Krus, D.J, Nelsen, E.A. & Webb, J.M. (1998) Issues in oral history: elaboration of traumatic events: Perceptual and Motor Skills, 86, 928-930.

 Issues in oral history: Elaboration of traumatic events
David J. Krus and Edward A. Nelsen
Arizona State University
James M. Webb
Kent State University

 
Summary.— Case studies of likely allegorical interpretation of events indicate that allegoric rendering of real events should be always considered when the narrator wants to share his or her knowledge of these events, but for personal or other reasons cannot do it directly.

Attending a school event in which his daughters participated, the first author observed the children’s dramatization of the classical story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. The script appeared to follow the familiar version of the story: The Pied Piper appeared when the town was infested with rats. For a fee, he played his magic pipe and lured the rats into a river. When the townspeople reneged on the payment, the Pied Piper played his pipe again and led the children of the townspeople away. So far, the school play followed the original story faithfully. However, the conclusion of the play was altered: after being paid by the repenting mayor the Pied Piper of Hamelin brought the children back.

Children's Crusades
The tale of the Pied Piper originated in Germany following the Children’s Crusades. One such crusade was launched from France and one from Germany. Following military setbacks of the Fourth Crusade, some religious thinkers found it difficult to reconcile the defeats suffered by crusaders in the Holy Land with God’s will to liberate that region. They resolved their cognitive dissonance with religious explanation: the idea that God willed the liberation of the Holy Land was correct, but the motives of the crusaders attempting to accomplish the task were not pure enough. Only if one could enlist soldiers of Christ who were innocent and pure could the Holy Land ever be regained. This idea found support and soon preachers were recruiting children throughout rural regions of France and Germany. Revivalist village and town meetings were staged where crusading preachers asserted that children, as instruments of God’s will, were required to liberate the Holy Land. Some parents believed their arguments and offered their most precious possession, their children, to the cause promoted by the preachers. 
In France the children were led by Stephen of Cloyes toward Marseilles. Upon reaching the Mediterranean Sea, Stephen of Cloyes raised his arms as he was taught Moses did before God opened the Red Sea for the dry-shod passage of the people of Israel from Egypt to the Promised Land; however, the sea did not open. Still, the mission to recapture Christ’s sepulcher in Jerusalem was not abandoned. Transports by ships were negotiated, but instead of heading toward the Holy Land, the ship owners directed the captains of their vessels to sail to the Arab slave markets. There the boys were sold as slaves and girls were sold into harems and bordellos. 
In Germany the children, led by Nicholas, aged 12, marched toward the Alps with intent to cross into Italy. The crossing of the alpine mountain range is not easy. Hannibal’s crossing of the Alps is one of the history’s celebrated military feats. Crossing from the German side of the Alps into Italy, east of Mont Blanc, one must negotiate the Saint Bernard Pass, which reaches an altitude of over 8,000 ft. There most of the German child crusaders froze to death. 

These child crusaders were recruited in 1212 from the German provinces of Hesse, Saxony, and Westphalia. Seventy years later, in 1284, the story of the Pied Piper originated at Hamelin, Westphalia. The Pied Piper appeared when the town was infested with rats, and, for a fee, played his magic pipe and lured the rats into the Weser River. When the townspeople reneged on the payment, the Pied Piper played his pipe again. This time it was the children of the townspeople who followed him. He led them into a place high in the mountains from whence they never returned.

Hansel and Gretel
Next play was based on dramatization of the classical story of the Hansel and Gretel. The script was modified in accord with contemporary themes. The play included admonitions of not to talk to strangers, not to take candy from anyone, and how to call 911. When shoved into the oven, the witch giggled and the audience applauded.

In the Grimms’ original Kinder und Hausmărchen (1812), written from oral peasant narration, the burning of the witch in the oven is described as follows (p. 106).

The witch-trials took place during a period of several centuries, starting in Switzerland around 1453 and lasted up to about 1789. During those three centuries, several million of human beings were burned to death. Did the informant of Brothers Grimm elaborate on the actual events of witch burning? In 1651, city officials of Nysa,* Silesia, built the bruloir, a large oven for mass burning of witches, to expedite the traditional process of burning witches at stake. In this oven they burned, in the following decade, more than 1,000 persons, including children (Cavendish, 1987). The first edition of the Grimms’ Kinder und Hausmărchen was published in 1812. The time, separating the last occurrence of the events underlying the narrative and emergence of the allegory describing the event, is about seventy years, a span corresponding to two-generation cohorts. This is about the same interval as that separating the Children’s Crusades (in 1212) and the emergence of the story of the Pied Piper in 1284. 

The hypothesis that the Pied Piper and Hansel und Gretel fairy tales are allegorical rendering of real events by peasant informants is intriguing and not without significance within the complex problems associated with issues associated with the validity of oral history.

References
Cavendish, R. (1987) A history of magic. London: Weinfield & Nicolson. 
Grimm, J., & Grimm, W. (1812) Kinder und Hausmărchen. Berlin, Germany: Realschulbuchhandlung.
Grimm, J., & Grimm, W. (1816) Deutsche Sagen. Berlin, Germany.

Notes
*Nysa, a town in today’s Poland, spelled in Polish Nysa, in, German Neisse, in Czech, Nisa.