Well, it's my birthday (July 22)... and also National Rat Catcher's Day, as it turns out. This is the day that commemorates the Pied Piper leading the children of Hamelin out of their village and on to various fates, depending on which version of the story you read. I prefer the one where they are led to a beautiful land (vs. other less desirable outcomes).
To be fair, I guess the town of Hamelin itself actually commemorates this day on June 26 based on their legends, and the Brothers Grimm tale also uses that date. Robert Browning, however, used the date of July 22 in his poem and this is how that date became connected with the tale and ultimately made into a day celebrating the lofty profession of rat catchers.
Browning, for the record, also believed in and wrote of the beautiful land as the destination for these children. Or, at least, that is what the Piper promised them through his music. There is reference at the end of the poem to people many years later in Transylvania having a legend that their outlandish ways came from their ancestors who had come up out of a 'subterraneous prison', suggesting that these would have been the children who the Piper led out. In the end, it is left to our imagination with respect to what happened to them.
It is a strange tale, to be sure, and I don't really have anything more to say on it other than to use it in light of some things I continue to think and write about to reinforce 3 core beliefs:
- The Rats will be exterminated
- The Liars and Promise-Breakers will be exposed
- The Children of Light will be set free and led to a beautiful land (for a time)
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