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Podcast: Bone and Sickle
Episode: It is One Hundred Years Since Our Children Left
Description: In this episode, we explore the story of the Pied Piper, a folk tale uniquely anchored in grim historical realities. We begin with evidence of an actual historical mystery, including text inscribed on a gable of one of Hamelin’s medieval buildings as well as the initial 1384 entry in the Hamelin town chronicle, announcing, “It is 100 years since our children left.”
“The Pied Piper Of Hamelin” by Elizabeth Adela Stanhope Forbes
The Piper’s extermination of rats by drowning in them in the nearby river raises a question about rats swimming — which they do quite well — and how swimming rat...