Hamelin's futist

The Pied Piper of Hamelin is a German legend, documented by the Brothers Grimm (whose original German title is Der Rattenfänger von Hameln, which would be translated as The Rat Hunter of Hamelin, published in the volume Deutsche Sagen in 1816), which tells the story of a mysterious misfortune that occurred in the city of Hamelin, Germany, June 26, 1284. In 1803 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe composed a poem about the legend, later set to music by Hugo Wolf. In addition, there is a famous poem in English on this subject written by Robert Browning, and an opera, Der Rattenfänger von Hameln written by Viktor Nessler.

Synopsis

In 1284 the city of Hamelin was infested with rats. One fine day a stranger appeared who offered his services to the townspeople. In exchange for a reward, he would rid them of all the rats, to which the villagers agreed. Then the unknown piper began to play his flute, and all the rats came out of their dens and holes and began to walk towards where the music was playing. Once all the rats were gathered around the piper, he began to walk and all the rats followed him to the sound of the music. The piper headed towards the Weser River and the rats, which followed him, drowned.

His mission accomplished, the man returned to the village to claim his reward, but the villagers refused to pay him. The rat hunter, very angry, would leave the town to return shortly after, on June 26 (on the feast of Saints John and Paul), seeking revenge.

While the villagers were in church, the man played his strange music on his flute again. This time it was the children, one hundred and thirty children of both sexes, who followed him to the beat of the music, and leaving the town he led them to a cave. They never saw each other again. According to some versions, some of the children remain behind, a lame child who could not follow them because he could not walk well (Berlanga Gómez, 2014), a deaf one, who only followed them out of curiosity, and another blind one, who could not see. where they were taking them and got lost, and they informed the villagers.

In other versions, the piper returns the children after the villagers pay him what they promised, or sometimes even more.

Origin

The flautist takes the kids.

The origin of the legend of the piper is unclear. The section on the children is fairly safely accepted as the original core of the story, to which the section on the expulsion of the rats at the turn of the century was added as a complement XVI.

Several interpretations have been offered about the kidnapping of children. One of the most plausible mentions the eastward expansion (Ostsiedlung) of the inhabitants of Lower Germany between the 12th and 15th centuries. The children of Hamelin would be the young people of the city who were recruited for such an undertaking.

The first mentions of this story seem to go back to a stained glass window that existed in the church of Hamelin around the year 1300. This stained glass window is described in different documents between the 16th and 17th centuries and was apparently destroyed around the XV.

Inspired by these descriptions, Hans Dobbertin created a stained glass window in modern times, the same one that can be admired today in the church of Hamelin. This work recreates an image from the legend where the colorfully dressed flutist is seen leading the children, dressed in white, out of town.

It is thought that the original stained glass window was made in memory of some tragic event that occurred in the town. However, despite numerous investigations, it has not been possible to find any historical document that attests to any fact that can be linked to this legend.

Theories that claim some credibility can be grouped into four categories:

• The children were victims of some kind of accident by which they drowned in the Weser River (which passes through Hamelin) or were buried by some landslide.

• Some children were victims of some disease that the inhabitants considered dangerous and contagious, so the children were driven out of town to protect the other inhabitants. Some form of the plague has been suggested, which is not possible because the first outbreaks of black plague arose in Europe more than half a century later.

• Children (or young people) left the village to take part in some pilgrimage or a military campaign, but they never returned to their parents. These theories present the flautist as a leader (Berlanga Gómez, 2014).

• Premysl OtaKar I delivered a certain amount of land to Bruno von Schauen Burg along with the city of Olomouc and he needed to repopulate them, for which he sent one or more agents to get settlers (Berlanga Gómez, 2014). The children, who in this case would be young, voluntarily left Hamelín to become independent and achieve a better life about 846 kilometres from their hometown (a month of march).

The most accepted theories are the last two, since numerous towns were founded in Eastern Europe at that time and by settlers of German origin. But the fact that surnames from Lower Saxony also began to emerge around Berlin at that time suggests that the recruiter was not hired by the Czech Schauen Burg, but by a Berliner some 345 kilometers or a fortnight away.. It must be considered that the German word Kinder would refer not only to children, but more generically to "the children of the people". In this case, the piper would also be a recruiter and leader of future colonists.

Furthermore, these theories are bolstered by stronger documentation. An individual named Decan Lude, originally from Hamelin, reported around 1384 that he possessed a choral book that contained a stanza that provided the testimony of someone who had seen the event with his own eyes. Lude claimed that this stanza was the work of his grandmother. This book is considered lost since the late XVII century century. The name “Decan Lude” can indicate a clerical position, that is, that of deacon (Latin: decanus, modern German: Dekan or Dechant) and Lude an old or dialectal form of Ludwig, but this has not been proven.

This stanza seems to have been handed down to the present by an inscription from 1602 or 1603, found on Bungelosenstraße in Hamelin:

Registration in ancient German located at the Rattenfängerhaus ("House of the rat hunter") of Hamelin.

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

which can be translated into Spanish as:

In the year of 1284 on the day of John and Paul
on 26 June
by a flute dressed in many colors,
130 children born in Hamelin were seduced
and were lost in the place of Calvary, near the hills.

This appears to be the earliest mention of the event. Koppen means "hills" in Old German, and seems to refer to the foothills that surround the city.

On the other hand, there is a long-established law-custom in Hamelin, which prohibits singing or playing music in a particular street of the city, out of respect for the victims of the legendary event: the so-called Bungelosenstraße, adjacent to the “House of the Flutist". During public parades with music, including wedding processions, the musical band stops playing when they reach this street and resumes the music once they have crossed it.

Other versions suggest that the children entered a hill and it was closed as if it did not exist.

Literary allusion

In the Account of Pope Innocent III, belonging to the Children's Crusade (La Croisade des Enfants), the French writer Marcel Schwob wrote in 1896:

As you know, Lord, the evil one takes pleasure in the children. In another time he adopted the figure of a rat hunter, to drag with the notes of music from his caramillo to all the little ones in the city of Hamelín. Some say that those who were fortunate drowned in the Weser River; others, who locked them in the skirt of a mountain.

In the book A Couple of Days, by Tony Vigorito, the Pied Piper of Hamelin is a virus created by the United States government.

Musical allusion

• The South Korean group BTS in the song "Pied Piper", from its mini album Love Yourself: HerHe makes an analogy with the faithful support of his group of followers.
• Mexican singer Emmanuel mentions it in the song "The Smoke Girl", when at the beginning of the song he says: "I still don't know who it is, they should know my feet, they follow it as the rats to the Hamelin flute to lose it afterwards."
• The Swedish group ABBA launched in 1980 the song "The Piper", included in its album Super Trouper, which alludes to the Flautist of Hamelin, adding medieval rhythms to the song and a Latin phrase; in the choirs it is told how the children are seduced by a strange melody, following the flautist and dancing the music for him.
• The thrash metal Megadeth band included in their album Countdown to Extinction the theme "Symphony of Destruction", where an analogy is made between the flautist of Hamelin guiding the rats with their music and humanity being guided by the symphony of destruction.
• The band of doom metal Swedish Candlemass included on their disk Nightfall a song entitled "Bewitched" (translated as Embroidered), which is lyrically a reinterpretation of the legend of the flautist of Hamelin. The song is interpreted in a more or less evil way.
• The Spanish rock band Ñu included in his album To whip (1980) a song called "El flautista", which recreates the traditional story. In this case, the Flautist appears positively portrayed as a Messianic leader who leads children to a better place, "without smoke and without rats."
• The first LP, homonymous, of the Demons & Wizards power metal band includes a song called "The Whistler" that offers a peculiar interpretation of the Grimm brothers' tale. In this case the story narrates in the first person the Flautist. This reveals that, as a vengeance for the betrayal of the closed agreement with the people of Hamelin, children are taken as food for the clan of the rats and their queen, of which he is vassal.
• the Spanish singer Joaquín Sabina mentions the story in his song "La delpira cojo", which has sung both solo and together with Joan Manuel Serrat in the series of concerts Two birds with one shot and The Titanic Orchestra.
• The rap group Ayax and Prok launched a song on February 23, 2015 called "The Hamelin flute."
• The Argentine musical and humorous group Les Luthiers interprets his particular version of the story in the show Lutherapiawith the title The Flautist and the Rats.
• The group of K-pop SHINee in his song "Everybody" refers to Hamelin's flute.
• The Spanish singer Ismael Serrano composed a song entitled "Rebellion in Hamelín", where he puts the hypothesis of what would happen if the rats decided to free themselves from the flautist.
• The group of J-rock Hello Sleepwalkers composed "Hameln wa Dono You ni Shite Fue wo Fuku no ka" (Oh, Pied Piper of Hamelin, how will you play your flute tonight?)", a song that talks about that story and is included in his album Planless Perfection.

References in audiovisual media

• In the anime Mondaiji-tachi ga Isekai Kara Kuru Sō Desu yo? Hamelin's flute is a community made up of three members, who have a demon king as their leader.^{[chuckles]required]}
• In the movie A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) relates to the Flautist of Hamelín with the origin of Freddy Krueger and his macabre relationship with children.
• In the series Silicon Valley the name of the startup founded by Richard Hendricks and around which the entire plot revolves is "El Flautista" ("Pied Piper").
• In the series Criminal Minds the main villain of the episode 12 of the season 14, entitled "Hamelin", uses sensory response through the Internet to attract his lair to the children while they sleep, with the eagerness to avenge his parents for making him look like a pedophile; this is one of the subliminal messages in the history of Hamelin's fluutist.
• In the series The Walking DeadNegan refers to the flautist in a dialogue with Maggie, at the premiere of his 11th season.

Used bibliography