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Pied Piper and the Children's Crusade
🕑 Added 2024-10-07 16:11:35 +0000 UTCThe legend dates back to the Middle Ages. The earliest references describe a piper, dressed in multicoloured ("pied") clothing, who was a rat catcher hired by the town to lure rats away[1] with his magic pipe. When the citizens refused to pay for this service as promised, he retaliated by using his instrument's magical power on their children, leading them away as he had the rats. This version of the story spread as folklore and has appeared in the writings of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the Brothers Grimm, and Robert Browning, among others. The phrase "pied piper" has become a metaphor for a person who attracts a following through charisma or false promises.[2]
Comments
Laura Lusby
I really thought this was just a folk tale. I had no idea that the story was based on concepts of a window!
Robert Fischer
I think this is the most "written into a corner" opening sketch, and that's a high bar. There was just no way out of this one...
