The Pied Piper of Hamlin

When you think of fairy tales, you might think, "that's an interesting story, but there's no way it could possibly be real, right?" But with one story, the line between reality and fairy tale is a bit less clear. This story is "The Pied Piper of Hamlin."

In case you have forgotten this tale, it goes, briefly, like this:

The town of Hamlin had a huge rat problem. They were overrunning the place, eating up all the food and getting into everything. When the leaders of the city were at their wits end as to what to do about the rats, a solution appeared in the form of a handsome, although rather unusual looking young man. As if, in answer to their prayers, he simply showed up one day and offered to get rid of the rats for them. His price for doing the job was high, but the city leaders were desperate and agreed to it. The interesting young man set to work immediately. He went out into the streets of the city and began to play his flute. As if by magic, all the rats came out of their hiding places and began to follow him down the streets of the town and to the river, where they all jumped in and drowned. When the piper came back to the leaders of the city, ready to be paid for his services, the mayor and his colleagues refused to pay. He told them they would be sorry, and gave them one more chance. When they again refused, he took his flute back into the streets of the city and began again to play. This time, the children came out and began to follow the piper down the streets and out of the town into the side of a mountain which opened up to receive them and then closed behind them all, except for one disabled little boy who couldn't keep up. No one ever saw the other children or the piper again.

Normally, most people would shrug this off as a cautionary tale about keeping promises. But when the English poet Robert Browning went to the actual town of Hamlin in Germany, back in 1876, he saw a stained glass window in the church of the town, depicting the 1376 disappearance of the children with the piper. What is odd about this fairy tale, to me, is how specific it is about the time and place that the story occurs, and about even the physical appearance of the piper.

Now I know this will sound crazy, but here's my theory; I think that in the 1300's, it was much more common for people to believe in magic and fairies. Magical beings and realms weren't so strange to them, and they quite literally believed in their existence. Could it be that the Pied Piper was a fairy, a denizen of the realm of Fae? There have been numerous accounts of beings from this other land. And there has always been some speculation that it is real and continues to exist, perhaps as another dimension, even though most of us can't see it. Almost like a radio station that we are no longer capable of picking up, because our receiver doesn't get that channel.

Let me be clear, I am not definitively saying that the piper was real, and I know there is no proof that this is anything more than a fairy tale. But, once again, the fact that the specifics of the the story were so, well, specific, I am simply offering this rather unorthodox theory.