What do you think the story of The Pied Piper of Hamelin is really saying about....?

Question

....the condition of being "crippled?" What actually is the point of this part of the tale, if any? Do you think it an essential part of the account or simply a superfluous appendage tagged on the ending like the donkey's tail?

lottyjoy: In the version of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm who gathered the material for Grimms' fairy tales a blind and a lame child could not follow the piper and were left behind. See the source material generously offered by Scully below.

More specifically my inquiry revolves around the question of whether the tale (in the Grimm brothers' version) is saying anything about possible alternative benefits of lameness or blindness or incapacity of any kind you choose. For the mathematically inclined, are minuses just pluses of another kind?

I realize the story makes no explicit comment on incapacity but is there an implicit statement being made?

Answer 1

The story about the Pied Piper of Hamelin goes back to some obscure historical event that occured in the town of Hamelin (or Hameln, which is the German name). The oldest remaining source is a note in Latin prose, written down 150 years later (1430-1450) as an addition to a 14th century manuscript from Lüneburg. It was not rediscovered until 1936 (by Heinrich Spanuth).

Although there has been a lot of research, no clear explanation can be given these days of what historical event is behind the reports. Some speculate that the piper was hired by some sovereign to recruit settlers for new colonies in Eastern Europe (a popular version of the tale has the children walk through a tunnel all the way to Transsylvania; Serious research accounts see evidence that the "children" went to Moravia -- the Eastern part of the modern Czech republic). Other theories believe in a "dance epidemic", the plague, a children's crusade or some battle etc.

But to me, the pied piper's motive of taking the children away from the town is to make sure that the government will have no hope for their future (since the children is supposed to be the hiope of the future). The condition of being "crippled" may actually mean no hope because if there are no children, then what would the future hold? Besides there is one translation on the poem that mentioned crippled or lame children were the only ones left behind because they could not follow the pied piper.

Ever since the first sources, there have been new versions of the story coming up. The rat motif (which is responsible for the Pied Piper's German name -- the Ratcatcher) was added as much as 200-300 years later. A comprehesive collection of the different elements of the story was written down in 1,816 by the brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm: Die Kinder zu Hameln. (see machine-translated English version by SYSTRAN) (Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm are known from the Grimms' fairy tales -- but this story appears in a different book, about German legends). They drew upon 11 sources and their version includes among others the following motifs:

1.A blind and a lame child could not follow the piper and were left behind;
2.The piper and the children entered an underground passage that lead to Transsylvania;
3.A street in Hamelin was named after the event (the Bungelose Gasse "Drumless Lane"), and it is forbidden to sing or play an instrument in it.

Hope this information here helps. Goodluck!

Answer 2

Hamelin is an actual town in Lower Saxony, Germany. The incident with the Pied Piper is said to have happened on June 26, 1284 and may be based on a true event, although somewhat different from the tale.

For those unfamiliar with the tale, here's a quick synopsis. Hamelin had an infestation of rats, and a rat-catcher (the Pied Piper) offered to clear the town of them. The town accepted, and he did so. But when the town reneged on their promise to pay him, he kidnapped the children and took them to a magic mountain. Depending on the version, at most two children remained behind.

If this latter point happened in the historical version of the events, then it was probably kept in the story to remind us that there were some children left to tell the adults what happened. (In the Bible, in the opening chapters of the book of Job, we have a similar situation --the Devil destroys much of Job's possessions, and for each category that they fall into, there is but one person left alive to inform Job of his loss.)

Interestingly enough, Canadian musician and playwright David Warrack (most famous in recent years for his work with Maureen Forrester) wrote a musical called "Piper", which is about what happens to the children *after* they're led to the mountain. (I should know--I was involved in one production of it.) In this show, the crippled child is finally admitted to the interior of the mountain to join the other children--and later, through encouragement of a friend, he discovers he can dance.

For more information on the Pied Piper legend, see http://www.triune.de/legend .

Answer 3

I wish I knew your reference. In any telling of the story I've heard, there is no reference to anyone "criippled." Please elaborate. Thanks.
It does seem to me that it's a bit of a donkey's tail, unless these children with disabilities represent the opposite of pride and arrogance, which the dishonest townspeople were full of. Perhaps they were spared because they were more humble. I don't think it's necessary to the story. It's a stretch to try to find meaning in this little "tail."

Answer 4

I say the story is about not reneging on the deals you make. Even if you hire the devil you are still bound to pay said devil.

Answer 5

Honor your contracts, pay your bills, lest what you value most be taken from you in retribution.

Answer 6

keep your word or there will be retaliations and then one will pay dearly for breaking one's word

Answer 7

http://www.ims.uni-stuttgart.de/~jonas/piedpiper.html