Pied Piper

[Dan Shane]

OLAF WROTE:

> I don't know about you, but to me, this sounds like a funny gag to that
> Hameln-magic-flute-player-tale, where the flute player (flutist?)
> uses his
> magic flute to get all the rats out of Hameln, and when the town does not
> pay him, he starts playing his flute to get the children out of Hameln
> instead. After all, Gyro _was_ finding a way to get rid of rats
> (mice?) in
> this story, and he used the same technique as the flutist - he
> tricked the
> rats into following him - out of the city - to then blow up the bridge (I
> think the Hameln guy did this? There _must_ be someone here that
> knows this
> story better than me... what is that, is it Grimm?)

AND I REPLY:

THE PIED PIPER OF HAMELIN (or HAMLIN) is the fable you're thinking of.  It
was written by Robert Browning in 1888, and the Gyro story by Barks and Don
was obviously inspired by this well known (at least to English speaking
countries) poem.  The basic plot is that the town of Hamelin in Germany has
been overrun by rats, and the town council hires the piper to lead the
vermin out of town to drown in the river.  When the council refuses to pay
the piper, he charms the children of the town with his pipe the same way he
did the rats, and the children are never seen again.

The full text of the story can be read at:

http://www.indiana.edu/~librcsd/etext/piper/