Pied Piper Myths

In 1284, in the small town of Hameln, Lower Saxony, Germany, 130 children vanished at the hands of the Pied Piper. The mystery remains as to what happened to them, however, the children disappeared because they left to colonize areas east of the town. Around the time of the legend, thousands of Germans were migrating from Lower Saxony and Westphalia to the east (Karacs). The children settled in today’s east Germany and Poland, as an exodus of Hameln children left during the colonization of eastern nations such as Pomerania and Prussia (“The Pied Piper legend”). While going through an atlas, Professor Juergen Udolph of the University of Gottingen, found that various versions of Hameln are found in areas colonized by Germans in the 13th century.