The Pied Piper of Hamelin: a book club kit

Where it comes from. The town of Hamelin in Germany has told of the Piper since 1284, and the poet Robert Browning made it a famous poem in 1842.

In short (for the leader; it gives the ending away). A stranger in a red and yellow coat plays his pipe and leads the rats out of the town of Hamelin and into the river. When the mayor refuses to pay the thousand guilders he promised, the piper plays a different tune and leads the town's children into a hill. In this telling the town finally keeps its promise, and the piper brings the children home.

The lesson, in one line. A promise must be kept, even when it costs you.

Reading plan, by the story's parts. Meeting 1: Part One, “A Town Full of Rats” and Part Two, “The Stranger in the Coat”, pages 1–6 (about 5 minutes aloud); Meeting 2: Part Three, “Into the River” and Part Four, “The Other Tune”, pages 7–12 (about 5 minutes aloud); Meeting 3: Part Five, “Keeping the Promise”, pages 13–16 (about 4 minutes aloud). Each stop's own questions, which never give away what comes next: The Pied Piper of Hamelin by chapter.

Questions to talk about

1. Was the Pied Piper real?
   The story's answer: Nobody can say for sure. Many scholars think the legend is based on a real event: the town has told of its lost children since the Middle Ages, and it had a stained-glass window about them from about 1300. But no explanation of what happened is accepted by everyone, and the rats and the unpaid fee were added in later tellings.
2. What really happened to the children of Hamelin?
   The story's answer: No one knows. In the old tellings the children never come home; in this telling the piper brings them back once the town keeps its promise. Historians have suggested that the children left to settle lands in the east, that they joined a children's crusade, or that an illness or an accident struck them. None of these has been confirmed.
3. Who wrote The Pied Piper of Hamelin?
   The story's answer: No one person wrote the legend. The Brothers Grimm included it in their collection German Legends in 1816, and the poet Robert Browning published a poem about it in 1842. This page is a retelling in Peabody's own words.
4. What makes the main character a hero? Would you want them as a friend?
   Listen for: Heroes of legends are brave but not always kind; ask for both sides.
5. Which part of this could have really happened, and which part grew in the telling?
   Listen for: Legends often start from a real person or place.
6. How would the story change if someone else told it?
   Listen for: Try the villain's side.

Did you know?

• Hamelin, called Hameln in German, is a real town in Germany.
• The town's own account dates the loss of the children to 26 June 1284 and says 130 children were lost.
• The oldest evidence is a stained-glass window made about 1300 for the town church. It showed the piper and the children, and it was destroyed in 1660.

Activity: A hero's poster

Make a poster for the main character with three true things from the story and one thing the story never says.