A Plaguey Piper |journal=The Lancet |date=April 1965 |volume=285 |issue=7388 |pages=756–757 |doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(65)92112-4 |pmid=14255255 }}</ref> and that the Piper was a symbolic figure of [[Personifications of death|Death]].  Analogous themes which are associated with this theory include the [[Danse macabre|Dance of Death]], {{lang|de|Totentanz}} or {{lang|fr|Danse Macabre}}, a common medieval trope. Some of the scenarios that have been suggested as fitting this theory include that the children drowned in the river Weser, were killed in a [[landslide]] or contracted some disease during an epidemic. Another modern interpretation reads the story as alluding to an event where Hamelin children were lured away by a [[paganism|pagan]] or [[heresy|heretic]] [[sect]] to forests near [[Coppenbrügge]] (the mysterious {{lang|de|Koppen}} "hills" of the poem) for ritual dancing where they all perished during a sudden landslide or collapsing [[sinkhole]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Hüsam |first=Gernot |date=1990 |title=Der Koppen-Berg der Rattenfängersage von Hameln |trans-title=The ''Koppen'' hill of Pied Piper of Hamelin legend |publisher=Coppenbrügge Museum Society}}</ref>

=== Emigration ===
Speculation on the emigration theory is based on the idea that, by the 13th century, overpopulation of the area resulted in the oldest son owning all the land and power ([[majorat]]), leaving the rest as serfs.<ref name="borsch">{{cite book |first=Stuart J |last=Borsch |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sRVKIcTQvywC&pg=PA57 |title=The Black Death in Egypt and England: A Comparative Study |publisher=University of Texas Press |date=2005 |isbn=0-292-70617-0 |page=57}}.</ref> It has also been suggested that one reason the emigration of the children was never documented was that the children were sold to a recruiter from the Baltic region of Eastern Europe, a practice that was not uncommon at the time.<ref name="Shiela Harty Page 89">{{cite book|author-first1=Sheila |author-last1=Harty|chapter=Pied Piper Revisited|editor-first1=David |editor-last1=Bridges|editor-first2=Terence H. |editor-last2=McLaughlin |title=Education And The Market Place|publisher=Routledge|year=1994|page=89|ISBN=0-7507-0348-2}}</ref> In his book ''The Pied Piper: A Handbook'', [[Wolfgang Mieder]] states that historical documents exist showing that people from the area including Hamelin did help settle parts of [[Transylvania]].<ref>{{cite book |first=Wolfgang |last=Mieder |title=The Pied Piper: A Handbook |publisher=Greenwood Press |date=2007 |page=67 |isbn=978-0-313-33464-1}}</ref> [[Emily Gerard]] reports in ''The Land Beyond the Forest'' an element of the folktale that "popular tradition has averred the Germans who about that time made their appearance in Transylvania to be no other than the lost children of Hamelin, who, having performed their long journey by subterranean passages, reissued to the light of day through the opening of a cavern known as the Almescher Höhle, in the north-east of Transylvania."<ref>{{cite book |first=Emily |last=Gerard |title=The Land Beyond the Forest: Facts, Figures, and Fancies from Transylvania |publisher=Harper & Brothers |date=1888 |page=30}}</ref> Transylvania had suffered under lengthy [[Mongol invasion of Europe|Mongol invasions]] of Central Europe, led by two grandsons of [[Genghis Khan]] and which date from around the time of the earliest appearance of the legend of the piper, the early 13th century.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.sciencenews.org/blog/science-ticker/climate-probably-stopped-mongols-cold-hungary?tgt=nr | title= Climate probably stopped Mongols cold in Hungary | work=Science News |first=Helen |last=Thompson |date=26 May 2016}}</ref>

In the version of the legend posted on the official website for the town of Hamelin, another aspect of the emigration theory is presented:

<blockquote>Among the various interpretations, reference to the colonization of East Europe starting from Low Germany is the most plausible one: The "Children of Hameln" would have been in those days citizens willing to emigrate being recruited by landowners to settle in Moravia, East Prussia, Pomerania or in the Teutonic Land. It is assumed that in past times all people of a town were referred to as "children of the town" or "town children" as is frequently done today. The "Legend of the children's Exodus" was later connected to the "Legend of expelling the rats". This most certainly refers to the rat plagues being a great threat in the medieval milling town and the more or less successful professional ''rat catchers''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.hameln.com/tourism/piedpiper/rf_sage_gb.htm |title=The Legend of the Pied Piper |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110724082820/http://www.hameln.com/tourism/piedpiper/rf_sage_gb.htm |archive-date=24 July 2011 |website=Rattenfängerstadt Hameln |access-date=3 September 2008}}</ref></blockquote>

The theory is provided credence by the fact that family names common to Hamelin at the time "show up with surprising frequency in the areas of Uckermark and Prignitz, near Berlin."<ref>{{Cite web|last=Kadushin|first=Raphael|title=The grim truth behind the Pied Piper|url=https://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20200902-the-grim-truth-behind-the-pied-piper|access-date=2020-10-28|website=www.bbc.com|date=3 September 2020 |language=en}}</ref>

[[File:Sachsenspiegel-Ostsiedlung.jpg|thumb|Lokator, in hat]]
Historian Ursula Sautter, citing the work of linguist Jürgen Udolph, offers this hypothesis in support of the emigration theory:

<blockquote>"After the defeat of the Danes at the [[Battle of Bornhöved (1227)|Battle of Bornhöved]] in 1227," explains Udolph, "the region south of the Baltic Sea, which was then inhabited by Slavs, became available for colonization by the Germans." The bishops and dukes of Pomerania, Brandenburg, Uckermark and Prignitz sent out glib "locators", medieval recruitment officers, offering rich rewards to those who were willing to move to the new lands. Thousands of young adults from Lower Saxony and Westphalia headed east. And as evidence, about a dozen Westphalian place names show up in this area. Indeed there are five villages called Hindenburg running in a straight line from Westphalia to Pomerania, as well as three eastern Spiegelbergs and a trail of etymology from Beverungen south of Hamelin to Beveringen northwest of Berlin to Beweringen in modern Poland.<ref>{{cite news |first=Ursula |last=Sautter |title=Fairy Tale Ending |work=Time International |date=27 April 1998 |page=58}}</ref></blockquote>

Udolph favours the hypothesis that the Hamelin youths wound up in what is now Poland.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/twist-in-the-tale-of-pied-pipers-kidnapping-1141174.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220526/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/twist-in-the-tale-of-pied-pipers-kidnapping-1141174.html |archive-date=26 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Twist in the tale of Pied Piper's kidnapping |first=Imre |last=Karacs |work=The Independent |location=London |date=27 January 1998 }}</ref> Genealogist Dick Eastman cited Udolph's research on Hamelin surnames that have shown up in Polish phonebooks:

<blockquote>Linguistics professor Jürgen Udolph says that 130 children did vanish on a June day in the year 1284 from the German village of Hamelin ({{lang|de|Hameln}} in German). Udolph entered all the known family names in the village at that time and then started searching for matches elsewhere. He found that the same surnames occur with amazing frequency in the regions of Prignitz and Uckermark, both north of Berlin. He also found the same surnames in the former Pomeranian region, which is now a part of Poland.

Udolph surmises that the children were actually unemployed youths who had been sucked into the German drive to colonize its new settlements in Eastern Europe. The Pied Piper may never have existed as such, but, says the professor, "There were characters known as ''[[lokator]]s'' who roamed northern Germany trying to recruit settlers for the East." Some of them were brightly dressed, and all were silver-tongued.

Professor Udolph can show that the Hamelin exodus should be linked with the [[Battle of Bornhöved (1227)|Battle of Bornhöved]] in 1227 which broke the Danish hold on Eastern Europe. That opened the way for German colonization, and by the latter part of the thirteenth century there were systematic attempts to bring able-bodied youths to Brandenburg and Pomerania. The settlement, according to the professor's name search, ended up near Starogard in what is now northwestern Poland. A village near Hamelin, for example, is called Beverungen and has an almost exact counterpart called Beveringen, near Pritzwalk, north of Berlin and another called Beweringen, near Starogard.

Local Polish telephone books list names that are not the typical Slavic names one would expect in that region. Instead, many of the names seem to be derived from German names that were common in the village of Hamelin in the thirteenth century. In fact, the names in today's Polish telephone directories include Hamel, Hamler and Hamelnikow, all apparently derived from the name of the original village.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.eogn.com/archives/news9806.htm |work=Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter |volume=3 |issue=6 |date=7 February 1998 |publisher=Ancestry Publishing |title=Pied Piper of Hamelin |access-date=5 September 2008 |first=Dick |last=Eastman |archive-date=18 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718220137/http://www.eogn.com/archives/news9806.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref></blockquote>

=== Other ===
Some theories have linked the disappearance of the children to [[mass psychogenic illness]] in the form of [[dancing mania]]. Dancing mania outbreaks occurred during the 13th century, including one in 1237 in which a large group of children travelled from [[Erfurt]] to [[Arnstadt]] (about {{cvt|20|km}}), jumping and dancing all the way,<ref name = "Marks">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ptjyzsF7tkgC |title=The Story of Hypnotism |first=Robert W. |last=Marks |publisher=Kessinger Publishing |year=2005 |isbn=978-1-4191-5424-9}}</ref> in marked similarity to the legend of the Pied Piper of Hamelin, which originated at around the same time.<ref name=oxford>{{cite journal |last= Schullian |first=D. M. |year= 1977 |title= The Dancing Pilgrims at Muelebeek | journal = Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences |publisher=Oxford University Press |volume=32 |issue=3 |pages=315–9 |pmid=326865 |doi=10.1093/jhmas/xxxii.3.315}}</ref>

Others have suggested that the children left Hamelin to be part of a [[pilgrimage]], a [[child soldier|military campaign]], or even a new [[Children's Crusade]] (which is said to have occurred in 1212) but never returned to their parents. These theories see the unnamed Piper as their leader or a recruiting agent. The townspeople made up this story (instead of recording the facts) to avoid the wrath of the church or the king.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://pages.pedf.cuni.cz/tamara-buckova/files/2015/10/Wie-liest-man_2_2015_Rattenf%C3%A4nger.pdf | title=Wie liest man ein Buch, ein Theaterstück oder einen Film?! Rattenfäger von Hameln 'Nur' eine Sage aus der Vergangenheit? | first= Tamara |last=Bučková | access-date=29 December 2017 |language=de}}</ref>

[[William Manchester]]'s ''[[A World Lit Only by Fire]]'' places the events in 1484, and further proposes that the Pied Piper was a psychopathic [[paedophile]].<ref>{{cite book|first=William |last=Manchester|title=A World Lit Only by Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance – Portrait of an Age|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ku2PNGO5Y6sC&pg=PT63|year=2009|publisher=Little, Brown|isbn=978-0-316-08279-2|page=63}}</ref>

==Adaptations==
[[File:The Lame Child.jpg|thumb|right|The Lame Child. A 19th-century illustration by [[Kate Greenaway]] for [[Robert Browning]]'s "The Pied Piper of Hamelin"]]
===Literature===
* In 1803, [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe]] wrote a poem based on the story that was later set to music by [[Hugo Wolf]]. Goethe also incorporated references to the story in his version of ''[[Goethe's Faust|Faust]]''. (The first part of the drama was first published in 1808 and the second in 1832.){{fact|date=November 2025}}
* [[Jakob Grimm|Jakob]] and [[Wilhelm Grimm]], known as the [[Brothers Grimm]], drawing from 11 sources, included the tale in their collection ''Deutsche Sagen'' (first published in 1816). According to their account, two children were left behind, as one was blind and the other lame, so neither could follow the others. The rest became the founders of Siebenbürgen ([[Transylvania]]).<ref name="Lühmann"/>
* [[Robert Browning]] wrote a poem called "The Pied Piper of Hamelin", using the 1605 [[Richard Rowlands|Verstegan]] version of the tale (the earliest account in English) and adopting the 1376 date. The poem was published in Browning's ''[[Dramatic Lyrics]]'' (1842).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lancsngfl.ac.uk/curriculum/literacy/lit_site/html/fiction/Pied_Piper/pages/master_frame_verse.htm |title=The Pied Piper of Hamelin |first=Robert |last=Browning |website=Lancashire Grid for Learning |access-date=27 July 2010}}</ref> His retelling in verse is notable for its humour, wordplay, and jingling rhymes.{{citation needed|date=September 2015}}{{according to whom|date=July 2016}}
* [[Viktor Dyk]]'s ''Krysař (The Rat-Catcher)'', published in 1915, retells the story in a slightly darker, more enigmatic way. The short novel also features the character of ''[[Faust]]''.
* In [[Marina Tsvetaeva]]'s long poem [[Marina Tsvetaeva#Satire|''liricheskaia satira, The Rat-Catcher'']] (serialized in the émigré journal ''Volia Rossii'' in 1925–1926), rats are an allegory of people influenced by Bolshevik propaganda.{{according to whom|date=July 2016}}<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://works.swarthmore.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1013&context=fac-russian | title= Review Of "The Ratcatcher: A Lyrical Satire" By M. Tsvetaeva And Translated By A. Livingstone | first=Sibelan E.S. |last=Forrester| journal=Slavic and East European Journal |volume=46 |issue=2 |pages=383–385 |date=2002| doi= 10.2307/3086191 | jstor= 3086191 | url-access=subscription }}</ref>
* [[Shel Silverstein]]'s poem "The One Who Stayed", published as part of his collection ''[[Where the Sidewalk Ends]]'' in 1974, tells the Pied Piper story from the point of view of a child who was too scared to follow him. 
* [[Gloria Skurzynski]]'s 1979 children's novel ''What Happened in Hamelin'' re-tells the Piped Piper story documenting the 1284 Hamelin events using research of medieval manuscripts, but gives the Piper an apprentice, a badly treated baker's servant, who discovers his new master's intended vengeance.
* "Emissary from Hamelin" is a short story written by Harlan Ellison, published in 1978 in the collection ''[[Strange Wine]]''.
* The paperback horror novel ''Come, Follow Me'' by Philip Michaels (Avon Books, 1983) is based on the story.
* [[China Miéville]]'s 1998 London-set novel ''[[King Rat (Miéville novel)|King Rat]]'' centers on the ancient rivalry between the rats (some of whom are portrayed as having humanlike characteristics) and the Pied Piper, who appears in the novel as a mysterious musician named Pete who infiltrates the local club-music scene.
* [[Terry Pratchett]]'s 2001 young-adult novel, ''[[The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents]]'', parodies the legend from the perspective of the rats, the piper and their handler. It was adapted as an [[The Amazing Maurice|CGI animated film]] released in 2022.
* The Piper is one of the three children of the architect in [[Garth Nix| Garth Nix’s]] [[The Keys to the Kingdom]] series. One of the main characters in the novel. Suzy Turquoise Blue, is one of the children he led away. 
*In 2011, [[Michael Morpurgo]] retold the story in a children's novel, ''[[The Pied Piper of Hamelin (2011 novel)|The Pied Piper of Hamelin]]'', illustrated by [[Emma Chichester Clark]], with a social agenda twist.<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Lempke |first1=Susan Dove |title=The Pied Piper of Hamelin |magazine=[[Horn Book Magazine]] |date=January–February 2012 |volume=88 |issue=1 |pages=108–109}}</ref>
* In 2014, [[Russell Brand]]'s ''The Pied Piper of Hamelin'' was published by Atria Books ({{ISBN|978-1-4767-9189-0}}) as Book 1 of his ''Trickster Tales'', setting the story in a more modern era and making some of the children as (and in some cases even more) repulsive as the adults. He also narrated the audiobook version (see below in "Audio").
* The short story "The Rat King" by [[John Connolly (author)|John Connolly]], first included in the 2016 edition of his novel ''[[The Book of Lost Things]]'', is a fairly faithful adaptation of the legend, but with a new ending. It was adapted for BBC Radio 4 and first broadcast on 28 October 2016.{{fact|date=November 2025}}
* ''Piper'', a 2017 liberal adaptation of the original story into a [[Young Adult]] [[graphic novel]] written by [[Jay Asher]] and Jessica Freeburg and illustrated by Jeff Stokely, from [[Penguin Books|Penguin]] imprint [[Penguin Group|Razorbill]].
* The Pied Piper is a central figure in ''[[Rainbow Valley]]'' and ''[[Rilla of Ingleside]]'' by [[Lucy Maud Montgomery]], calling, or in hindsight luring, that generation of boys off to [[World War I|war]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=The Project Gutenberg eBook of Rainbow Valley, by Lucy Maud Montgomery |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/5343/5343-h/5343-h.htm |access-date=2022-11-22 |website=www.gutenberg.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Project Gutenberg E-text of Rilla of Ingleside, by Lucy Maud Montgomery |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3796/3796-h/3796-h.htm |access-date=2022-11-22 |website=www.gutenberg.org}}</ref>
<blockquote>''"The Piper is coming nearer," he said, "he is nearer than he was that evening I saw him before. His long, shadowy cloak is blowing around him. He pipes—he pipes—and we must follow—Jem and Carl and Jerry and I—round and round the world. Listen—listen—can't you hear his wild music?"''<ref name=":1" /></blockquote>
* Matthew Cody has written a trilogy for young readers entitled ''The Secrets of the Pied Piper'', consisting of ''The Peddler's Road'' (2015, {{ISBN|978-0385755283}}), ''The Magician's Key'' (2016, {{ISBN|978-0385755283}}) and ''The Piper's Apprentice'' (2017, {{ISBN|978-0385755306}}), telling the story of two siblings who, while visiting Hamelin with their father, are transported to the Summer Isle, where the original stolen Hamelin children (who have not aged a day) now live, and must find a way to escape back to the real world.
* In 2024, ''Book 1: Hamelin'', the first book in ''The Children of the Piper'' series by Peter Smart, was published by PiperHaus ({{ISBN|978-1-966158-01-1}}) and is a fully illustrated twist on the classic tale told from the point of view of 13-year-old Sofia Müller, a  girl living in Hamelin at the time. Instead of asking for gold or silver to get rid of the town's rat infestation, the piper asks for a promise instead: because the adults of the town had not been treating the children very well, they must agree to start treating them as they wished they would have been treated when they were children themselves. A year later, after the townsfolk fail to keep their promise, the piper takes the children away.

===Film===
* ''The Pied Piper'' (1924), a combination live-action/animated silent short directed by and starring [[Walter Lantz]] and his cartoon creation "Dinky Doodle", putting the "Pied Piper" concept in a modern setting with an artist being constantly bothered by cartoon mice interrupting his work.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0015230/?ref_=ra_sb_ln |title=The Pied Piper (1924) |website=IMDB.com |access-date=29 October 2024}}{{unreliable source|date=August 2025}}</ref>
* ''[[The Pied Piper (1933 film)|The Pied Piper]]'' (16 September 1933) is a short animated film based on the story, produced by [[Walt Disney Animation Studios|Walt Disney Productions]], directed by [[Wilfred Jackson]], and released as a part of [[Walt Disney]]'s ''[[Silly Symphonies]]'' series. It stars the voice talents of [[Billy Bletcher]] as the Mayor of Hamelin.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024451/ | title=The Pied Piper (1933) | website=IMDB | access-date=29 December 2017}}{{unreliable source|date=August 2025}}</ref>
* ''Pied Piper Porky'' (1939), starring [[Porky Pig]], is a  ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' parody of the tale of the Pied Piper, in which one rat doesn't fall for Porky's tune and breaks his pipe, causing Porky to call upon a cat who's afraid of mice.
* ''The Pied Piper of Basin Street'' (1945), a [[Walter Lantz]] ''[[Swing Symphony]]'' cartoon transposing the Pied Piper story to a modern city, with the Piper playing a trombone (performed by [[Jack Teagarden]]) to lure away and capture all the rats and then after the Mayor cheats him luring away all the teenagers by impersonating "Hank Swoonatra".
* ''[[Paying the Piper]]'' (1949), starring [[Porky Pig]], is another ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' parody of the tale of the Pied Piper in which the cats aren't happy that Porky has rid the town of rats.
* [[The Pied Piper of Hamelin (1957 film)|The Pied Piper of Hamelin]] (1957), an American musical directed by [[Bretaigne Windust]], starring [[Van Johnson]], [[Claude Rains]] (in his only singing and dancing role), [[Lori Nelson]], [[Jim Backus]], and [[Kay Starr]]. 
* ''[[The Pied Piper of Guadalupe]]'' (1961), starring [[Sylvester the Cat|Sylvester]] and [[Speedy Gonzales]], is a  ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' parody of the tale of the Pied Piper in which Sylvester is inspired to imitate the Piper in order to catch all of the mice in town.
* ''[[The Pied Piper (1972 film)|The Pied Piper]]'' is a 1972 British film directed by Jacques Demy and starring [[Jack Wild]], [[Donald Pleasence]] and [[John Hurt]], featuring [[Donovan]] in the title role and [[Diana Dors]].<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6b30df2d | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160428225743/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6b30df2d | url-status=dead | archive-date=28 April 2016 | title=The Pied Piper (1972) | website=British Film Institute | access-date=29 December 2017}}</ref>
* ''Pink Piper'' is a 1976 [[List of The Pink Panther cartoons|theatrical short]] starring [[Pink Panther (character)|The Pink Panther]] in which after "The Pink Piper" unsuccessfully tries to lead a mouse out of a villager's house, he then tries to save it when the villager tries to kill the mouse himself.
* ''The Pied Piper of Hamelin'' is a 1981 stop-motion animated film by [[Cosgrove Hall]] using Robert Browning's original poem verbatim, narrated by [[Robert Hardy]]. This adaptation was later shown as an episode for the PBS series ''[[Long Ago and Far Away (TV series)|Long Ago and Far Away]]''.
* In 1986, [[Jiří Barta|Jiří Bárta]] made the animated movie ''[[The Pied Piper (1986 film)|Krysař (The Pied Piper)]]'' based more on the above-mentioned story by [[Viktor Dyk]]; the movie was accompanied by a score by [[Michael Kocáb]].
* In Atom Egoyan's ''[[The Sweet Hereafter (film)|The Sweet Hereafter]]'' (1997), the legend of the Pied Piper is a metaphor for a town's failure to protect its children.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://variety.com/1997/film/reviews/the-sweet-hereafter-1117341459/ |title=The Sweet Hereafter |first=Brendan |last=Kelly |website=Variety |date=16 May 1997 |access-date=1 April 2020}}</ref>
* In 2015, a South Korean horror movie, ''[[The Piper (2015 film)|The Piper]]'', was released. It is a loose adaptation of the Brothers Grimm tale where the Pied Piper uses the rats for his revenge to kill all the villagers except for the children whom he traps in a cave.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4718500/ | title= The Piper (2015) | publisher=IMDB | access-date=29 December 2017}}{{unreliable source|date=August 2025}}</ref>
* In 2023, [[Erlingur Thoroddsen]] directed ''The Piper'', a dark reimagining of the tale, starring [[Charlotte Hope]], [[Julian Sands]], Kate Nichols, Oliver Savell, [[Alexis Rodney]], Philipp Christopher, Salomé Chandler, Aoibhe O'Flanagan, [[Louise Gold]], [[Pippa Winslow]], and Boyan Anev.<ref>{{cite news |last=Wiseman |first=Andreas |date=2021-06-28 |title=Charlotte Hope & Julian Sands To Star In Millennium Horror 'The Piper'; Filming Underway In Bulgaria |url=https://deadline.com/2021/06/charlotte-hope-julian-sands-horror-movie-piper-bulgaria-1234782635/ |website=[[Deadline Hollywood]]}}</ref>
* Also in 2023, [[Anthony Waller]] directed ''Piper'', another dark reimagining of the tale written by Waller and Duncan Kennedy, starring [[Elizabeth Hurley]], [[Mia Jenkins]], [[Jack Stewart (actor)|Jack Stewart]] and [[Arben Bajraktaraj]] as The Piper.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13580484/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_2_tt_6_nm_2_in_0_q_The%2520Piper |website=IMDB.com |access-date=29 October 2024 | title=The Piper (2023) }}{{unreliable source|date=August 2025}}</ref>

===Television===
*[[Van Johnson]] starred as the Piper in NBC studios' adaptation: [[The Pied Piper of Hamelin (1957 film)|''The Pied Piper of Hamelin'']] (1957).
* In 1985 Robert Browning's poetic retelling of the story was adapted and directed by [[Nicholas Meyer]] as an episode of [[Shelley Duvall]]'s ''[[Faerie Tale Theatre]]'' starring [[Eric Idle]] as both the Piper and Robert Browning in the prologue and epilogue narrating the poem to a young boy.
* [[Gloria Skurzynski]]'s 1979 children's novel ''What Happened in Hamelin'' (see above in "Literature") was adapted as an episode of ''[[CBS Storybreak]]'' under the same title and released as the 3rd episode of Season 3 on 3 October 1987 and is considered to be [[lost media]].
* The cast of ''[[Peanuts]]'' did their own version of the tale in the direct-to-DVD special ''[[It's the Pied Piper, Charlie Brown]]'' (2000), which was the final special to have the involvement of original creator [[Charles Schulz]], who died before it was released.
* The 2003 television film ''The Electric Piper'', set in the United States in the 1960s, depicts the piper as a [[psychedelic rock]] guitarist modeled after [[Jimi Hendrix]].
* The Pied Piper of Hamelin was adapted in ''[[Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child]]'' where it uses jazz music. The episode featured [[Wesley Snipes]] as the Pied Piper and the music performed by [[Ronnie Laws]] as well as the voices of [[Samuel L. Jackson]] as the Mayor of Hamelin, [[Grant Shaud]] as the Mayor's assistant Toadey, [[John Ratzenberger]] and [[Richard Moll]] as respective guards Hinky and Dinky.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111996/ | title= Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child | publisher=IMDB | access-date=29 December 2017}}</ref>
* In ''[[The Sarah Jane Adventures]]'' the Pied Piper is a shapeshifting alien who manifests from people's fears. 
* In the American TV series ''[[Once Upon a Time (TV series)|Once Upon a Time]]'', the Pied Piper is revealed to be [[Peter Pan (character)|Peter Pan]], who is using pipes to call out to "lost boys" and take them away from their homes.
* In the Netflix series [[The Society (TV series)|''The Society'']], a man named Pfeiffer removes a mysterious smell from the town of West Ham, but is not paid. Two days later he takes the kids on field trip in a school bus and returns them to an alternate version of the town where the adults are not present.
*In ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' there is a villain called the Rat King who uses rats as troops; like the Pied Piper he uses a flute to charm them and even turns Master Splinter on his prized students.
* The HBO series [[Silicon Valley (TV series)|''Silicon'' ''Valley'']] centers around a [[Data compression|compression]] company called [[Pied Piper]]. The denouement of the series depicts the company as benevolent and self-sacrificing as opposed to the extortionist depiction in the fable.  One of the characters refers to the company's eponymous inspiration as "a predatory flautist who murders children in a cave."
*''[[The Grimm Variations]]'', a 2024 [[Netflix]] anime series, features a retelling of the story, in which the Pied Piper is a visitor to an isolated village who introduces an illicit picture to a teacher, who uses it to try and seduce a student.

===Audio===
* The Robert Browning poem has been recorded many times, with narrators including [[Boris Karloff]], [[Gene Kelly]], [[Ingrid Bergman]], [[Peter Ustinov]], [[Orson Welles]], [[Peggy Ashcroft]], [[Laurence Olivier]], [[Anton Lesser]] and [[David Tennant]].
* ''[[The Mickey Mouse Theater of the Air]]'' broadcast an adaptation on 13 March 1938.
* ''[[Columbia Workshop]]'' broadcast an adaptation on 21 July 1946 on CBS with [[Donald Ogden Stewart]] as the Narrator and [[Arthur Q. Bryan]] (the voice of "Elmer Fudd") as "The Mayor".
* ''[[Author's Playhouse]]'' broadcast an adaptation on 11 December 1944 on NBC.
* In 1963, the story was adapted as part of the ''[[Tale Spinners for Children]]'' vinyl record series (UAC 11017) along with an adaptation of [[Hans Christian Andersen]]'s ''[[The Tinderbox|The Tinder Box]]''.
* On 23 August 2000, ''The Amazing Ratman Story'', written by David Sheasby, was broadcast on [[BBC Radio 4]] as part of their ''[[Afternoon Play]]'' series, with [[Bernard Cribbins]] and [[Geraldine Fitzgerald]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/272e6c1ca190403d9ebf49356c590731 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241112195916/https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/272e6c1ca190403d9ebf49356c590731 |url-status=dead |archive-date=12 November 2024 |title=Afternoon Play: The Amazing Ratman Story |website=BBC Programme Index |date=23 August 2000 |access-date=12 November 2024}}</ref> In this version of the Pied Piper story, set in a retirement home, an old man makes a deal with a television crew to tell them his tale about a piper, a mayor and a town plagued with rats. The radio play has since been rebroadcast several times on [[BBC Radio 7]] and [[BBC Radio 4 Extra]].
* A reading of [[John Connolly (author)|John Connolly]]'s story ''The Rat King'' (see the entry above in "Literature"), performed by Peter Marinker, was broadcast on [[BBC Radio 4]] on 28 October 2016<ref>{{cite web |url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/b0801pfy |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241112200010/https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/b0801pfy |url-status=dead |archive-date=12 November 2024 |title=Book at Bedtime: The Rat King |website=BBC Programme Index |date=28 October 2016 |access-date=12 November 2024}}</ref> and rebroadcast on [[BBC Radio 4 Extra]] on 20 and 21 January 2019.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/m00022sh |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241112195945/https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/m00022sh |url-status=dead |archive-date=12 November 2024 |title=The Rat King by John Connolly |website=BBC Programme Index |date=20 January 2019 |access-date=12 November 2024}}</ref>
* In 2014, [[Russell Brand]] narrated the audiobook version of his book ''The Pied Piper of Hamelin'' (see above in "Literature") for Simon & Schuster Audio.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Pied-Piper-of-Hamelin-Russell-Brands-Trickster-Tales-Audiobook/B00OPJ4FSU?qid=1731420808&sr=1-5&ref_pageloadid=not_applicable&pf_rd_p=83218cca-c308-412f-bfcf-90198b687a2f&pf_rd_r=3C5T57SHD3TW5YWSWH6J&pageLoadId=cRQaK7FkQacV0trx&creativeId=0d6f6720-f41c-457e-a42b-8c8dceb62f2c&ref=a_search_c3_lProduct_1_5 |title=The Pied Piper of Hamelin: Russell Brand's Trickster Tales |website=Audible.com |access-date=12 November 2024}}</ref>
* [[Shel Silverstein]] narrated his poem "The One Who Stayed" in the audiobook recording of his collection ''[[Where the Sidewalk Ends]]'' (see above in "Literature").<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.amazon.com/Where-Sidewalk-Ends-Shel-Silverstein/dp/B000002602/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2028QJYKDTSW7&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.uMotAw0Xa1-HpL6CdN4dADkxAXKraAcI5WXnaVXe4Pyyar7VmcmcGtnZfAWU2wQ5vpvVBy5Ox1Vgcwy9ESy1i5hpI1VrncYSopTEQudSfawIc3yZlCa7A2YC2w5d5_N0fd8MSeVFxK0V8qNZoOlIz6aJx9ziSLrL0oh7cufoocJuzrb7HhLA0xYCeLEQphvd4l5BJtGIGAqKjgEL-c8Kx18J8_NfmmpOfVdUdqq8m5A.VSrVsGPW-H2cVLmeocFxVP9dKd7ljIhfNH4M5yidTYI&dib_tag=se&keywords=where+the+sidewalk+ends&qid=1731441223&s=music&sprefix=where+the+sidewalk+ends%2Cpopular%2C121&sr=1-1 |title=Shel Silverstein - Where the Sidewalk Ends |website=Amazon.com |access-date=12 November 2024}}</ref>

===Music===
* [[Karl Weigl]] composed a children's operetta ''The Pied Piper of Hamelin'' in 1934, with libretto by Helene Scheu-Riesz. Under the direction of Davide Casali, the Festival Viktor Ullmann mounted a dramatic performance of the operetta in 2021 in Italian rather than the original German.
* The 1959 album by Malvina Reynolds: 'Another Country Heard From' contains an original song about the Pied Piper. 
* The 1966 pop song [[The Pied Piper (song)|The Pied Piper]], most notably recorded by [[Crispian St. Peters]], is about the legend.
* In 1970, [[Nicolas Flagello]] composed the opera ''The Piper of Hamelin''. In 1999, Newport Classics released a recording of a live performance of the opera performed by the Metropolitan School of Music Preparatory Division, featuring ''[[Sesame Street]]'''s [[Bob McGrath]] as the Narrator and Brace Negron as the Piper.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.discogs.com/release/26920721-Nicolas-Flagello-Manhattan-School-Of-Music-Preparatory-Division-Jonathan-Strasser-Bob-McGrath-The-Pi |title=Nicolas Flagello, Manhattan School Of Music Preparatory Division, Jonathan Strasser, Bob McGrath – The Piper Of Hamelin |website=Discogs.com |date=1999 |access-date=14 November 2024}}</ref>
* In 1972, a musical version of the story titled ''The Pied Piper'' was released by [[EMI]]'s Starline Records (SRS 5144) as part of the ''David Frost Presents'' series, a series of LPs featuring [[David Frost]] narrating fairytales and supported in song and vocal dramatization by famous British comedians of the 50s & 60s, with music by [[Roger Webb]], lyrics by [[Norman Newell]] and featuring ''[[Doctor Who]]'' star [[Jon Pertwee]] as the Piper and [[Miriam Margolyes]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.discogs.com/release/7314233-David-Frost-Jon-Pertwee-John-Gower-Mike-Sammes-Singers-Miriam-Margolyes-Anthony-OKeefe-Michael-Sharv |title=David Frost Presents: The Pied Piper (of Hamelin) |website=Discogs.com |date=1972 |access-date=12 November 2024}}</ref>
* In 1985, [[Harvey Shield]]'s musical ''Hamelin: A Musical Tale from Rats to Riches'', written with Richard Jarboe and Matthew Wells, was produced off-Broadway at the Circle in the Square Downtown Theatre in Greenwich Village, New York following initial productions at the Olio in Los Angeles and Musical Theater Works in New York, running for 33 performances.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.iobdb.com/production/1826 |title=Hamelin: A Musical Tale from Rats to Riches |website=Internet Off-Broadway Database |access-date=12 November 2024}}</ref> A recording was released in 2003 under the title ''The Pied Piper of Hamelin: A Musical''.
* [[Karlheinz Stockhausen]]'s 1988 opera ''[[Montag aus Licht]]'' (part of the seven-opera cycle ''[[Licht (opera)|Licht]]'') includes a ''Kinderfänger'' (German for "child-catcher") or Pied Piper character.
* In 1989, [[W11 Opera]] premiered ''Koppelberg'', an opera they commissioned from composer [[Steve Gray (musician)|Steve Gray]] and lyricist Norman Brooke; the work was based on the Robert Browning poem.<ref name="W11opera">{{cite web|title=Koppelberg|url=http://www.w11opera.org/productions__trashed/1989-2/|website=W11 Opera|date=21 June 2012 |access-date=5 April 2017}}</ref> 
* [[Demons and Wizards (band)|Demons and Wizards]]' first album, ''[[Demons and Wizards (Demons and Wizards album)|Demons and Wizards]]'' (2000), includes a track called "The Whistler" which recounts the tale of the Pied Piper.
* In 2016, Victorian Opera presented ''The Pied Piper,'' an Opera by Richard Mills. At the Playhouse the Art Centre, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
* ''The Pied Piper'', an opera in one act based on the poem with additional material by [[Adam Cornford]] with music by [[Daniel Steven Crafts]].
* ''Ratcatcher'', a 2022 song by [[GWAR]], has GWAR's lead singer take credit for being the Piper and stealing the children when their bill went unpaid.

===Other===
*''The Town on the Edge of the End'', a comic-book version, was published by [[Walt Kelly]] in his 1954 [[Pogo (comic strip)|Pogo]] collection ''Pogo Stepmother Goose''.
* The 1995 video game [[Piper (video game)|''Piper'']] is a [[Western (genre)|Western]] re-telling of the original legend of the Pied Piper. 
* In the anime adaptation of the Japanese light novel series, ''[[Problem Children Are Coming from Another World, Aren't They?]]'' (2013), a major story revolves around the "false legend" of Pied Piper of Hamelin. The adaptation speaks in great length about the original source and the various versions of the story that sprang up throughout the years. It is stated that Weser, the representation of Natural Disaster, was the true Piper of Hamelin (meaning the children were killed by drowning or landslides).<ref>{{cite episode | title=8. It Seems that a Great Disaster will Come with the Playing of a Flute? | series=Problem Children are Coming from Another World, Aren't They? | credits=Diomeda | airdate=2 March 2013 | season=1}}</ref>

==Allusions in linguistics==
In [[linguistics]], ''[[pied-piping]]'' is the common name for the ability of question words and relative pronouns to drag other words along with them when brought to the front, as part of the phenomenon called [[Wh-movement]]. For example, in "For whom are the pictures?", the word "for" is ''pied-piped'' by "whom" away from its declarative position ("The pictures are for me"), and in "The mayor, pictures of whom adorn his office walls" both words "pictures of" are pied-piped in front of the [[relative pronoun]], which normally starts the relative clause.

Some researchers believe that the tale has inspired the common English phrase "pay the piper,"<ref name="hollow knight">{{cite web | url=http://www.deproverbio.com/DPjournal/DP,5,2,99/MIEDER/PIPER.htm | title="To pay the Piper" and the legend of "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" | first=Wolfgang | last=Mieder | work=De Proverbia Journal | volume=5 | issue=2 | date=1999 | access-date=3 September 2008 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040217202512/http://www.deproverbio.com/DPjournal/DP,5,2,99/MIEDER/PIPER.htm | archive-date=2004-02-17}}</ref> meaning to pay one's debts (or, metaphorically, face the consequences of one's decisions) rather than attempting to evade them. However, the phrase "pay the piper" may also be a [[Contraction (grammar)|contraction]] of the English [[proverb]] "he who pays the piper calls the tune."<ref name="hollow knight" /> This proverb, in contrast to the modern interpretation of paying a debt, suggests that the person who bears the financial responsibility for something also has the right to determine how it should be carried out.<ref>{{cite web|title=He who pays the piper calls the tune.|url=http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/he-who-pays-the-piper-calls-the-tune|website=Cambridge Dictionaries Online|publisher=Cambridge University Press}}</ref>

== Modernity ==
The present-day city of Hamelin continues to maintain information about the Pied Piper legend and possible origins of the story on its website.  Interest in the city's connection to the story remains so strong that, in 2009, Hamelin held a tourist festival to mark the 725th anniversary of the disappearance of the town's earlier children.<ref>{{cite web |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110701001358/http://www.pied-piper-anniversary.com/eng/News/Goosebumps-and-romance-in-Hamelin |archive-date=1 July 2011 |url=http://www.pied-piper-anniversary.com/eng/News/Goosebumps-and-romance-in-Hamelin |title=Goosebumps and romance in Hamelin |date=13 November 2008 |website=Pied Piper Anniversary}}</ref> [[Pied Piper's House|The Rat Catcher's House]] is popular with visitors, although it bears no connection to the Rat-Catcher version of the legend.  Indeed, the Rattenfängerhaus is instead associated with the story due to the earlier inscription upon its facade mentioning the legend.  The house was built much later, in 1602 and 1603.  It is now a Hamelin City-owned restaurant with a Pied Piper theme throughout.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.travelsignposts.com/Germany/sightseeing/rattenfangerhaus-hameln |title=Rattenfängerhaus – The Rat Catcher's House in Hameln |first=Helen |last=Page |date=June 2012 |website=Travelsignposts |access-date=13 October 2013}}</ref> The city also maintains an online shop with rat-themed merchandise as well as offering an officially licensed Hamelin Edition of the popular board game ''[[Monopoly (game)|Monopoly]]'' which depicts the legendary Piper on the cover.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://hmtshop.dev4u.de/shop/monopoly-hameln.php |title=Monopoly Hameln |date=January 2005 |trans-title=Hamelin Monopoly Game |access-date=13 October 2013 |language=de}}</ref>

In addition to the recent milestone festival, each year the city marks 26 June as "Rat Catcher's Day". In the United States, a similar holiday for exterminators based on Rat Catcher's Day is marked on 22 July, but has not caught on.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/07/0720_040720_rats.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180719233303/https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/07/0720_040720_rats.html |archive-date=19 July 2018|title=Rat Catcher's Day Eludes Pest Control Industry |first=John |last=Roach |work=National Geographic News |date=21 July 2004 }}</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Children's literature}}
* [[Hamelen (TV series)|''Hamelen'' (TV series)]]
* [[Hamline University]], whose mascot is the Pied Piper
* [[List of literary accounts of the Pied Piper]]

== Footnotes ==
{{reflist|group="note"}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Marco Bergmann: ''Dunkler Pfeifer&nbsp;– Die bisher ungeschriebene Lebensgeschichte des "Rattenfängers von Hameln"'', BoD, 2. Auflage 2009, {{ISBN|978-3-8391-0104-9}}.
* Hans Dobbertin: ''Quellensammlung zur Hamelner Rattenfängersage''. Schwartz, Göttingen 1970.
* Hans Dobbertin: ''Quellenaussagen zur Rattenfängersage.'' Niemeyer, Hameln 1996 (erw. Neuaufl.). {{ISBN|3-8271-9020-7}}.
* Stanisław Dubiski: ''Ile prawdy w tej legendzie?'' (How much truth is there behind the Pied Piper Legend?). [In:] "Wiedza i Życie", No 6/1999.
* [[Radu Florescu]]: ''In Search of the Pied Piper''. Athena Press 2005. {{ISBN|1-84401-339-1}}.
* Norbert Humburg: ''Der Rattenfänger von Hameln. Die berühmte Sagengestalt in Geschichte und Literatur, Malerei und Musik, auf der Bühne und im Film''. Niemeyer, Hameln 2. Aufl. 1990. {{ISBN|3-87585-122-6}}.
* Gernot Hüsam: New insights into the Pied Piper story: Hamelin's almost solved criminal case (English Edition 2024) {{ASIN| B0DQLMBGRF}}
* Peter Stephan Jungk: Der Rattenfänger von Hameln. Recherchen und Gedanken zu einem sagenhaften Mythos. [In:] "[[Neue Rundschau]]", No 105 (1994), vol.2, pp.&nbsp;67–73.
* Ullrich Junker: Rübezahl&nbsp;– Sage und Wirklichkeit. [In:] „Unser Harz. Zeitschrift für Heimatgeschichte, Brauchtum und Natur". Goslar, December 2000, pp.&nbsp;225–228.
* Wolfgang Mieder: ''Der Rattenfänger von Hameln. Die Sage in Literatur, Medien und Karikatur.'' Praesens, Wien 2002. {{ISBN|3-7069-0175-7}}.
* Aleksander R. Michalak: ''Denar dla Szczurołapa'', Replika 2018. {{ISBN|978-83-7674-703-3}}
* Heinrich Spanuth: ''Der Rattenfänger von Hameln''. Niemeyer Hameln 1951.
* Izabela Taraszczuk: Die Rattenfängersage: zur Deutung und Rezeption der Geschichte. [In:] Robert Buczek, Carsten Gansel, Paweł Zimniak, eds.: ''Germanistyka 3. Texte in Kontexten''. Zielona Góra: Oficyna Wydawnicza Uniwersytetu Zielonogórskiego 2004, pp.&nbsp;261–273. {{ISBN|83-89712-29-6}}.
* Jürgen Udolph: ''Zogen die Hamelner Aussiedler nach Mähren? Die Rattenfängersage aus namenkundlicher Sicht''. [In:] ''Niedersächsisches Jahrbuch für Landesgeschichte'' 69 (1997), pp.&nbsp;125–183. {{ISSN|0078-0561}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Pied piper}}
{{Wikisource|The Pied Piper}}
* Maria J. Pérez Cuervo: [https://mjpcuervo.com/2015/03/06/lost-children-of-hamelin/ "The Lost Children of Hamelin"]. Originally published in ''Fortean Times''. 
* [https://diglib.hab.de/?db=mss&list=ms&id=lg-rb-theol-2f-25&catalog=Fischer&image=00539 The Lüneburg Manuscript] – The original manuscript published digitally
*[https://books.google.com/books?id=qIMxAQAAMAAJ&dq=Chronica+Ecclesiae+Hamelensis&pg=RA2-PA511 Chronica Ecclesiæ Hamelensis] (1384) by Joannem de Polda, Seniorem Ecclesiæ, in ''Rerum Germanicarum tomi III : I. Historicos Germanicos'' (1688) by Heinrich Meibom
*[[D. L. Ashliman]] of the [[University of Pittsburgh]] quotes the [http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/hameln.html Grimm's "Children of Hamelin"] in full, as well as a number of similar and related legends.
* [http://www.indiana.edu/~librcsd/etext/piper/ An 1888 illustrated version of Robert Browning's poem] (Illustrated by [[Kate Greenaway]])
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20161028215939/http://www.grimmjubilaeum.com/rattenfaenger/ The 725th anniversary of the Pied Piper in 2009]
* [http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.rbc/juv.27626 ''The Pied Piper of Hamelin''] From the Collections at the [[Library of Congress]]
* [http://www.fairytalechannel.com/2008/06/grimms-saga-no-245-children-of-hameln.html A Translation of Grimm's Saga No. 245 "The Children of Hameln"]
* [http://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/culture/literature-and-creative-writing/literature/the-legend-the-pied-piper A version of the legend from Howel's Famous Letters]

{{Pied Piper}}
{{German folklore}}
{{Brothers Grimm}}
{{Goethe}}
{{Robert Browning}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Pied Piper of Hamelin| ]]
[[Category:Fictional characters from the 13th century]]
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[[Category:Fiction set in the 1280s]]
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