The Pied Piper in Flowers: the magic of the history behind the legend

I remember the fairy tale of The Pied Piper in Flower, which I heard as a child and which was in the Selected European Fairy Tales that my children read as children. When we listen to this story, we don't think about where the Pied Piper came from and where he went with 130 children. We always look at the end of the fairy tale with the question, "So, what does this fairy tale tell us?" This fairy tale tells us that if we don't fulfill our promises we will be punished. And I've added another one when teaching my children: stay away from strangers, even if they have anything that attracts you to them. So when I opened the book The Pied Piper in Flower: The European Middle Ages Behind the Legends, the thought that this was a book on social ethics was still in my head.

All the fairy tales we've seen about the Pied Piper in Flower are supposedly from Grimm's Fairy Tales, and the German Legends in Grimm's Fairy Tales record that The Children of Hameln was the product of the Brothers Grimm's wearing of a "collection of ancient legends", and that they appended as many as ten references to the full text of The Children of Hameln, suggesting that they weren't just collecting ancient legends. The fact that the Brothers Grimm appended as many as ten references to the entire text of Hameln's Children suggests that they did not intend this to be merely a reading matter, but a detailed and rigorous record of the legend. That is, there is some truth to the legend, and which is true? In the preface, the author, Mr. Abe, tells us that at the end of the 17th century, the philosopher, Mr. Leibniz, said, "There are certain true events hidden in this legend," and showed great interest in deciphering it. The author, Abe Masaru, has shown similarly strong interest and has dedicated himself to researching the legend as the center of his daily work, concentrating on collecting historical materials and reading literature every day. "It can be described as a small flower that has blossomed during my years of research."

What is the point of studying a plausible legend that took place in the Middle Ages? Historians categorize the Medieval Dark Ages in Europe within the historical time frame of 476 to 1453 AD. From the fall of the ancient Roman Empire to the rise of the Renaissance movement, is the entire period of European medieval history. During this millennium, in addition to years of localized wars, plagues raged throughout the land of Europe. The main reason for calling it the "Dark Ages" was the confinement and suppression of people's thoughts at the ruling level, as well as the cruel persecution of scientific and progressive ideas by evil religions. During this period of nearly 1,000 years, I do not know how many horrendous and disgusting black events occurred. It was a thousand years of darkness, cold winds, rain, and cruel persecution that encompassed the entire land of Europe. The legend may have been a local legend sparked by a small incident in a small town in Germany in the 13th century, but why did it spread around the world in such a short period of time? What was the Piper like at the time? And how did these children and the children's parents live? Where did the children go? How did their parents continue their sad lives? Author Kobo Abe also said, "Because no matter what this event that happened in 1284 was, the grief and pain of the common people of Hameln at that time transcended time and space and came straight to our hearts. When close to then produce this sad, painful plebeian life, we are beyond the mere deciphering like interest or curiosity, directly touch the corner of European social history." 3

Author Abe, after collecting and organizing the historical records of the city of Hameln, confirms that "130 children of Hameln disappeared near Carvalho on June 26, 1284" is a historical fact that happened in reality. Why the children disappeared and where they went afterward is a historical mystery. The author, Mr. Abe, also gives us a detailed account of the founding and history of Hameln, the place where the children disappeared, the social situation in Hameln at that time, the historical background of the immigrant theory of the children's disappearance hypothesis, the realities of the life of the lower class and the common people in the Middle Ages, the social status of the "pied pipers" in the Middle Ages, and the historical facts of the Children's Crusade, and so forth. In the midst of the complexity of history, the truth of the life of the common people seems to be visible. "Guided by the living historiography", Abe's book is like the flute of the "Piper" leading us to the hot history.