When 15-year-old Dolf is transferred to the past with a time machine, he ends up in the middle of the Children’s Crusade of 1212. Dolf stands out, not only because of his strange outfit (modern jeans) but also because of his 20th-century knowledge. It does not take long before Dolf finds out that the two priests leading the children to Jerusalem are frauds. From that moment on, he needs to fear for his life. If Dolf is able to rescue not only himself but also those thousands of children, and if he can travel back to his own time… no… I will not be a spoilsport. Read the book!
Crusade in Jeans (Kruistocht in spijkerbroek) is one of the most famous Dutch children’s books. This book won the Golden State Pencil Award in 1974 and the European Prize for Best Historical Children’s Book in 1976. The English translation is still available but not easy to get. At the end of March, I ordered a secondhand copy, and now, while I am writing this blog, I am still waiting for it to arrive. The quotes from the novel in this book are my own translations, and page numbers refer to my original Dutch copy. ‘The time-slip genre allows for a direct examination of the relationship between the past and the present,’ state Butler and O’Donovan (8). This relationship is precisely what Thea Beckman offers in her Crusade in Jeans. She not only invites the implied reader to reflect on how we look at events in the past from our nowadays perspective. She also emphasizes a shared history of European children. I think these are more than enough reasons to publish a new translation of Crusade in Jeans.
The attraction of time-slip
Time-slip novels are a very popular genre. According to Erlandson and Bainsbridge, this ‘lies partly in the fact that it crosses three distinct genres (fantasy, historical fiction and contemporary realism)’ (qtd. in Rodwell 119). This combination of genres is notable in Crusade in Jeans as well. The fantasy element lies, of course, in the use of a time machine. Colleagues of Dolf’s father, two scientists, are running tests with the time machine they developed, transmitting small animals to the past and back. Dolf convinces them to send him. ‘When I am back, I can tell you what I have seen … what can those test animals tell you? Nothing. You might at best be able to research the dust in their fur, but that will not provide you with any certainty. I can provide the scientific evidence you need’ (8-9).
Dolf expresses here what makes the time-slip element so appealing. Just imagine what it would be like to go back to history and witness what we otherwise can only reconstruct by using the sometimes-limited historical sources we have!
The genres of historical fiction and contemporary realism are somewhat mixed up since this novel was written in the 1970s. We are reading a book written in the past, in which we travel to an even further away past. When Dolf is trying to envision the map of Europe, the modern reader would probably wonder why he is not considering consulting Google. But if Dolf had travelled back from the 21st century, taking his mobile phone, it would have been useless after all, since there were no phone masts or networks in the middle ages. The fact that this novel is written in the past, is not per se interfering with the plausibility of the narrative.
Today’s eyes
With the historical knowledge he has, Dolf thinks of the holocaust when he meets a Jewish trader in the 13th century. Since he is selling modern and therefore useless coins (guilders, the currency we used to have before the euro, so here we see another example of going back to the past from the past) to the Jew, his conscience is troubled. ‘In his century during years of madness, the Nazi’s tried to eradicate Jews … apparently life in this era was not easy for Jews either’ (82). With his thoughts, linking three different historical episodes with one another, Dolf is challenging the implied reader to reflect on the value of historical knowledge as well. Linda Hall says that ‘time-slip, which may be defined as a story with its feet in the present but its head and heart in the past, seems far removed from any interest in the future. But if personal and cultural continuity is the shaping theme of the form, as I think it is, then present and future are bound together in an inextricable bond with the past; they are not safe if the past is forgotten or obliterated’ (46). Crusade in Jeans does indeed makes us wonder… are we capable of learning from history at all?
‘Writers of time-slip stories are particularly alert to this sense of place and people through time which at the national level used to be part of school history’ writes Linda Hall (45). As I mentioned in the introduction of this post, in Crusade in Jeans, this is not the case on a national level but on a European level. The story is not set in the Netherlands, and the Children’s Crusade is not part of the Dutch national school curriculum. However, the children in the story show a sense of European unity, centuries before the European Community was initiated. They are joining the crusade from all over Europe and have a common goal. They want to free Jerusalem from the Saracens, and if their mission succeeds, they want to stay in Jerusalem, living together peacefully. Led by Dolf, the children cooperate and divide tasks. Some children function as security guards, others are hunters, children who can swim, catch fish, and others work in the infirmary (58-59).
Dolf realizes that he is used to travelling and how he knows more about geography than the other children. When he is sitting down to eat lunch and admires the landscape, ‘he feels like he is on holiday’ (16). He is shocked when he sees the tower of a church he visited three years ago as a tourist with his parents. ‘He remembered a busy city with lots of industry, a beautiful bridge over the Rhine, wide access roads, and he especially remembered the wonderful cathedral dating from the 12th century. Was this really the same church?’ (18).
How things over time might not all have changed for the best, is visible when the children drink water from the Rhine and bathe in it. ‘All of a sudden, Dolf realized how clean the water was. He tasted it. It was delicious’ (31).
Discussion in your classroom
- Would you dare to travel back in time, just as Dolf did?
- And if so, what time in history would you like to visit?
Movie trailer Crusade in Jeans:
