Emmanuel Hiel

Who was Emmanuel Hiel?

Emmanuel Hiel, was a Flemish-Dutch poet and prose writer.

Hiel was born at Sint-Gillis-Dendermonde. During his life he held various jobs, from teacher and government official to journalist and bookseller, busily writing all the time both for the theatre and the magazines of North and South Netherlands. His last posts were those of librarian at the Industrial Museum and professor of declamation at the Conservatoire in Brussels.

Hiel took an active and prominent part in the so-called Flemish movement in Belgium, and his name is constantly associated with those of Jan van Beers, Jan Frans Willems, and Peter Benoit. Benoit set some of Hiel's verses to music, notably in his oratorios Lucifer and De Schelde. The Dutch composer Richard Hol composed music for Hiel's Ode to Liberty, and van Gheluwe used Hiel's verses in his Songs for Big and Small Folk. That music greatly contributed the popularity of Hiel's writing in schools and among Belgian choral societies.

Hiel also translated several foreign lyrics. His rendering of Tennyson's Dora was published in Antwerp around 1871. For the national festival of 1880 at Brussels, to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Belgian independence, Hiel composed two cantatas, Belgenland and Rer Belgenland, which, set to music, were much appreciated.