Foreign Fighters returning from Viking warbands

From the year 2012, around 5,000 foreign fighters from European countries went to the Levant to fight. Six years later, an estimated fifteen percent has died in battle. Others are still in the Middle East, imprisoned or perhaps on the move to centers of conflict elsewhere in the world, now that the terrorist groups are in the defense. But others return to their home country.

This phenomenon of homecoming foreign fighters somehow surprised European countries and their sophisticated policy makers. Criminal legislation reforms were rather reactive and ad hoc. As if everyone expected all of them would be killed in battle anyway. How is this possible? Especially for countries bordering the Wadden Sea. This region has after all a history piled-up with foreign fighters participating in foreign forces. Whether it was for reasons of faith, or for booty and glory or, in practice, a toxic combination of these incentives.

Oh, you did not know the Wadden Sea area was an important breeding ground for these spiritual soldiers? Essential you finish reading this post.

If we leave the Frisian mercenaries in the Roman imperial army aside (read our post Frisian mercenaries in the Roman Army to learn more about these fighters), there have been two major waves of homegrown foreign fighters. The first wave was during the Viking Age, roughly between 800 and 1000. This was followed by a second one during the Crusading Period, roughly between 1100 and 1300. In our post Terrorist Fighters from the Wadden Sea we already elaborated on Frisian crusaders, and the society-undermining effects caused by the return of these holy fighters.

In this post we will zoom in on the return of Frisian fighters who took part in ransacking Viking warbands, how the process of homecoming of these guys was a social reality, and how it was regulated. We will illustrate that both the north of Germany and the Netherlands have a long legal tradition of a thousand years how to deal with homecoming foreign fighters.

At the same time it is instructive to know that Frisians not only participated in Viking raids, but also in English naval fleets to combat those very same Vikings. In the year 897, no less than sixty-two Frisians and English died in battle in service of king Alfred’s army against the Danes. Read our post They want you as a new recruit.

It’s difficult to estimate how many men (and women?) of Frisia begi seg på farten ‘go on the high seas’, and took part in raids of the Vikings across Europe and beyond. The Frisians, however, weren’t unique. Other peoples and tribes also participated in the raids of the Norsemen. Probably, numbers of participating Frisians were quite relevant. For example, in the year 855 an army of pagans, of Dani et Frisones ‘Danes and Frisians’ landed on the island of Sheppey eastern England, according to the Annales Lindisfarneses. Furthermore, a few years after the attack on the island of Sheppey, it was from the river Scheldt estuary, part of Frisia territory, that Ubbe the Frisian departed with his army of Scaldingi ‘Scheldt Vikings’ to invade England. Ubbe, also named Ubbi fríski, is one of the three founding commanders of the legendary fearsome Great Heathen Army. This same Ubbe is said to have led, together with the leaders Inguar and Halfdene, the raid on Sheppey.

For now, we leave all the sea fog surrounding Ubbe behind us and return to political Frisia.

Early-medieval Frisia encompassed the land, islands and waters between the mouth of the river Scheldt in southwest of the Netherlands and the mouth of the river Weser in the northwest of Germany. But also region Nordfriesland, bordering with the lands of the Danes in the north. Hundreds of kilometers of almost impenetrable coast. Geographically this sandy, muddy and peaty coast was centrally located between the Dena lagunema ‘Danelaw’ on the British isles to the west, and Denmark plus southern Norway and Sweden to the east and northeast.

The influence of the Vikings, whether under final authority of the Frankish kingdoms or not, was even very direct. In the ninth century Viking warlords like the renowned Rorik of Dorestad, Hemming Halfdánsson, Rodulf, Harald Klak and Godfrid the Sea-King governed big parts of Frisia. These areas were: the central river-lands with the most lucrative trade emporium of northwest Europe, namely Dorestat, the coastal zone along the North Sea named Kinhem or Kinnlimasiða in Old-Norwegian (present-day Kennemerland in province Noord Holland), and the estuary of the river Scheldt including the Walachria Island (present-day Walcheren in province Zeeland). All located in what is part of the Netherlands today. Read also our post The Abbey of Egmond and the Rise of the Gerulfing Dynasty for more background about these Danish warlords ruling (West) Frisia.

Besides West Frisia and Mid Frisia, also East Frisia (Ostfriesland) was ruled by a Danish warlord. East Frisia and Mid Frisia were in way considered by the Danes as their outer provinces. Twelfth-century sources report that the Danish king received an annual tribute of 10-30 marks of silver from his Frisian possessions, after a campaign in 810. This was, in fact, a modest and respectable tax comparable to other ‘outer’ provinces (Sindbæk 2011). From the year 826 onward, it was Viking earl and warlord Harald Klak Halfdansson, brother of Halfdane Hemming who died on Island the Walcheren in 837, who ruled on behalf of the Franks over the pagus ‘district’ Rüstringen of Frisia in the northwest of Germany. From there, he controlled the mouths of the rivers Weser and Jade. The great Battle of Norditi in the area Norderland in East Frisia (Ostfriesland) in the year 884, was also a consequence of (semi) permanent presence of Norsemen. The battle was won by the Frisians and Franks, and it took the lives of a staggering 10,377 Danes. Read our post A Theelacht. What a great idea!

Long-term presence of Norsemen is also presumed on the (former) islands Texla (present-day island Texel) and Wiron (present-day Wieringen) in the northwest of the Netherlands. More about island Wieringen further below.

Concerning (semi-) permanent presence of Vikings in Frisia, a fascinating example is given in the ninth-century Annales Fuldenses of a Norseman living among the Frisians and helping them out when a Viking raiding party attacks his host country. Read our post Frisia, a Viking graveyard to read the full account. Furthermore, the presence of the aforementioned Ubba the Frisian and the Scaldingi chapter in modern province Zeeland, is also relevant in this context. Lastly, distribution patterns of the so-called imitation gold solidi (i.e. coins) indicate (semi-) permanent presence of Vikings in Frisia too, especially in current provinces Friesland and Groningen. These coins probably have been minted by Vikings instead of Frisians as was assumed before (Coupland 2016).

The Frisian and Danish sea tribes were also culturally related. Parts of Frisia had been converted to Christianity recently but before that shared the same heathen believe as their northern cousins for centuries. Yes, they might even have identified themselves with the Norsemen. Despite the fact the Franks had incorporated most of Frisia into their kingdoms over the course of the eighth century, and despite the many Anglo-Saxon monks from the monastery Rath Melsigi in Ireland who had tried to evangelize Frisia, Frisians living at the outer rim of their motherland might not have been fully pacified and certainly not baptized yet during the Early Middle Ages. They, therefore, kept interacting with their pagan neighbors as ever before.

Alle Fresa er north herden ouer thet hef anda grimma herna and thet al hethen was, ther Fresena was.

All Frisians once belonged to the north over the sea to the terrible corner and all were heathen, who were Frisians (Old-Frisian Emsinger Law).

These texts date from the High Middle Ages. By then, Frisians were indeed a people that only recently had changed their allegiance. From the heathen, barbaric north to the Christian, civilized south. This is symbolized by the tribute or tax they had to pay, namely from the clipskelde to the huslotha. The word clipskelde is composed of the Old-Frisian word clippa/klippa, meaning ‘to clink’, and the word skelde meaning ‘debt’. So, a clinking-debt. Old-Frisian law prescribed that the pennies to be paid had to be this heavy that “ma him moeghe hera clinna jn ene lewen wr nioghen fecke huses” (meaning: one can hear them clink in a scale over a distance of nine house lots). The word huslotha is composed of the word hus, meaning ‘house’, and the word lotha. Of the latter it is a bit unsure what it means but it might mean ‘part’ or, indeed, a lot or plot of land. The clipskelde was the tribute paid to the Norsemen/Danes for loyalty to an overlord. The huslotha was a tribute paid to the Franks.

Thet wi Frisa suther nigi and clipskelde urtege and wrthe tha suthera kininge hanzoch and heroch alles riuchte tinzes and togetha and huslotha urgulde, bi asega dome and bi lioda londriuchte, al with thet wi er north herdon Redbate tha infrethmonne, al thet Frisona was.

That we Frisians subjected ourselves to the south and clipskelde [tribute] refused and became subordinate and obedient to the southern king, regarding all rightful tenths [kind of tax] and paid huslotha [house tax], according to the asega’s [law expert] judgement and according to the people’s land-law, because we belonged to [king] Redbad the unpeaceful-man, all that was Frisian.

For more on the huslotha and clipskelde taxes, study our post With a Noose through the Norsemen’s Door.

Furthermore, both Scandinavians and Frisians were heavily entangled in the rich supra-regional trade since long. All over southern Scandinavia at important trading ports, Frisian trade colonies and Frisian guilds had been established. The get an idea about the magnitude of the Frisian free-trade, read our post Porcupines bore U.S. bucks.

Participation of the Frisians in the Viking war bands could be voluntarily and could be involuntarily. During raids the noerdtscha diuelen (Old-Frisian for ‘northern devils’) could take captives. Sometimes young children, sometimes adults. They could be sold as slaves back home, or sold somewhere else for a fair price. They also could be bought free by their relatives, which still meant a profit for the cunning Vikings. Lastly, captives could be forced to participate in plundering, killing and raping during raids. The focus of this post.

Some of the captives were able to flee or were bought free at a later time, after which they returned to their village and to their family estate in Frisia. The numbers of homecoming foreign fighters were that significant that it was regulated by law. Again, an indication the Frisians manning Viking longships too.

The Old-Frisian codices or law books of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, still contained articles or clauses concerning homecoming Frisians from Viking captivity. Some of these codices have been built up over the centuries, traceable from ca. 1000. The medieval Old-Frisian law books contain different names for the word viking. These are: witzing, witzeng, wising and witzend and originate from the Old-English word wicing, meaning pirate. Similar, the origin of the word ‘saxon’ also means pirate (Springer 2003). Read our post Have a Frisians Cocktail on this topic of the origin of Saxons too. Thus, viking and saxon were terms to indicate a ‘profession’ if you like and, at first instance, not to denote a people or tribe.

A different etymological explanation is that the word viking derives from the Old-Swedish verb vika or Old-Norse vikja meaning ‘to change rowers’ and ‘to give way’. Comparable to the modern Mid-Frisian verb wykje. So, ‘to give way on a rowing bench for a rested rower’, therefore vika and ‘to viking’ meaning ‘sea voyage with rowers changing’ (Heide 2005).

Below the clauses of two law books concerning the return of Frisian fighters, namely the Fivelgo Manuscript and the First Rüstringer Codex. Fivelgo is a former pagus ‘district’ in present-day province of Groningen in the Netherlands, and Rüstringen is a former pagus in present-day region Ostfriesland in Germany. The First Rüstringer Codex, or R1 in jargon of historians, dates from ca. 1300. The Fivelgo Manuscript, or F in the same jargon, dates from ca. 1450. Both texts concern the Twenty-four Land Laws.

Striking how similar both texts are. Even after more than a century had passed between the two. The underlying central social question was the legal certainty concerning the property of men who were taken captive by Vikings. When returning, these foreign fighters could retake possession of their former family property and land. But only under certain conditions. The first condition was that they could proof to be the rightful owner through recognizing their family and their family estate and goods. A workable alternative in a society without passports and without a central registration of citizens. The second condition was that they made their claim within a certain period of time. The particular clauses mentioned above contain no fatale deadlines but from other Old-Frisian sources we know thirty years was a typical deadline. So, they were not in hurry to return. The third condition was that, in case they had been fighting, murdering, burning down houses, raping women etc. inside the territory of Frisia, they had to make plausible they had done so to save their own life. In other words: they had been acting under duress. That they had been forced to do bad against their own kind. If all conditions were met, they could retake their possessions without paying anything to anyone.

But what was the consequence if the returnee had been killing and raping his own people of his own free will? We find an answer in the Old-Frisian Hunsinger codices from the fourteenth century. It concerns not Viking warbands, though, but men who joined Saxon forces ‘with the high helmets’ and who fought against their own land Frisia. The answer: they were considered traitors.

“To be taken north and thrown in the sea” meant not going for a refreshing swim at the North Sea beach, or a stroll over the mud flats of the Wadden Sea. No, it meant the person was being drowned. It could be even worse. If you had violated a religious sanctuary, you were castrated and your ears were split as well before being tied up to a pole during ebb. Then wait for the flood to come. In modern law the ‘traitor’ or foreign fighter is no longer stripped from his life, testicles, ears etc., but stripped from his nationality. So, from something tangible to something fictional, some might argue.

Be that as it may, the keen reader may have deduced already that the fact returning foreign fighters had been killing, plundering and raping outside the territory of Frisia, was totally irrelevant for retaking their possessions, or for some kind of corrective punishment. Neither was it seen as a traitorous act. Indeed, it underlines no international criminal law was applicable (yet). As it happens, former West Frisia is proud to have the Capital of International Law on its territory today, with all the international courts that go with it, namely the city of The Hague.

Since Frisia was a flourishing feud society, another option might for retaking possessions also may have been applicable. Namely, that a homecoming foreign fighter who had been killing and alike among his own people inside the territory of Frisia without having been forced to do so by a master, could compensate the victim’s family and his or her relatives by paying a ‘fine’ together with a possible fine to restore the broken peace. After having paid these fines or weregild (see below) everything was buried and forgotten, and you could re-take possession of your former property. To give the reader an idea of the fines that had to paid in these cases, the following:

If someone killed a person, he or she had to pay a weregild, or wergeld, meaning ‘man price’. A weregild for a killing a freeman amounted 1,664 grams of fine silver. This amount of silver was more or less stable irrespective all different conversions with coins like dinari, solidi, sceattas, marks, pounds etc. in the legal texts through time. Yes, the amount of silver for a weregild stayed stable throughout the whole Middle Ages. When you convert the weregeld of 1,664 grams into a current money of payment (date of this post) it would be for example 1,193 US dollar you had to pay to the heirs.

Research has been done into the still-existing fines of the Kamba tribe in the Mashariki region in Kenya. There, a weregild amounts fourteen cows and one bull for killing a man. For a woman it is seven cows and one bull. And, to answer your pressing question: in Frisia (and in East Anglia too) the weregild for a woman was the same as that for a man, of the same social status, of course. In other Germanic tribes, however, the weregild for a woman was mostly higher. Sometimes three times as much. Especially, if she had reached the age of fertility. If you want to understand the logic of these differences better, read our post Women of Frisia: free and unbound?

One of the Viking hoards found in Frisia, on the former island of Wieringen in the Netherlands, contains exactly 1.7 kilograms of silver (see image above). The silver pieces are complete ornaments and unfragmented heavy silver ingots (Besteman 2009). It is the so-called Westerklief I silver hoard and dated ca. 850. Was it a weregild maybe, or is it just coincidence? And if it was a weregild, what was a northeska wigandum (‘northern fighter’ in Old-Frisian speech, denoting a Viking) doing with a weregild in Frisia territory? We do not know. Create your own story! If interested in the function of weregeld read our post You killed a Man? That’ll be 1 weregeld, please.

Besides the Westerklief I silver hoard, dated ca. 850, also the Westerklief II silver hoard was found on the same plot of land on Wieringen. This smaller (0,5 kilograms of silver) hoard is dated ca. 876 and contains mainly small hacksilver. Its coins are Arabic (this contrary to the Westerklief I hoard that contains nearly no Arabic coins), and originate mostly from present-day southern Iraq. Like the Westerklief I hoard, the Westerklief II hoard is also of Viking of origin (Besteman 2009). Wieringen, by the way, derives from Wirense as it was already known in the ninth century. The name Wieringen means ‘land of wiers’, with wier meaning ‘elevated height’, compare wierde in province Groningen (Van Berkel & Samplonius 2018).

Close to (former) island Wieringen, to the west, lay once island Huisduinen, or known as Husidina in the eleventh century, and, indeed, meaning ‘house in dunes’ (Van Berkel & Samplonius 2018). Today, Huisduinen is the name of a village. Also here, at former island Huisduinen, there are leads pointing to Viking presence like on Wieringen. Sand dredged from before the coast contained a Viking sword, a silver armlet with five rings attached to it, and English and Arabic coins (Roos 2011).

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Note 1 – The raids of the Viking are the thing often focused at, when we talk about raiding in northern Europe. In fact, the wider North Sea had a long-standing tradition of piracy. The first five centuries of the common era, piracy was widespread and extended from the southern coast of the North Sea to Britannia, Gaul and all the way to the Mediterranean. Read our post It all began with piracy.

Note 2 – Quite a number of Vikings have found Walhalla on Frisia territory in the ninth century. Do a body count reading our post Frisia, a Viking graveyard. We counted 11,180 deaths. No, not mistakenly one 1 too many!

Suggested music

• Eric & the Vikings, Time Don’t Wait (1972)

Further reading

• Besteman, J., A second Viking hoard from Wieringen: Westerklief II (2009)
• Berkel, van F. & Samplonius, K., Nederlandse plaatsnamen verklaard. Reeks Nederlandse plaatsnamen deel 12 (2018)
• Bremmer, R.H., Hir is eskriven. Lezen en schrijven in de Friese landen rond 1300 (2004)
• Bos-van der Heide, H.S.E., Het Rudolfsboek (1937)
• Coupland, S., Recent Finds of Imitation Gold Solidi in the Netherlands, The Numismatic Chronicle 176 (2016)
• Engelkes, G.G., Der schwarze Rolf (1936)
• Finlay, A. cs (ed), Saga-Book Vol. XL (2016)
• Halink, S., “Almost Like Family. Or Were They?” Vikings, Frisian Identity, and the Nordification of the Past (2022)
• Heide, E., Viking – ‘Rower shifting?’ An etymological contribution (2005)
• Henstra, D.J., The evolution of the money standard in medieval Frisia. A treatise on the history of the systems of money of account in the former Frisia (c. 600 – c.1500) (1999)
• IJssennagger, N.L., Between the Frankish and the Vikings: Frisia and the Frisians in the Viking Age (2017)
• IJssennagger, N.L., Central because Liminal. Frisia in a Viking Age North Sea World (2017)
• Jacobs, T.J.M., Friese vorsten (2020)
• Klæsøe, I.S. (ed), Viking Trade and Settlement in Continental Western Europe (2010)
• Lewis, S.M., Rodulf and Ubba. In search of the Frisian-Danish Viking (2018)
• Margaryan, A, et al, Population genomics of the Viking world (2020)
• Meertens Instituut, Corpus of First Names in The Netherlands, Nederlandse voornamen (website)
• Nieuwenhuijsen, K., Lex Frisionum. Inleiding (2010)
• Nijdam, H., Klinkende munten en klinkende botsplinters in Oudfriese rechtsteksten: continuïteit, discontinuïteit, intertekstualiteit (2009)
• Nijdam, H., Lichaam, eer en recht in middeleeuws Friesland. Een studie naar de Oudfriese boeteregisters (2008)
• Roos, R. (ed), Duinen en mensen. Noordkop en Zwanenwater (2011)
• Schoorstra, W., Erfskip. De saga fan Ubba Skylding (2023)
• Siems, H., Studien zur Lex Frisionum (1980)
• Sindbæk, S., Silver Economies and Social Ties: Long-Distance Interaction, Long-Term Investments – and why the Viking Age happened (2011)
• Stoter, M. & Spiekhout, D. (eds), Wij Vikingen. Friezen en Vikingen in het kustgebied van de Lage Landen (2019)
• Tuuk, van der L., De Friezen. De vroegste geschiedenis van het Nederlands kustgebied (2013)
• Tuuk, van der L. & Mijderwijk, L., De Middeleeuwers. Mannen en vrouwen uit de Lage Landen, 450-900 (2020)
• Vries, O., Asega, is het dingtijd? De hoogtepunten van de Oudfriese tekstoverlevering (2007)
• Vries, O., De taal van recht en vrijheid. Studies over middeleeuws Friesland (2012)
• Vries, O., De wylde Wytsing (2019)
• Willemsen, A., Gouden Middeleeuwen. Nederland in de Merovingische wereld, 400 – 700 na Chr. (2014)