The Pied Piper of Hamelin

by Robert Browning, Kate Greenaway (Illustrator)

Overview

The Pied Piper of Hamelin is a true story. On June 26, 1284, events occurred, so extraordinary, they have been talked about and wondered at from that day to this one. What really happened during that fateful summer (and why) is a fascinating mystery. It may never be solved, and yet, the famous case of The Pied Piper and his misadventures in Hamelin Town remains relevant and compelling nonetheless.

The origin of what has come to be known as The Legend of the Pied Piper can be traced back seven hundred years. Literary scholars and historians differ, debate, and speculate about the facts of the matter. The Children's Crusade and The Dance Epidemic, a disease that blazed in the Dark Ages, are popular theories to explain the circumstances surrounding the folk tale. Barbara Tuchman writes in her wonderful book, Distant Mirror, that the legend of The Pied Piper arose from an outbreak of the plague. The modern-day citizens of Hamelin attribute the mass exodus of their ancestors to the forced colonization of Eastern Europe.

The brothers Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm heard the story on their philological trip across the German countryside at the turn of the eighteenth century, By then, the saga of The Pied Piper had been passed by word-of-mouth for many generations. The tale had been told and retold for more than five hundred years. The Grimm brothers wrote a comprehensive version of the oral history, but did not include it in their collection of Children and Household Tales (better known as Grimm's Fairy Tales ) because they considered the narrative to be of social import, not a fable for children.

The legend was, by-in-large, a local one, until 1842, when Robert Browning's poetic account for young people was published. His rhyming retelling has so much appeal, it advanced a humble German river town from commonplace to world famous and immortalized a rat catcher from itinerant stranger to infamous antihero. Mr. Browning embellished the story to suit his fancy. (For rhyming reasons of his own, he changed the date to July 22, 1376.)

Word pictures dance off the pages in Browning's poem. His Pied Piper of Hamelin is so imaginative, it inspired the great illustrators of children's storybooks - Kate Greenaway, Arthur Rackham, Margaret Tarant, and Maxfield Parrish. (Parrish's mural of The Pied Piper, leading the children out of Hamelin and up Koppelberg Hill, hangs proudly over the bar at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco.)

Now, in the 1999 publication of the Robert Browning classic, the witty and wise Bud Peen adds his name to the golden roster of illustrators. Peen's thoroughly modern style is in cunning counterpoint to the medievalist discipline he adopted to suit the subject. In preparation for the project, he reacquainted himself with the paintings, illuminated manuscripts, tapestries, furnishings, architecture, clothing, and day-to-day comings and goings of life in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Combining state-of-the-art technologies with the spirit of medieval masterworks, Peen creates his vibrant electronic paintings - and a feast for the eyes they are.
The Pied Piper of Hamelin is a cautionary tale with words to the wise. There is an old-English proverb that goes: He who pays the piper may call the tune. But the phrase simply stating the facts, painted on the stained glass window of Hamelin's church, says it best of all [loosely translated] In the year 1284, on John's and Paul's day, was the 26th of June - 130 children born in Hamelin were abducted by a piper dressed in a many colored coat, and lost at the top of Koppelberg Hill forever.

Author Biography

A freelance illustrator since 1984, Bud Peens prolific work has found it's way into a wide range of projects: from his award winning editorial work, to web site design; from building sets, to designing his own line of furniture. Mr. Peen's editorial art has been published in such magazines as Hemisphere, Playboy, PC World, Parenting, Money Magazine and the Los Angeles Times. His corporate clients include Disney, Lotus, United Airlines, Absolut, Bank of America, Nordstroms and Apple. Bud has illustrated for such books as the Macintosh Bible, the PC Bible, A Bulb for all Seasons, and A Free Library in this City written by Peter Booth Wiley. Mr. Peen's illustrations have appeared on such web sites as Salon, Women's Wire, Playboy, and was featured in National Geographics award winning interactive web site, The Fantastic Forest. Mr. Peen's industrial design includes a new line of stone-veneered furniture for the Lam Lee Group, recently introduced at the International Furniture Show at High Point, NC, and clocks and frames for Toronto based Umbra, Ltd.

Bud Peen's work has been featured in Photoshop 4-Studio Secrets (IDG Books) and in Photoshop Masters (Agosto Press) as well as in Web and Step-by-Step Magazine. Mr. Peen has lectured at colleges and conferences across the country and taught illustration as an Adjunct Professor for 5 years at the California College of Arts and Crafts in San Francisco. His fine art sculpture, paintings, drawings and illustrations has been exhibited in galleries in New York, Boston, San Francisco and Dallas.
Bud Peen lives and works in Oakland, California with his wife, Jan, and 8 year old, Jasper.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9786069225356
Publisher:	Mediamorphosis
Publication date:	06/09/2010
Pages:	52
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.30(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Robert Browning (1812-1889) was born in Camberwell, London, the son of a clerk in the Bank of England. The strongest influence on his education were the books in his father's extensive library, particularly the writings of Byron and Shelley. His dramatic poem Paracelsus, published in 1835, established his reputation and brought him the friendship of the actor-manager William Macready. When Macready's eldest son Willie was ill in bed, Browning wrote for the boy's entertainment the poem of The Pied Piper, a story he remembered from his own childhood. After its appearance in print in 1842, it became a children's classic, attracting new illustrators in every generation.

In 1846 Robert Browning married a fellow poet, Elizabeth Barrett, eloping with her to Italy where they lived until Elizabeth's death in 1861. He them returned to England to live with his only sister Sarianna, but later he went back to Italy, where he died at the Rezzonico Palace in Venice.

Editorial Reviews

The dramatic events that Browning recorded in 1842 unfold as if they occurred yesterday in Peen's computer-generated illustrations, which show a historical setting but are unmistakably contemporary. Tugging at both the medieval and modern time periods, these scenes have bold, black, shivering lines and flat expanses of colors in subdued hues, overlaid by different color shapes. The details in this city, from the pillaging rats to the gluttonous council members, bring Browning's lesson home, although the details of the narrative, in the stylized art, are more abstract. Combining the Kate Greenaway edition and this one at a story hour would comprise the perfect launch for discussion of illustrators and their choices, and the stylistic differences between children's book art of the last century and this one. (Picture book. 5-9)

Kirkus Reviews