Monday
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Among the many glorious memories that people carry away from the 2026 Winter Olympics, one in particular has a literary connection. Thanks to their prowess in speed skating, the Dutch tied with Italy for third in gold medals. With seven silver and three bronze, the Netherlands earned 20 medals overall for their most successful Winter Olympics ever. In Olympic history, the Dutch have won 146 speed skating medals, 70 more than the second place United States.
Which brings me Mary Mapes Dodge’s 1865 novel Hans Brinker, or The Silver Skates, a book that I enjoyed as a child but haven’t thought about since.
The story focuses on the Brinker family, which has fallen on hard times after the father falls from a dike and experiences a brain injury. Spurned by the community for their bad luck, Hans and sister Gretel dream of winning a mile-long skating race and, with it, a pair of silver skates. It’s a heart-warming story that NBC would be sure to play up if the two were racing in the Olympics.
The story features multiple instances of heroic self-sacrifice. Hans works to buy a good pair of skates for his sister—the two wouldn’t stand a chance on their homemade wooden skates—and then gives up the dream of buying his own skates in order to pay a cranky doctor to perform brain surgery on his father. When the doctor, softened by Hans’s sacrifice, performs the surgery for free, Hans then performs a second sacrifice, donating a shoe string to his good friend Peter, who has experienced an equipment failure at a critical moment. Gretel and Peter go on to win their respective races.
Just as we saw family and friends rejoicing as skaters flashed across the line, so do we see the same excitement in the novel. Feel free to revisit your favorite Olympics moments as you read the accounts. First, here’s Gretel:
They are winged Mercuries. Who is first? Not Rychie, Katrinka, Annie, nor Hilda, nor the girl in yellow, but Gretel—Gretel, the fleetest sprite of a girl that ever skated. She was but playing in the earlier races, NOW she is in earnest, or rather, something within her has determined to win. That lithe little form makes no effort, but it cannot stop—not until the goal is passed!
In vain the crier lifts his voice. He cannot be heard. He has no news to tell—it is already ringing through the crowd. GRETEL HAS WON THE SILVER SKATES!
Like a bird she has flown over the ice, like a bird she looks about her in a timid, startled way. She longs to dart to the sheltered nook where her father and mother stand. But Hans is beside her—the girls are crowding round. Hilda’s kind, joyous voice breathes in her ear. From that hour, none will despise her. Goose girl or not, Gretel stands acknowledged queen of the skaters!
And now for Peter:
They are winged Mercuries, every one of them. What mad errand are they on? Ah, I know. They are hunting Peter van Holp. He is some fleet-footed runaway from Olympus. Mercury and his troop of winged cousins are in full chase. They will catch him! Now Carl is the runaway. The pursuit grows furious–Ben is foremost!
The chase turns in a cloud of mist. It is coming this way. Who is hunted now? Mercury himself. It is Peter, Peter van Holp; fly, Peter–Hans is watching you. He is sending all his fleetness, all his strength into your feet. Your mother and sister are pale with eagerness. Hilda is trembling and dares not look up. Fly, Peter! The crowd has not gone deranged, it is only cheering. The pursuers are close upon you! Touch the white column! It beckons–it is reeling before you–it–
“Huzza! Huzza! Peter has won the silver skates!”
“Peter van Holp!” shouted the crier. But who heard him? “Peter van Holp!” shouted a hundred voices, for he was the favorite boy of the place. “Huzza! Huzza!”
We witnessed many such moments over the past two weeks. Huzza! Huzza!
