The Piper: His Powers, Erik, and the Hamelin Connection

The Piper: His Powers, Erik, and the Hamelin Connection I wanted to spend a little more time on the Piper because there are several things happening with him in Grimm Fairy Tales #50 that are easy to run together. He interferes with Erik, he steals power from the Casket of Provenance, and he gets that power back to the Dark One. Those actions help set up the attack that follows, but they also leave Sela with a problem that continues after the battle is over. Spoilers for Grimm Fairy Tales #49–51. Erik's return is already a big deal for Sela before the Piper shows up. In #49, he's connected to memories she has lost, including their relationship and the fact that she was pregnant. She has questions about her own life that she hasn't been able to answer. Then the issue ends with Erik apparently serving the Dark One, and #50 picks up with him attacking Shang and the defenders. Sela is trying to understand why someone she loves is doing this. Erik says the Dark One commands him, but when he goes to strike her, he hesitates. His hand shakes, and he drops the sword. The Piper comments that true love is the thing he never seems able to overcome, then plays his instrument. Erik collapses. I think that hesitation is important to any discussion of the Piper's power. There is resistance happening before he steps in. Erik's feelings for Sela interrupt the attack, and the Piper recognizes the problem immediately. We see a person struggling against what is happening to him, followed by the Piper using music to end that moment of resistance. That gives us a much clearer example of his influence than simply calling him a mind controller and moving on. It also gives us a limit. His own comment acknowledges that he has trouble overcoming this connection. I wouldn't turn that into a rule that anybody in love is automatically immune to him, because Erik still ends up incapacitated. But the scene does show that the control isn't effortless or unbreakable in every circumstance. Sela reaches Erik enough to stop the sword, even though she can't stop what happens next. When she demands an explanation, the Piper tells her Erik will never wake again. By #51, we get more information from Kozak, the healer. He says Erik's soul is no longer in his body. Other healers surround Erik and enclose him in a glass coffin to protect the body in case his soul can return. Blake later reasons that finding and freeing the soul could allow that return. So there is a specific supernatural consequence here. Describing Erik as merely asleep would leave out what the next issue actually tells us. At the same time, these pages don't show the Piper putting the soul into a named container or tell us where he has sent it. We know the condition Erik is left in, and we know what the people trying to help him believe they need to do. The theft is another part of the sequence that deserves its own explanation. The Piper draws power out of the Casket of Provenance into a scepter. Thane recognizes what he's doing and tries to stop him, but he escapes through a portal. When he returns to the Dark One, his master calls him Anslied and praises him. The comic identifies both his name and the purpose behind the raid. That scepter matters because the defenders explain that its stolen power can be used only once more. The portal access in this scene depends on a resource he has taken. It would be a stretch to credit him with unlimited travel between realms based on this encounter. He succeeds by getting inside, using the disruption around Erik, taking the energy, and leaving before the defenders can recover it. The musical part has a real-world comparison, although the comic takes it well beyond anything demonstrated in research. Music can affect emotion, attention, and movement. The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health describes research in which synchronizing movement to a rhythmic sound may help people with Parkinson's disease walk better. Its overview also notes possible benefits for anxiety and pain, while making clear that many findings are preliminary or mixed. That's a useful starting point because sound really can influence what we feel and how we move. Think about keeping pace with a beat or hearing a song associated with someone you haven't seen in years. There is a familiar experience underneath the fantasy. But coordinating a movement with a rhythm doesn't demonstrate that a musician can force someone to attack a loved one. Nothing in that research explains removing a soul, either. The Piper's instrument is operating through the supernatural rules of this setting. The older Pied Piper story is worth looking at alongside this. In Robert Browning's version of The Pied Piper of Hamelin, the Piper offers to remove the rats for a thousand guilders. He does the job, the town's leaders refuse the agreed payment, and he returns to lead away the children. The mountain opens, they follow him inside, and the entrance closes behind them. One detail I like in that poem is the account from the child left behind. He remembers the music promising a wonderful place, even a cure for his disability. From his perspective, he has missed out on something good. That makes the enchantment more unsettling than a crowd being physically dragged away. The people following the Piper experience a reason to keep following. Zenescope uses that recognizable connection between music and control for a different conflict. In the issues here, the Piper is carrying out the Dark One's plan, and Erik's resistance lets us see that the person underneath the influence still matters. By the time Anslied leaves, he has delivered the resource his master needs and left the defenders trying to recover someone whose body is still in front of them. Following that through into the glass coffin explains why his brief appearance has consequences well beyond the fight itself.