The Pied Piper
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Guerber, H. A. (Hélène Adeline)
’And so long after what happened here
On the Twenty-second of July,
Thirteen hundred and seventy-six:’
And the better in memory to fix
The place of the children’s last retreat,
They called it the Pied Piper Street—
Where any one playing on pipe or tabor
Was sure for the future to lose his labour.”
Robert Browning.
In this myth Odin is the piper, the shrill tones of the flute are emblematic of the whistling wind, the rats represent the souls of the dead, which cheerfully follow him, and the hollow mountain into which he leads the children is typical of the grave.