The Pied Piper of Hamelin

Coming to Wonder Tales on 24 November 2026.

The old river town of Hamelin is swallowed by rats — they swarm the granaries, the cradles, the soup pots, until nobody can sleep and nobody can think. The Mayor and his council sit helpless in the Town Hall until a stranger knocks: a tall man in a coat of red and yellow halves, with a pipe hanging at his belt, who offers to rid the town of every rat for a thousand guilders. The Mayor promises him fifty thousand. The Piper steps into the street, blows three shrill notes, and out of every cellar and gutter the rats come pouring, following him over the bridge and down to the river Weser, where they vanish from the town for good. Hamelin rings its bells in joy — but when the Piper comes to collect, the Mayor laughs and offers him fifty guilders instead. The Piper warns him once. Then he plays a different tune, sweet as fair-day and honey, and out of every door come the children of Hamelin, dancing and singing after him up the hill road. A door of light opens in the mountainside, the children go through, and the mountain closes. Only one boy, lame and slow, is left at the roadside, and it is he who tells Hamelin — and every town after — what he saw, and what was promised beyond the door, and what the price of a broken word may be.

About this story

Category

Classic Fairy Tale

Length

10 illustrated pages

Who appears

• the Pied Piper — the wandering musician who rids the town, and takes his payment
• the Mayor — the head of Hamelin's council, who breaks his promise
• the lame boy — the one child left behind, who tells the tale

What happens on 24 November 2026

This story is finished and scheduled. On 24 November 2026 it opens here in full — every page illustrated — as part of Wonder Tales. Nothing on this page is a placeholder: the story exists, it has been reviewed, and this is its address.

Browse Wonder Tales — every story already open to read, free.