20 h 51 minAudiobook13 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 20 h 51 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What can a harvest custom, a family ritual or a tale about water reveal about a people's world?
In Dutch Folklore, Jos. Schrijnen explores the popular culture of the Netherlands and Flemish Belgium. Customs, beliefs and traditions become clues to how ordinary people understand their lives. What they sing, celebrate and pass on by word of mouth forms a living record of their communities.
The study leads you through the rhythm of the year, the turning points of life and a landscape shaped by water, farming and faith. Schrijnen's approach treats folk customs as evidence, inviting you to ask where a practice comes from and what it means to the people who keep it.
What you’ll discover
- Everyday life as evidence Look at sayings, charms and harvest habits as clues to a community's understanding of its world.
- The rhythm of seasons Explore how seasonal customs give shape and meaning to the passing year.
- Life's great turning points Consider the customs surrounding birth, marriage and death, from shared meals to signs of luck.
- A landscape of belief Follow the links between rivers, dikes, heath and sea, and beliefs about the unseen.
- Traditions passed between generations Discover how spoken traditions preserve what communities believe, celebrate and choose to remember.
Who will love it
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’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Everyday customs hold a living culture
- Folk culture belongs to everyone
- Customs grow through layers of peoples
- The farmhouse preserves habits and values
- Old spirits take on Christian meanings
- The festival year follows the earth
- Rituals guide people through life's changes
- Language preserves a region's way of seeing
- Ordinary things carry older meanings
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Dutch Folklore
by Jos. Schrijnen · 1915
Giants dig the Rhine, white women knock at doors and bells fly to Rome: folk belief in the Dutch and Flemish lands.
Challenging10–20 hours to readEnglish
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In short
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.
Dutch Folklore at a glance
- 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
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
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.
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- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 13 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1915
- Language
- English
- Level
- Challenging
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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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.
The author
Jos. Schrijnen
1869–1938 · Dutch priest and linguist
Jos. Schrijnen (1869–1938) was a Dutch Catholic priest, linguist, and folklorist. He was born in Venlo and died in Nijmegen. He wrote about Dutch folklore and language in the early twentieth century. In 1923, he became the first rector of the Catholic University of Nijmegen.
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