To the End Where It All Began: The Ribbon-Like Town of Ribe

Let’s go to the omega. To the end of the Frisia Coast Trail. To Ribe in southern Jutland, Denmark. The oldest town in Scandinavia. A town located on the banks of the Ribe Å, a modest river that flows out into the Wadden Sea through former tidal marshland, opposite the islands of Fanø and Mandø. Ribe started as a seasonal marketplace. Year-round settlement began around the year 700. Everything was still peaceful then. Only with the raid on the island of Lindisfarne in Northumberland in 793 did the Norsemen launch the Age of the Vikings. Exactly the opposite of what the founders of Ribe had in mind: free trade and making money for yourself and your kin. In this respect, the Vikings in no way honoured the true spirit of their oldest town. But who were its founders? Apparently, people who saw opportunity where others saw only barren tidal marshland.

From around the mid-seventh century, supra-regional trade began to flourish across north-western Europe, carried along the hwæl-weġ, an Old English kenning meaning ‘whale-road’ or ‘whale-way’ for the sea — and, by extension, its rivers. These waterways connected the Anglo-Saxon world, Frisia, and the Frankish hinterland, with trade routes reaching as far as southern Scandinavia and the Baltic Sea.

Small silver pennies, a new and modern currency, were introduced by the Franks and Frisians to facilitate this expanding trade, and were soon followed by the Anglo-Saxons. Frisia was ideally positioned for this commercial network, stretching along the southern North Sea coast with access to the major rivers Scheldt, Rhine, Meuse, and Ems. Frisian merchants became, indisputably, the freighters of the Early Middle Ages.

First mention in written sources of Ribe is in the Vita Willibrordi archiepiscopi Traiectensis ‘life of Willibrord archbishop of Utrecht’, written by clergyman Alcuin of York in the late eighth century. In the year 696, Pope Sergius I consecrated Willibrord as archbishop of the Frisians, and he is commonly known as Apostle to the Frisians. Being mindful of the idea noblesse oblige, Willibrord started to missionize the Frisians. He visited their heathen King Radbod. A man nicknamed the Enemy of God, or described as homo omni fera crudelior et omni lapide durior, meaning ‘a human being more savage than any wild beast and harder than any stone’. Apart from a cordial reception at his citadel, Willibrord was not able ‘to produce any fruit’ with this hardened-heart ruler.

Maybe it was King Radbod who suggested to Willibrord to give it a try with his colleague and fellow King Ongendus, the ruler of southern Jutland. Southern Jutland bordered the most northern part of the Frisian cultural area, known today as Landkreis ‘district’ Nordfriesland. From the eight century onward, this area had been populated by Frisians mainly from East Frisia and the Elbe-Weser triangle. Willibrord must have visited south-western Jutland between 690 and 714 (Corsi 2020). Again, Willibrord got a friendly welcome at the royal hall but did not accomplish anything with pagan King Ongendus either. He left Ongendus’ realm and set sail for Fositesland. A rocky island between the lands of the Frisians and the Danes where the first gathered to worship their idol Fosite.

The picture that emerges is that, over the course of the seventh century, the Frisians were becoming increasingly prominent across the wider region, attracting the attention of both Frankish rulers and Anglo-Saxon missionaries. Frisian individuals dominated maritime trade, accumulated considerable wealth, and had easy access to luxury and status goods. Their wealth and commercial influence were reflected in the emergence of marketplaces — initially seasonal, later permanent — that followed a recognisably Frisian model (Baug et al 2019).

Examples include Scriginges healh ‘Kaupang’, Æt Hæþum or Of Hæðum ‘Hedeby’, Sigtuna, at Stora Gatan (Van der Tuuk 2011), Staraja Ladoga (Tesch 2013), and, of course, Ribe. Interestingly, the layout of York also showed similarities to those of the great emporia of Dorestad and Ribe (Grogan 2020). Written sources further attest to a Frisian quarter of merchants in early-medieval York. Dorestad, Emden — represented by the Pelzerstraße site (Van der Tuuk 2011) — Hamburg (Bani-Sadr 2016), Medemblik, and Stavoren are likewise considered typical Frisian trading settlements, or settlements with a Frisian commercial background.

Concerning Ribe, it is plausible that around the year 700, so during the rule of King Radbod of Frisia, Frisian merchants approached King Ongendus to set up a market area on the banks of the River Ribe, to expand their network of well-organized trading places (Corsi 2020). This moment coincides when settlements elsewhere in the region of Nordfriesland, especially on the islands of Föhr, Sylt, and Amrum, expanded to numerous populations of Frisian immigrants from the eighth century onward (Majchczack 2022). Ribe belonged to a local elite who were residents in the area south of Ribe, and some kind of arrangement must have been made between the merchants and the local big men at Dankirke, close to the current town of Ribe (Søvsø 2020).

Landing place Ribe was the youngest and most northern addition to the Frisian network along North Sea coasts (Faveile 2012). As said earlier, archaeological research has proven that year-round settlement at Ribe was the case from around the year 700 (Croix 2015, Søvsø 2020). The original marketplace of this proto-town was set up on the northern banks of the river. Only later would the settlement expand to the southern banks.

Not only did Ribe’s landing place provide access to maritime connections dominated by Frisian merchants; it also opened a route inland, eastward along the Ribe Å. Equally important, Ribe was where the river crossing of the Droveway was located. A bridge may already have spanned the river in the Early Middle Ages. The Droveway ran through the West Jutlandic coastal zone, roughly parallel to the North Sea, and its route had existed since at least the Stone Age (Søvsø 2020).

Ribe was therefore a strategic meeting point of maritime and overland transportation. From here, travellers also had easy access to the hærvejen, the ‘King’s Highway’, today a long-distance hiking trail as well. From Ribe, one could quite literally “ride the King’s Highway”, to borrow Jim Morrison’s phrase (1967). The route led northwards, among other places to Århus, and eastwards, most notably to Hedeby (Sindbæk 2007).

In addition to the geographically advantageous location, and comparable with other emporia, Ribe was also located on the border of two spheres of influence, namely the Danish and the Frisian (Majchczak 2022). Like Dorestad in the Central Netherlands, which was situated in the transition zone of Frisian and Frankish, of christendom and heathendom, influences.

These marketplaces followed a distinctive layout considered typical of Frisian trading settlements (Baug et al 2019). A roughly two-metre-wide, planked street ran parallel to the river, with regular plots laid out alongside it, creating a characteristic ribbon-like settlement. In German, rather wonderfully and somewhat less poetically, this is called an Uferparallelle Einstraßenanlage — essentially, a single-street settlement running parallel to the river.

The plots were typically six to eight metres wide and some twenty to thirty metres deep. Small, shallow ditches and wattle fences separated the individual parcels. Notably, there was no central market square, nor any other obvious structure suggesting that the site was controlled by secular or ecclesiastical authorities (Van der Tuuk 2011, Tesch 2013; Rösch 2013, Bani-Sadr 2016, Corsi 2020).

Within the plots were so-called sunken pit houses, or sunken-featured buildings — Grubenhäuser in German — which appear to have served primarily as small workshops for artisanal production. The marketplace area is estimated to have contained between seventy and one hundred trading houses.

Walking the planked street between the narrow, deep plots was like strolling on the spine of a huge fish bone; see image above ‘and take away head and fins’. Or to quote the movie character Melvin Udall (1997), a writer with an obsessive-compulsive disorder, when asked by a female admirer how he wrote women so well: “I think of a man and take away reason and accountability.”

Archaeological research has also revealed a strong Frisian connection in the earliest locally produced earthenware (Thoeming 2018). Quite a number of eighth-century freshwater wells have been excavated — five in total. These wells were constructed using discarded wine barrels, most of them originating from the Rhineland around Mainz. The practice of reusing wine barrels as well linings is strikingly similar to that found at Dorestad, the Frisian-Frankish emporium of the Early Middle Ages.

Furthermore, archaeological research suggests that Ribe’s emerging money economy was dominated by Frisian merchants. The majority of the Ribemønten, ‘the Ribe coinage’, found at the site are sceattas, small silver ‘pennies’ of Frisian origin, accounting for around 85 percent of all coins found at Ribe. Some 220 sceattas have been recovered so far.

Initially, several different types of sceattas circulated, but from around 725 onwards, the Frisian Woden/monster type became predominant. These coins were probably minted in Ribe between about 725 and 800 (Søvsø 2020), although some scholars argue that even these sceattas may have been minted in western Frisia (Faveile 2012).

Ribe therefore holds another remarkable distinction: it is the earliest known place in Scandinavia where coins were produced, and where coinage was first used on a significant scale in what had largely been a barter economy in the northern world (Sindbæk 2016).

artist impressions of Ribe by Flemming Bau

Around 850, King Horik II of Denmark gave Archbishop Ansgar permission to build a wooden church on the southern bank of the river (see the replica in the featured image of this blog post). Ansgar’s life is recounted by Rimbert of Bremen in his Vita Anskarii, ‘The Life of Ansgar’, written around 870. Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen and later known as the Apostle of the North, Ansgar was one of the earliest Christian missionaries to Scandinavia.

Permission to build a church was, however, little more than a token of tolerance towards Christianity. More than a century would pass before the first Viking king was baptised: Harald Bluetooth. Harald was reportedly persuaded following an ordeal involving a foreign priest named Poppo — a name that sounds remarkably Frisian, but that is another story. According to the tradition recorded by Adam of Bremen, Poppo held a red-hot iron bar in his bare hand without suffering any visible burns, convincing the king of the truth of Christianity.

By 948, Ribe had become an episcopal see. The original wooden church was eventually replaced by a stone church in the early twelfth century. Today, it survives as the magnificent Vor Frue Maria Domkirke, ‘Our Lady Mary Cathedral’, better known simply as Ribe Cathedral — the oldest cathedral in Scandinavia.

Southwestern Jutland is a complex cultural landscape: a crossroads of gateways, peoples, and spheres of influence — Jutes, Franks, Saxons, Slavs, and Danes. During the Early Middle Ages, it was also strongly influenced by Frisian culture (Faveile 2012). The Frisian area of Nordfriesland extended, more or less, as far north as the creek known as Vidå, or Widuu in North Frisian, meaning ‘widow.’ Today, the creek forms part of the border between Denmark and Germany.

Nordfreesk, ‘North Frisian’, was once spoken in the salt-marshes of southwestern Jutland as far north as the village of Højer, only about ten kilometres inside present-day Denmark. But Frisian influence reached considerably farther north, and traces of it can still be found today: in canal and dyke construction, the characteristic Frisian gable mansards above front doors, traditional roof-thatching techniques, the spring bonfire tradition known locally as Biikebrenne or Pederblus, the distinctive three-aisled Frisian gulf farmhouses, and the Friesenwall, traditional stone walls planted with vegetation.

Some of these specifically Frisian features can be traced as far north as the modern town of Skærbæk, just south of Ribe (Rasmussen 1973, Knottnerus 2008). This is also close to the northernmost terp, or artificial dwelling mound, namely the værft of Misthusum. For more on these remarkable earthworks, see our blog post Between Leffinge and Misthusum — Understanding the Basics of Terps. They are yet another striking reminder of the Frisian cultural footprint in the landscape south of Ribe.

Research into the early-medieval burial practices at Ribe (like inhumation, cremation, urns, gifts, position and orientation of the body N-E or S-W, etc.) shows a diversity of practices that is in line with that of the coast of Frisia along the Wadden Sea. The strongest parallels in burial practices are found with the areas of Nordfriesland and Ostfriesland. Strontium isotope analyses indicate most people were raised near Ribe. However, with isotope analyses no distinction could be made between individuals originating from Frisia and the Elbe-Weser triangle, and those originating from southern Jutland. Anyway, it means that if the market site Ribe attracted immigrants, they came from these nearby areas (Croix et al 2020).

End & Start

The finish of the long-distance Frisia Coast Trail at Ribe marks the end of the Frisian cultural landscape and the beginning of Scandinavia. Ribe is located just outside Frisian territory, but it was a familiar landscape to the Frisians: close to the Wadden Sea and bordering tidal marshland. And the marshy area just south of Ribe has been influenced by Frisians over many centuries. Ribe itself was start up by merchants — and slavers — from Frisia. The oldest town, the oldest church and, possibly, the oldest money mint of Scandinavia. To expand their early-medieval commercial network with the northern world. A free trade that was individually driven and primarily peacefully. The town itself celebrated its 1,300 years anniversary in 2010. So, they consider the year 710 as the start. A celebration, we noticed, that did no pay much attention to its founders in the decennia before. Hopefully the organizing committee does better in the year 3310. By then, we trust immigration is a less political topic for Denmark and they can value the contribution of these foreign fortune seekers from Frisia.

The proto-town Ribe together with other early trading towns like Hedeby, Kaupang, and Birka, were a defining factor for the emergence of the Viking culture and society in Scandinavia (Brink 2018). However, not long after, the Danes and other Scandinavians would initiate a whole different way of making a buck. Indeed, there was “danger on the edge of town”, to quote Jim Morrison (1967) once more.

Finally, we would like to leave the reader with a thought to consider. If it is indeed plausible that the Frisians developed the marketplace of Ribe around 700, presumably in cooperation with the local ruler, and if this was precisely the period when tensions between the Frisians under King Radbod and the Franks were mounting in the central river region, particularly around Dorestad, might there have been a larger, more organised strategy behind the Frisian expansion? Could Ribe have been part of an effort to safeguard Frisian trade by strengthening their commercial presence farther north, beyond the growing threat from the south? Even bolder: was it King Radbod himself who was behind this strategy?

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Note 1 — If interested in the landscape and culture at the start of the Frisia Coast Trail, check our blog post A Frontier known as Watery Mess: The Coast of Flanders.

Note 2 — The Danish word Å in River Ribe Å means ‘small river’ and is comparable with, for example, the Drentse Aa in the province of Drenthe, the Dokkumer Ee in the province of Friesland, or the (Amsterdam) IJ in the province of Noord Holland. All these unappetizing guttural sounds are (former) small rivers in the Netherlands. In upper north of France, there is also a river called Aa. Maybe we should have devised the Frisia Coast Trail from Aa to Å. For more common origin words consult our blog post 10 Words to Travel 1,500 Years and Miles Across the Frisian Shores.

Note 3 — Intensive maritime trade contact between Ribe and the region of West-Friesland (province of Noord Holland) existed between 1300 and 1750. This concerned the trade in beef cattle. Oxen were transported over the Wadden Sea from Ribe to the towns of Enkhuizen and Hoorn (Christensen 2021).

Note 4 — At Ribe, a human skull fragment was unearthed in 1973. The fragment is dated AD 725-780. Moreover, the bone is drilled and has a quite extensive runic inscription carved upon it. Probably, this piece of cranium was a charm, perhaps worn around the neck. It says:

ᚢᛚᚠᚢᛦ ᚼᚢᚴ ᚢÞIᚾ ᚼᚢᚴ ᚺᚢᛏIᚢᛦ ᚺIᚼᛚᛒ ᛒᚢᚱI ᛋ ᚢIÞᛦ ÞᚼIᛘ ᚢIᚼᚱᚴ ᚼᚢᚴ ᛏᚢIᚱᚴᚢᚾIᚾ ᛒᚢᚢᚱ

The inscription translates as: ‘Wolf and Odin and High Tyr help is borne against that dwarf and dwarf-ess Bour’ (Nordström 2021).

So, a charm to be protected against a certain dwarf couple. Dwarf Burin, who lived in the mountain of Erebor, is one of the creatures of Tolkien, too. Many questions about this inscription remain. One of them is, was the human skull fragment of a little person, perhaps? Of course, dwarfs are part of the mythology of Germanic cultures. For instance, on the nearby Wadden Sea island of Sylt, a famous battle took place between the original inhabitants, the dwarfs, and the giants, being the Frisians who colonized the island.

The runic alphabet used is that of the Elder Futhark with influences of the Younger Futhark (Crawford 2022). Hence Scandinavian and not Anglo-Frisian runes. The runes were probably not written by the Frisian traders who had just established themselves at Ribe around this time.

However, we do see strong similarities with quite a few Late Iron Age human skull fragments found in the terp region of the Netherlands, also part of the Wadden Sea area. The human crania in the terp region were worked and drilled as well; check our blog post Groove Is in the Hearth. Very Superstitious, Is the Way. Does this tradition of human skull amulets go back to an Iron Age custom?

Suggested music

• The Doors, The End (1967)
• Rolling Stones, Start me up (1981)
• Piter Wilkens, It Paad Werom (2000)

Further reading

• Bani-Sadr, N., A Study of the Evidence for the Viking Age Harbour at Ribe, Denmark (2016)
• Baug, I., Skre, D., Heldal, T. & Jansen, Ø.J., The Beginning of the Viking Age in the West (2019)
• Berkel, van G. & Samplonius, K., Nederlandse plaatsnamen verklaard. Reeks Nederlandse plaatsnamen deel 12 (2018)
• Brink, S., Viking Scandinavians back home and abroad in Europe: and the special case of Björn and Hásteinn (2018)
• Christensen, A.N., Maritime connections across the North Sea. The exchange of maritime culture and technology between Scandinavia and the Netherlands in the early modern period (2021)
• Christianson, J.R., Denmark: Planting the Seed (1999)
• Corsi, M.R.D., Urbanization in Viking Age and Medieval Denmark. From Landing Place to Town (2020)
• Crawford, J., The Ribe Skull Fragment: A New Interpretation (2022)
• Croix, S., Permanency in Early Medieval Emporia: Reassessing Ribe (2015)
• Croix, S., Frei K.M., Sindbæk S.M. & Søvsø M., Individual geographic mobility in a Viking-Age emporium – Burial practices and strontium isotope analyses of Ribe’s earliest inhabitants (2020)
• Croix, S. & IJssennagger-van der Pluijm, N.L., Cultures without borders? Approaching the cultural continuum in the Danish–Frisian coastal areas in the early Viking Age (2019)
• Cusack, C.M., Between Sea and Land: Geographical and Literary Marginality in the Conversion of Medieval Frisia (2021)
• Ermak Travel Guide, Ribe (website)
• Feveile, C., Ribe: emporia and town in the 8th and 9th century (2012)
• Feveile, C. & Jensen, S., Ribe in the 8th and 9th Century. A Contribution to the Archaeological Chronology of North Western Europe (2000)
• Gammeltoft, P., Ribe (2011)
• Grogan, D., Urban Spaces, Places, and Identity in Early Medieval Britain (2020)
• Hensleigh Wedgwood, M.A., Dictionary of English Etymology (1865)
• Hilder, M., Anglo-Saxon History and Language (website)
• Johnson, B., Economy and State-Formation in Early Viking-Age Denmark (2011)
• Knottnerus, O., De vergeten Friezen. Mislukt pamflet van Benny Siewertsen over een boeiend thema (2008)
• Kuiper, J.J.B., Jensma, G. & Vries, O., Nederland in de Middeleeuwen. De canon van ons middeleeuws verleden (2011)
• Lund, J. & Sindbæk, S.M., Crossing the Maelstrom: New Departures in Viking Archaeology (2021)
• Majchczack, B.S., A new light on early medieval North Frisia: Harbours and trading sites on the islands of Föhr and Sylt (2022)
• Medieval Histories, News about Ribe, an Early Medieval Emporium from the 8th Century (2018)
• Näsman, U., Raids, Migrations, and Kingdoms. The Danish Case (2000)
• Nordström, J., Dvärgen på Ribekraniet (2021)
• Rasmussen, A.H., Frisiske kulturelementer En introduktion og foreløbig oversigt (1973)
• Rösch, F., The Schleswig waterfront — a place of major significance for the emergence of the town? (2013)
• Sawyer, B. & Sawyer, P., Medieval Scandinavia; from Conversion to Reformation – c. 800-1500 (1992)
• Sindbæk, S.M., Northern Emporium — The Archaeology of Network Urbanism in Viking Age Ribe (2016)
• Sindbæk, S.M. (ed.), Northern Emporium. The making of Viking-age Ribe. Vol. 1 (2022)
• Sindbæk, S.M., The small world of the Vikings: Networks in early medieval communication and exchange (2007)
• Søvsø, M., Ribe 700-1050. From Emporium to Civitas in Southern Scandinavia (2020)
• Stanney, A., Pre-Viking Connections; Characterising the Maritime Communities of the North Sea World, c.600AD – 850AD (2022)
• Tesch, S., Sigtuna: royal site and Christian town and the regional perspective, c. 980-1100 (2013)
• Thoeming, A., Around the Barbarian Sea: Settlements and Outcomes in the Early Medieval Cities (2018)
• Tuuk, van der, L., De eerste Gouden Eeuw. Handel en scheepvaart in de vroege middeleeuwen (2011)
• Tuuk, van der L., Ubbi de Fries. Scheldevikingen in het grote heidense leger (2025)
• Wiersma, J.P., Friesche Mythen en Sagen (1937)
• Zantema, J. (ed.), Frysk Wurdboek. Hânwurdboek fan’e Fryske taal (1992)