Friday, April 18, 2014

P is for Pied Piper

The story of the Pied Piper is absolutely one of the darkest of the fairy tale genre (on par with the formerly mentioned Hansel and Gretel). It began as a legend explaining the mysterious deaths of all the children in the town of Hamelin, Germany, and later chronicled by the famous Brothers Grimm. 

In the tale, the Pied Piper began as something of a hero. When the town became infested with rats, he offered the mayor his services, luring the rats to the river with his hypnotizing pipe songs, where they all drowned. However, when the mayor refused to pay him, the Piper vowed revenge, using his pipe to lure the town's children away, never to be seen again. 

The moral of the tale is obvious - keep your promise or suffer the consequences. But the consequences seem far, far greater than the original crime. It's one of the tales that leaves me cold, and one of the most frightening villains in fairy tale history. I only hope that the Pied Piper of Hamelin doesn't have any real basis as some suggest . . . 
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This post is part of the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. My theme (in case you didn't already guess) is Fairy Tales. Stay tuned for the rest of the alphabet, and if you'd like to check out the other participants, simply click here

11 comments:

  1. I visited Hamelin when I was in Germany last year. Spooky little 'rat' toys were all over the markets. I could hardly imagine wanting to add one to my stuffed animal collection.

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  2. He is a devilish character and the origin must come from the time of the plague-my guess but the devil was such a big part at the time as was death and rats

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  3. Yes this tale is deeply disturbing. And why couldn't they just pay the guy? And what happened to those kids?

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  4. I think the older you are the more disturbing the tale is, because I remember as a child it didn't chill me the way the idea does now.
    Tasha
    Tasha's Thinkings - AtoZ (Vampires)
    FB3X - AtoZ (Erotic Drabbles)

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  5. This is a great/early example of the Disproportionate Vengeance trope. I was scared of musical instruments for a while when I first heard this story as a kid. :)

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  6. The Pied Piper always confused me as a child, because I could not get my head around the fact that he took all the children away like that. Now, as an adult, I agree with you, it's a very hard story to read and the punishment far outweighed the crime.
    Sophie
    Sophie's Thoughts & Fumbles - A to Z Ghosts
    Fantasy Boys XXX - A to Z Drabblerotic

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  7. I never realized it ended with him luring the children away. Creepy.

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  8. I haven't encountered the original version in so long I forget how truly sinister that tale was.

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  9. I always used to get the Pied Piper and St. Patrick confused. Snakes, rats, kids . . .

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  10. Many of the older fairy tales are really disturbing. They've just been sanitised for new generations.

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  11. Interesting (and sad) that this was based on a real predator. I never knew that!

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