In episode two we look into the only fairytale that does not start 'once upon a time' but rather 'in 1284'. The mystery of what happened to the children of Hamlin has fascinated Johann Goethe, Robert Browning, and troubled the minds of historians for hundreds of years. We look at the historical background of The Pied Piper of Hamlin and how a true event became bound up with a tale of rats, pipers, and magic mountains to be the tale we know today.