Hamelin is an Enchanted Forest location featured on ABC's Once Upon a Time. It appears in the fourth episode of the third season.
Hamelin is based on the location of the same name from the legend of "The Pied Piper of Hamelin."
History
After being alone in Neverland for years, Peter Pan returns to the Enchanted Forest in search of friends and companions to bring home with him. Scouring the town of Hamelin, he uses a magic pan flute, in which only those who feel lonely and unloved can hear its tune, to draw out young boys. The instrument leads them away to a bonfire in the woods, where they all don masks and dance as Pan continues to play the pan flute throughout the night. Of all the boys, Baelfire, Rumplestiltskin's son, also follows. The next morning, the many townspeople of Hamelin are unable to find their children, and when Rumplestiltskin confronts them about his own missing son, they admit hearing a pan flute during the prior night and their suspicion that whoever was playing it took their children. The next night, while sitting atop a roof, Rumplestiltskin hears the pan flute and sees various boys escape out of their homes to follow the music. He trails them to the woodland bonfire, spotting the cloaked piper, and stops the stranger by snapping the pan flute in half. In the ensuing conflict, Rumplestiltskin recognizes the piper as Peter Pan, his father who once abandoned him for youth. Pan, making no apologies for leaving him, instead taunts his grown son about his abandonment issues. He suggests Rumplestiltskin give Baelfire a choice to stay or leave for Neverland, but the Dark One coldly refuses and forcibly whisks his son home. ("Nasty Habits")
Trivia
Disney
- The Sheriff of Hamelin is exactly dressed like the Mayor of Hamelin in Disney's short film The Pied Piper. ("Nasty Habits")
Fairy Tales and Folklore
- Rumplestiltskin calls Hamelin a "rathole of a town." This is a reference to the legend of the "The Pied Piper of Hamelin," where the titular character drowned every rat in town. ("Nasty Habits")
Appearances
Once Upon a Time: Season Three | ||||||||||
"The Heart of the Truest Believer": | "Lost Girl": | "Quite a Common Fairy": | "Nasty Habits": | "Good Form": | "Ariel": | "Dark Hollow": | "Think Lovely Thoughts": | "Save Henry": | "The New Neverland": | "Going Home": |
Absent | Absent | Absent | Appears | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent |
"New York City Serenade": | "Witch Hunt": | "The Tower": | "Quiet Minds": | "It's Not Easy Being Green": | "The Jolly Roger": | "Bleeding Through": | "A Curious Thing": | "Kansas": | "Snow Drifts": | "There's No Place Like Home": |
Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent |