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Podcast: Today In History with The Retrospectors
Episode: The Real Pied Piper
Description: What happened to the 130 children that went missing from the town of Hamlein, Lower Saxony on 26th June, 1284? According to legend, a vindictive ‘Pied Piper’ took revenge after the town had failed to stump up for his magical pest control services. But numerous sources corroborate that, fairy tales aside, the town’s children really did disappear. An inscription on the facade of a timbered house in the city, dating back to 1602, commemorates the strange event, and notes the Piper's role in leading the children away (though it makes no mention of rats). And church records and stained glass w...