The Pied Piper

[LeMarchand]

I'm trying to remember an alternative version of the tale, told from the point of view of the lame boy left behind.

I may well be imagining it/extrapolating from seeing a play at primary school (a long time ago). I have a feeling that he grows up and tries to find the children who vanished.

I don't think it's "After Hamelin" or "Breath", but could be wrong - it may even be a play. I have a (very) vague suspicion that it may be a horror story, along the lines of Graham Masterton's transplants of old legends.

It's been bugging me for months, so any help would be gratefully appreciated!

[ursula62]

Bill Richardson wrote a novel called "After Hamelin" but it's about a girl called Penelope who looks for the missing children.  It's published by Annick Press.

 

Here's the publisher's blurb..... "Penelope, a 101-year-old survivor of the Pied Piper of Hamelin incident, remembers her childhood and the incidents before and after the Piper. A harp-maker�s daughter, she never felt she had a special gift like her sister Sophie who could sing. As her eleventh birthday approached she anxiously awaited her visit with Cuthbert, a hermit, who would reveal her special gift. On the morning of her birthday, Penelope suddenly is struck deaf. The deafness is her saviour however because the rest of the town�s children are captivated by the Piper�s music and led out of town. Penelope�s gift is then revealed. She has the gift of Deep Dreaming. Cuthbert sends her into a deep dream to rescue the children. In the deep dream, her cat Scally accompanies her. Their adventure takes them to the Singing Trolavians, creatures who can also fly. One, Belle, is assigned to help them. They also encounter a dragon named Quentin who skips rope. They finally catch up with the Piper, who is also a deep dreamer, and is frantically attempting to resuscitate his body to escape the dreamworld. Penelope and her team, with a little added help from Cuthbert, are successful in stopping the Piper and returning the children to Hamelin."

[mrs.pudding]

Oh dear!  Now it's going to bother me as well!  It's ringing a definite bell in my somewhat cabbage like brain.  Will have to go and look through all the boxes of children's books upstairs now!

[mr. piper]

if you wanted to know you should have asked me directly.

[LeMarchand]

Thanks for the answers, like I said, I don't think it was "After Hamelin" (wrong sex protagonist and written too recently), though it does sound interesting!

[maxi29]

The poem itself does contain a speech by the lame boy. - is this what you're thinking of?

"His sadness, he was used to say, / ``It's dull in our town since my playmates left!/I can't forget that I'm bereft/Of all the pleasant sights they see/Which the Piper also promised me./For he led us, he said, to a joyous land,/Joining the town and just at hand,Where waters gushed and fruit-trees grew,/And flowers put forth a fairer hue,/And everything was strange and new;/The sparrows were brighter than peacocks here,/And their dogs outran our fallow deer,/And honey-bees had lost their stings,/And horses were born with eagles' wings;/And just as I became assured/My lame foot would be speedily cured,/The music stopped and I stood still,/ And found myself outside the hill,/ Left alone against my will,/To go now limping as before,/ And never hear of that country more!''

[LeMarchand]

I'm fairly sure that whatever I read (though maybe it was a film?) had the boy, grown up, searching for his friends. Thanks for the suggestion, though!

 

Since doing some research I have come across some interesting "Hamelin" facts - it seems that a lot of the children may well have vanished, and that there are towns in Transylvania (founded not long after the disappearances) where they originally spoke a different language to the rest of the country...

[ursula62]

There appears to be a book about this, but it isn't what you remember as it was published in 2000.

http://www.libbyhathorn.com/lh/books_picture.html

The book is called "The Gift" but a book search on amazon.co.uk and amazon.com reveals nothing!

 

I remember a short story in an anthology of fairy tales etc when I was a child. Maybe this is what you remember too? It might have been one of the  "Stories for Seven Year Olds"  series.

[LeMarchand]

"The Gift" sounds almost exactly like it!!! (Though I don't remember it being a picture book).

 

Unfortunately, as you say, the dates are wrong :-( . Having looked into the story a bit, I seem to recall having to write about whatever the story was, which firmly places it in school. (The other option was that I had picked it up and read it when I worked in a bookshop). I have a sister in Australia, I wonder if she could mail me a copy - it sounds worth a read!