The Brothers Lionheart (how judging a public reading contest for kids led to this trip down exquisitely horrifying memories)

Written By Benne van der Velde

On the 11th of February of this year I had the absolute pleasure and honor to help judge a local public reading contest for kids in the Library of Dordrecht city, alongside fellow judges Wilma Verhoeven & Ilse van Donkelaar. It was part of the National public reading contest for kids and the winner will go on and compete in the regionals, so the pressure was certainly on! So, so many nervous little faces… It was our luck then, that we could agree on our favorite pretty quickly. His way of getting the story across appealed to us (tone, tempo, emotional delivery) and he managed to pull us right in. Congratulations, Abdullah! You read at half the tempo all the others did. That helped. A lot.

A special shout out tot the crew of the library for the exceptional care and love you put into organizing this event! ALMOST perfect :)

One of the criteria we had to judge was if the specific part of their favorite book the contestants chose to read was pivotal to the story or not. And to their credit, most of them had clearly taken their time to find a passage that fit said criteria. We felt for a dragon almost drowning, learned that Harry Potter was a natural on the broomstick and how a pre-teen influencer finally got the better of her bitchy rival for example. A divers bunch of plot points indeed. As the afternoon went on, though, I couldn’t help but starting to feel a bit… Like I… was missing something? The stakes had been high all around, check, sure, but…

Know what I mean?

… Yeah. You know what I mean.

This says a lot about me too, I know, and the kinds of stories I’ve been drawn to from a very early age. I have no knowledge about 99.999 % of children’s books storylines from the last 3 and a half decades whatsoever but feel safe in guessing the 11 excerpts we enjoyed in the library are a cross section of the above mentioned. And honestly, that makes me just the tiniest bit of sad. I know I’m very much sounding my age now, but maybe it’s a sign of the times. No? We were asked to choose 1 winner. The rest would collectively come in second. + Please no constructive criticism afterwards. Only praise. … Enfin. It got me sentimental too, and for a very specific reason at that!   

 I remember laying in our backyard garden, must have been no older than 9, 10 at the most, and my first ever out of body experience, right then and there, from getting sucked into a story so fully the world around me just… disappeared? Must have read ‘De Gebroeders Leeuwenhart’ (The Brothers Lionheart) by Astrid Lindgren at least a dozen times in those formative, highly susceptible years and it’s safe to say it is my favorite children’s book. If you haven’t read it, please do? And why, you ask?

Disease, death, tyranny, betrayal, and rebellion! This is the O.G. of fantasy for the very young. George R.R. Martin waited a very long time before he killed of one of his main characters, by comparison? And like with Martin, death is all around during the remainder of the story, with (spoiler warning:) the traitor Jossi, Hubert, Mattias, the tyrant Tengil, the dragon Katla and the two brothers themselves for a second time at the end. Again, it had me hooked from the first page onwards. This is not a tale for the faint of heart. It is written to teach about loss, grief, betrayal, but at the same time contrasts these expertly with platonic love, loyalty, sacrifice, hope, courage, and pacifism. An emotional journey I wish every child could and would undertake. Especially while young. In adulthood not everybody is going to end in second place. Books should be a safe space to get utterly devastated in. Do this to your own kinds? Some experiences in childhood WILL define you, and this should be one of them. A true masterclass. Go and get it at your local bookstore, please? Cheers!

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Benne van der Velde

After thoroughly enjoying the Dutch slam poetry scene in the early and mid 2000s (with wins in 7 cities and eventually a place in the Nationals of 2012) and performances at the Lowlands-, Uitmarkt- and Parade festivals a/o, Benne successfully made the transition from the stage to paper by signing his first publishing deal in 2005. Since then 4 publishing houses (kleine Uil, Douane, Nadorst and Stanza) released volumes of his poetry. For a 5th (Passage) he co-edited an anthology of satirical/pamphlet poetry with fellow poets Daniel Dee and Alexis de Roode.

As a member of the artist movement ‘Het Ongeboren Idee’ he helped to organize (and was part of/presented) cultural lo-fi festivals, exhibitions, making a movie, monthly poetry stages in his hometown of Vlaardingen (Poezie in De Steeg), Rotterdam (De Poetsclub) and Nijmegen (Late Letteren Live) + a talent show for bands.

In 2002 and 2003 he studied ‘writing for performance’ at the vocational university of the Arts in the city of Utrecht (HKU) and as a result saw 3 of his theater plays make it to a stage. Writer Hiekelien van den Herik and he co-wrote a knight spectacle play complete with real choreographed sword fights, men in heavy plate armor and more great stuff like that. Theater-/enactment group Ridderspoor performed said play in 2004 and 2005 at Het Archeon, during De Kasteeldagen and at an Elfia-fantasy fair. He also gave numerous poetry and rap workshops at schools and other institutions. There were a lot of collabs too, for example voice-over work for a Rock Opera, a monumental art project for which he partnered up with the artist Erwin Adema and thrice alongside the R.J.S.O (The Rotterdam Youth Symphony Orchestra).

Benne has been an editor for several literary magazines (Krakatau, Renaissance and Op Ruwe Planken), at one time he and his wife owned a secondhand bookstore, he’s been the official poet laureate for his hometown of Vlaardingen and released his first and only Dutch rap-EP in 2011. In 2012 he rapped his way into the finals of Art Rocks. An EP with songs in English followed in 2021. A year later he started translating Dutch musical and lyrical classics from Dutch into English, and vice versa. Some of his short sci-fi and fantasy stories have found their way to medium related websites, magazines and anthology’s.

According to the poet himself rewriting his own poetry, lyrics and prose in English somehow feels like the next logical step in his career, a way to open up to the world at large. Which is both exhilarating and terrifying. So far several of these translations have been published in Bebarbar, Hare’s paw, Festivalforpoetry, Punt Volat, The Dewdrop, The Dillydoun Review and Months to Years a/o.

In everyday (some claim real) life he worked as an industrial tank cleaner, in pest control, on a garbage truck, driving a forklift, in a chemical waste facility, on a Ferry and 10 years as a bartender in a cannabis bar. At the time of writing this resume he can be found at home or in the hospital battling throat cancer. He’s been off the Herb since 2008, has a wife, 2 dogs, mild anxiety issues and likes to read every sci-fi and fantasy classic he can find.

www.linkedin.com/in/benne-van-der-velde-8b17a7296

The poet/lyricist and author Rob Chrispijn: ‘Benne writes sentences that stick; clean, dark and intense. This way a poem lasts!’

The poet Philip Hoorne on the website Poetry rapport: ‘There’s a genius hiding in Benne van der Velde, those are the Good Tidings of today. Amen.’

https://www.doubledutchmagazine.com
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RECIT (a network of European literary translation centres offering residencies for translators and organizing events)