Hamelin

Part one, chapters one through 10, summary.

30 years later, we're in Hamelin where there's apparently a plague.

This seems to be a common occurrence.

The current plague is flies, capital F.

Yeah.

But there are a few variations.

It originates from Hamelin, Germany, and it dates back to the Middle Ages where a guy in colorful clothing offered to rid the town of its rat infestation for payment.

So he played his magical pipe, got rid of the rats, but the town people refused to pay him.

Every time you struggle to peel the foil seal off a medicine bottle today, you're looking at the direct result of Chicago in '82.

The Pied Piper of Hamelin is a strange piece of medieval history.

In 1284, a guy supposedly showed up in Hamelin, Germany, used a pipe to draw all the rats out of town, and then stole the children when nobody paid him.

The oldest record was actually a church window from 1300 showing a man leading kids away.

A town record from the fourteenth century simply notes, "It is one hundred years since our children left." Something real definitely happened.

The Piper could have been a land recruiter leading young people out east to start new farms.

Or maybe a mercenary came to town and talked the local boys into joining a war where they all died in battle.

Hamelin was tiny, so losing a generation might have just meant thirty teenagers walking away forever.

Holiday Stories for Young People.

The Pied Piper of Hamelin, A Child's Story by Robert Browning.

One.

Hamelin town's in Brunswick, by famous Hanover city; The river Weser, deep and wide, Washes its wall on the southern side.

A pleasanter spot you'd never spied; But when begins my ditty, Almost five hundred years ago, To see the townsfolk suffer so From vermin, was a pity.

Two.

Great rats, small rats, lean rats, brawny rats, Brown rats, black rats, gray rats, tawny rats, Grave old plodders, gay young friskers, Fathers, mothers, uncles, cousins, Cocking tails and pricking whiskers, Families by tens and dozens, Brothers, sisters, husbands, wives— Followed the Piper for their lives.

From street to street he piped, advancing, And step for step they followed, dancing, Until they came to the river Weser, Wherein all plunged and perished, Save one who, stout as Julius Caesar, Swam across and lived to carry (As he the manuscript he cherished) To Rat-land home his commentary, Which was: "At the first shrill notes of the pipe, I heard a sound as of scraping tripe And putting apples, wondrous ripe, Into a cider-press's gripe: And a moving away of pickle-tub boards, And a leaving ajar of conserve cupboards, And a drawing the corks of train-oil flasks, And a breaking the hoops of butter-casks; And it seemed as if a voice (Sweeter far than by harp or by psaltery is breathed) Called out, 'O rats, rejoice! The world is grown to one vast rissole-tree; So munch on, crunch on, take your nuncheon, Breakfast, supper, dinner, luncheon!' And just as a bulky sugar-puncheon, All ready starved, like a great sun shone Glorious scarce an inch before me— Just as methought it said, 'Come, bore me!'— I found the Weser rolling o'er me." Eight.