Astonishing Legends16 Feb 2020

The Pied Piper of Hamelin Part One

In the year 1284 CE, a remarkable and colorfully dressed young man came to the town of Hamelin in Lower Saxony, Germany. There are two documentations of this wanderer’s visit, the originals of which have since been lost. According to the contemporary Hamelin chronicle and a depiction in a stained glass window in a local church, this handsome stranger began to play his flute through the streets. Enchanted by the notes, 130 children from the town followed him into the woods, never to be seen again. In the hundreds of years since the supposedly real event occurred, the most significant addition to the story would be the reason for the mass kidnapping. After successfully ridding the town of a plague of rats using his musical pipe, the payment the piper was promised was withheld by the mayor and the town leaders. Furious at his being cheated, the magical visitor took their children as his payment. This later variation of the narrative we have all come to know as “The Pied Piper of Hamelin.” Today, we may think of this story as a children’s Fairly Tale. But as the Brothers Grimm had noted themselves, and who are partly responsible for making it known to the world, this is a legend and not a Fairy Tale. The difference is that legends are considered to be based on actual events, people, and places. In relation, it’s also said that there is a kernel of truth to every legend. If that is accurate, then the real Pied Piper event may be far more mysterious and tragic than we could have imagined, either as children or adults.

For more information on this episode visit our website!

Det här avsnittet är hämtat från ett öppet RSS-flöde och publiceras inte av Podme. Det kan innehålla reklam.

Avsnitt(443)

S2 Ep13: No Human Could Throw Books Like This

In tonight’s dead letter, we hear from a librarian who works the desk at a fairly new building down in the Southeast. But the ground it sits on has a much heavier history: the library was built right ...

8 Apr 42min

S2 Ep12: The Carousel in the Ravine (Reposted)

In tonight’s dead letter, we hear a story from a listener who along with her husband encountered something bizarre hovering low near their land down in the southernmost part of the Australian mainland...

1 Apr 41min

S2 Ep11: The Nightshift Protocol

In tonight’s dead letter, a routine room cleaning following a patient's passing turns into a puzzling technological glitch. A sensor alarm designed to protect patients from hurting themselves keeps go...

24 Mars 40min

The Disappearance of Jim Sullivan

In the lonely New Mexico desert, police discover an abandoned Volkswagen Beetle containing a 12-string guitar, a wallet, clothes, and a box of unsold records. Things a working musician would never wil...

22 Mars 2h 31min

S2 Ep10: Stranger Danger

In tonight’s Dead Letter, Forrest and Scott read a submission from Stacey, which delves into the "Uncanny Valley" phenomenon in a true-life scenario. In a coastal town already known for its dark past ...

17 Mars 40min

Live Junk Drawer Tonight on Patreon!

Tonight, Forrest and I are sitting down with Jeremiah Byron for an exclusive live video interview about the unprecedented, real-time flap of Bigfoot sightings currently moving through Northeast Ohio. ...

15 Mars 1min

S2 Ep9: Another Bunny

In tonight’s dead letter from listener Amanda, the boundary between an adorable trusted holiday icon and nocturnal terror is tested in the deep woods near the Allegheny National Forest. A massive silh...

10 Mars 44min

Through a Laser Darkly

This episode dives into one of the strangest modern consciousness experiments ever proposed. Starting with cognitive scientist Donald Hoffman’s provocative idea that reality may function like a comput...

8 Mars 2h 24min