Creative Writing Idea
By Joshua Meints
Kalamazoo Valley Community College
Spring 2007

Joshua presents a scenario below which you may want to use to develop a story related to the Pied Piper themes and plot.

If you think about a Saracen warrior and his involvement in the childrens crusade, you might find an interesting story to create. I was thinking about the different Pied Piper stories and contemplating which one seemed more real to me. I decided to kind of mix and match the stories in the literary world to come up with something realistic.

You can begin with the pied Piper coming to the town and taking care of the rat problem for the agreed price. When the Governor doesnt pay him, the Piper becomes angry and leaves the town. He goes off and cooks up this plan to get revenge on the town and get even more money than they had promised him. He comes back on the 26th of June in disguise so nobody recognizes him. He knows that the people of this town will go crazy for anything related to the crusade, so he unfolds his plot on that point and exploits the weakness. He tells them that he wants to take the children on a childrens crusade and, of course they are all for it. He gathers up all the children and takes them on a march to the nearest port. He loads them up and sails them off to Egypt to sell them as slaves.

Perhaps one of the journalists decides to tag along and document the experience, but smells something fish about the situation so he documents from the shadows, unnoticed. When the ship arrives at the port in Egypt he overhears the Pied Piper telling the captain of the ship his intentions of selling the children as slaves in Africa and that he (the Piper) will cut the ship captain in on the deal. The journalist goes back to Hamelin and tries to tell everyone what is happening. But they are so blinded by their belief in the crusade they dont listen to him.

After some time word travels to a Saracen warrior in Israel whose name is Jafaar Abousaleh. Like many Muslims he works for peace between the Muslim world and the Christian world. So he sets off to Egypt with a few of his fellow warriors and leaders to find out what has become of these lost children from the north.

Thoughts for Reflection:
Joshua has a great story idea here, and the phrase, lost children from the north, can almost become a story title a sort of mystery told by someone who is not aware of what really happened in Hamelin. Picking a Saracen warrior to depict this story is an excellent way to showcase the peace loving nature of most Muslim believers. There is a famous Saracen, by the name of Saladin, who showed great mercy during one of the Crusades. You can find out about Saladin by reading Diane Stanleys picture book called, Saladin.