Tales of the Devil · 01. February 2021
It was the heart of winter. Amsterdam’s IJ harbour was completely frozen over. As far as the eye could see it was a mirror-smooth plain, shrouded in cold: water frozen in all shades of white and grey and black. With evening a light fog, the harbinger of snow, came over the ice and dimmed the light of the first stars. The seagulls had already left for the city days ago and were now gliding past the windows of tall canal houses, screeching with hunger. On the IJ there were only a few skaters...
The next story is a folk tale from the area of the Waterland, an ancient rural district just north of Amsterdam. Reclaimed a thousand years ago from swamp and sea and dotted with small farming and fishing villages the Waterland is just as haunted, if not more so, as the great city to its south. “If it’s gambling you hold dear, it’s the devil you should fear.” That’s what the old folks said in the village of Uitdam. Johan Hook did not care. He was young, he did not listen and every...
