Deep in the forests lives a legend ...


The historical discovery of the statue “Rietje Koane”(Dirk Crackling) whose likeness as the baby as the baby in bronze, immortalized by Hendricus van ‘t Veld (He was a fat and crackling smelter/ alchemist and lived on ‘t Veldeken (local place name), ergo his name; in 1503) has caused great consternation.


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Already a long time, a group of local historians and amateur archaeologists have had already for a long time suspicion, that the “Well of the Year” in the Centre of Maldegem could hold a very special content, and it had indeed.
On December 1st, 1977, all digging activities were suspended. Hoardings were erected in all secrecy, a team searched for the treasure they expected to find. On December 3rd it was found. A bronze statue, marked with a “Runen-Sign” had been dug up.
The enthusiasm of the “discovers” was enormous and immediately were all kinds of historical background researched, which revealed the most tenable facts.

Once upon time about the year 1500, a noble family lived called Philip the Beautiful and his wife Johanna the Deranged. They had a daughter Eleanora, who was born in 1498. However, their wish for a son; and heir; was so great that a couple of years later Johanna the Deranged was pregnant again.
During the boar hunt in the forests of Damme and Bruges, the imminent birth began to announce itself: In great haste Johanna was taken by coach to “ ‘t Gewad in Gand; which was where they lived at the time; but on the road to Maldegem the situation became critical. Somewhere along the road they knocked on the door of a house since it was now an emergency: There lived an odd couple in the house which was Hendricus van ‘t Veld and his spouse. Hendricus, whose trade was a fat and crackling smelter, was in fact a kind of alchemist: He melted and searched for the stone of wisdom in order to turn copper into gold, but he wasn’t very successful.
It was at the house of this man “Ric van ‘t Veld” that Johanna the Deranged gave birth to twins on February 23rd 1500. She lived up to her nickname; the Deranged; because she got the insane notion that the outside world mustn’t know that she had had twins.


According to her; she brought only one son into the world. He was to be the heir to the throne of Philip the Beautiful, namely Emperor Charles: She took this child to the Prince’s Court (Prinsenhof) in Gand where they lived and registered the child in Gand on February 24th; 1500.

Before she departed for Gand she had Ric van ‘t Veld swear to raise the other child in all secrecy: If anything should happen to little Charles; the other child called “Rietje” would replace him.

In order to avoid any arguments in the future; she ordered Hendricus to make a bronze statue of the second child and mark it with the “Runen-sign” that also appeared on the signet ring and the hunting knife of Philip the Beautiful; these articles she left behind her and are now in a private collection.

This “Runen-sign” (fertility sign) also had to be burned onto the right shoulder of the child: At the same time she left behind a trained falcon and q piece of parchment with the same “Runen-sign”. Should serious problems occur with the baby; the falcon should be released, whereupon it would fly directly to Gand with a message. Johanna the Deranged departed and Hendricus van ‘t Veld went to look for some metal to cast the Statue. He remembered that somewhere near Kleit in Papinglo was a well with a sunken bell at the bottom. After many adventures; he succeeded to get this bell and he took it to his smelter and started got to work.

After about 2 years and the completion of the statue; he stored it in the loft of his house. In the meantime; in 1501, Johanna the Deranged had another daughter, Isabella, and miracle indeed, at the beginning of February 1503 a son called Ferdinand: At the same time, the Statue at Hendricus started to pee a heavenly manna. It proved to be a marvellous kind of beer: After it had peed for a few hours, Hendricus managed to collect quite a stock and stored it in barrels in his cellar.

His wife had such a shock from all this that she, in her panic, let go of the falcon who then fly with the piece of parchment to Gand. Thinking that something had happened to the child; Johanna the Deranged sped at great haste to Maldegem, where she learnt about the, miraculous occurrences. As if by supernatural forces, the statue had announced the birth of the second heir and Johanna decided that it would be better that nothing of Rietje could be traced. She asked Hendricus and his wife to raise the child as their own and have the statue disappear for good.

Hendricus expected that the statue would continue peeing and hid it in a stork’s nest on the chimney of his smelter. Little Rietje van ‘t Veld grew up as a strapping lad and had many adventures, but this would take up too far.




The legend tells a lot about Rietje, the son of a crackling smelter; who got the nickname Rietje Koane or “Dirk Crackling”. On a certain day; something serious happened to the statue.

The stork; who was one child short, couldn’t think of anything better than flying three times with around Reesinghe and St. Anna’s to make it alive. Upon flying over the square of Maldegem, the stork was frightened by the arrows of the St. Sebastian Guild. The bronze statue fell so deep that it burrowed in the deepest layers of the Well of the Year, where the “Artist” has excavated it

From the writings of Hendricus, written in the deepest secrecy and from the legends told at the carnival evenings around the stove, we see that our Maldegem Carnival Emperor (1978) Rietje Veldeler, is a direct descendant of Rietje Koane, the twin brother of Emperor Charles.
The Artist and the Maldegem Council of Elf believed that when the whole of Maldegem dresses in medieval clothes; the statue would revert back in time and would summon up miraculous forces and pee beer for a few hours.

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