Pied Piper

This brief and chaste account offers little or no commentary on the few basic facts it contains. These details are precise referring as they do to:
a particular date, a particular year, the precise number of children and particular place names. No explanation concerning the nature and cause of the loss of the children is apparent.. We can only make inferences from possible hints provided by certain details:
The mention of a saint’s day and the name Calvarie seem to imply a connection with the domain of religious belief and tradition.
A further clue may lie in the reference to Koppen. Only 10 miles from Hamelin lies the village of Coppenbrügge. The resemblance of the names of Koppen the hill and the town of Coppenbrügge does not appear to be coincidental. Hans Dobbertin and other researchers have concluded that Niklas von Spiegelberg is the most likely historical person to be identified with the Pied Piper. The counts of Spiegelberg had recently established residence in Coppenbrügge before 1284. Dobbertin held the opinion that Niklas von Spiegelberg acted as a recruiting agent urging the youth of Hamelin to emigrate to areas in Pomerania and conribute to the founding colonies there. In Dobbertin’s view a contingent of 130 young people perished at sea on a voyage to the area to be colonized. Niklas von Spiegelberg mysteriously vanished from history a few weeks after the 26th of june 1284. A theory put forward by Herr Gernot Hüsam asserts that Spiegelberg led the youths of Hamelin to a high hill overlooking Coppenbrügge,previously known as the Koppenberg, where they met their end, either as the result of a natural rockfall or of a massacre. In the later case the motive of the murderer or murderers may have been the suppression of heathen or heretical rites performed near or on the Koppenberg.

2. Around 1394 #

Henricus Meibom in historia Bardewici from parchment in Hamelin monastry (lost) – rerum Germanicarum, 1688 III, p. 60).Dobbertin cites another version copied from a missal . This bears the title of Passionale Sanctorum by Johann Daniel Gottlieb Herr, Collectanea zur Geschichte der Stadt Hamelm, manuscript dated 1761

Anno millesimo ducentesimo quarto in die Johannis et Pauli, perdiderunt Hamelenes centum triginta pueros, qui intraverunt montem Calvariam, Maria audi nos, tibi Filius nil negat.

Post duo CC.mille, post octoginta (octuaginta) quaterue (quaterque),
Annus hic est ille, quo languet sexus uterque,
Orbantes /orbantis) pueros centumque triginta Joannis (Johannis)
Et Pauli caros Hamelenses, non sine damnis.
Fatur ut omnes (omnis) eos vivos Calvaria sorpsit.
Christe tuere tuos / overwritten “roes”).
Ne tam mala res obsit.

Probable wording in the original version of the account written on a parchment from which later versions were copied (Dobbertin)

Mary, hear us, for your Son denies you nothing.. 1284 is that year when members of both sexes vanish, 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 a similar evil fate not overtake them.

Comment. A clearer hint of a disaster implied a negative interpretation of the original acoount of events. Calvary at the time was identified with the mouth of hell which swallows sinners.

3. Around 1430/50

Latin version – Translation.

A very amazing miracle is to be reported which occurred in the town of Hamelin in the diocese of Minden in the year of the Lord 1284, exactly on the saints day John and Paul. A certain young man of thirty years of age, good-looking and decidedly well-dressed, so much so that all who observed him personally also admired his clothing, stepped over a bridge and came in through the Weser bridge. He had a silver pipe of strange design and began to play upon it as he passed through the town. And all the boys (or children) who heard that pipe, about 130 in number, followed him through the eastern gate, bound as for Calvary, or the place of execution, dep,arted and disappeared allowing nobody to discover where even a single one of them might remain. The mothers of the boys (children) ran from town to town abut found out nothing.

(Thus [ it is written in Matthew 2,18)]. A voice is heard in Rama, and every mother wept for her son. And just as the years of the Lord are counted or the first, second and third years of o an anniversary commemorate some great event, so in Hamelin they count the first, second and third year after the exodus and disappearance of the children. This I discovered in an old book. And the mother of the Dean Johann von Lüde saw the children depart.)

There follows an account of a fatal accident that occurred in 1347 when three brothers were suffocated after fallowing into a sewer.
Record by a third and final scribe on the closing page of an abridged version of Catena
Aurea of the monk of Minden, Heinrich von Herford (died 1370) about the exodus of the children of Hamelin.

This account is relatively free of value judgements but emphasises the emotional suffering of the mothers who had lost their children.

4. 1553 (1557)

Es ligt auch ein Berg ungeuerlich eines Puchss scus weitt von dieser statt, der istCaluaria genannt, sagten die Burger, das anno 1283 Ein groser man gesehen sey worden gleich einem spilman, welcher ein rock mit vil farben angehabt, vnd ein Pipen oder pfeiffen, damit er in der stat gepfiffen. Do sind die Kinder in der statt mit hinausgeloffen bis vff den vorgenantten Berg vund alda bey jme versuncken; alein 2 derselben Kinder sind wider nackend hamkumen, das eine verplind, das ander stumbt. Als aberdie wieiber, jre Kinder zu suchen hinausgeloffen, hat jnen der vorgenannt man gesagt: vber 300 jar wollt er wieder kommen vnd mer kinder holen, seien der 130 gewest, Furchten sich demnach die leut desselben Ortts, derselb man werde, so man 1583 zelen sol, wieder kommen.

Hans Zeitlos in the Bamberger Chronik in 1557. He was being held hostage in north Germany in 1553 and visited Hamelin in the June of that year.

Note the reference to a blind and deaf child and a prophecy of the Piper’s return. Reference to 1283 from town book “Donat” (Dobbertin).

5. 1555/6

“Von des Teuffels gewalt vnnd / boßheyt wil ich hie ein wahrhafftige/ Historiam melden. Vngefehrlich für / 180 jaren hat sichs begeben zu Ham/mel inn Sachsen an der Weser, das / der Teuffel am tag Marie Magdalen/ne inn menschlicher gestalt sichtiglich / auff den gassen vmgegangen ist, hat / gepfiffen, vnd vil kinder, kneble vund meidle an sich gelockt, vnd tum stad/thor nauß geführt an ein berg. Da er / dahin gekommen, hat er sich mit den kin/dern, der sehr vil gewest, verloren, das / niemandt gewüst, wo die kinder hin/kommen sind. Solchs hat ein Meidle, das von fern nachgefolgt, jren El/tern angezeigt,ist derwegen bald auff/ wasser vund Land an allen örtern fleis/sige nachforschung vund bestellung geschehen. Ob die kinder villeicht gesto/len vnd hinweg geführt weren word/den. Aber es hat kein mensch erfarn, wo sie hin kommen sind. Solchs hat / die Eltern höchlich betrübt, vnnd ist einschröcklich exempel götlichs Zorns /vberdie sünde. Solches alles ist be/schriben in dem Stadbuch zu Ham/mel, da es vil hoher Leut selbs gelesen / vnd gehört.

Of the Devil's power and malice I wish to relate a true historical account. About one hundred and eighty years ago it came about in Hamelin in Saxony on the river Weser that upon the dey of Mary Magdalene the Devil visibly in human form walked the lanes of Hamelin and by playing a pipe
lured after him many children, both boys and girls,leading out through the town gate to a mountain. Once there, he with the children, who were great in number, could no longer be found and nobody could tell where they had gone. Such a report a girl who had followed at some distance, passed to her parents. Consequently a diligent searchon land and water was made to ascertain whether the children had stolen and led away.But no mortal came to know where they had gone.All this greatly distressed the parents and it afforded a terrible example of God's wrath against sin. Such is written down in the town book of Hamelin and so many highstanding people could read and learn about it themselves.

Oldest printed version of the story. Jobus Fincelius, Wunderzeichen, Part 1, Foreword 1555. Report on year 1533. On 14 October flying dragons were reportedly seen in Etschland and other parts. If one subtracts 180 years, one alights on 1350, when the Donat document was on exhibition.
Reference to the day of Mary Magdalene (22 July) may have been derived from a Pommeranian version of the egend (Dobbertin). there is no obvious reason why the day of john and Paul (22nd June) or the year 1284 should be replaced by the day of Mary Magdalene (22nd July) and the year 1377. It is clear, however, that an element of continuity is can be found by the substitution of one saint's day by another. Robert Browning's famous poem makes the 22nd of july the date of the Piper's return to Hamelin, which possibly reflects his deep interest in the motif of death and resurrection inferable from the legend at one level of interpretation. Prosper Merimee evidently recognized the principle of substituting one saint's by another in his novel Chronique du Regne de Charles IX, as in this the story of the Pied piper is linked with the massacre of Huguenots on Saint Bartholomew's Eve in 1572.

This account is the first to explicitly equate the Piper with the Devil. This may be understood as the ultimate result of the Piper's possible association with occult practices. It more probably results from the climate of hysteria that attended the witchhunts and religious rancour of the sixteenth century.

6. 1565/68 The Fusion of the Original Story of the Pied Piper and the Theme of a Rat-Catcher

Almost simultaneously two writers gave accounts of the story of the Pied Piper which correspond to the popular versions of the tale with which we are familiar. These writers were Count Christoph Froben von Zimmern and Johannes Weirus (see below).
Stories about those who rid towns of rats or other vermin can be found in many traditions in places as distant from Europe as China. Rats had become associated with the notion of death, plague and evil after the Black Death of 1348 to 1352. However, the introduction of the theme of a pact and the breach of a contract must have arisen spontaneously through the fusion of the two main narrative strands composing the new version of the legend. One supposes this reflected a deep concern with financial contracts and wages, one aggravated, perhaps, by social unrest among the peasant and wage-earning classes at the end of the Middle Ages.

Report on Hamelin Piper and Ratcatcher legend in the Chronicle of the Count Froben Christoph von Zimmern and his secretary Johannes Müller.

Around 1565
Das ich aber widerumb uf die ratzenmaterie kom, so kan ich nit uerlasen, ain wunderwerk Gotes, so sich in gleichförmiger gestalt vor vil jaren mit vertreibubg der ratzen in der Statt zu Hamen in Westfalen begeben hat zu melden, dann es seiner selzamkeit und ungewöne der gedechtnus wol würdig, und darass auch wol abzunehmen, das der allmechtig in seinen gescepfn wunderbare, die auch mit menschlicher Vernunft nit zu durchgründen.
Vor etlichen hundert jarn sein die inwonner der stat Hammeln in estphaln mit ainer solchen groen anzall und viele ratzen geplagt worden, das inen ein solichs überbeschwerlich und nahendt unleidenlich gewesen. Begabt sich, das ungeferdt, oder villeucht user der verhenknus Gottes ein frembder , unbekannter man oder ain landtfarer, wie man dann vor zeiten in unsern deutschen landen die farende schueler gefunden, dahi gekommen.

Da derselbig die clag und beschwerdt der burger vernommen, hat er sich erpotten, wo sie im dafür lonen und ein willen machen, welle er inen der ratzen allerdings abhelfen.
 Solchs seins anbringens sein sie wol erfrewt, haben im uf sein vordern und begern ein zimliche anzal gelts uf etlich hundert guldin versprochen und zugesagt. Uf das er durch alle gassen der Stat mit eim pfeifle gangen, dasselbig an den mundt genommen und gepfiffen.
 Alsbaldt haben sich alle ratzen der ganzen Stat usser allen heusern versamlet und haufechtig mit ungleublicher anzall im uf dem fueß nachgelofen für die Stat. Da hat er sie in den nechst beiligenden berg verbannet, und volgends kein ratz mehr in der stat geseurt, noch gemerkt worden. Also hat er das versprochen gelt an sie, wie er dann mit inen überkommen, erfordert. Dessen haben sie sich gespert und gewidert, gleichwol sie im der abrede gestendig gewesen, haben aber doch gemaint, seitmals im nit vil mühe oder costen darauf gelofen, sondern hab die Sach geschwindt, ohne alle arbait sonder ains zimlichen oder sonderliche kunst vericht, sollte er sovil nit begern, sich beniegen lasen und ain weniges nemen.
 Es wolt aber der frembt man sich von seiner vorderung nit weisen lasen und beharret uf dem, wie sie mit im überkommen und im versprochen hetten, dann wo sie das nit theun, würde er rewenhernach, aber villeucht zu spat, volgen, und burgerschaft aber beharret uf dem, das es gar zu vil were, und wolten im nit mer geben.Also wie er sahe, das er bei ine nichs erhalten, gieng er wieder durch alle gassen der statt mit seinem pfeifle, wie vor; da sein im mertails der jungen kindt under acht oder neun jaren, die geen haben kinden, knaben und medlin, uf dem fueß nachgevolgt, für der stat zum nechsten berg. Der selbig hat sich wunderbarlich gegen inen ufgethon, und ist also so der unerkant man mit den kindern in den berg gangen. Der hat sich gleich wider beschlossen, und fürter ist weder der man oder die kinder nimmer merr gesehen worden

While on the subject of rats, I  simply cannot miss this opportunity of reporting  on a miracle by God that happened many years ago involving the expulsion of rats in the town of Hamelin in Westphalia. This event  deserves a place in human  memory on account of its unusual and strange quality, for we may gather from it evidence that the Almighty works wonders which cannot be fathomed by  human reason.

Several centuries ago the inhabitants of the town of Hamalin in Westphalia were plagued with such a great number of rats that the situation became highly distressful and well nigh unbearable. It happened whether by chance or perhaps through the providence of God that a strange and unfamiliar man or country vagrant arrived on the scene, like one of the wandering scholars who one used to come across in German domains in by-gone times. When this person heard the complaint and suffering of the townsfolk, he made an offer under the terms of which the town  would give him a reward and concession should he help them to get rid of the rats.
The town was very pleased with his offer and on his request promised him a substantial sum of money amounting to several hundred guilders. Thereupon  he passed through all the streets of the town with his small pipe, which he placed on his mouth and proceeded to play. Immediately all the rats in the whole town collected outside the houses and followed his footsteps through the town  massively, in unbelievably high numbers. Then he exiled them in the nearest mountain and so no more rats were seen or noticed in the town after that. he then claimed the promised money as per agreement with the townspeople.To this they objected and replied that, while acknowledging the agreement, they were of the opinion that since he had not incurred great efforts or costs but accomplished the task briskly without any remarkable show of skill, it was not right of him to demand too much but rather be satisfied with a modest remuneration.However, the stranger refused to relinquish his demand and insisted on having what they had agreed to and promised, threatening that if they failed to do so, he would retaliate,  perhaps with irretrievable consequences, but the town corporation remained entrenched in their position that the agreed sum was far too high and confirmed that they would not yield to his demand.
So when he saw that he would not get any change out of them, we once again went through all the street of the town with his little pipe, as he had done so before. The children of the towm, mainly boys and girls, under eight or nine years of age, followed his footsteps from the town to the nearest mountain, the which opened its side miraculously on their arrival, and so the stranger with the children went into the mountainside. This closed behind them again and after that nothing was seen of the man or the children ever again.
  . Wiewol nun damaln ein groser jammer in der ganzen stat entstanden, so haben sie doch der sach weiter nit thuen kinden, sonder dem allmechtigen bevelchen müeßen und irer aignen schuldt geben müesen. Diser wunderbarlichen geschicht zu ewig gedechtnus schreibt iezermelte stat in allen iren briefen am datum nach Christi gepurt die rechte jarzall, daran henken sie aber and nach verlierung unserer kinder in dem oder dem jar. Es ist dises schreiben sich im datum der Stat hammel nit zu hoch zu verwundern, so wir doch wissen, das im erzstift Trier gebreuchlich, so das new jar anfacht, das solichs nit schreint nach der gepurt Christi, wie in allen lendern gepreuchlich, sonder man schreibt nach der mentschwerdung christi im jar etc., und wurt das jar angefangen uf unser Frawen tag der verkindigung.

translation to follow

Notes: No emphasis on any evil character of the Piper but rather on the dishonesty of the town elders. Story seen as a testimony to the power of God. The rats did not drown in this account but were taken into a mountain. Interest in counting years from a notable event.

By Johannes Weir 1566/7

“Tibicen quidam Hammelae ad eliciendo glires conductu, sequenti rependet facinore ingratitudinem, cum illi ex pacto non satisfierent. Num (1) anno millesimo ducentesimo quarto, die uicesimo sexto Iunii, hunc tibicinem Omnicolorem nuncupatum ob uestis uarietatem, centum et treginta pueri Hammelae nati sequati sunt, in Caluarie sub montem Koppen dicto perierunt. Vnus superstes relictus narrauit. En daemonem tibicinem sanguinarium.

A certain piper, who was commissioned to drive out the rats in Hamelin in return for a certain wage, exacted retribution for the ingratitude of those who refused to pay him the contracted reward by committing the following heinous crime.
For in 1284 on the 26th of June, 130 children, born in Hamelin, followed this piper called the man of all colours on account of the appearance of his clothing and then perished at Calvary under the mountain called the "Koppen".A male who was left behind and spared the fate of the others reported this- Obviously a case of a pipe-playing blood-sucking demon.

(translation to be added shortly)

Johannes Weier De praestigiis …

1605 First version of the piper story in English and the primary source on which Robert Browning based his famous poem on the theme of the pied Piper

I cannot omit for the strangenes thereof briefly heer by the way to set it down. There came into the town of Hamel in the countrey of Brunswyc an od kind of compagnion, who the fantastical cote which hee wore being wrought with sundry colours, was called the pyed pyper; for a pyper hhe was, besides his other qualities.. this fellow forsooth offred the townsmen for a certain somme f mony to rid the town of all the rattes that were in it (for at that tyme the burgers were with the vermin greatly annoyed.) The accord of fine being made; the pyed pyper with a shrill pype went pyping through the streets, and foorth with the rates came all running out of the howses in great numbers after him; all wich hee led vnto the riuer of Weaser and therein drowned them. This donne, and no one rat more perceaued to bee left in the town, he afterward came to demaund his reward according to his bargain, but being told that the bargain was not made with him in good earnest, to wit, with an opinion that euer hee could bee able to do such a feat; they cared not what tey accorded vnto, when they imagined it could euer bee deserued, and so neuer bee demaunded, but neuerthelesse seeing he had donne such an vnlykely thing in deed, they were content to give him a good reward; and so offered him him far lesse then hee lookt for: but hee therewith discontented, said hee would haue his ful recompence according to his bargain, but they vtterly denying to give it to him, hee threatened them with reuenge; they had him do his wurst, wherevpon he betakes him again to his pype, and going through the streets as before, was followed of a number of boyes out one of the gates of the citie, and coming to a little hil, there opened in the side thereof a wyde hole, into which himself and all the children being in number one hundred and thirty, did enter; and being entred, the hil closd vp again, and became as before. A boy that being lame and came somewhat lagging behind the rest, seeing this that hapned, returned presently back and told what what hee had seen; forthwith began great lamentation among the parents for their children and men were sent out with all diligence, both by land and water to enquyrie they could possibly vse, nothing more then is aforesaid could of them beevnderstood. In memorie whereof it was then ordained, that from thenceforth no drum, pype or other instrument, should bee sounded in the street leading to the gate through which they passed; nor no osterie to bee there holden. And it was also established, that from that tyme forward in all publyke writings that should bee made in that town, after the date therein set down the years of our Lord, the date of the years of the going foorth of their children should be added, the which they haue accordingly euer since continued. And this great wonder hapned on the 22. dayof Juky, in the years of our Lord one towsand three hundreth seuentie, and six.

The occasion now why the matter came vnto my remembrance in speaking of Transiluania, for that some do reporte that there are diuers found among the Saxons of Tansiluania to haue lyke surnames vnto diuers of the burgers of Hamel, and wil seem thereby to infer, that this iugler or pyed pyper, might by negromancie haue transported them thether, but this carieth little apparence of truthe; because it would haue bin almost so great a wonder vnto the Saxons of Transiluania to haue had somany strange children brought among them, they know not how, as it was to those of Hamel to lose them; and they could not but haue kept memorie of so strange a thing, yf in deed any such thing had there hapned,

Richard Verstegan, A restitution of decayed intelligence, Antwerp, 1605: London. John Norton, 1634.

To be continued