Many of us are familiar with the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin, immortalised in 1842 by Robert Browning in his poem of the same name. But the story of the Pied Piper is found all across the British Isles and even in the writings of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, all well before Browning wrote his poem

The story this month is a version from of the Isle of Wight, collected by Joseph Jacobs and included in his More English Fairy Tales (1893) as ‘The Pied Piper of Franchville.’ Joseph Jacobs states his source for the story to be Abraham Elder’s Tales and Legends of the Isle of Wight, (London, 1839), pp. 157-164, and notes that his friend and contributor, Alfred Nutt, who “has abridged and partly rewritten the story from a copy of Elder's book in his possession, has introduced a couple of touches from Browning.”

Though both versions tell of how the Piper rid the town of rats and how, when he was not given his promised reward, he led the children of the town away, the version of the story told by Jacobs is bleaker and sadder than that told by Browning.

Here, then, is our story of the month:

• The Pied Piper of Franchville - Joseph Jacobs

And for those of our readers who are interested, here is a link to Robert Browning’s famous poem on Poetry Foundation:

• The Pied Piper of Hamelin - Robert Browning

And of course, needless to say, if you know of another version of this story, please do let us know! You can write to us via our Contact page, HERE. We’d love to hear from you!