"In the year of our Lord 1284, on the day of Saints John and Paul, June 26, a certain piper, dressed in all colors, led away 130 children from Hamelin, and they mysteriously disappeared at the executioner's hill near the mountains." The Lüneburg manuscript (circa 1440) The story of the Pied Piper, who is denied his reward by the mayor and council of the city for freeing it from rats, and who cruelly takes revenge on them, is based on a true story but became well-known through various artistic adaptations. After J. W. Goethe, the Brothers Grimm, etc., and before Walt Disney or Viktor Dyk, the most famous version of this story was created by the English poet Robert Browning (1812–1889). The book, with original illustrations by Kate Greenaway (1846–1901) and in a bilingual format, is published in Czech for the first time.
