Episode #77- Was There a Real Pied Piper?

Our Fake History

PodcastOne

History, Education, Society & Culture

4.7 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 20 November 2018

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The fairy tales collected by the Brothers Grimm can often surprise modern readers with their violence and cruelty. There is something particularly haunting about the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin, the spurned rat-catcher who used his magical flute to kidnap over one hundred children. The most disturbing part of the story is that it might be true. While there was probably no magical flute, there may have been a real historical event that inspired the fairy tale. Tune-in and find out how ska bands, jester skeletons, and Stephen King all play a role in the story.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Once upon a time there was a small town in the region of Lower Saxony, in what is today
0:13.2	the country of Germany.
0:16.0	The town was named Hamlin, and it had a problem.
0:21.7	This modest medieval settlement had become overrun by rats.
0:27.8	Despite all their best efforts, the people of Hamlin just could not rid themselves of
0:33.8	this scurrying menace.
0:36.3	They were getting desperate when seemingly out of nowhere, a stranger came to town.
0:44.0	The stranger wore an unusual multi-colored outfit, a style known as Pied.
0:51.8	He also carried with him a beautiful silver flute.
0:56.8	He presented himself to the town-leaders and said that for a fair price he would rid them
1:02.4	of their rat problem once and for all.
1:06.2	The town-leaders were overjoyed and agreed to pay the piper the impressive sum of 1,000
1:13.2	guilders, so long as he delivered on his promise.
1:17.1	The piper happily agreed.
1:20.2	With that the piper headed to the town square, where he took out his pipe and began to play
1:25.8	a beautiful melody.
1:28.0	It was not long before all the rats of Hamlin had crept out of their hiding places and
1:33.7	had scurried towards where the piper was playing his tune.
1:38.2	The piper then started to march out of town and sure enough all of the rats followed him.
1:45.0	He then led the rats to a nearby stream and happily piped as the rodents dutifully plunged
1:51.5	into the water and drowned.
1:54.4	The rats were finally gone.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from PodcastOne, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of PodcastOne and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.