The Truth in Fairytales

    Cinderella. The original 'rags to riches' story. She was a commoner who met, fell in love with, and married a prince. Hers is a story that stays with children throughout their lives because it teaches that good things happen for good people. It offers hope. 

    The Pied Piper of Hamelin offers a completely different story. It is dark and brimming with warning. The story was recorded and handed down through the Grimm Brothers, but it is not folklore in the strictest sense. The moral of this story is to 'pay the Piper.' Be mindful to pay the price for goods or services received. The notion that the Piper was cheated of his fee for rat removal was added years after the original story circulated. This addition is what provided the moral we know today.

     The fact is, however, the disappearance of one hundred thirty-nine children from the village of Hamelin is historic fact. There are several theories about how this occurred. 

     Some say the Piper was symbolic of Death by Catastrophe or Plague. This doesn't fit with all of the evidence. Three children were left behind. One was blind. Another was deaf. The third had a crippled leg. Certainly a disease strong enough to be called a plague would have taken these children, too. 

     Others say the story is based on the war campaign of Nicholas of Cologne. He led an army of children into battle with disastrous results. This would explain leaving those three children behind, but the time frame is wrong as well as the location. Both the time and the location of the disappearance of the children is documented in the records of the village church.

     There is another theory. This one captured my attention. Some researchers believe the children fell victim to a pedophile, or more probably several pedophiles. If this is indeed the case, the moral of the story ought to be 'love your children well, and watch over them.' 

     When people can't cope with certain events, the story of those events become the stuff of legend and fairytales. Sadly, the events and their causes become glossed over to make them bearable. The moral of the story...well, it is led away by another sort of piper.