Pagan Pied Piper

One of the better visual portraits of the Pied Piper can be seen in this animated video - ... a fictitious take on reality... - directed by Ron Winter.
The Pied Piper is a song by Yoriyos, the son of Yusuf Islam aka Cat Steven, and it appears on his debut album Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (2006).
The lyrics are nothing to write home about. But the visuals certainly make up for the lyrics:
- the indie-folk image of the Pied Piper, with a touch of punk and Gorillaz;
- Piper appearing an eco good guy, his limbs being all branchy, his hair all leaves;
- Piper not revealing his face and wearing an obvious mask;
- the pagan procession of child followers...
It's brilliant. It makes me go all wicked-wicker-man. This wicked Wicker Man.

Gothic Goethe

Goethe wrote "Der Rattenfänger" (1802) as a monologue, a first person narrative (in verse), by the Rat-catcher himself. Goethe, who considered to write the Piper into "Faust", in the role of Mephistopheles' friend and servant, made the Pied Piper seductive and boastful. Indeed, how would the Pied Piper perceive himself? As a seducer, whether of rats, children or maidens:

Sometimes the bard so full of cheer
As a child-catcher will appear,
Who even the wildest captive brings,
Whenever his golden tales he sings.
However proud each boy in heart,
However much the maidens start,
I bid the chords sweet music make,
And all must follow in my wake.

Yet, what would Goethe's seducer be without a pipe? A very, very dangerous man. For Goethe's Piper is no musician.
The posted composition is Goethe's poem made into an art song (Lied) by Hugo Wolf, a Slovenian composer. While the singing is seductive, boastful and even cheerful, the instrumental accompaniment is
frantic
gothic
insane
decadent

Where have all the young ones gone, long time ago…

"He returned on June 26, Saint John's and Saint Paul's Day, early in the morning at seven o'clock (others say it was at noon), now dressed in a hunter's costume, with a dreadful look on his face and wearing a strange red hat. He sounded his fife in the streets, but this time it wasn't rats and mice that came to him, but rather children: a great number of boys and girls from their fourth year on,"

can be read in The Children of Hameln, a folk tale as recorded by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm (1816, Deutsche Sagen).
"In total," recorded the Grimms, "130 were lost."
There is no evidence that the legend of the Rat-catcher (or the Pied Piper) is actually based on any real event. The fact that the event is told to have happened on a specific date rather than once upon a time seems to lend the tale authenticity in the public eye. What is essentially a folk tale has been repeatedly recorded as an actual event. Being that these recordings are themselves centuries old, they lend yet another aura of authenticity to the legend.

"In the year 1284 after the birth of Christ
From Hameln were led away
One hundred thirty children, born at this place,"

is inscribed, centuries long already, on the town hall of Hameln. The town records begin with "the event" – an event that may very well have never happened. The “fact” is kept eerily alive by town regulations that prohibit any music to be heard on the Pied Piper’s (so-called “drumless”) street.
Many explanations have been offered of the actual event in 1284 that might have spawned the legend. Please refer to Wikipedia for these. As for me, I am far more fascinated by the tale itself, its many possibilities and reincarnations in art over time. These I will bring before you in the coming days.
So far, I’ve been quoting Robert Browning’s excellent rendition, The Pied Piper of Hamelin (1905).

Once more he stept into the street;
And to his lips again
Laid his long pipe of smooth straight cane;
And ere he blew three notes (such sweet
Soft notes as yet musician's cunning
Never gave the enraptured air)
There was a rustling, that seemed like a bustling
Of merry crowds justling at pitching and hustling,
Small feet were pattering, wooden shoes clattering,
Little hands clapping, and little tongues chattering,
And, like fowls in a farm-yard when barley is scattering,
Out came the children running.
All the little boys and girls,
With rosy cheeks and flaxen curls,
And sparkling eyes and teeth like pearls,
Tripping and skipping, ran merrily after
The wonderful music with shouting and laughter.

Posted above is Ingrid Bergman’s take on Browning’s verse. Bergman's reading is charming and endearing, and all the more deliciously creepy for that.

26 June 1284

"It has been 10 years since our children left."
(The first entry in the Hamelin town chronicles)

What came before 26 June 1284

Into the street the Piper stepped,
Smiling first a little smile,
As if he knew what magic slept
In his quiet pipe the while;
Then, like a musical adept,
To blow the pipe his lips he wrinkled,
And green and blue his sharp eyes twinkled
Like a candle flame where salt is sprinkled;
And ere three shrill notes the pipe uttered,
You heard as if an army muttered;
And the muttering grew to a grumbling;
And the grumbling grew to a mighty rumbling;
And out of the houses the rats came tumbling.
Great rats, small rats, lean rats, brawny rats,
Brown rats, black rats, grey rats, tawny rats,
Grave old plodders, gay young friskers,
Fathers, mothers, uncles, cousins,
Cocking tails and pricking whiskers,
Families by tens and dozens,
Brothers, sisters, husbands, wives—
Followed the Piper for their lives.
From street to street he piped advancing,
And step for step they followed dancing,
Until they came to the river Weser,
Wherein all plunged and perished!

The Rat-catcher arrived to the rats-infested Hamelin in June 1284. He was promised a handsome pay by the mayor to rid the town of rats with his pipe. He led the rats, playing his pipe, to the river Weser. Rats followed, enchanted, close on his heels and at the end of a cliff they all jumped into the river and drowned.
The Rat-catcher came to collect his dues. The town people refused to pay up... and the Rat-catcher left, calling:

"And folks who put me in a passion
May find me pipe to another fashion."

The town people still did not bend.

"You threaten us, fellow? Do your worst,
Blow your pipe there till you burst!"

The Rat-catcher returned to Hamelin on 26 June 1284 to do his worst.

The street of no sounds

Who

His queer long coat from heel to head
Was half of yellow and half of red;
And he himself was tall and thin,
With sharp blue eyes, each like a pin