Hans Brinker

Hans Brinker, celebrated in the US as the boy hero who allegedly saved the country from flooding by sticking his finger in a leaking dike.

However, he was less well known in the Netherlands, his native country. His fame in the Netherlands came about only after the publication in 1865 in the US of children's story by author Mary Mapes Dodge.

The book focuses on the adventures of the young hero combined with other stories about other people, but which explain Hans’s adventures through a piece of history of his homeland.

The book was written for American children, who knew relatively little about the Netherlands.

In 1950, the mythical hero was honored in his homeland with a well-deserved statue at the Woerdersluis in Spaarndam.

In Dodge's book, the heroic boy is a nameless hero from Dutch history. He is not explicitly identified by the author as being Hans Brinker. The heroic act described is found in a short story recounted within the longer novel.

The heroic character lived near Haarlem. One day he was sent out to bring pancakes to a friend living alone. The time frame Dodge does not describe here. On the way back home, the little boy noticed that it had suddenly become dark. Heavy rain made the water outside the levee run faster. At that moment, he spotted a hole in the dike where the water was coming through.

The boy’s father was a lockkeeper and had educated the little boy about the dangers of a dike breach. Because of this, the boy knew that a small hole could quickly progress to a larger one. This was the reason he decided to plug the hole with his finger. He had to wait for hours until someone came to help him. Wet from the rain, stiff from the cold.