Transylvania and The Pied Piper and the Children of Hamelin, and the Transylvanian Saxons

Like most historic lands, Transylvania holds many legends. There is Vlad the Impaler. Some have a fairytale like quality to them. Some are rooted in historical fact, and some have a bit of both. For the Saxons of Transylvania where they came from is as important as where they were living. Even the Pied Piper has a bit of the history of Transylvania in it.

The flute of the Pied Piper still calls us to follow him to Transylvania. At least this is what some versions say. The Robert Browning poem, based on this story, ends with the verse that the children went to Transylvania from the German town of Hamelin. Even the folk storytellers the Brothers Grimm have their own version of what happened. As with Vlad the Impaler, this makes for a great story.

The village of Hamelin is where the story of the Pied Piper starts. From there, the Pied Piper was a person who took the children away from their parents. Because what happened to the children remains a mystery, many people have their own theories.

- According to some, the Pied Piper led the children out of the village into the hills to kill them.

- According to others, children left on a crusade.

- According to another group, the children left their parents for Eastern Europe. Robert Browning refers to this theory in his legendary poem "the Pied Piper of Hamelin."

- Later there was a rumour that bones of small children were found in the nearby forest. Then there is another theory, the Black Death claimed the lives of the children.

The story starts in Hamelin where there is a rat infestation. A man comes and offers his services in exchange for payment. The man does this but the townspeople do not follow their part of the bargain. The man then returned later and then played is pipe to lure the children of the townspeople into a cave.

The Pied Piper and the children were never seen again. The last theory is that the Pied Piper took the children to Transylvania, and these children became the "German Saxons" of the area. This would be the ending alluded to in the Browning poem. The newer or shorter versions of Browning do not have this ending, but if you look for the longer version you can read this ending.

Like many legends there is some truth to this story, and in Hamelin there is a place where many people stop and remember. In this case, for some they believe that there is a link to Transylvania there, since the childrens' crusade to Jerusalem, happened during this time.

These theories are interesting, but there is some truth to the people of the area being from Germany (or the provinces and city-states which would become Germany in 1871.)

There are people of German origin who lived in Transylvania after the 11th Century. Vlad Tepes (also known as Vald Dracul) dealt with them and these people eventually became known as the Saxons. Not much is written of these people, but they, for the most part, left Transylvania after the Second World War.

Rebecca is the author of many hubs on publishing on hubpages and the blog Living a Life of Writing, http://rebeccasbook.blogspot.com/. She also write about Transylvania on Things about Transylvania http://transylvaniathings.blogspot.com/

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