There is also history in the legend: the history and fiction in "The Magic Piper"

When we think of the "Flower DressEd Piper", the first thing that comes to mind may be the Grimm fairy tale. In the story, the German city of Hameln is suffering from a rat infestation. The piper, who came from nowhere, told the mayor that if the citizens paid him, he would help drive away the rats. The mayor agreed. The music of the piper led the rats into the river, and the rat infestation was lifted. However, after getting rid of the rat infestation, people use various excuses to refuse to pay. A year later, the vengeful piper came to Hameln, this time he blew the flute and took the city's children with him. In 2021, Japanese historian Keiya Abe's "The Magic Piper in Flower Clothes" has Chinese translation. Before reading this book, I thought that the moral of the story of the magic piper was to tell people to keep their promises and not to be too stingy. After reading this book, I learned that this story is not completely fictional, and behind it is a historical event that really happened. On 26 June 1284, 130 children went missing in Hameln.

Why are historians interested in fairy tales, legends, or stories? Abe's encounter with the Flower Cloth Demon Flute Bearer is a coincidence and inevitable. From undergraduate to doctoral programs, Abe's research has been related to the Teutonic Knights (the Japanese name is the German Knights' Order). In 1964, Abe also began working at Otaru University of Commerce. He continued to do research, but there were no books or journals in Japan at the time. After correspondence with Walther Hubatsch of the University of Bonn, Abe also learned that he was not looking at printed historical materials, but handwritten archives. To this end, he decided to study in Germany. Later, it was when Abe consulted the archives that he encountered historical materials related to the Flower Cloth Demon Piper.

In October 1969, Abe also went to Germany. He first took a two-month German lesson at the Goethe-Institut in Iserlohn, then visited Hubarts in Bonn. Abe also said he wanted to study the history of the Osterode region (now in Poland) in the late Middle Ages. At Hubarts' suggestion, Abe also began studying diplomatic and paleography/paléographie, taking weekly classes with Hubarts' assistants. In this way, Abe stayed in Bonn for half a year. Due to the limited time of his study visit, Abe also decided to move to Göttingen to directly look at the archives related to the subject. After moving to Göttingen, he went to the archives every day from 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 a.m. to read historical materials. At first, many of the contents could not be understood, and Abe felt as if he were "alone in the compartment of the archives fighting with historical materials." Later, he found a way: read it as a whole first, and then read it carefully after mastering the gist.

In May 1971, Abe was also reading a preliminary study of the Ostroda area when he suddenly read "The piper of Hameln may have brought the children here", and for a moment he felt that he had been hit. This is the beginning of Abe's search for the Flower ClothEd Magic Flute Player in history. The legend of the flower-clad magic flute player also made Abe nervous, and he went to the archives in the morning to read the historical materials and in the afternoon to the library to check the materials. However, the people around him were not optimistic. Abe's brother was also in Göttingen at the time, and he said to Abe, "If you do this research, you may deviate from the right path." Or don't do it. Abe, who also went to the archives as a historian in Göttingen, felt that if he knew that he had become interested in legends, the historians around him would have been surprised. Because in Germany at that time, historical research and legendary studies were two disciplines that did not intersect at all. In his autobiography, Abe recalled: "It was precisely because I left Japan and lived in a foreign country that I was not restrained by anything, and I did not change anything, and I went straight into the inside of the problem." ”

It is no accident that Abe is also interested in the Flower Cloth Demon Piper. One of the historical hypotheses about how the story of the Flower-Clothed Piper was established is the immigration theory, which is set against the same background as the Germanic eastward expansion that Abe was also studying. In November 1972, Abe also wrote an article on his research on the Magic Flute Rider of the Flower Dress, which was published in the magazine Thought. He continued to write on this article, and in 1974 published the book "The Magic Piper in Flower Clothes".

This article is from B04-B05 of the Beijing News Book Review Weekly's May 6 feature "Under the Stars in the Middle Ages: A History journey of Akiya Abe".

"Theme" B01 丨 Abe Keiya's historical journey

"Theme" B02-B03 丨 Let History Meet Reality: Abe's Historical Thoughts

"Theme" B04-B05丨 Legend also has history: history and fiction in "The Magic Piper"

"Theme" B06 丨 Reading History in Yourself: The Path of Social History of Abe Kenya

"Literature" B07 丨 Mua: From "The Horse" to the Poetry of Prometheus

"Commemoration" B08 丨 Xie Chensheng: With a century of life, to prevent the annihilation of cultural relics and monuments

Written by 丨 Luan Yingxin

"The Magic Piper in Flower Clothes: The European Middle Ages Behind the Legend", by [Japanese] Keiya Abe, Edition: Ichiba Guangxi Normal University Press, Published: 2021-8-1.

How have legends changed throughout history?

In the second part of The Flower-Clad Piper, Abe also discusses the process of the legend's constant changes in circulation and its historical background, as well as the existing research on the legend. From this section, we can restore the research process of Abe Akiya. He became interested in this legend and then consulted the relevant research literature to understand the hypotheses and historical materials related to the legend. And Abe also wrote this book in the reverse order. In the first part, the historical materials related to the legend are introduced, and then the various hypotheses about the legend are introduced to analyze whether the elements of the legend are historically possible; in the second part, the changes and academic history of the legend over several centuries are introduced. Because of this, the joy of reading this book is comparable to reading speculative fiction.

The main changes in the legend of the Flower Flute Bearer occurred in the 16th century. The Chronicle of the Count of Seamo, written around 1565, records hameln's rattraps, the first to link the story of the rattrap to the disappearance of a child. Prior to this, the disappearance of the child was independently recorded, and there was no mention of the rat catcher. Abe also believes that the changes in the legend in the 16th century are related to the religious and social changes caused by the Reformation and the Peasants' War on the one hand, and the development of printing on the other hand. He believes that this legend, which was originally circulated among the people, was transformed by the intellectual class, "turning the interpretation of the legend into a means of religious indoctrination and spiritual discipline for the people." Abe also cited stories about rat catchers elsewhere in Europe. He believes that these stories should develop independently, because rat infestations have always been a problem that plagues people in the Middle Ages.

The walls of the "Wedding House" in Hameln are decorated with a monument to the "Battle of Zedmund", and some believe that this historical war gave birth to the legend of the Flower Dressed Devil Piper.

The academic history of the legend of the Flower Flute Bearer has a very deep relationship with Göttingen. Ji Xianlin recalled his experience of studying at the University of Göttingen: "The lineup of liberal arts professors is also strong. The Brothers Grimm, who played an important role in german literary and academic history, spent time at the University of Göttingen. Their fairy tales are popular all over the world and can be said to be household names in China. "The Flower Flute Bearer is one of the legends collected by the Grimm Brothers, and through the Grimm fairy tale, the Flower Flute Player has become a widely circulated story. It was during his visit to Göttingen that Abe began to study the legend of the Flower Flute Bearer.

Abe also sharply pointed out the background of the era behind the collection of folklore by the Brothers Grimm, arguing that the collection of folklore by the Brothers Grimm and the development of medieval history in Germany in the 19th century were related to the national unity of Germany. To be unified, it is necessary to create a commonality that transcends the differences of the various states, and to use this common thing as the basis for German unification. The study of medieval history is the study of the past common to the German nation, and the study of folklore is the study of the common way of life of the people in german-speaking circles, both of which serve the unity of Germany. Abe also considers the Romantic movement to be part of this, especially the Grimm brothers' collection of ancient legends.

There is also a man closely related to this legend in Göttingen – Heinrich Spannus. At the age of 78, the old man submitted a paper entitled "The Mousetrap of Hameln – The Founding and Significance of Ancient Legends" at the University of Göttingen and received the best prize. In 1934, the city of Hameln planned to celebrate the 650th anniversary of the Legend of the Mousetrap, commissioning Spannus to curate a related exhibition. In the course of curating, Spanus collected a lot of information related to the legend and began to study the legend. Spanus believes that the key point of change in the legend is the Piper, who were itinerant marginal people in the identity order of the time. Because of these two common attributes, the story of the mousetrap and the disappearance of the children are combined.

Kate Greenaway's illustration of Browning's The Flower-Clad Piper of Hameln (1910).

Abe also explained the reason why the legend of the Flower Demon Flute Bearer has survived to this day and has always had a vitality, saying: "No matter where it is, natural disasters and man-made disasters will not be broken, and no matter where it is, the government will be indifferent to the suffering of civilians." After the unsung heroes eradicate the root causes of people's suffering, the government will not treat these heroes rationally, often condemning them, and the resulting disasters must ultimately be borne by the people. And this kind of ugly behavior born in the adult world is often borne by naïve children. As long as people can usually experience this 'reality', this legend has the power to impress people all over the world. ”

How are seemingly implausible texts such as legends used in historical research? Abe also proved through "The Flower DressEd Piper" that there are historical facts behind the seemingly unreliable legends. Regardless of who the piper or the rat catcher really was, Hameln did have mills, rats. In 1654, Samuel Erich, who had been the headmaster of a Latin school in Hameln, wrote a book called Leaving Hameln. Erich gathered a lot of information about this legend, and he discovered in 1643 that the core of this legend was what really happened. The common people of Hameln rarely had the opportunity to record their own history, but they remembered the disappearance of their children in 1284 in a unique way. From 1284 onwards, the people of Hameln adopted a new way of dating, with the phrase "after the disappearance of the children ... Year" to represent the year. It was this unusual calendar that attracted the French numismatic scholar Tuarne. Tuana asked if leibniz had a similar calendar elsewhere. Leibniz was also fascinated by the legend, and he began to read material related to the legend. Leibniz believed there was something real in this legend. Since then, people have begun to pursue the historical facts behind this legend. Abe's research is on this path.

Children of the Poor, prints, Augsburg, 1539. The poor could not feed their children and were often forced to abandon them when disasters came, which led to the dark fairy tale of Two siblings, Hansel and Gretel, abandoned into the forest in Grimm's Fairy Tales.

"In the name of bread on the earth"

Who is the Flower Dressed Piper? Abe also began consulting research on wandering entertainers. The gap between the rich and the poor in the city and the wandering entertainer in the story of the magic piper are related to the hierarchical concept of medieval society. These people are people who are treated differently in society. Abe also wrote: "The study of this legend has largely opened my horizons. Until then, when it comes to historical research, people will only think of archival materials, and legends, fairy tales and other things are certainly not within the consideration of historians. It's not that I wasn't unaware that there were such rules in academia at the time. I think this legend is really interesting, anyway, I want to study it and try it. So I studied this legend in the form of historical research and wanted to see how far it could go. ”

The Flower-Clothed Piper is arguably the most influential book on Abe's study of legends and on medieval Dalits in Europe. In the past decade, the works of Japanese scholars who have studied the history of the European Middle Ages have been translated into Chinese, and Abe is one of them. In addition to "The Magic Flute Bearer in Flower Clothes", Abe's "Under the Stars in the Middle Ages" and "Minimalist History of Germany" have also been translated into Chinese. In addition, Shunichi Ikegami's works have been translated into Chinese, such as "The History of France in French Desserts", "The History of Italy in Pasta", "Illustrating the World of Knights", and "The Genes of History" series. Hiroichi Kawahara and Hirohito Horikoshi's "Illustrated History of Medieval Life" has also been translated into Chinese.

The works of many Japanese scholars who study the history of the European Middle Ages have been translated into Chinese, but most of these books are popular science books written by them in addition to academic research, and I am very much looking forward to their academic works being translated into Chinese. As for the translation of Works on European History written by Japanese scholars, as Natsutoki said in his book review of Abe's Under the Stars in the Middle Ages, "As far as common sense is concerned, Western researchers do not have to know Japanese, and those who are good at Japanese are rarely familiar with Western history." Therefore, it is difficult to criticize the translator of this book. "Although there are small mistakes in the translation of the Chinese, they are not hidden. Considering the sad fact that translation work is currently poorly paid, it is fortunate that we can read Chinese translations.