('Rhymes and Tales', ) is the national book of Western Frisian literature,Breuker 2016, p. 2251.Dykstra and Oldenhof, p. 37. written by the three Brothers Halbertsma.Dykstra and Oldenhof, pp. 38–42. It is an extensive collection of short stories and poems, the first of which was published in 1822 under the title of .Dykstra and Oldenhof, p. 37. developed its present-day form in the course of the 19th century, when the Halbertsma's continuously added new work to their previous publications.Dykstra and Oldenhof, p. 37.Wiersma, p. 5. Eventually their works were gathered together, and the first edition of the actual was published posthumously in 1871.Dykstra and Oldenhof, p. 37.Wiersma, p. 5. Although the literary value of this collection was later disputed by some critics,Breuker 1993, pp. 594–596. and its predecessor 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.Dykstra and Oldenhof, p. 37.Jensma, p. 197.
The authors The three Brothers Halbertsma, the authors of , were born in the village of Grou, in the central part of the Dutch province of Friesland in the late 18th century.Breuker 1993, p. 587. The two most important of the brothers were Justus Hiddes Halbertsma (1789–1869), a Mennonite minister in Bolsward en from 1822 onwards in Deventer,Breuker 1993, p. 588. and Eeltsje Hiddes Halbertsma (1797–1858), who was a physician in Grou.Breuker 1993, p. 592. Justus was a man of science, a prominent linguist, who was acquainted with German literary figures such as the Brothers Grimm. He strongly sensed what the public needed, but at the same time he was a somewhat distant and cerebral author, which tended to have an averse effect on his poetry.Breuker 1993, pp. 588–591.Dykstra and Oldenhof, pp. 38–40. His brother Eeltsje, whose prose and poetry were of equal quality, was probably the most talented of the brothers. He was also a much more emotional person, who was sometimes overcome by periods of melancholy, which found an outlet in his writings.Breuker 1993, pp. 592–593.Dykstra and Oldenhof, pp. 40–42.Wiersma, pp. 9–10. The third brother, Tsjalling Hiddes Halbertsma (1792–1852), who was a butter and cheese merchant in Grou, was greatly overshadowed by his brothers as a literary writer. His oeuvre mainly consisted of folk literature, which, however, became quite popular with the common man.Breuker 1993, pp. 591–592.Dykstra and Oldenhof, p. 42.
Origins As Justus Hiddes Halbertsma would tell it later, the first step towards the writing of was taken when his brother Eeltsje returned from his study in Heidelberg, in Germany, in 1818, and noticed that the street songs in the Netherlands were of a very low quality compared to those in Germany. According to Justus, Eeltsje then set out to write poetry with the intent of replacing the existing songs with better ones of his own making.Breuker 1993, p. 593. The linguist Philippus H. Breuker, who added an extensive and penetrating afterword to the reprint of 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. According to Breuker, it seems more likely that Eeltsje wanted to emulate these Dutch street songs.Breuker 1993, p. 593.
In any case, Justus as well as Eeltsje started writing poetry and short fiction, and as Justus remained the editor of Eeltsje's works for his entire life, their oeuvres were strongly connected and published together from the very beginning.Breuker 1993, p. 593. In 1822, the best of their early works were collected under the title of ("Gabe Tailor's Rag Basket"; original, archaic spelling: ), a booklet consisting of 36 pages, and including six poems and one short story.Dykstra and Oldenhof, p. 37. This publication was attributed to the fictional 'Gabe Skroar', a lame farmer's son who became a tailor and a writer, but died young.Breuker 1993, p. 597.Twerda, p. 297. This character was in all probability a creation of Eeltsje's.Breuker 1993, p. 597. Hiding behind such a fictional author was fairly normal at that time,Breuker 1993, p. 597.Twerda, p. 297. 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.Breuker 1993, p. 597.
The character of Gabe Skroar (or 'Gabe Tailor') was somewhat ambiguous from the very beginning, which was caused by the difference in the styles of writing used by Justus and Eeltsje. Where Eeltsje's Gabe remained a simple farmer's son who liked to potter about with his writings in the wasted hours, Justus' Gabe was implicitly a more lettered man, who clearly had literary ambitions.Breuker 1993, p. 597. Furthermore, Gabe Skroar's role changed in the course of time: in 1822, he was presented only as the writer of the collection, but in the publications of 1829 and 1834, he developed into the main character of the stories.Breuker 1993, p. 597. In the long run, the character of Gabe became unusable, which was mostly due to Justus' constant little adjustments, and in 1839 even Eeltsje had to admit that there was no point anymore to publishing their works under Gabe Skroar's name.Breuker 1993, p. 597.
Development The first edition of , published in 1822, consisted of 200 copies only.Breuker 1993, p. 594.Breuker 2016, p. 1124.Dykstra and Oldenhof, p. 37.Oppewal and Boorsma, p. 16.Terpstra, p. 313.Twerda, pp. 297–298.Wiersma, pp. 5, 11. Those were not sold, however, but at the expense of Justus Halbertsma presented to acquaintances of his all over Friesland.Breuker 1993, p. 594.Oppewal and Boorsma, p. 16.Twerda, p. 298. In this way he awoke among his public a desire for more reading-matter of this nature.Breuker 1993, p. 594.Hemminga, p. 56.Twerda, p. 298. Later he would write about this: "That first blow was half the battle. The fans who did not receive a copy were squealing like bleeding pigs, and the way was cleared for all the stories and poems which followed."Breuker 1993, p. 594. The contents of were in fact something entirely different from what readers were used to, not only as to what language they were written in, but also and especially concerning their informal style. Copies of the booklet were often shared around through entire networks of family and friends, and frequently its stories and poems were transcribed by hand before the booklet was given back or passed on.Terpstra, p. 313.Wiersma, p. 11. A second, expanded edition of , consisting of 237 pages, was published in 1829, followed by a third, further expanded edition in 1834, running to almost 500 pages in a larger size.Dykstra and Oldenhof, p. 37.Terpstra, p. 313.Twerda, p. 298.Wiersma, p. 5, 11. After that, additions were published separately in 1836 (), 1840 (), 1854 (), and 1858 ( and ).Dykstra and Oldenhof, p. 37.Brothers Halbertsma 1958, pp. 589–594.
After the death of all three brothers, their short fiction and poetry was collected and published in 1871 by the publishing house of J. de Lange in Deventer (where Justus Halbertsma had lived) under the title of ('Rhymes and Tales').Breuker 1993, pp. 603–606.Dykstra and Oldenhof, p. 37.Oppewal and Boorsma, p. 16.Terpstra, p. 313.Wiersma, p. 5. This was done in thirteen installmentsBreuker 2016, p. 2251. (the first of which was published in October 1868),Breuker 2016, p. 2251. which meant it took more than two years before the buyers, who had to subscribe to the entire series of installments, possessed the book in its complete form.Breuker 1993, p. 603.Breuker 2016, p. 2251. The decision to publish was made in 1863,Breuker 2016, p. 2251. and the first two installments were edited by Justus Hiddes Halbertsma himself.Breuker 1993, p. 604. He even wrote some new pieces for the collection, such as the short story ('The Thick Suit').Breuker 2016, p. 1127.Breuker 2016, p. 2251. The rest of the installments were, however, composed under the supervision of librarian and archivist Gerben Colmjon and bookseller and historian Wopke Eekhoff,Breuker 1993, p. 604.Wiersma, p. 5. with Eekhoff giving permission to add the works by Eeltsje Halbertsma which had originally been published by him, not De Lange.Breuker 2016, p. 2251. , in its complete form, was a thick book, with 586 closely printed pages, full to the brim with short stories and poems, including classics like ('The Bolsward Fair'),Brothers Halbertsma 1993, p. 8-9. ('Squire Pete and Sibylle'),Brothers Halbertsma 1993, p. 11-12. ('Grave-digger's Song'),Brothers Halbertsma 1993, p. 13. ('The Journey to the Gout Masters'),Brothers Halbertsma 1993, p. 20-31. ('The Little Lake'),Brothers Halbertsma 1993, p. 37-38. De Alde FriezenBrothers Halbertsma 1993, p. 84-85. ('The Frisians of Old', which became the national anthem of the Western Frisian people in 1875),Breuker 2016, p. 1124.Fryslân Sjongt, pp. 10–11.Schroor, p. 2831. ('Sibylle from De Ryp'),Brothers Halbertsma 1993, p. 86. ('Skipper's Song'),Brothers Halbertsma 1993, p. 133. ('The Leek Flowers'),Brothers Halbertsma 1993, p. 219-221. ('On Anna's Death'),Brothers Halbertsma 1993, p. 258-259. and ('The Gentleman Farmer').Brothers Halbertsma 1993, p. 429-465.
The first reprint of was published in 1881, again by the firm of J. de Lange.Breuker 1993, p. 607. This time, the sole editor was Gerben Colmjon, who, in general, did not make many changes to the first edition, although he did introduce "a certain unity in the spelling of vowels and consonants."Breuker 1993, p. 607. It is possible that in 1887 there was a reprint issued of the 1881 edition, although Breuker considers it likely that the scant sources for this were actually referring to a remnant of the 1881 printing. In any case, nothing was changed in the text of the book.Breuker 1993, p. 608. In 1891 G. M. Merkelbach from Bolsward resolved to publish a new edition, but nothing came of it,Breuker 1993, p. 608. and neither did the linguist succeed in publishing the new edition he contemplated in 1892.Breuker 1993, p. 608. Hence it was not until 1895 before a new edition saw the light, published by the (formerly the firm of J. de Lange).Breuker 1993, p. 608. It was edited by W. P. de Vries, who changed the text to the so-called ('Society Spelling'), which had been introduced for the Western Frisian language in 1879. However, because he retained the layout from the 1881 edition, this caused a rather restless page image, as he kept exactly the same words on a given line, while the number of letters within the words was changed quite dramatically in some cases.Breuker 1993, p. 608.