Posted
on January 26, 2014
Just a few days ago
I talked about the enthusiasm Dutch people have for skating and speed
skating.
Today I want to talk about an author that first introduced me and
other Americans to that enthusiasm. Mary Mapes Dodge wrote the book
Hans
Brinker, or the Silver Skates,
and it became an instant best-seller, a prize winner, and a
children's literature classic. It has been continuously in print ever
since it was first published in 1865.
Hans
Brinker was set in Holland (or the Netherlands). But Mary Mapes
Dodge, who was born in New York City on this date in 1831, had never
been to Holland when she wrote it. How did she manage to write such a
successful book set in a place she'd never been?
For
one thing, Dodge did a lot of research. She read large volumes about
Dutch history and customs, and she talked a lot about life in Holland
with her Dutch neighbors in the U.S.
For
another thing, the book was instantly popular in America.
And most Americans didn't know nearly as much about the Netherlands,
even, as Dodge, so she could slip up here and there. And slip up she
did! She botched a lot of the Dutch names and words she used in her
novel. (If you're interested, check out this list of her mistakes.)
And
of course, Hans
Brinker
IS
a novel. That means it's fiction. Dodge made up stuff, of course,
just like any novel writer!
One
part of Hans
Brinker
that is very familiar to many people is a story about a little Dutch
boy holding back the sea and saving his country by putting his finger
into a hole in a dike. Versions of this story were in print in
English-language publications from 1850 to 1863. Dodge included a
version in her book, a story written about an anonymous hero and read
in a classroom in England. In her novel, one of Dodge's characters
tells everyone that the story is true, and that all the children in
Holland know the tale.
 |
| A statue in the Netherlands of a Dutch boy who is an American fiction and folk hero. |
However,
of course the tale is not true. More surprising to many is that the
tale is not commonly known to the Dutch—certainly not back in the
1800s. It is the novel Hans Brinker that popularized the story of the
boy and the dike; since then others have written poems, stories, and
even full-fledged children's books about the heroic boy. Many people
remember incorrectly that it was Hans Brinker who was supposed to
have saved his country by sticking his finger in a dike. Tourists in
the Netherlands have asked so often to see the dike where this event
happened (even though it never happened), that now there are at least
three statues of the boy and the dike!
So,
thanks to Dodge, a bit of American folklore is now acknowledged in
the Netherlands as if it were Dutch, and many people seem to think
that a fictional event (supposedly done by a nameless hero) really
happened, and that it was done by a
completely-separate-but-also-fictional character!
By
the way...
Did
you know that a Google image search of “Hans Brinker” will come
up with a LOT of very strange-but-funny ads for the Hans
Brinker Budget Hostel in Amsterdam? It's supposed to be a world's worst hotel, with filthy
rooms and a broken elevator. And...it's all too true. Yet the
sarcastic advertisements have worked – people from all over the
world hasten to rent out the rooms!
 |
| A lot of the ads read, "It can't get any worse. But we'll do our best." |
Also
on this date:
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ahead!
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out my Pinterest boards for:
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