Friday, September 4, 2009

Cabinet des Fées Fairy Tale Journal Issue #8 is Live

The September 2009 issue (#8) of fairy tale journal "Cabinet des Fées" is now live online.

If you're not familiar with this journal you'll be pleasantly surprised by the variety of offerings and new fairy tale based works in these collections.

Rather than try to describe the content, I'll quote from their website:

Cabinet des Fées is an online journal begun in 2005 as a result of our love of fairy tales in all of their manifestations. We’ve seen two issues in print with a third on the way, but now are online only. Scheherezade’s Bequest is our tri-annual offering of fiction and poetry. We keep our editorials and announcements, plus other news we come across that we think our readers might appreciate in Our Grim(m)oire, where you’ll find Storytellers, live readings of the fantastic in literature. We also present essays from and interviews with respected authors, editors, scholars and other assorted personalities in the fields of fairy tales, folklore and myth.

Here's the content line-up for this issue:

Fiction and Poetry:

Rapunzel Considers the Desert by Jeannine Hall Gailey
Harp by Alex Wilson
In the Ashes by Gerri Leen
Dahut’s Curse by Jennifer Lawrence
Basic Biology by Caren Gussoff
A Wolf’s Lament by M. Lynn Johnson
The Bear and the Bicycle by Catherine Knutsson
All Underneath the Eildon Tree by Joshua Gage
Connla mac Lia and the Kingship of Eriu by Amal El-Mohtar
The Courtship of Caoilte and Yvaine by Jessica P. Wick
Anthology by Sonya Taaffe
Faithful by Brittany Warren
Stone Flowers by Mike Allen
Envy by Grace Andreacchi
Cry Wolf by Adrienne J. Odasso

... and a whole lot of book reviews.

Cabinet des Fées is also planning on having more regular online content so, while not reverting to a blog, there will be new fairy tale content being added regularly to the site from now on.

They also have two journals in print and available for purchase (a third is currently in the works). Click on the covers to be taken to more information and purchase options.



Submissions for the next issue will re-open on October 1st (guidelines are HERE).

You can find the online journal HERE.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Disney's Hollywood Studios Featuring Art & Design from "The Princess and the Frog"

Disney's Hollywood Studios (formerly MGM Studios) at Walt Disney World currently have art and design from the upcoming feature animation "The Princess and the Frog" on display.



You can see a little more HERE.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Over Rainbows and Down Rabbit Holes at the Monterey Museum of Art

The Monterey Museum of Art currently has an exhibition called "Over Rainbows and Down Rabbit holes: The Art of Children's Books" and, reportedly, more than a few fairy tale illustrations are included in the exhibition.

Overview from the website:

The exquisite artistry of classic children’s books is highlighted in this exhibition. View historic works by Beatrix Potter, creator of Peter Rabbit, to more contemporary illustrations by K.Y. Craft, Rosemary Wells and Maurice Sendak. The exhibition includes family activities and a family reading area.

The Museum had the main event for the exhibition on August 21st which included sidewalk chalk drawings, recreating some of the illustrations on display. Artist, Nikolas Larson, chose to recreate one of the illustrations from Paul Zelinsky's Caldecott winning retelling "Rumpelstiltskin". (Cover shown at end of post - click HERE to go to Zelinsky's website to read more about the book and see more of his amazing drawings.)You can see more pictures of Larson's chalk 'painting' progress through the day at his blog HERE.Other pictures of sidewalk chalk drawings from the event can be seen HERE on the museum's Facebook page.

The recreations are gorgeous. I don't envy whomever was tasked with destroying, er, cleaning afterward!

The Art of Children's Books exhibition is on display through September 13, 2009.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

CAGES PDF Just Released - FREE Download

It's here!

The whole story of

"Cages
A Steampunk Retelling of Grimm's Jorinde & Joringel
In V parts with Epilogue"

is now available for
FREE download & distribution

HERE
at the Supernatural Fairy Tales website.

Please note: if, when you click on the cover image at Supernatural Fairy Tales, a blank page opens and no document appears or downloads, try returning to the site and 'right-clicking' (or holding down the CNTRL button, then clicking) on the cover image and selecting 'SAVE LINK AS'. It should bring up a box with 'cages.pdf' already typed in the SAVE AS area. Click SAVE and it will download automatically after that. If you're still having problems accessing it, email me at fairytalenews AT gmail DOT com and I'll send it directly to you as soon as I see your mail.

Please feel free to download, copy and distribute the PDF to anyone you think will enjoy it.

[If you have any questions about the story, the short series podcast or the PDF, please don't hesitate to email me at fairytalenews AT gmail DOT com]

Book Release: "Ash" by Malinda Lo

Today, September 1st, a new retelling of Cinderella hits the shelves. The YA book and the debut novel from anthropologist-turned-author Malinda Lo, has a different take on the well known (and oft-retold) tale.

Here's the blurb from Amazon.com:
In the wake of her father's death, Ash is left at the mercy of her cruel stepmother. Consumed with grief, her only joy comes by the light of the dying hearth fire, rereading the fairy tales her mother once told her. In her dreams, someday the fairies will steal her away, as they are said to do. When she meets the dark and dangerous fairy Sidhean, she believes that her wish may be granted.
The day that Ash meets Kaisa, the King's Huntress, her heart begins to change. Instead of chasing fairies, Ash learns to hunt with Kaisa. Though their friendship is as delicate as a new bloom, it reawakens Ash's capacity for love-and her desire to live. But Sidhean has already claimed Ash for his own, and she must make a choice between fairy tale dreams and true love.
Entrancing, empowering, and romantic, Ash is about the connection between life and love, and solitude and death, where transformation can come from even the deepest grief.
The first thing that got my attention? Fairies. This is a fairy tale with actual fairies (something far less common than most people realize).

The second thing is the romance. It's not at all surprising to see a Cinderella retelling have romance as a primary element but this one is a lesbian retelling.While this isn't a new thing, there's bound to be some controversy over this, especially being YA.

The vast majority of the reviews I've read (on many different sites) are incredibly favorable and from what I gather the storytelling style is lyrical and very, well, 'fairy tale'.

You can find the 1st chapter HERE.

Malinda's blog gives some fascinating insight into her writing process, including that, being trained in anthropology meant she took a great interest in reading as many variants of Cinderella she could find while preparing to write, along with some additional folklore studies. (A lot of other information about her process and approach is scattered throughout the posts, so I recommend just going to her BLOG and browsing.)

Malinda also discusses how the gorgeous cover was created in considering the themes of the book, by way of personally interviewing the artist/designer (you can read that entry HERE) and answers some frequently asked questions about "Ash" (FAQ available HERE).

This one is definitely on my wish list.

Monday, August 31, 2009

'The Simpsons' Parody (Disney's) Snow White

It just came to my attention that "The Simpsons" parodied the Disney version of Snow White this season (Season 20 episode 20).

While I can only find a portion on YouTube to show you here, you should know they pretty much told the whole Snow White story in true Simpson's style with Lisa playing the main role of the princess. Interestingly, they didn't 'gorify' their version as much as expected, although their nods to other tales (Hansel & Gretel, Red Riding Hood and Goldilocks) were nicely done.

Here is Lisa's version of 'the seven' (no"dwarfs" here!) :


And here the huntsman (played by Grounds Keeper Willie) has trouble killing Snow White... or anything else:


It's not the first time The Simpson's writers have employed 'Disneyesque' fairy tale tropes in their scenes. Here's a scene from the movie where Marge and Homer get a little woodland creature help in the romance department.


You can see the full Simpsons episode below or HERE on Hulu. Lisa Simpson's 'Snow White and the Seven' starts at 5 minutes, 5 seconds in.

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Provensen's "Tales from the Ballet"

From their book "Tales from the Ballet" (Golden Press 1968) by Caldecott Medal winners illustrators Alice and Martin Provensen*. As the title suggests, many of these tales are fairy tales. Either ballets were created from old tales like Sleeping Beauty and Ivanand the Firebird or new fairy tales like Giselle were written, often based on a little piece of something else (Giselle was based on a poem). The Nutcracker, of course, is originally by E. T. A. Hoffman, truncated and adapted from his very long short story 'Nutcracker and the Mouse King' .

The Sleeping Princess Coppelia (2 images) The Golden Cockerel Giselle
The Nutcracker
The Firebird

You can find more on the Provensen husband-and-wife author and illustration team* HERE and see the lovely Alice Provensen gallery HERE.

NOTES:
*The Provensen's are not credited with writing 'Tales from the Ballet' as well as illustrating it. The writer is listed as Louis Untermeyer.
*The Provensen's didn't win the Caldecott for this book but for "A Glorious Flight", a biographical picture book about an aviator.
*Some of these images were found on Flickr. The others were found on various foreign rare book seller sites.

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Interview with Amy Morgan of The Fairy Tale Factory

Today we are talking to Amy Morgan, creator of the Fairy Tale Factory. You can find out more about the factory and the exciting workshops Amy has going in our previous post HERE.

This is a long interview post - but it's an interesting one, I promise!

Fairy Tale News Hound: Hi Amy! Welcome to Once Upon A Blog... and thank you agreeing to this interview.


Why do you love fairy tales? (You're in good company here on Once Upon A Blog!)

AMY: Oh, gosh. I love fairy tales because they speak equally powerfully to my conscious and my subconscious. They remind me that the world is far more fluid than I generally suppose, and that people are more powerful than we generally allow ourselves to be. Fairy tales remind me to trust myself. And they're beautiful. I love them for that, too.

FTNH: How have they influenced you personally?

AMY: On a personal level, fairy tales have kept me going through many a dark and dreary time. Something about reading fairy tales and stories inspired by fairy tales gives me a tremendous sense of hope and comfort.

On a professional level and as an artist, fairy tales have inspired some of my best work. That bit about trusting myself applies double-strength here - reading fairy tales has helped me trust my intuitions and inspirations.

FTNH: What was/were your favorite fairy tale/s when you were younger?

AMY: When I was a child I loved Rumplestiltskin. I had a collection illustrated by Tasha Tudor, and I was so fascinated by the fact that Rumplestiltskin [spoiler alert!] tore himself in two at the end. I would get my friends to act the story out with me - we'd use mustard-yellow yarn for the gold (this was the 70s - mustard-yellow yarn was plentiful) and we'd act out the whole thing.

FTNH: What is/are your favorite tale/s (or types of tales) now and where are they from?

AMY: My favorite tales now are the really long, weird ones from Italy and Germany. I've only recently started exploring the Russian tales, and then plan to move on to Chinese and Japanese.

There's a Grimm story The Two Brothers in which two brothers get separated, and one of them ends up traveling with a menagerie. At some point in the story, the brother with the animals gets his head cut off, and the animals have to put it back on again. Okay, here comes my favorite part: they accidentally put his head on backwards! He notices pretty quickly - as one might, so they rip his head off again and stick back on the right way.

Seriously. That is solid gold right there. The mishap with the head doesn't further the action of the plot in any discernible way. You don't learn anything about anyone's character from this little episode. It's just ... extra. A little gratuitous surrealism to help you on your way. Marie-Louise von Franz has actually written about this story and explains it in deep, meaningful, fascinating ways, but my enjoyment is more shallow than that. I just love how weird it is.

I also love The Juniper Tree - another violent, macabre Grimm tale.

FTNH: Why do you think this changed?

AMY: First reason: exposure. I only had that one collection of Tasha Tudor's Fairy Tales when I was a kid. I was so shocked and delighted when I discovered this whole other world of stories out there.

Second reason: I'm a grown-up now. The little Amy and the grown-up Amy need different stories - we're dealing with different life challenges.

FTNH: Why did you start the Fairy Tale Factory? What prompted the idea?

AMY: I was taking a sabbatical from work (aka - unemployed) and decided I was sick of the job market telling me what I could do for a living. I looked long and hard at the places where my passions intersected with my abilities, and decided that teaching a class about two of my favorite things (writing and fairy tales) could be a cool way to make money, meet interesting people, and justify my book allowance all at the same time.

I also hope, in my more optimistic moments, that this class will give people some new tools to cope with hard times. I hope to inspire people, to encourage them to trust their own voices, and to help them connect with beauty in the world and in themselves. I especially want to help people find beauty in the parts of themselves that seem dark and scary. Like that Rilke quote about all our dragons really being princesses just waiting for us to be brave.

FTNH: Who is the Fairy Tale Factory for? What sorts of people have expressed interest so far? What types of people do you think will benefit from attending the workshop/s?

AMY: The Fairy Tale Factory is for anyone who needs it. All ages, all experience levels, all cultural backgrounds. If someone feels inspired to come to my class, I will do my best to help them express whatever it is they came to say.

So far my students have been grown-ups with day jobs who still feel a connection to that playful, curious, magic part of themselves. They're intelligent, articulate, funny (so funny), clever, and stoked about the material. I really like my students.

I think anyone who likes this kind of thing will benefit from the workshops. Professional writers get a great workout - you wouldn't believe what this format does for your writing. Novice writers get to stretch their wings and explore in a safe, supportive environment. And the subject matter is great for working through creative blocks, regardless of your experience level or even your preferred medium. I keep the classes small so that it's easier for me to meet students on whatever level is right for them.

FTNH: So what was it about fairy tales that prompted you to use them as a teaching tool for writers?

AMY: My own experience. Some friends and I were playing with the format and I was shocked at what a great workout it was. Plot, language, tone, structure - it's all there. It's easy for modern writers to be soft when it comes to structure - modernism and post-modernism, while awesome, make it hard to resist the temptation to write 500-page novels in which nothing happens but a lot of Clever Words. Fairy tales don't mess around. You know almost immediately whether your story succeeds, and there's no bluffing. It's kind of like reading your work to kids: You find out real quick whether those jokes are as funny as you thought they were.

FTNH: I love the illustration for the Fairy Tale Factory homepage, complete with little iconic fairy tale symbols woven into the climbing rose border. Can you tell me about the illustration? How did it come about? Why did you choose two crows for the center?

AMY: The homepage showcases the work of everyone on my insanely talented design team. The crest is based on one that my designer (Angie Jernejcic) found in a book of heraldry. She designed the logo and it seemed like the best idea in the world to put it into that shield, flanked by those two crows. The crows chose themselves - all I did was say 'YES!' The climbing roses are from an illustration that Jeremy Eaton did for the site (he did all the illos). He drew each of the elements first (pumpkin coach, etc.), then wove them into the border of roses. My web designer (Kelly Davis) turned it into a recurring motif - she took one little section and turned it into those gorgeous climbing ribbons as a sort of wallpaper.

FTNH: There are quite a few retellings of fairy tales available and more being published all the time but not many original fairy tales. Putting aside the purist idea that true fairy tales are oral and collective in nature and can't be 'created' by one author, why is it that you're focused on creating new tales as opposed to retelling? Can you define the difference between retellings and creating new ones?

AMY: I am so much more interested in what's going on inside people now than what's already been written. I think fairy tales are kissing cousins with dreams. It's an interesting an exercise to say, "Write Snow White, but in modern times in a Chicago housing project." (FTNH: eg. Donald Barthelme's "Snow White") But it's so much more compelling and personal to ask, "What image has been tickling the edges of your consciousness lately? What story is waiting for you to tell it?"

Retelling is a good intellectual exercise. But it's easy to hide behind cleverness there. Ideally, writing your own personal tales will engage your emotions first, then your intellect. I think the stories have more juice that way.

FTNH: Would you mind explaining how that's different from writing normal fantasy?

AMY:
What's different (and this is the technical workout part) is that you have to hold to the traditional fairy tale forms and conventions AND write a new story. This means that you are (a) groping around for the truest, most powerful and resonant images you can muster, and (b) coaxing those images into a form that is intensely limited. So you're engaging your subconscious and your conscious mind at the same time, like trying to stand on two boats at once.

Modern fantasy is quite different, technically, from the traditional fairy tale. In the traditional form, there is very little character development, dialogue, or description. It's little more than a fleshed-out outline. So bare-bones word choice, sentence structure, and plot become your essential tools - that's all you have.

Elmore Leonard has this great quote in his essay:
WRITERS ON WRITING; Easy on the Adverbs, Exclamation points and Especially Hooptedoodle:

There is a prologue in John Steinbeck's "Sweet Thursday", ... He says: "I like a lot of talk in a book and I don't like to have nobody tell me what the guy that's tlaking looks like. I want to figure out what he looks like from the way he talks... figure out what the guy's thinking from what he says. I like some description but not too much of that... Sometimes I want a book to break loose with a bunch of hooptedoodle... Spin up some pretty words maybe or sing a little song with language. That's nice. But I wish it was set aside so I don't have to read it. I don't want hooptedoodle to get mixed up with the story."
My students laugh at me because I am obsessed with this concept: hooptedoodle. In my classes, I feel I have a holy mission to wean them off of hooptedoodle. At the last reading party I overhead some of my students shouting, "Hooptedoodle!" then laughing their heads off. I couldn't have been more proud.

So that's the big difference between modern fiction and the fairy tale form that I teach: 85% less hooptedoodle!

FTNH: How do the skills differ for each type of writing? How are they the same?

AMY: For me as a writer, I'm doing something very different when I'm retelling a well-known story than I am when bringing out something new. In retelling, I'm in dialogue with my culture. For instance - Wicked uses our knowledge of the Wizard of Oz tale to explore cultural perspective. It's still a good story if you never read or saw Oz, but if you're saturated with Oz then you are a witness to the author riffing on all the ideas that Baum initially advanced and on all the things our culture has done with them between inception and present day.

As an author, you can't help but do that when you are riffing on a classic. You start playing with feminist perspectives, like Jane Yolen's Snow White. Or any other perspectives, depending on who and where you are. The point is that you are using the warp and woof of the story's cultural context to further your storytelling aims.

When you are writing an original, it's a much more internal, personal process. You're groping around and wrestling with images that are more slippery because they're unique to you. You can't build on the framework of what's already been done. You are making new characters and new plot devices, even if you're using the same old hero's journey structure that Homer and George Lucas and the ancient Sumerians did. You have to feel your way, asking at every juncture, "Is this it? Is this the best possible answer to the question, 'What happened next?' "

FTNH: Who are some of your favorite modern fairy tale writers? (either those who write retellings, originals or use fairy tales as a base for their stories) Any favorite fairy tale books you recommend (fiction or non-fiction)?

AMY: Hm. I feel woefully Behind the Times - there are so many authors out there in this genre whose works I haven't read yet. That said, some of my favorites are Diana Wynne Jones, Charles DeLint, Patricia McKillip, and Neil Gaiman. I love young adult novels for some reason. Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising series is amazing. Garth Nix does some cool stuff in his Abhorsen books.

Non-fiction: I encourage everyone who's interested in fairy tales to read everything by Marie-Louise von Franz, who was one of Carl Jung's primary disciples. She's written scads of books about fairy tales and they are all great. Women Who Run with the Wolves is a great read, too - more Jungian perspective. I love the psychoanalytical treatments of fairy tales - am a total sucker for them.

FTNH: You mention on the website that in the workshops you study fairy tales from around the world as well as the classic cannon.

AMY: I'm not as inclusive as I'd like to be. I need more Latin American and more African tales. I am starting to get into Hawaiian stories, but only just. The main bulk of the stories I read in class are obscure European tales. I try to dig out the truly bizarre and exciting ones so my students can broaden their understanding of what fairy tales are and do.

FTNH: You have a few original fairy tales available for us to read online. I personally love The Owl and the Maiden. Can we look forward to more? Do you have any plans for a collection/anthology and having them published?

AMY: Thank you, that's so nice! I'm working on a new one right now, and will hopefully have it up on the site in the next month or so.

I'm planning an anthology of all my students' stories from this past year and I might throw my own in there, too. I'm not hot and bothered to get published in any big way. If someone comes a-courting and wants to publish some of my stories, I'll definitely think about it. But I'm not chasing the dream of Making It Big Time as an author.

FTNH: I'm hearing rumors of a 'reading party' for the workshop you held in June - can you tell me more about that?

AMY: We do a reading after each class. It gives the students something real to write for. Nothing like the fear of reading your story out loud to a room full of strangers to sharpen your authorial edge! The readings are really fun. We drink a lot of wine and eat good food beforehand, so it ends up feeling more like a party than a reading. Students from different workshops show up to cheer each other on, friends and family come out. It's a nice way to wrap up the class.

FTNH: It sounds like many people would enjoy and benefit from the workshops. Has anything about starting the Factory surprised you? Do you have any stories/anecdotes you'd like to share from your experiences in running the workshops so far?

AMY: The thing that's surprised me the most is how fun it's been. (Knock on wood.) I love my students, I love the material, and I love teaching - surprise! My crazy idea worked! That's the big shocker, the thing I'm still digesting: This wacky idea I had while sitting around in my back yard one summer is actually HAPPENING. And it's cool! That just blows my mind. I'm so grateful.

The best stories, for me, are the actual stories that the students write. Those stories are way more interesting than any personal anecdotes.

FTNH: What other plans do you have for the future of the Fairy Tale Factory? Anything online for those of us who can't travel to Seattle?

AMY: If I could figure out a way to give online students the same depth of experience I can give them in person, I would do an online class. Sadly, I haven't worked it out yet. My classes are really interactive - I work hard to build strong group relationships, which seems to be an important part of the Factory's success. When I figure out how to do it online, I definitely will.

I might build another module in which people can play with retellings and other, more modern tropes. Students would have to go through the Intro and the Intensive before they could do it, just to make sure we're all on the same page. But that's just an idea. A twinkle in my eye, as it were.

I'm also scheming to get involved with the illustration community and have a heavy art component to the Factory. I'd love to have one illustrator assigned to each story in the annual anthology, then to have a group show to coincide with the book's release. My dream is to work with artists like Jay Ryan, Milk, Julie West, Ray Caesar - pop surrealists, people coming from the graffiti world and the poster art world.

FTNH: Thank you again for agreeing to this interview! The Fairy Tale Factory sounds like a wonderful combination of education and fun and we look forward to seeing what you and your students do in the future.You can find out more about Amy, her Fairy Tale Factory and the workshops HERE.

Friday, August 28, 2009

5th & Final Podcast Episode of "CAGES: A Steampunk Retelling of Grimm's Jorinde & Joringel" is up

The final episode, 'Part V with Epilogue', of my steampunk fairy tale retelling is up at Supernatural Fairy Tales!

You can read the text and/or listen to the podcast
(me reading with music by Abney Park and sound effects added)
HERE.

There is a small button labeled PLAY below the header for the audio.

Part I can be found HERE.
Part II can be found HERE.
Part III can be found HERE.
Part IV can be found HERE.

There will also be a PDF of the whole story available for FREE download and distribution coming in the next few days, so watch for that (I will announce that here too).

I got a very nice review by "Diamonds & Toads", which you can read HERE. (Thank you Kate!)

As this is the final episode I have a short, but important, list of people to thank for their role in this process:
  • Steampunk band "Abney Park" and 'Captain Robert', for generously giving me permission to play their music throughout the podcast. You guys have the BEST music for this genre! Thank you for allowing me to use your music to help tell my story.
  • Dorlana Vann of Supernatural Fairy Tales for hosting the story and audio and for being patient with me on the technical details as I figure out my first podcast. Thank you for your generosity with the different blog format and for helping put my story out there. You really are 'a good fairy'.
  • My husband Tom, for being my cheerleader, my extra eyes (and ears) on the story and for making sure I had chunks of uninterrupted time to focus on the work needed to get it all done. I couldn't have done it without your support.
  • My son 'Jackzilla', who inspires me daily and gives me the best reason to write: these stories are for you little guy!
Thank you!

I hope you've enjoyed this different version of Jorinde & Joringel. Discovering my Muse had decided on steampunk was quite a challenge but now I'm completely hooked! Maybe there will be more steampunk fairy tales coming your way in the future... ;)

The Science of Fairy Tales - Hamelin's Rat Problem Then & Now


It's true.

Hamelin still has need of a Pied Piper from time to time - the most recent being in December just last year.

From luxique.com travel 'zine on December 19, 2008:
Officials in the town of Hamelin in northern Germany have expressed alarm at a surge in the rat population much like the Great Plague in 1284 on which the tale is based.

“Rats usually come in packs of 20 to 30 but these can expand up to 200 or 300 and that what’s happened in Hamelin,” said Rolf Schmidt, who works for a pest control service in the town north of Hanover.

The town, which has 58,000 inhabitants, has added teams of rat-catchers to try to contain the new plague.

You can find the rest of the article HERE.

So what else about the tale is based in fact?


From Wikipedia (which present multiple theories, all suggesting that there is likely some factual story behind the legend):
"Among the various interpretations, reference to the colonization of East Europe starting from Low Germany is the most plausible one: The "Children of Hameln" would have been in those days citizens willing to emigrate being recruited by landowners to settle in Moravia, East Prussia, Pomerania or in the Teutonic Land. It is assumed that in past times all people of a town were referred to as "children of the town" or "town children" as is frequently done today. The "Legend of the children’s Exodus" was later connected to the "Legend of expelling the rats". This most certainly refers to the rat plagues being a great threat in the medieval milling town and the more or less successful professional rat catchers."
You can read the rest of the theories and more about the tale HERE or read about the facts behind the fairy tale at "How Stuff Works" (which I recommend) HERE.

Here's a lovely claymation version of the Robert Browning poem, shown below in three parts:






There are also a few novels based on The Pied Piper tale but my favorite, though chilling, is "Breath" by Donna Jo Napoli. Her well researched story puts a number of events happening in 1284 into a plausible story, giving the tale an even more sobering weight. While the book is YA, I recommend it to more mature readers as the subject matter is rather weighty in dealing with plagues, illness and the resulting societal chaos. A wonderful medieval book - complete with grit.