Eeltsje Hiddes Halbertsma

Eeltsje Hiddes Halbertsma (; ; 8 October 1797 – 22 March 1858) was a Frisian writer, poet and physician, member of the Halbertsma family, and the youngest of the Halbertsma Brothers. He became well known when he and his elder brother Justus published the poetry and short story collection De Lapekoer fan Gabe Skroar in 1822. Afterwards, this work was continually expanded, and also came to include contributions by a third brother, Tsjalling, until all the Halbertsma Brothers' prose and poetry was posthumously collected in 1871 to become the famous work Rimen en Teltsjes. Of the three Brothers Halbertsma, Eeltsje was probably the most talented, en his poetry especially is still very much admired. His oeuvre included the poem De Alde Friezen, which later became the national anthem of the Western Frisian people.

Life Youth and background Eeltsje Hiddes Halbertsma was born on 8 October 1797, in his parents' house on Kowemerk ("Cow Market") street and his wife Ruerdtsje (or Riurtk) He had three elder brothers: Justus ("Joast") (1789–1869), Justus, Tsjalling and Eeltsje, who, as authors, became known as the Brothers Halbertsma later in life, About Hidde Halbertsma, the father, much less is known. It is thought that he might have been a mariner before his marriage. The lessons he followed in Heidelberg for the most part had to do with obstetrics.

Nature and views From stories of people who knew him, Eeltsje Hiddes Halbertsma emerges as a man who was quickly moved, but could also have a lot of fun. Halbertsma's letters to his brother Justus are lively and open-hearted, and also quite entertaining still. On the other hand, he was not so progressive that he felt himself in any way connected to those he called, in 1855, "red democrats" (that is to say socialists and other political radicals), whom he separated from "the decent-minded", with which he meant the progressive, liberal section of the settled middle class, to which he himself belonged. He could not stomach the affected poshness of the middle class gentlemen, and neither could he reconcile such graveness of bearing with the 'gluttony and wine-guzzling' which followed the gatherings. "Es gibt Narren aller Art" ("It takes fools of all kinds"), he wrote to his brother Justus.

Halbertsma's marriage was, after the first few years, From that it followed that Justus had to get the Frisians to read in their own language (otherwise, writing it would not be of much use), and to achieve that aim, he set out writing the sort of folk literature which dovetailed nicely with Eeltsje Halbertsma's work. This character was in all probability a creation of Eeltsje's. After that, additions were published separately in 1836 (De Noarger Rún oan Gabe Skroar), 1840 (Twigen út in Alde Stamme), 1854 (Leed en Wille en de Flotgerzen), and 1858 (De Jonkerboer and Teltsjes fan de Wize Mannen fan Esonstêd).

Eeltsje Halbertsma was almost certainly the most talented of the three writing Halbertsma Brothers. It is this emotion which brings his work closer to the reader. Furthermore, Eeltsje's prose and poetry are in proportion to each other, qualitatively, while in Justus' works the poetry is generally quite clearly not of the same high standing as his prose.

On the basis of Romanticism, which he had acquired in Heidelberg,

Though Halbertsma often wrote idyllic poems in his early years, such as It Marke ("The Little Lake") and Geale' Sliepke ("Geale's Nap"), and, to a lesser degree, It Famke ("The Girl"), later the circumstances of his family life and professional difficulties so depressed him that he wrote, "you [will] find in my last works nothing of that Arcadia." and of the love poem Skipperssankje ("Skipper's Song"), a mariner's entreaty to his beloved not to forget him, even if his ship should sink and he should drown. The appreciation for Halbertsma's strongly rhetorical freedom hymns has eroded in the course of the 20th century,

In his prose Halbertsma shows himself to be a smooth story-teller, occasionally using a poetic-realistic approach, such as in the story Utfanhûs by de Boer ("Staying the Night on the Farm"), at other times becoming ironic, such as in De Klúnskonk fan Us Ald Dominy ("Our Old Minister's Skate-walking Leg").

Striking things about Eeltsje Halbertsma's literary works are the wonderful sound patterns in some of his poems, especially Geale' Sliepke ("Geale's Nap"), "Gibberish, odd names, strange types of people, stopgap words, [...] the most surprising metaphors, and the most unexpected jumps in a train of thought," In 1871, it was published by the firm of J. de Lange in Deventer, under the title of Rimen en Teltsjes ("Rhymes and Tales"). it is undeniable that Rimen en Teltsjes and its predecessor De Lapekoer fan Gabe Skroar played a role of crucial importance in the development of a new literary tradition after Western Frisian had been used almost exclusively as a spoken language for three centuries. As of today Rimen en Teltsjes still occupies the first slot in the ranking of Western Frisian literary classics. This reprint had a (for Western Frisian literature) ambitious printing of 3,000 copies, but was sold out within two months. In 1879, another stone tablet by the same artist was added to the left with the likeness of Justus Hiddes Halbertsma. The inscription reads: "TO DR EELTSJE HIDDES HALBERTSMA", with on the back of the column: "Ljeaf bliuwe ús Fryske tael en liet." ("Beloved to us remain the Western Frisian language and its songs.")