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Pied Piper of Hamelin in popular culture

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The Pied Piper of Hamelin has appeared many times in popular culture.

Literature

This is a list of allusions. For full tellings and retellings, see the List of literary accounts of the Pied Piper.

  • In 1556, De miraculis sui temporis (Latin: Concerning the Wonders of his Times) by Jobus Fincelius mentions the tale. The author identifies the Piper with the Devil.
  • The Pied Piper story is heavily referenced by the Russian poet Marina Tsvetaeva in her poem The Ratcatcher, first published in 1925.
  • Eric Frank Russell's short story "The Rhythm of the Rats", published in the July 1950 issue of Weird Tales, is a retelling of the Pied Piper legend as a 20th century horror story.
  • In his poem, "The One Who Stayed" (in the collection Where the Sidewalk Ends, 1974) Shel Silverstein tells the story of a child who stayed behind while the rest of Hamelin's children followed the piper's song.
  • Harlan Ellison's "Emissary from Hamelin" (included in his collection Strange Wine, 1978) tells of a descendant of the original pied piper coming back seven hundred years later to lead all the adults away as punishment for centuries of "making the world a bad place". While the piper does not explain what he means, the narrator understands this to mean violence, pollution, lying, crime, and a lack of empathy.
  • a Single issue 1985 2000AD comic has an alien visit Earth and remove humanity due to the progressive destruction of the environment. When asked how his mission went he replies "Harder than the dinosaurs - easier than the rats."
  • The Ratastrophe Catastrophe (1990) by David Lee Stone is a parody based on the Pied Piper about a boy called Diek who takes away the children of a town because a voice in his head told him to.
  • What Happened in Hamelin (1993) by Gloria Skurzynski is a young adult novel in which ergotism from contaminated rye crops helps explain the mystery of what happened there.
  • The motif of The Pied Piper as a rat catcher is present in The Wonderful Adventures of Nils (1907) by Selma Lagerlöf. The main protagonist, Nils, performs the same task that the Pied Piper there.
  • The story provides the basis for the central plot and several characters in the 1998 debut novel King Rat by China Miéville.
  • The Pied Piper is a secondary antagonist (as the servant of a demon) in Wolfgang Hohlbein's 1995 fantasy novel Dreizehn ("Thirteen").
  • After Hamelin (2000) by Bill Richardson is a children's book that picks up the story where Browning's poem left off. It is written in the voice of the deaf child in the poem, whom Richardson names Penelope.
  • Writer Lars Jensen and artist Flemming Andersen created "The Ghost Rats of Hamelin" (2001), a Donald Duck comics adventure published in English in Donald Duck Adventures Take-Along Comic 6 (2004). In it, Hamelin is plagued once a year by the giant-size ghosts of the Pied Piper's rat victims. Donald and Fethry Duck, members of the Tamers of Nonhuman Threats, are sent to destroy these ghosts.
  • Terry Pratchett's The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents (2001) is a humorous take on the Pied Piper.
  • In 2005, Adam McCune and Keith McCune, a father–son writing team, published The Rats of Hamelin, in which an eighteen-year-old Pied Piper faces a hidden enemy with powers like his own.
  • Wolfgang Mieder has written The Pied Piper, A Handbook. This is a reference book of the historicity of the story, including information on available resources.
  • Radu Florescu has written In Search of the Pied Piper. Reference book dealing with the history behind the story.
  • In Garth Nix's Keys to the Kingdom series a character called the Piper appears as an antagonist. Along with being able to use the music of his pipe to cast sorcery, he led both the Raised Rats and the Piper's Children into the House, a clear reference to the traditional story
  • In Into the Woods the three female protagonists' ancestor is hinted at being the Pied Piper.
  • In Captain Underpants and the Perilous Plot of Professor Poopypants, George and Harold make a comic based on the story.
  • Mary Higgins Clark's novel "Two Little Girls in Blue" surrounds a story of two twin girls who are kidnapped from their parents home on a Thursday evening by a man who calls himself the Pied Piper.
  • The novel Peter & Max written by Bill Willingham tells the story of the Pied Piper, among other fairy tales. This book is a tie-in to his popular comic series Fables
  • Helen McCabe's horror novel, Piper, is based on the legend.
  • Jane Yolen and Adam Stemple's Pay the Piper: A Rock 'n' Roll Fairy Tale reworks the story in an Urban fantasy setting.
  • The Pied Piper makes an appearance in Alan Moore's Promethea where he is unleashed on the children of a sect dedicated to hunting the heroine down after being warned to end their efforts.
  • In Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles: A Giant Problem, the Pied Piper story inspires Nick Vargas to use mermaids to lure the giants away with their song.
  • Dan Rhodes' novel Little Hands Clapping references the Pied Piper story; a line from Robert Browning's poem The Pied Piper of Hamelin provides its title.

Theatre

  • The 2006 DVD version "O Flautista", choreographed by Iolanda Rodrigues, dance show performed by CeDeCe - Companhia de Danca Contemporanea. This DVD was directed by Joao Tocha.
  • In the play The Pillowman written by Martin McDonagh, the main character had written a story explaining the origin of the lame child who could not follow the Piper. He claimed that it was the Piper himself who chopped off the child's toes, because the child had showed him kindness, and the Piper did not want to punish the child.
  • A musical entitled The Pied Piper of Hamelin, written and composed by Harvey Shield and Richard Jarbot, was produced and performed at the Olio Theater in Los Angeles in 1984; the original title was 1284, the year in which the actual Pied Piper visited Hamelin. A recording of the soundtrack was released in 1984 on Panda Digital with Harvey Shield, John Mostetter, Jodi Mitchell, J.D. Ellis, Joey Sheck, Susan Holmes, Del Appleby and Lesley Sachs.
  • In 2002, the ballet The Contract (The Pied Piper) composed by Michael Torke, libretto by Robert Sirman and choreographed by James Kudelka was created to celebrate the National Ballet of Canada's 50th Anniversary season. Taking as its inspiration the story of the Pied Piper, The Contract centers its story around the character of "Eva", a charismatic faith healer who is contracted to rid a small community of a mysterious illness that afflicts the town's young people. She succeeds, but when the town's elders find reason to disapprove of her private conduct, they refuse to honor the contract, precipitating an even greater tragedy. In May 2003, the National Ballet of Canada Orchestra recorded a CD of Michael Torke's original music for The Contract.
  • Our Own English High School, Sharjah performed a modified version of the legend as a musical for its annual day.
  • In a 2010 film, Shrek 4, the Pied Piper was hired by Rumplestilskin to eliminate the ogres.

Opera

  • Der Rattenfänger von Hameln, a grand opera in five acts by Viktor Nessler to a German libretto by Friedrich Hofmann based on a poem by Julius Wolff (Leipzig, 19 March 1879).
  • Another opera of the same name by German-American composer Adolf Neuendorff to a German libretto was produced in 1880 but has disappeared from the repertoire. However, a recording of one of the arias from this opera, "Wandern, ach, Wandern," by Fritz Wunderlich is to be found on the EMI album, Fritz Wunderlich – Der Grosse Deutsche Tenor, a three CD set.
  • An opera entitled The Piper of Hamelin, written and composed by Nicolas Flagello in 1970, was performed and recorded live by the Manhattan School of Music Preparatory Division in March 1999 and released on Newport Classics [NCD 60153]. The production was conducted by Jonathan Strasser, and the performers included Bob McGrath of Sesame Street fame as "The Narrator", Brace Negron as "The Piper", Troy Doney as "The Mayor" and Nicole McQuade as "The First Woman (soloist)". This opera differs in its ending from the Browning poem; while the Piper leads the children from town, he later returns alone and is freely given the promised 1,000 guilders by the distraught and repentant townspeople, and the children are reunited with their parents.
  • Friedrich Cerha's 1987 opera Der Rattenfänger is based on Carl Zuckmayer's 1975 play.
  • Mark Alburger's opera, The Pied Piper of Hamelin (2004), with a libretto after the Robert Browning poem, was premiered at Thick House Theater in San Francisco (2006), with the Piper in the guise of George W. Bush and the Rats as terrorists.
  • George Benjamin's opera, Into The Little Hill, with libretto by Martin Crimp, was commissioned by the Festival d'Automne à Paris, and first performed at the Festival d'Automne, Paris on 22 November 2006.

Music

  • "Pied Piper" is a song on the 1992 album All The Way From Tuam by Irish group The Saw Doctors, it reached number 3 in the Irish Music Charts.
  • John Corigliano composed The Pied Piper Fantasy (1979-82), a concerto for flute and orchestra. The work, by flute virtuoso James Galway, premièred on February 4, 1982 at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles performed by Galway (as the flutist) and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The world première recording was made on December 8 and December 9, 1985 and released on RCA Victor, performed by Galway and the Eastman Philharmonic, conducted by David Effron. Another version is available on Koch International Classics, performed by Alexa Still and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and conducted by James Sedares.
  • Thrash metal band Megadeth mentions the Pied Piper in the chorus of the song Symphony of Destruction, from the album Countdown to Extinction.
  • Folk singer Donovan, who starred in the 1972 film The Pied Piper as the title character, recorded the song "People Call Me the Pied Piper" which was included in his album Pied Piper, released on the Music for Little People label.
  • American Rapper Mukabe mentions the piper in a verse from the 2009 release Intoxification. In a line he sings "Following blind like i'm the Pied Piper"
  • "Pied Piper" is a song composed by Ian Anderson, released on Jethro Tull concept album Too Old to Rock 'n' Roll: Too Young to Die! (1976).
  • "Der Rattenfänger" is a song by the German songwriter (Liedermacher) Hannes Wader, released on the 1974 album Der Rattenfänger, telling the story of the 'Pied Piper of Hamlin' in a very personal way.
  • Italian singer and songwriter Edoardo Bennato recorded the album E' arrivato un bastimento based on the Pied Piper fairy tale.
  • Crispian St. Peters had a 1966 hit calling for us to follow him as 'The Pied Piper'
  • The Pied Piper of Hamelin, by Robert Browning, set to music for Tenor and Bass Soli, Chorus, and Orchestra, by C. Hubert H. Parry, 1905. First performed at the Norfolk and Norwich Musical Festival, 1905.
  • Underground Hip-Hop artist Warcloud (also known as Holocaust) retells the legend of the Pied Piper in the song "Smoking Room" (From the album, "Blue Sky Black Death Presents: The Holocaust)
  • "Pied Pieper" is a song on the album The Mother and the Enemy from 2001 by Polish metal band Lux Occulta.
  • Rock band Queen quoted lines "and their dogs outran our fallow deer, and honey-bees had lost their stings, and horses were born with eagles' wings" in the song My Fairy King (1973) directly from the book 'The Pied Piper Of Hamlin'.
  • The Pied Piper story is also referenced by Radiohead in their song "Kid A" during the final lines "rats and children will follow me out of town"
  • Swedish band ABBA's song "The Piper," from the 1980 album Super Trouper, compares a rock star with the legendary Pied Piper. His desire to take over the world is accomplished with music rather than politics. He seduces everybody in the land to do his bidding, with the intent of gradually destroying his own hysterical fans.
  • Led Zeppelin's classic Stairway To Heaven, recorded in 1970 for the Led Zeppelin IV album, mentions the Piper in two verses "If we all call the tune, then the piper will lead us to reason" and "Your head is humming and it won't go in case you don't know the piper's calling you to join him".
  • Eminem's song "Lose Yourself" mentions the Pied Piper briefly in his lyrics, "...Best believe somebody's paying the pied piper..."
  • Mother Gong's album Fairy Tales includes the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin as well as a unique description of his childhood called "The Three Tongues".

Film

The story has been depicted many times on film:

  • The 1933 adaptation was produced as an animated Walt Disney Silly Symphony short. Changes to the story include the rats being lured by a mirage of cheese created by the Piper's music and made to disappear into thin air (rather than being drowned in the river), and the children being "rescued" by the Piper from the bad upbringing being given by their selfish parents and brought to a land of candy and games hidden in a cave. In this version, the lame child gets cured the moment he sees the cave and runs inside.
  • The 1957 made-for-television special The Pied Piper of Hamelin was a musical version in color, using the music of Edvard Grieg, and starring Van Johnson in a dual role as both the title character and the local schoolmaster. Claude Rains and Jim Backus also star in this film.
  • The 1972 film The Pied Piper was not a musical per se, although it contained music by Donovan, who also played the title role. This was an especially dark and realistic version of the tale, set this time in the 14th Century during the time of the Black Plague. The film was directed by Jacques Demy and also starred Jack Wild, Michael Hordern, Donald Pleasance and John Hurt.
  • A stop-motion "claymation" half-hour version was made in 1981 in the United Kingdom by Cosgrove Hall, directed by Mark Hall and narrated by Robert Hardy, following the Browning poem exactly. This version was shown on PBS in the US, and ITV in the UK at Christmas 1982.
  • Krysař (English: The Pied Piper of Hamelin) is a 1985 Czechoslovak stop motion-animated feature film directed by Jiří Barta. The story is a modified adaptation of the traditional Pied Piper of Hamelin, notable for its unusual dark art direction, innovative animation techniques and lack of almost any understandable dialogue (similar to the more recent One Night in One City and The Triplets of Belleville) with all words spoken in gibberish. The literal translation of the Czech title is "The Rat Catcher."
  • The 1997 movie The Sweet Hereafter, about a town that suffers a horrifying school bus accident wherein nearly all their children are killed, heavily references the Pied Piper and quotes liberally from the Browning version.
  • A direct-to-video cartoon "It's The Pied Piper, Charlie Brown" was released in 2000. In the special, Charlie Brown reads to Sally a less-scary version of the legend of The Pied Piper. During the re-telling, Charlie Brown and Sally join Linus, Lucy, Schroeder and Snoopy in the cast as they offer up Snoopy's services as the Pied Piper with a concertina (accordion) to lead "Sports Mice" out of their hometown. When the Mayor welches on the payment (A year's supply of Dog Food), The Piper uses his Concertina to lead the Mayor and the town council out, using "Down by the Old Mill Stream" and "Goodnight Sweetheart". At the end, Charlie Brown relates the moral that "A Promise is A Promise", but Sally doesn't believe that anything like that could ever happen.
  • In the 2001 film Shrek, the Pied Piper is seen at the main character's swamp, where every fairy tale creature has gathered to escape Lord Farquaad, attracting rats with his music for apparently no reason at all. Again, the movie Shrek Forever After features Pied Piper as a minor character who is hired by the main villain Rumpelstiltskin, to use his music to lead the rebelling Ogres to their imprisonment (while making them dance to "Shake Your Groove Thing").
  • In A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010 film), the characters' research of Freddy Krueger provides them with the legend of the Piper. The film even shows an illustration of the Piper in which he bears a resemblance to Krueger including his hair color, red and green striped shirt and worn, brown hat.

Television

  • In a 1968 episode of the Batman (TV series) "Nora Clavicle and her Ladies' Crime Club", there is a rather silly scene where Batman rids Gotham City of a mechanical rat infestation by playing tunes on a flute and leading the rodents to a watery grave in the city harbor.
  • A 1976 episode of Wonder Woman (Starring Lynda Carter) entitled "Pied Piper" features rock artist "Hamlin Rule" who uses his flute and other sound effects to control girls' minds and vibrate metal into filings, all so that he can take possession of the money from his concerts. However, when Wonder Woman tries to persuade Hamlin to renege on his dastardly ways, she tells him that the original Pied Piper lead children out of danger while he (Hamlin Rule) uses his power to lead them into it. This is at the least a slightly twisted version of the popular Pied Piper story.
  • In 1985, Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theatre adapted the story in the episode The Pied Piper of Hamelin, written and directed by Nicholas Meyer with original music by James Horner, and starring Eric Idle in both the title role and as "Robert Browning". All of Browning's poetry was preserved.
  • In the 2008 episode "The Day of the Clown" of the British Science Fiction show The Sarah Jane Adventures, the Pied Piper is said to have been an alien who fed off of fear.

Recordings

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