Hans Brinker or the Silver Skates
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
author Mary Mapes Dodge
Mary Mapes Dodge
Mary Mapes Dodge was an American children's writer and editor, best known for her novel Hans Brinker.-Biography:...
, first published in 1865. The novel takes place in the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, and is a colorful fictional portrait of early nineteenth-century Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
life, as well as a tale of youthful honor.
The title of the book refers to the beautiful silver
Silver
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
skates
Ice skate
Ice skates are boots with blades attached to the bottom, used to propel the bearer across a sheet of ice. They are worn as footwear in many sports, including ice hockey, bandy and figure skating. The first ice skates were made from leg bones of horse, ox or deer, and were attached to feet with...
to be awarded to winner of the ice-skating race
Speed skating
Speed skating, or speedskating is a competitive form of ice skating in which the competitors race each other in traveling a certain distance on skates. Types of speed skating are long track speed skating, short track speed skating, and marathon speed skating...
Hans Brinker hopes to enter. The novel introduced the sport of Dutch speed skating
Speed skating
Speed skating, or speedskating is a competitive form of ice skating in which the competitors race each other in traveling a certain distance on skates. Types of speed skating are long track speed skating, short track speed skating, and marathon speed skating...
to Americans, and in U.S. media Hans Brinker is still considered the prototypical speed skater.
The book is also notable for popularizing the story of the little Dutch boy who plugs a dike
Levee
A levee, levée, dike , embankment, floodbank or stopbank is an elongated naturally occurring ridge or artificially constructed fill or wall, which regulates water levels...
with his finger.
Overview
Dodge, who never visited the Netherlands until after the novel was published, wrote the novel at age 34. She was inspired by her reading of John L. MotleyJohn Lothrop Motley
John Lothrop Motley was an American historian and diplomat.-Biography:...
's lengthy, multi-volume history works: The Rise of the Dutch Republic, and The History of the United Netherlands. Dodge subsequently did further bibliographical research into the country. She also received much firsthand information about Dutch life from her immigrant Dutch neighbors, the Scharffs, and Dodge noted in her preface to the 1875 edition of the book that the story of Hans Brinker's father was "founded strictly upon fact".
Full of Dutch cultural and historical information, the book became an instant bestseller, outselling all other books in its first year of publication except Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
's Our Mutual Friend
Our Mutual Friend
Our Mutual Friend is the last novel completed by Charles Dickens and is one of his most sophisticated works, combining psychological insight with social analysis. It centres on, in the words of critic J. Hillis Miller, "money, money, money, and what money can make of life" but is also about human...
. The novel has since been continuously in print, most often in multiple editions and formats, and remains a children's classic.
Plot
In Holland, poor-but-industrious and honorable 15-year-old Hans Brinker and his younger sister Gretel, yearn to participate in December's great ice-skating race on the canalCanal
Canals are man-made channels for water. There are two types of canal:#Waterways: navigable transportation canals used for carrying ships and boats shipping goods and conveying people, further subdivided into two kinds:...
. They have little chance of doing well on their handmade wood
Wood
Wood is a hard, fibrous tissue found in many trees. It has been used for hundreds of thousands of years for both fuel and as a construction material. It is an organic material, a natural composite of cellulose fibers embedded in a matrix of lignin which resists compression...
en skates, but the prospect of the race and the prize of the Silver Skates excite them and fire their dreams.
Hans' father is sick and amnesia
Amnesia
Amnesia is a condition in which one's memory is lost. The causes of amnesia have traditionally been divided into categories. Memory appears to be stored in several parts of the limbic system of the brain, and any condition that interferes with the function of this system can cause amnesia...
c, with violent episodes, because of a fall from a dike and cannot work. Mrs. Brinker, Hans and Gretel must work to support the family and are looked down upon in the community because of their low income and poor status. Hans and Gretel learn that a famous surgeon, Dr. Boekman, might be able to treat their father, but the doctor is expensive, and gruff in nature following the loss of his wife and son. Eventually, Dr. Boekman is persuaded to examine the Brinkers' father. He diagnoses pressure on the brain, which can be cured by a risky and expensive operation involving trephining
Trepanation
Trepanning, also known as trephination, trephining or making a burr hole, is a surgical intervention in which a hole is drilled or scraped into the human skull, exposing the dura mater in order to treat health problems related to intracranial diseases. It may also refer to any "burr" hole created...
.
Hans offers his own money, saved in the hope of buying steel
Steel
Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...
skates, to the doctor to pay for his father's operation. Touched by this gesture, Dr. Boekman provides the surgery for free. Hans is able to buy good skates and skate in the race. Gretel wins the girls' race, but Hans lets a friend — who needs it more — win the precious prize, the Silver Skates, in the boys' race.
Mr. Brinker's operation is successful, and he is restored to health and memory. Dr. Boekman is also changed, losing his gruff ways.
The Brinker parents live a long life. Dr. Boekman helps Hans go to medical school
Medical school
A medical school is a tertiary educational institution—or part of such an institution—that teaches medicine. Degree programs offered at medical schools often include Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine, Bachelor/Doctor of Medicine, Doctor of Philosophy, master's degree, or other post-secondary...
and Hans becomes a successful doctor. Gretel also lives a good life, marries, is a good sister, kind to the poor, and is fondly remembered as the "girl who won the silver skates."
Film adaptations
Hans Brinker or the Silver Skates has been adapted into several filmFilm
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
s and play
Play (theatre)
A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference whether their plays were performed...
s, all of which center around the dramatic ice-skating competition as the climax of the story, in keeping with the book. The film adaptations include:
- A 1958 Hallmark Hall of FameHallmark Hall of FameHallmark Hall of Fame is an anthology program on American television, sponsored by Hallmark Cards, a Kansas City based greeting card company. The second longest-running television program in the history of television, it has a historically long run, beginning in 1951 and continuing into 2011...
made-for-television musical filmMusical filmThe musical film is a film genre in which songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, though in some cases they serve merely as breaks in the storyline, often as elaborate...
, starring Tab HunterTab HunterTab Hunter is an American actor, singer, former teen idol and author who has starred in over forty major films.-Background:...
as Hans.
- A 1962 made-for-television DisneyWalt Disney PicturesWalt Disney Pictures is an American film studio owned by The Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney Pictures and Television, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Studios and the main production company for live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, based at the Walt Disney...
film, starring Rony Zeaner. Shown in two parts in the U.S. on the Walt Disney anthology television series.
- A 1969 NBCNBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
made-for-television musical film, called simply Hans Brinker, starring Robin AskwithRobin AskwithRobin Askwith , is an English film actor, most famous for his role as Timmy Lea in the Confessions... sex comedies.-Confessions...:...
.
- A 1998 very loose modern adaptation or homageHomageHomage is a show or demonstration of respect or dedication to someone or something, sometimes by simple declaration but often by some more oblique reference, artistic or poetic....
, Brink!Brink!Brink! is a 1998 Disney Channel Original Movie set in the backdrop of casual inline skating.-Plot:Andy "Brink" Brinker and his in-line skating crew--Peter, Jordy, and Gabriella--who call themselves "Soul-Skaters" , clash with a group of sponsored skaters, Team X-Bladz--led by Val--with whom they...
, a made-for-television Disney ChannelDisney ChannelDisney Channel is an American basic cable and satellite television network, owned by the Disney-ABC Television Group division of The Walt Disney Company. It is under the direction of Disney-ABC Television Group President Anne Sweeney. The channel's headquarters is located on West Alameda Ave. in...
film. The story takes place in Los AngelesLos ÁngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, CaliforniaCaliforniaCalifornia is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, and centers around competitive inline skating rather than ice skating. It stars Eric von Detten as Andy "Brink" Brinker.
Popular culture: the legend of the boy and the dike
In the book, the boy and the story are called simply "The Hero of Haarlem
Haarlem
Haarlem is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland, the northern half of Holland, which at one time was the most powerful of the seven provinces of the Dutch Republic...
". Although the hero of the dike-plugging tale remains nameless in the book, Hans Brinker's name has sometimes erroneously been associated with the character.
This small tale within Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates has generated numerous versions and adaptations in American media. Poet Phoebe Cary
Phoebe Cary
Phoebe Cary was an American poet, and the younger sister of poet Alice Cary . The sisters co-published poems in 1849, and then each went on to publish volumes of her own...
— at whose New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
literary gatherings Dodge was a regular guest — wrote a lengthy poem about it called "The Leak in the Dike", published posthumously in 1873, which has been widely anthologized in books of poetry for schoolchildren. Cary also gave the boy a name: Peter.
The tale has also inspired full-fledged children's books of its own, which include:
- The Hole in the Dike, by Norma Green (1974)
- The Boy Who Held Back the Sea, by Lenny Hort (1987)
Statues of the boy and the dike
For tourismTourism
Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...
purposes, statues of the fictional dike-plugging boy have been erected in Dutch locations such as Spaarndam
Spaarndam
Spaarndam is a small village in the province of North Holland, the Netherlands, on the Spaarne and IJ rivers. The oldest part of the village, on the western side of the Spaarne, belongs to the municipality of Haarlem; the newer part on the eastern side is a part of the municipality of...
, Madurodam
Madurodam
Madurodam is a miniature city located in Scheveningen, The Hague, in the Netherlands. It is a model of a Dutch town on a 1:25 scale, composed of typical Dutch buildings and landmarks, as are found at various locations in the country. This major Dutch tourist attraction was built in 1952 and has...
and Harlingen
Harlingen, Netherlands
Harlingen is a municipality and a city in the northern Netherlands, in the province of Friesland at the Wadden Sea. Harlingen is an old town with a long history of fishing and shipping....
. The statues are sometimes mistakenly titled "Hans Brinker"; others are known as "Peter of Haarlem". The story of the dike-plugging boy is, however, not widely known in the Netherlands — it is a piece of American, rather than Dutch, folklore.
Origin of the story of the boy and the dike
Versions of the story prior to Hans Brinker appear in several English-language publications from 1850 onward, including the following British and American publications:In the United Kingdom:
- An 1850 edition of Sharpe's London Journal of Entertainment and Instruction: "The Little Hero of Haarlem"
- The February 23, 1850, edition of Eliza CookEliza CookEliza Cook was an English author, Chartist poet and writer born in London Road, Southwark.- Background :...
's Journal: "The Brave Little Hollander"
- The 1855 edition of Beeton's Boy's Own Magazine: "The Little Dutch Hero"
- The 'Sixth' Standard Reader, compiled by J.S. Laurie (1863): "The Little Dutch Hero"
In the U.S.:
- Harper's MagazineHarper's MagazineHarper's Magazine is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts, with a generally left-wing perspective. It is the second-oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. . The current editor is Ellen Rosenbush, who replaced Roger Hodge in January 2010...
, August 1850: "The Little Hero of Haarlem"
- The 1852 edition of The Ladies' Repository: "The Little Hero of Haarlem"
- In 1854, Literary Gem: Van Court's New Monthly Magazine: "The Little Hero of Haarlem"
- Julia Matilda Olin's 1856 book, A Winter at Wood Lawn
- In 1857, McGuffey's New High School Reader for Advanced Classes: "The Little Hero of Haarlem"
- In 1858, The Rhode Island Schoolmaster: "The Boy at the Dike"
- In 1858/1859, Sargent's School Monthly: "The Boy at the Dike"
The actual authorship and genesis of the story of the boy and the dike is currently unknown, but it is possibly from a hypothetical-but-unidentified story by French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
author Eugenie Foa
Eugenie Foa
Eugenie Foa was a French writer.Eugenie Foa was by descent a Sephardi Jewess, her mother being a member of the Gradis family, and both parents being members of the Bordeaux Jewish community. On the death of her father in 1826, the family moved to Paris...
(1796–1852), appearing as an alleged English translation, "The Little Dykeman", in Merry's
Merry's Museum
Merry's Museum was an illustrated children's magazine established by Samuel Griswold Goodrich in Boston, Massachusetts in 1841. Louisa May Alcott served as editor for a year or so, and also contributed stories, as did Lucretia Peabody Hale, Caroline M. Hewins, Rebecca Sophia Clarke, Helen W....
magazine in 1868.
In sum, although Dodge was not the originator of the story of the boy and the dike, the immense popularity of her novel Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates made the story very widely known. The story-within-a-story of the nameless little boy's heroism also parallels and emphasizes Hans Brinker's own heroism in the novel.
Similar event in real life
A real life event roughly similar to the tale of Hans Brinker occurred during the devastating North Sea flood of 1953North Sea flood of 1953
The 1953 North Sea flood was a major flood caused by a heavy storm, that occurred on the night of Saturday 31 January 1953 and morning of 1 February 1953. The floods struck the Netherlands, Belgium, England and Scotland.A combination of a high spring tide and a severe European windstorm caused a...
(which caused 1,836 deaths in the Southern Netherlands) when skipper Arie Evegroen plugged a major dike breach using his grain barge Twee Gebroeders (Two Brothers) near Nieuwerkerk aan den IJssel
Nieuwerkerk aan den IJssel
Nieuwerkerk aan den IJssel is a town and former municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland...
. This action probably saved the lives of many of the millions of people who lived in the otherwise affected areas in South Holland
South Holland
South Holland is a province situated on the North Sea in the western part of the Netherlands. The provincial capital is The Hague and its largest city is Rotterdam.South Holland is one of the most densely populated and industrialised areas in the world...
. A monument to the event was built on the dike.
External links
- Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates (1896 edition) – full scanned copy
- Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates (1910 edition) – full scanned copy
- Hans Brinker, or The Silver Skates – e-text from Project GutenbergProject GutenbergProject Gutenberg is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks". Founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart, it is the oldest digital library. Most of the items in its collection are the full texts of public domain books...
- Hans Brinker (2007) by Bruce Covill – 40-page illustrated retelling of Hans Brinker for young readers
- A Dutchman pronounces the Dutch names and words in the book, and comments on the many mistakes