Editing Pied Piper of Hamelin (section)

==Background==
{{further|List of literary accounts of the Pied Piper}}
[[File:Rats of Hamelin.jpg|thumb|The rats of [[Hamelin]]. Illustration by [[Kate Greenaway]] for [[Robert Browning]]'s "The Pied Piper of Hamelin"]]

The earliest mention of the story seems to have been on a stained-glass window placed in the Church of Hamelin {{circa|1300}}. The window was described in several accounts between the 14th and 17th centuries.<ref>{{cite book|author=Reader's Digest|title=Reader's Digest the Truth about History: How New Evidence is Transforming the Story of the Past|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oVQYl6QGq7IC&pg=PA294|year=2003|publisher=Reader's Digest Association|isbn=978-0-7621-0523-6|page=294}}</ref> It was destroyed in 1660. Based on the surviving descriptions, a modern reconstruction of the window has been created by historian Hans Dobbertin. It features the colourful figure of the Pied Piper and several figures of children dressed in white.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.guobetty.com/blog/2021/2/6/pied-piper-of-hamelin | title=Pied Piper of Hamelin | date=6 February 2021 }}</ref>

The window is generally considered to have been created in memory of a tragic historical event for the town; Hamelin town records also apparently start with this event.{{citation needed|date=January 2024}}

Although research has been conducted for centuries, no explanation for the historical event is universally accepted as true. In any case, the rats were first added to the story in a version from {{circa|1559}} and are absent from earlier accounts.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.museum-hameln.de/museum/rattenfaenger.php | title=Der Rattenfänger von Hameln | website=Museum Hameln | language=de | access-date=29 December 2017 | archive-date=7 June 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160607112230/http://www.museum-hameln.de/museum/rattenfaenger.php | url-status=dead }}</ref>

=== 14th-century Decan Lude chorus book ===
[[Decan Lude]] of Hamelin was reported {{circa|1384}} to have in his possession a chorus book containing a [[Latin]] verse giving an eyewitness account of the event.<ref>{{cite book|last=Krogmann|first=Willy|title=Der Rattenfänger von Hameln: Eine Untersuchung über das werden der sage|date=1934|publisher=E. Ebering|page=67|language=de}}</ref>{{Explain|reason=What the eyewitness account says? Please clarify|date=February 2022}}

===15th-century Lüneburg manuscript===
The Lüneburg manuscript ({{circa|1440–50}}) gives an early German account of the event.<ref name=":0">Illustrated in [[Rattenfänger von Hameln]]</ref> An article by [[James P. O'Donnell]] in ''The Saturday Evening Post'' (December 24, 1955) tells how an elderly German researcher, Heinrich Spanuth, discovered the earliest version of the story in the [[Lüneburg|Luneberg]] city archives in 1936.  

On the back of the last tattered page of a dusty chronicle called ''The Golden Chain'', written in Latin in 1370 by the monk [[Heinrich von Herford|Heinrich of Herford]], there is written in a different handwriting the following account:<ref>{{Cite book |last=Richter |first=John Henry |url=https://archive.org/details/johnhenryrichter_57_reel57/page/n9/mode/2up |title=John H. Richter Collection 1904-1994 |collaboration=Leo Baeck Institute Archives |language=de}}</ref><blockquote>''Here follows a marvellous wonder, which transpired in the town of Hamelin in the diocese of Minden, in this Year of Our Lord, 1284, on the Feast of Saints John and Paul. A certain young man thirty years of age, handsome and well-dressed, so that all who saw him admired him because of his appearance, crossed the bridges and entered the town by the West Gate. He then began to play all through the town a silver pipe of the most magnificent sort. All the children who heard his pipe, in the number of 130, followed him to the East Gate and out of the town to the so-called execution place or Calvary. There they proceeded to vanish, so that no trace of them could be found. The mothers of the children ran from town to town, but they found nothing. It is written: A voice was heard from on high, and a mother was bewailing her son. And as one counts the years according to the Year of Our Lord or according to the first, second or third year of an anniversary, so do the people in Hamelin reckon the years after the departure and disappearance of their children. This report I found in an old book. And the mother of the Dean Johann von Lüde saw the children depart.''<ref>{{Cite web|last=Medievalists.net|date=2014-12-08|title=The Pied Piper of Hamelin: A Medieval Mass Abduction?|url=https://www.medievalists.net/2014/12/pied-piper-hamelin-medieval-mass-abduction/|access-date=2021-12-13|website=Medievalists.net|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Mieder|first=Wolfgang|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8uxWCgAAQBAJ&dq=Here+follows+a+marvellous+wonder%2C+which+transpired+in+the+city+of+Hamelin+in+the+diocese+of+Minden%2C+in+the+Year+of+Our+Lord+1284%2C+on+the+Feast+of+Sts.+John+and+Paul.&pg=PA46|title=Tradition and Innovation in Folk Literature|date=2015-08-11|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-37685-9|language=en}}</ref>''<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Lüneburg Manuscript – The original manuscript published digitally. HAB – Handschriftendatenbank – Handschrift lg-rb-theol-2f-25|url=https://diglib.hab.de/?db=mss&list=ms&id=lg-rb-theol-2f-25&catalog=Fischer&image=00539|access-date=2021-12-15|website=diglib.hab.de|quote="Et mater domini Johannis de Lude decani vidit pueros recedentes" '''Notes to the quote:''' He was a Stiftsdechant, which, in German, can also be written Dekan and Dekant. In English this position is called Dean. He was a dean, not a deacon.}}</ref>''{{#tag:ref|O'Donnell translates the name "Johann von Lüde" as "John of Luede" (the original Latin sentence goes: "Et mater domini Johannis de Lude decani vidit pueros recedentes"), uses the description "Calvary Cross", and makes no mention of an execution place. O'Donnell also writes that the piper plays on a "magic silver flute". Both O'Donnell and Wolfgang Wieder write "the Weser Gate" instead of "the West Gate". All three sources translate ''decani'' with "deacon", but  he was a Stiftsdechant, which in German can also be written Dekan and Dekant. In English this position is called Dean. Johann von Lüde was a dean, not a deacon.|group="note"}}</blockquote>

=== Rattenfängerhaus ===
It is rendered in the following form in an inscription on a house known as {{lang|de|Rattenfängerhaus}} (English: "Rat Catcher's House" or [[Pied Piper's House]]) in Hamelin:<ref name=":0" />

{{verse translation|lang=de|anno 1284 am dage johannis et pauli war der 26. juni dorch einen piper mit allerley farve bekledet gewesen cxxx kinder verledet binnen hameln geboren to calvarie bi den koppen verloren|(In the year 1284 on the day of [Saints] John and Paul on 26 June 130 children born in Hamelin were lured by a piper clothed in many colours to [[Calvary]] near the Koppen, [and] lost)}}

According to author Fanny Rostek-Lühmann this is the oldest surviving account. {{lang|de|Koppen}} ([[High German]] {{lang|de|[[Kuppe]]}}, meaning a knoll or domed hill) seems to be a reference to one of several hills surrounding Hamelin. Which of them was intended by the manuscript's author remains uncertain.<ref name="Lühmann">{{cite web|last=Rostek-Lühmann|first=Fanny|title=Der Rattenfänger von Hameln|url=http://hinrich-luehmann.de/der-rattenf%C3%A4nger-von-hameln-f-r-l/|access-date=14 January 2018|publisher=Hinrich Lühmann}}</ref>

=== The Wedding House ===
A similar inscription can be found on the "Wedding-house or Hochzeitshaus, a fine structure erected between 1610 and 1617<ref>{{Cite web|title=Museum Hameln – 400 years Hochzeitshaus|url=https://museumhameln.de/dauerausstellung_engl_fnz26/|access-date=2021-12-16|language=de-DE}}</ref> for marriage festivities, but diverted from its purpose since 1721. Behind rises the spire of the parish church of St. Nicholas which, in the words of an English book of folklore, may still "enwall stones that witness how the parents prayed, while the Piper wrought sorrow for them without":<ref>{{Cite book|last=Folklore Society (Great Britain)|url=https://archive.org/details/folklore03folkuoft/page/228/mode/2up|title=Folklore|publisher=London, Folk-lore Society|others=Robarts - University of Toronto|year=1890 }}</ref>

{{verse translation|lang=de|Nach Christi Geburt 1284 Jahr <br>Gingen bei den Koppen unter Verwahr <br>Hundert und dreissig Kinder, in Hameln geboren <br>von einem Pfeiffer verfürt und verloren|In the year of Our Lord 1284 <br>went into the Koppen under custody <br>130 children born in Hamelin<br> by a piper seduced and lost}}

=== The Town Gate ===
A portion of the town gate dating from the year 1556 is currently exhibited at the Hamelin Museum. According to Hamelin Museum, this stone is the oldest surviving sculptural evidence for the legend.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Commemorative stone (New Gate Stone) – Hameln Museum|url=https://museumhameln.de/dauerausstellung_engl_ma18/|access-date=2021-12-16|language=de-DE}}</ref> It bears the following inscription:<ref>{{Cite book|last=Mieder|first=Wolfgang|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8uxWCgAAQBAJ&dq=Anno+1556+%2F+Centu%5Bm%5D+ter+denos+C%5Bum%5D+mag%5Bus%5D+ab+urbe+puellos+%2F+Duxerat+a%5Bn%5Dte+a%5Bn%5Dnos+272.+Condita+porta+fuit&pg=PA48|title=Tradition and Innovation in Folk Literature|date=2015-08-11|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-37686-6|language=en}}</ref>

{{verse translation|lang=de|Anno 1556 / Centu[m] ter denos
C[um] mag[us] ab urbe puellos /
Duxerat a[n]te a[n]nos 272.
Condita porta fuit|In the year 1556, 
272 years after the magician 
stole 130 children from the city, 
this gate was founded.}}

=== Verses in the monastery at Hamelin ===
The Hamelin Museum writes:<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Hameln Museum – The Pied Piper in Literatur and Arts: The Children's Exodus|url=https://museumhameln.de/dauerausstellung_engl_rf09/|access-date=2021-12-16|language=de-DE}}</ref><blockquote>In the mid 14th Century, a monk from Minden, Heinrich von Herford, puts together a collection of holy legends called the "Catena Aurea".  It speaks of a "miracle" that took place in 1284 in Hamelin.  A youth appeared and played on a strange silver flute.  Every child that heard the flute, followed the stranger.  They left Hamelin by the Eastern gate and disappeared at Kalvarien Hill.  This is the oldest known account of this occurrence. Around this time a verse of rhyme is found in "zu Hameln im Kloster".  It tells about the children's disappearance.  It is written in red ink on the title page of a missal.  It bewails "the 130 beloved Hamelner children" who were "eaten alive by Calvaria".  The original verses are probably the oldest written source of this legend.  It has been missing for hundreds of years.''{{#tag:ref|''Catena Aurea'' in Latin is the same as ''The Golden Chain'' in English|group="note"}}''</blockquote>However, different versions of transcriptions of handwritten copies still exist. One was published by Heinrich Meibom in 1688.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Meibom|first=Heinrich|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SpZ-HDhhiH0C&dq=Im+Jahr+MCCLXXXIV.+na+Christi+gebort/+Tho+Hameln+worden+uthgevort/&pg=PA80|title=RERVM GERMANICARVM TOM. III. Dissertationes Historicas varii argumenti & Chronica Monasteriorum Saxoniae nonnulla continets MEIBOMIIS Auctoribus|date=1688|publisher=Typis & Sumptibus Georgii Wolffgangi Hammii, Acad. Typogr.|language=la}}</ref> Another was included by Johann Daniel Gottlieb Herr under the title Passionale Sanctorum in ''Collectanea zur Geschichte der Stadt Hameln''. His manuscript is dated 1761.<ref name="Scutts">{{Cite web|last=Scutts|first=Julian|title=Ad fontes: A Timeline of Accounts of the Pied Piper Story|url=https://www.academia.edu/5547586}}</ref> There are some Latin verses which had a prose version underneath:<ref>{{Cite book|last=Folklore Society (Great Britain)|url=https://archive.org/details/folklore03folkuoft/page/242/mode/2up|title=Folklore|publisher=London, Folk-lore Society|others=Robarts - University of Toronto|year=1890 |pages=242}}</ref>

{{verse translation|lang=de|Maria audi nos, tibi Filius nil negat. 
Post duo C. C. mille post octoginta quaterue
—Annus hic est ille, quo languet sexus uterque—
Orbantis pueros centumque triginta Joannis
Et Pauli caros Hamelenses non sine damnis,
Fatur, ut omnes eos vivos Calvaria sorpsit,
Christi tuere reos, ne tam mala res quibus obsit.

Anno millesimo ducentesimo octuagesimo quarto in die Johannis et Pauli perdiderunt Hamelenses centum et triginta pueros, qui intraverunt montem Calvariam.|Mary, hear us, for your Son denies you nothing. 
1284 is that year when members of 
both sexes languish (through weakness), 
the year of the day John and Paul, which the 130 dear children of Hamelin swept away 
and not without doom. 
It is said that Calvary swallowed them alive. 
Christ, protect the guilty so that no similar evil fate overtake them.<ref name="Scutts">{{Cite web|last=Scutts|first=Julian|title=Ad fontes: A Timeline of Accounts of the Pied Piper Story|url=https://www.academia.edu/5547586}}</ref>

In the year one thousand two hundred and eighty-four, on the day of John and Paul, the Hamelin lost a hundred and thirty children who entered Calvary mount.}}

=== 16th- and 17th-century sources ===
Somewhere between 1559 and 1565, Count [[Froben Christoph von Zimmern]] included a version in his {{lang|de|[[Zimmern Chronicle|Zimmerische Chronik]]}}.<ref>F. C. von Zimmern [attr.]: ''Zimmerische Chronik'', ed. K. A. Barack (Stuttgart, 1869), vol.&nbsp;III, pp. 198–200.</ref> This appears to be the earliest account which mentions the plague of rats. Von Zimmern dates the event only as "several hundred years ago" ({{lang|de|vor etlichen hundert jarn}} {{sic}}), so that his version throws no light on the conflict of dates (see next paragraph). Another contemporary account is that of [[Johann Weyer]] in his {{lang|la|De praestigiis daemonum}} (1563).<ref>{{cite book|last=Weyer|first=Johannes|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TgQ6AAAAcAAJ|title=De Praestigiis Daemonum, Et Incantationibus ac veneficiis|year=1568|access-date=14 January 2018}}</ref>