First I really need to warn you this not one of those once upon a time in a land far, far away stories. I’m sorry, there are no twee little gnomes on a quest for sparkly things, no monsters you can tell at a glance, no vampires in need of a dentist, werwolves who could do with a barber, mice that turn into coachmen or shapeshifters of any description whatsoever, so you can enjoy the ride and go off to sleep, knowing it's just another silly story written to simply entertain you.

These events were recorded by Rebicus Hargmond over a hundred and forty years later in 1428 after he’d been researching in the Upton Library in Draxenland, an island off the East Coast of England, now part of the submerged Dogger Bank, today the home of the world’s largest offshore wind farm.

Do I believe when night falls on Redcar Beach with an electrical storm driving the wind turbines, charging the grid and churning electrons at just the right speed, you’ll catch a glimpse of Castle Draxfort in the lightning flashes? Highly unlikely, if you ask me the Draxfort Mirage is as real as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, but as a promotion for Redcar, a British seaside town with long sandy beaches and famous horse racecourse it has potential.

However corruption is very real and what’s more it’s all around, just like it was way back then over six hundred years ago in Saxony, now part of Germany, when life was harder, darker, shorter and much scarier than today. As you read, why not walk around the locations using Google maps? Just add Altstadt (old Town) to the name of the town you visit and in the case of Brunswick, search Braunschweig.

As for tourism, Hamelin’s tourist trade is sure to grow even bigger but right now it owes everything to the town’s records that state in 1284 one-hundred-and-thirty children disappeared. Yes they really did, as I said this is no fairytale. However to be frank, there is so much more to this struggle for power, involving the minting of guilders, that one-hundred-and-thirty children disappearing is hardly worth a mention.

Back then the Hanseatic League controlled trade and Saxony was part of the Holy Roman Empire, neither holy, roman, nor even an empire, but a collection of duchies and city states ruled by an emperor, elected from prince bishops, appointed from dukes. In 1279 Albrecht, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg died, leaving his brother Prince-Bishop Konrad of Verden acting as regent to the duke’s sons Heinrich, Albrecht and Wilhelm. Yes a hundred and thirty children disappearing put Hamelin on the map but it was not the worst or even biggest thing that happened in Saxony in 1284, the year Heinrich was old enough to become a duke.