Rimen en Teltsjes
Rimen en Teltsjes ('Rhymes and Tales', pronounced [ˈrimən ɛn ˈtɛltsjəs]) is the national book of Western Frisian literature,[1][2] written by the three Brothers Halbertsma.
[10][11] The three Brothers Halbertsma, the authors of Rimen en Teltsjes, were born in the village of Grou, in the central part of the Dutch province of Friesland in the late 18th century.
[22] The linguist Philippus H. Breuker, who added an extensive and penetrating afterword to the reprint of Rimen en Teltsje of 1993, observed, however, that this assertion could "never be more than half the truth," as Eeltsje's early poetry was not of a high literary standard; quite the opposite, in fact.
[28] Hiding behind such a fictional author was fairly normal at that time,[29][30] but Breuker suggests that an extra reason may have been that the Halbertsmas felt it was a little silly to put two names on such a limited collection.
[93] In 1904, publisher Rinse van der Velde from Leeuwarden bought the rights to Rimen en Teltsjes and the remnant of the 1895 printing from De Lange's heirs.
[94] To that end he asked his friend, the artist Ids Wiersma, to make a series of illustrations, which afterwards developed into a permanent fixture of Rimen en Teltsjes, and have become almost as famous as the book itself.
[98] Minister Geart Aeilco Wumkes was asked to write an introduction, for which he could draw on the extensive correspondence between the Halbertsma Brothers which the family made available for his use.
[99] The composition of Rimen en Teltsjes itself was also changed, especially by adjusting the sequence in which the stories and poems were placed, and also by the addition of several of the Brothers Halbertsma's works which had remained outside of the collection up until then.
[104] In the Second World War the German authorities in the German-occupied Netherlands gave permission towards the end of 1943 for a fifth edition of Rimen en Teltsjes to be issued,[105] which was yet again published in installments, by Van der Velde of Leeuwarden, between the summer of 1944 and September 1945.
[110] At that time, he replaced his earlier introduction with a new one, which was clearer and more matter-of-fact and to the point, but he also made further changes to the Halbertsma's text and choice of words, which he had smoothed and simplified somewhat already for the 1944 edition.
[121] In the letters he wrote later in life, Justus indicates, however, that he would do it all over again, as he and Eeltsje had set themselves the goal of making the Frisian people start to read in their own language again, and by 1850 they had succeeded handsomely.
[122] By that time they had won a large number of loyal fans, as they would be called today, consisting mostly of people of standing, such as ministers, physicians, public notaries, gentleman farmers, etc., and also of the peasantry.
[123] Furthermore, there must also have been interested persons from outside of Friesland, and from among the urban middle class, as Gerben Colmjon mentioned in 1881 that Rimen en Teltsjes was often read, by that time, by people who did not speak Frisian in daily life.
[125] In the oeuvre of poets like Obe Postma and Pieter Jelles Troelstra, who grew up in that period, Rimen en Teltsjes reverberates quite clearly.
[126] Even in 1918, Geart Aeilco Wumkes wrote, "this book remains a monument for a section of the life of a nation, which calls on the Frisian soul to love its own nature and being.
"[132] Another Young Frisian, Eeltsje Boates Folkertsma, missed in Rimen en Teltsjes not so much life tragedy as the mysticism which he felt was an indispensable element of true literature.
At that time literary critics like Anne Wadman, Jelle Hindriks Brouwer and Ype Poortinga again found beauty in Rimen en Teltsjes, referring primarily to Eeltsje Halbertsma's poetry.
"[135] As neither Willem Bilderdijk nor Isaäc da Costa were fit to hold a candle to Eeltsje Halbertsma (Wadman also wrote), one would look in vain for someone of the same stature in the Dutch literature of the same period.
[136] The linguist Philippus H. Breuker, writing in 1993, for the most part subscribed to the same view, and elucidated that it was the wistfulness for what was and the surprise for what is which makes Eeltsje Halbertsma's poetry in particular so special.
