wait.

might the magician have been odin, himself?

it's interesting to note that the earliest inscription for the "pied piper" uses the latin term magus, meaning magician - or, pagan. he's not called a merchant....and the idea of being sold into slavery takes a hit, due to the specificity of the term.

if they were led out of town by a "magus", that would suggest they were taken away by pagans, whatever the context.

that it was at the solstice would indeed reasonably be of some significance.

we know they could write.

we just don't have anything that they wrote, that survived.

at least, we don't think we do; we've been able to trace technical roman documents about seafaring and agriculture to pre-roman carthaginian sources. they exist, to us, simply in latin. but, we can decode them, and figure out where they came from.

there may be things that we only know from latin that are ultimately translated german or celtic works, we just haven't figured it out yet.

to clarify a misunderstood point...

the germans and celts had a writing system, we just have almost no record of it. so, you hear christians say things like "the germans left us without a history", but this is a deeply misleading statement. what seems to be more true is that the romans completely eradicated any trace of their writing in the areas they conquered (much as they did with the carthaginians), leaving only scattered remnants in areas that never saw direct roman control, like the ogham scripts in ireland, the norse sagas in iceland and the gothic runes in the east.

so, it's true that virtually everything we know about the celts & germans was written by the romans, but it is actually rather dubious that it's because nothing was written - and more likely because their own history, as they wrote it, was eradicated as an intentional act of genocide.

it's a good example of how blurry our own history is. this isn't pre-history; it's roughly contemporary with aquinas, and marco polo. but, the christians destroyed everything...

on first glance, it sounds like a sanitation of a devshirme raid, but it seems too early for that. would the christians have rounded up kids like this? well, look at the residential school system in canada (and australia and south africa) for a parallel; it's not that crazy, but i don't know of any comparisons directly in europe. generally, the christians had the good sense to realize they could brainwash the young ones, and only killed off the adults.

could they have been sold off into slavery by italian merchants? that's not too outlandish, in this period.

but, my gut tells me that this is a late example of human sacrifice, perhaps in reaction to a lengthy period of drought. and, some cursory research does tell me that there were frequent droughts in this area of europe at the time.

sadly, we'll never know our own history, because it was purposefully destroyed or overwritten by the religious authorities. we can only guess, and warn others of the dangers of abrahamic colonization.

http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20200902-the-grim-truth-behind-the-pied-piper

i don't know who is worse.

and, i'm more confused now than i was four years ago.

not much has changed, huh?

hey, here's some more:

as always, jello had the right answer 35 years ago.

yes: i support programs that give young, working class boys better options than becoming serial killers.

hrmmn.

sounds like something i might say, frankly.

the president is the commander-in-chief, so he can't be talking like that, even if the sentiment is essentially correct, and one i broadly share.

fuck the troops....

and, guess what gi joe? you don't wanna get blown up fighting for corporatism and the upper class, then don't sign up for combat. you won't see a tear from me, when you die - you fascist scum.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-said-us-soldiers-injured-and-killed-in-war-were-losers-magazine-reports/2020/09/03/6e1725cc-ee35-11ea-99a1-71343d03bc29_story.html