Summary
Summary of Dutch Folklore
Dutch Folklore at a glance
Summary: 7 min to read
- Reading time
- About 13 h 20 min10 h 35 min fast, 15 h 50 min slow
- Length
- 189,800 words
- Library level
- Challenging long sentences, a rich vocabulary
- First published
- 1915by Jos. Schrijnen
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
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Key ideas
Key idea 1
Everyday customs hold a living culture
A giant digs the Rhine, White Women appear on a lonely heath, and a boy begs with a lantern on Saint Martin's Eve. For Jos. Schrijnen, these belong to the same living folk culture of the Netherlands and Flanders. He gathers what farmers, children, shepherds and townspeople say, sing, build and believe.
Schrijnen fears that steam, electricity and factories are smoothing away local customs. His purpose is to record their variety, following folk life from the peoples who shaped it to the festivals that carry it forward.
Key idea 2
Folk culture belongs to everyone
Schrijnen begins by asking what folklore actually studies.
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Key idea 3
Customs grow through layers of peoples
The land holds traces of peoples who lived there before: stone tombs in Drenthe, Celtic place names, and the settlements of Frisians, Saxons and Franks.
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Key idea 4
The farmhouse preserves habits and values
For Schrijnen, the farmhouse is the heart of folk life because farmers preserve old building habits.
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Key idea 5
Old spirits take on Christian meanings
Schrijnen explains many folk beliefs through animism: the soul survives death, and nature is full of spirits.
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Key idea 6
The festival year follows the earth
The festival year links saints' days with older hopes for fertility and protection.
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Key idea 7
Rituals guide people through life's changes
Birth, courtship, marriage and death each bring customs that help people cross from one state into another.
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Key idea 8
Language preserves a region's way of seeing
Dialect, names, proverbs and riddles make language part of folk culture.
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Key idea 9
Ordinary things carry older meanings
Schrijnen's argument offers a way of looking at everyday life.
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Who it’s for
Readers who love old customs, village life, fairy tales, festivals, proverbs and the stories behind everyday objects will feel at home here. It also suits anyone curious about the Low Countries and their saints.
What this book is
What do a giant who digs the Rhine, three white women on a lonely heath and a boy begging with a lantern on Saint Martin's Eve have in common? They all belong to the living folk culture of the Netherlands and Flanders, which Jos. Schrijnen gathers in Dutch Folklore. He sets down what farmers, children, shepherds and townspeople still say, sing, build and believe.
Schrijnen, a Dutch scholar who died in 1938, feared that steam, electricity and factories were smoothing away local customs. You get a guided walk through the whole field, from the layers of peoples to the festival year, and each stop comes with a name, a place and an example.
In this summary
- 1Everyday customs hold a living cultureFree
- 2Folk culture belongs to everyone
- 3Customs grow through layers of peoples
- 4The farmhouse preserves habits and values
- 5Old spirits take on Christian meanings
- 6The festival year follows the earth
- 7Rituals guide people through life's changes
- 8Language preserves a region's way of seeing
- 9Ordinary things carry older meanings
Folklore studies the foundations beneath higher culture
Schrijnen begins by asking what folklore means. The term was first used in 1846 by a writer named Thoms, who meant the traditional beliefs, legends and customs of the common people. Later the word Volkskunde stretched toward the study of a whole people, and Schrijnen thinks this went too far.
The folk is not the rabble, and it is not the primitive tribes studied by ethnology. Folk character lives in every class, though it shows most among simple people. Folklore looks at the subculture under a nation's higher culture, the layer that gives life its local flavor. Law appears there as custom, religion as belief, science as folk medicine, and art as songs, proverbs, riddles and tales.
Schrijnen has a second aim. He believes that knowing folk culture builds honest patriotism and bridges the gap between educated people and ordinary ones.
Folklore is the study of the living ground under a nation's culture, and it belongs to everyone.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
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Check yourself
What does Schrijnen understand folklore to study?
Right. “Folklore looks at the subculture under a nation's higher culture, the layer that gives life its local flavor.”Not quite. “Folklore looks at the subculture under a nation's higher culture, the layer that gives life its local flavor.”
How does the Church treat older local customs?
Right. “It adapts them, so old springs and feast days are baptized and kept.”Not quite. “It adapts them, so old springs and feast days are baptized and kept.”
What purpose do rites surrounding life's great changes serve?
Right. “Every great turn of life is marked by rites that move a person safely from one state to the next.”Not quite. “Every great turn of life is marked by rites that move a person safely from one state to the next.”
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About 13 h 50 min to read.Start freePaperback, hardcover and large print, printed for you at cost, are on their way.Email me when it is printed
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 189,800 words
- Reading timeAbout 13 h 20 min
Questions about Dutch Folklore
What is Dutch Folklore by Jos. Schrijnen about?
It surveys the folk culture of the Netherlands and Flanders: settlement, farmhouses, dress, belief, festivals, family rites, language, songs, tales, art and popular knowledge, with many local examples from villages across both countries.
What are the Saxon, Frisian and Frankish peoples in the book?
They are the three Germanic stocks Schrijnen uses to explain regional differences. Saxons live mainly in the east, Frisians along the northern coast, and Franks in the south, each with distinct houses, dress, dialects and customs.
What does folklore mean for Schrijnen?
He defines it as the systematic study of the foundations of culture, the ethnology of civilized peoples. It looks at the subculture beneath higher culture, including custom, belief, folk science, art and language.
Is Dutch Folklore based on real observation?
Yes. Schrijnen draws on his own observation, regional collectors, journals, and questionnaires from teachers in Limburg, North Brabant and Gelderland. He gives folk-song examples only when he has encountered them himself or confirmed that they remain current.
What is the main message of the book?
That everyday customs, rhymes, houses and beliefs hold old layers of history, and that knowing them deepens a person's bond with their people. Schrijnen also warns that modern life is wearing them away.
Cite this edition
Schrijnen, Jos. Dutch Folklore. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/dutch-folklore.
Schrijnen, J. (2026). Dutch folklore. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/dutch-folklore (Original work published 1915)
Schrijnen, Jos. Dutch Folklore. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/dutch-folklore.
@book{schrijnen2026dutch,
author = {Schrijnen, Jos.},
title = {Dutch Folklore},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/dutch-folklore},
note = {First published 1915}
}
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