Twice ToldAmpzing, Beschryvinge ende lof der stad Haerlem (1628): the sea-monster woman, verse and the Divisiekroniek passage
- Language
- Dutch
- Reading
- transcribed from the page image
- Translation
- ours
- Retrieved
- 10 October 2026
Ampzing’s verse history of Haarlem carries a section on the sea-woman. He writes her in rhyme, then prints the Divisiekroniek chapter in prose, then Junius’s Latin (pp. 377 to 379) and Guicciardini’s Dutch. The verse is Ampzing’s own telling of what “they say”; the prose is a reprint in the spelling of 1628.
[p. 376, verse] Ik moet nu een vreemdicheyd/ seer seldzaem/ en bysonder/ Een ongelooflijk ding/ en wonder boven wonder/ Hier melden in mijn werk. Bedwingt u wie gy sijt/ En hoort dan en gelooft ‘t verhael van d’oude tijd. Men seyd/ dat onse Stad voor desen heeft ontfangen Een vreemd See-monster-wijf, in ‘t Purmer-meyr gevangen/ En eerst t’Edam gebragt: also sy (door tempeest De dijken doorgeperst) daer was gesien geweest. Dit Monster dan uyt See aldaer so aengekomen/ De vrouwen gansch gelijk/ den huyd maer uytgenomen/ Doch stom/ en sprakeloos/ heeft Haerlem, onse Stad/ Op haer versoek van daer veel jaer ter schenk gehad. Dat tot verwondering ook heeft te met [tamet?] beginnen/ Gelijk een and’re vrou/ gerockend vlas te spinnen/
[p. 377, verse continued] En ‘t kruyz ook eer te doen/ naer ‘s tyds onwetenheyd: Waerom het na syn dood op ‘t kerkhof is gelegd. En dit dan alsmen seyd/ hoe dat het ook mag wesen: So konnen wy dan noch gelijke dingen lesen/ Also men sulkx vry meer by veele Schryvers heeft: Ook is God wonderlyk die in den Hemel leefd.
[p. 377, prose] Van een See-Monster binnen Haerlem.
Holl. Kron. Divis. xxvj. Cap. LVII. Ontrent dese tyd wast vervaerlicke storme van winde/ van den welken veele huysen ter neder waeyden/ ende den menschen groote schade deden/ ende braken ook ten selven tyden veele dyken in/ datter grooten last van water in den landen quam. In desen storme ende oplopinge van den sewater is komen dryven ende swemmen een wild ende ongetammet Wyf in de Suyderse tuschen Kampen ende Edam/ ende aldus swemmende in Purmerye/ is sy gekomen door een gebroken gat van den dyke in Purmer-meer, ende dreef aldus lange tyd op dat water slapende ende wakende van dat een eynde tot den anderen/ ende sy sochte haer aes ende kost inde grond van ‘t water. Sy was heel naekt van lichaem/ sonder kleederen aen te hebben/ maer sy was behangen met menigerley waterige materie/ als mosch/ slyver/ ende ander slym al ruyg bewassen/ ende aldus bleef sy daer swemmende lange menigen tyd om ende weder/ niet wetende waer sy henen soude/ want sy en wist niet weder uyt te komen daer sy in gekomen was. Die vrouwen ende maegden die met schuyten van Edam ende anderzins quamen/ ende voeren over de Purmerye melken de koeyen/ sagen dickwils dit wyf dryven ende swemmen in ‘t water/ daer sy seer af verschricten/ ende vervaerd waren/ ende verwonderden sere van dat wyf/ ende als sy se dus dickwils sagen/ worden sy ‘tgewoon/ ende quamen altemet naerder om te sien/ dat sy ten lesten t’samen spraken/ ende vergaderden by een/ ende namen eenen moed/ ende togen dese vrouwe met kragt ende geweld uyt dat water in haer schuyte/ ende brogtense binnen Edam op der straten/ niemand en konde haer spraake verstaen/ noch sy en verstond de onse niet/ ende als sy schoon gemaekt was/ ende gereynigd vanden slyme ende ruygte daer sy mede bewassen was/ deden sy haer kleederen aen/ ende sy began onse spyse te eten/ maer nochtans was sy altyd naerstig ende daer op uyt om weder in ‘t water te wesen/ maer sy werde te seer nau bewaerd. Dit geruchte over al komende/ quam daer veel volkx om dit wyf te sien uyt veele vreemde landen. Dit vernemende die van Haerlem, deden groote instantie ende versoeken aen die stede van Edam om dit wyf te hebben/ om der nieuwicheyd willen/ dat welke sy toelieten/ ende gavense hen luyden/ ende daer wesende leerde sy spinnen/ ende leefde menig jaer/ ende starf ten lesten/ ende
Translation
[p. 376, verse] I must now report in my book a strange thing, very rare and odd, an unbelievable thing, a wonder above wonders. Hold your judgment, whoever you are, and then hear and believe the tale of olden times. They say that our city once received a strange sea-monster woman, caught in the Purmer lake and first brought to Edam, because she (driven by the storm through the broken dikes) had been seen there. This monster, come from the sea, was exactly like a woman, except for the skin, but dumb and speechless. At its own request Haarlem, our city, had her from there as a gift for many years. To people’s amazement she also began, now and then [?], to spin flax from the distaff like any other woman,
[p. 377, verse continued] and to honour the cross, in the ignorance of those times; that is why she was laid in the churchyard after her death. Whatever the truth of this, we can still read similar things, since many writers have much more of the same; and God is wonderful, who lives in heaven.
[p. 377, prose] Of a sea-monster in Haarlem.
Divisiekroniek, division 26, chapter 57. About this time there was a frightening windstorm in which many houses blew down and caused people great harm, and at the same time it broke many dikes, so that a great mass of water came into the land. In this storm and the rising of the sea water a wild and untamed woman came drifting and swimming in the Zuiderzee between Kampen and Edam, and so, swimming into the Purmerye, she came through a broken gap in the dike into the Purmer lake. She drifted on that water a long time, sleeping and waking, from one end to the other, and she looked for her food and sustenance in the bottom of the water. She was completely naked, without any clothes, but she was hung about with all sorts of watery matter such as moss, slime and other muck, and all grown over with it; and so she stayed there swimming for a long time, back and forth, not knowing where to go, for she did not know how to get out again where she had come in. The women and girls who came in boats from Edam and elsewhere and crossed the Purmerye to milk the cows often saw this woman drifting and swimming in the water. They were very frightened and alarmed by it and marvelled greatly at the woman; and as they saw her so often they grew used to her and came closer from time to time to look, until in the end they spoke together, gathered, took courage, and pulled this woman out of the water by force into their boat and brought her into Edam, into the streets. Nobody could understand her speech, and she did not understand ours. When she had been cleaned of the slime and filth she was covered in, they put clothes on her, and she began to eat our food; but she was always eager to be back in the water, and she was too closely guarded for that. When the news spread, many people came from many foreign lands to see her. When the people of Haarlem heard of it, they pressed the town of Edam hard, and asked to have this woman because of the novelty; Edam agreed and gave her to them. There she learned to spin, lived many years, and at last died, and
Notes
Ampzing’s marginal heading for the verse is “Zee-monster” and for the prose “Van een See-Monster binnen Haerlem”. The prose breaks off at the foot of p. 377 and goes on at the top of p. 378 with the burial in the churchyard “because she often honoured the Holy Cross” and the old men who said they had seen her in Haarlem. Junius’s Latin follows on pp. 377 to 379, then Guicciardini’s Dutch with the marginal note “Meyerus lib. 14 Annal. Flandriae”. The prose is a modern-spelling reprint of the Divisiekroniek, not the 1517 wording; the Middle Dutch is quoted from the DBNL edition in sources.md. “Te met” is read as a word of time (“now and then”) but the page could be read otherwise. The verse says the skin was the only difference from a woman; it does not mention a tail.