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," all of these occur regularly in Halbertsma's prose. In his works he was guided by the ideal image he had in his mind of the Western Frisians as simple but genuine people, which he contrasted against the
Dutch, who were in his eyes refined but insincere.
Death In his last years there was not much which connected Halbertsma to the village of
Grou. Because of his unhappy marriage, he could not find solace at home, and the death of his daughter Anna, in 1851, had made him lose his cheerfulness. The following year his brother
Tsjalling also died, who had been the steadfast centre of the family. That is why Eeltsje, after he had transferred his medical practice to his son Hidde in 1856, started a wandering life visiting family members who lived far away. Later on, he lived for a little while by himself in
Leeuwarden, but a few weeks before his death he arranged to be brought back to Grou. He died there on 22 March 1858, when he was sixty years of age. He was buried in a double-deep grave which later came to lie outside of the churchyard boundaries, and is now marked by three red stones in an otherwise yellow-paved pathway. ==Legacy==