Remember the story about a boy that put his finger in a dyke in The Netherlands and saved the country? His name is said to have been Hans or Hansje Brinker- but that’s not true. And it is a fictional story- meaning, it’s just a story and not factual. The famous story was written by US American writer Mary Mapes Dodge in 1865.

She was born in 1831 in New York City, married when she was 20 and was already a widow with two kids after 8 years. She admired the history of The Netherlands after she had read ‘The rise of the Dutch Republic’, which was written, romanticised and partly fictionalised for a better story by John Motley in 1856. He also admired the Dutch fight for freedom against the Spanish occupiers during the 80-year war.

While the adventures of Hans Brinker are the main subject of the book of Mary Dodge, there are also tons of other stories in there that tell something about the history of The Netherlands, etc. She wrote this book for US American children who knew little about The Netherlands. And the story of a boy saving the dyke is one of those other stories: so he was not named Hans or Hansje Brinker. We don’t know what his name is.

However, this story was also very much inspired by French writer Eugenie Foa, who published a very similar story called ‘le petit eclusier’ or The Little Lock Guard. But, both Eugenie and Mary said that this was an actual old Dutch folktale. However, there is no story like that anywhere in The Netherlands to be found. So, no, it is not.

So what is the story?

An eight-year-old boy lived in the surroundings of the city of Haarlem. One day he was sent by his parents to bring a single friend of the family some Dutch pancakes. When he returned, he saw that the sky turned dark and it started to rain heavily. At the same time, he saw a small hole in the dike where some water was dripping out. And he knew the importance of keeping a small hole in a dyke little because his dad was a sluice or lock guard. So, he put his finger in the hole for hours and kept the water from spilling. He had to wait in the cold and rain for hours until someone saw him and came to help. That’s when people closed the hole in the dyke and, he was a hero as he saved Haarlem and its surroundings from a flood. Or so the story goes.

By the way, it wouldn’t have been possible to save a dyke breakthrough by putting a finger in a dyke. Because ours aren’t generally made out of stone- they are made of soil, clay, etc. By the time the water starts coming out of the other side of the dyke, it is already full of water. The best thing to do is to run to higher ground and warn people.

What is the reason the story of Hansje Brinker is so well-known in the US? Because of the so-called ‘Holland mania’ that took place around the end of the 19th century. Everything that was Dutch or had anything to do with The Netherlands was very popular. It was so much that people worried that US Americans would buy all the paintings of Rembrandt. Fun fact: Holland mania lasted until around the 1920s. Until that time, Dutch people were idealised and said to be honest, direct and hardworking people.

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