anglo-saxons animals archaeology battles business men Cologne dikes drowned lands floods freedom frisia Frisians hiking history kings legends money mud names Old Frisian Law paganism peat piracy Rhine Romans saints salt marsh Seven Sealands sports tax terp travels Vikings værft Wadden Sea Warft wierde women
What Killed the Radio Star? The Frisian Claim to Radio Fame
After given a clear warning by the German Wehrmacht to buzz off, nosy Hanso Idzerda nevertheless returns to the crash site of a V2 rocket on Parkweg Rd in Scheveningen. Not far from his house on Parkweg Rd too. Idzerda ignored the warning, and shortly after he got caught a second time by the Wehrmacht…
How great was Great Pier? (the sequel)
Breaking! Great Pier measured around 2.30 meters in height! This question has been bugging the Frisians for centuries. Now we know. How? Keep reading… Granted. We asked ourselves this very same question in a previous blog post. We explored how great Pier was… as a leader. This time we are asking the same question, but…
How great was Great Pier?
Most Frisians know the name of Great Pier, or ‘Grutte Pier’ in Frisian. But what do we really know about him? Well, all we know for sure is that he was tall. Very tall. Spoiler alert: his name gave away that he was tall, right? If you would ask your friends and family what they…
The many faces of Friesland
May 8, 2021. Visual artist, photographer Arie Bruinsma approached one of the Frisian bastards. Arie explained to him that his wife Cynthia and he were working on a new project, namely It Gesicht fan Fryslân ‘The Face of Friesland’. It had to be a compilation of 111 portraits of known, lesser-known, and unknown Frisians. Of…
Who’s afraid of Voracious Woolf?
Who’s afraid of Jóða Fenris ‘the offspring of Fenrir’? Afraid of hund hrynsævar hræva ‘the hound of the roaring sea corpses’? Who, today, is afraid of the wolf? The dark creature that has lived for so long in the shadowy forests of the east, is on the rise again in Europe. Almost two centuries have…
A Frisian lord who ruled in Brittany, until his wife cheated on him
Where the English Channel and the Celtic Sea meet, is where the ships of the Frisian brothers Corsold and Coarchion roamed, raided and ruled in the early sixth century. For a while they even had their own kingdom in Brittany. Breton legends tell that the village of Kersaout ‘Corseul’ was the residence of dux Corsold.…
Naranjas and Reservoir Dogs: Hiking in Andalusia
The last two weeks of 2021, one of the Frisian bastards hiked most of the Andalucían Coast to Coast Walk in Spain. A hike from Nerja to Bolonia. From the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean. As hikers of the Frisia Coast Trail, any long-distance coast-to-coast path is attractive. Moreover, hiking through the countryside of…
Little prayers at the Lorelei rock
On the west bank of the mighty river Rhine, halfway between the cities Koblenz and Mainz, lies the town of Sankt Goar. Named after Saint Goar of Aquitaine who retreated here in the sixth century. Diagonally across the river stands the famous and mystical Lorelei rock. Steep, and over 130 meters high. A whisper rock…
Three books (and a comic) reviewed on Frisia: Is history evidence based?
You’d say: “Sure, the study of history is evidence based and involves no politics! For this it’s called a science, is it not? It’s more than telling a story” Truth, which is a slippery concept in this context too, is that every so often politics does surface in history books. Also concerning the history of…
Don’t believe everything they say about sweet Cunera
Imagine. One day your husband brings home a young and unmarried woman. A virgin even. He simply takes her into your house, openly shows affection for her, and who knows what else. That’s not all. He also gives the young maiden full access to your pantry and savings account, which she, for crying out loud,…
A severe case of inattentional blindness: the Frisian tribe’s name
The name Frisii for the people living on the southern coast of the North Sea is old. Very old. It dates from the Late Antiquity. Today we call them Frisians. Roman and Greek historians and bureaucrats have written down the tribe’s name of this Germanic or Celtic people in many texts. Almost two millennia ago.…
From Patriot to Insurgent: John Fries and the tax rebellions
On Facebook page ‘Frisian Americans’ the question popped up what role certain Frisians played in the Whiskey Rebellion in Pennsylvania in 1794. We checked, and the short answer is: none. The Whiskey Rebellion was a revolt of the so-called Pennsylvania Dutch farmers resisting the taxation of whiskey. It was crushed, without ice, by the young…
Joan of Arc an inspiration for Land Wursten
In the year 1500 a girl by the name Tjede Peckes was born in the hamlet of Padingbüttel in Land Wursten, on the eastern banks of the River Weser. A salt marsh area the Wurstfriesen ‘Wurst-Frisians’ had managed to embank and cultivate. For centuries they had enjoyed living in a lord-free farmers republic. Toward the…
To the end where it all began: ribbon Ribe
Let’s go to the omega, the end of the Frisia Coast Trail. To Ribe in southern Jutland, Denmark. The oldest town of Scandinavia. A town located on the banks of the river Ribe Å. A modest river which flows out into the Wadden Sea opposite the islands Fanø and Mandø. Ribe started as a seasonal…
Dissolute Elisabeth and her devil
In the Middle Age lived a once promiscuous girl named Elisabeth. She had come to repentance, found honourable employ as a maid, and had established herself at the hamlet of Vrieswijc, modern Friezenwijk. Hamlet Friezenwijk is located near the scenic village of Heukelum in the region Batavia (viz. region Betuwe) in province Gelderland, the Netherlands.…
Walfrid, You’ll Never Walk Alone.
This post isn’t about Aindreas Ó Céirín (1840-1915), better known as Brother Walfrid from Ireland and who founded the Scottish football club Celtic. No, this post is about the original. The Frisian named Walfrid. Who was murdered by a bunch of roaming Vikings in the late tenth century. These atrocities took place in the village…
Harbours, Hookers, Heroines and Women in Masquerade
Dockyards, quays, terminals, pilots, warehouses, wharves, anchorages, lighthouses and beacons, craftsmen, shipping companies, customs and other port authorities, fish auctions, boarding houses, lodgings, packing facilities etc. Indeed, seaports respond to the needs of everything that arrives from the sea, or that leaves for it. Besides the demands of commerce, ports traditionally cater the demand for…
Filmstar Ben-Hur made peace with Frisian raiders
Who doesn’t know the epic movie Ben-Hur released on the white screen in 1959? A movie in which masculine Hollywood actor, and civil rights activist, Charlton Heston played the role of Judah Ben-Hur. And for which he was awarded an Oscar. Six years later, Heston played the role of Chrysagon in the movie The War…
A Horsewoman from Harlingen in the Scottish Highlands
May 2017. One of the Frisian bastards hiked the Cape Wrath Trail. A hike of about 300 kilometers through the remote Northwest Highlands of Scotland. Starting at Inbhir Garadh (Invergarry) all the way to the isolated lighthouse on the cliffs of Cape Wrath, and its café The Ozone. One might say, at the end of…
Pagare il fio
Pagare il fio is Italian for ‘paying the penalty’. More literally, it means ‘paying the fee’. It’s an expression the Italian language inherited from the Barbarians from the North when they toppled the Western Roman Empire. The English word fee originates from Old English feoh, which means ‘cattle’. The Mid-Frisian word for cattle still is…
Come to rescue the Rolling Sheep
Hiking needs careful preparation, including personal safety. What do you put in your First Aid Kit? Do you possess basic first aid skills to manage an accident? Unless you go wondering on your own on the Wadden Sea mudflats, being on the Frisia Coast Trail help is never far away. Therefore, provided you have a…
♪ They want you as a new recruit ♪
‘In the navy’, is a song of village people. Of the small villages along the southern coast of the North Sea. A water people once united in the mythical Seven Sealands. And, a people who laid the foundations of two of history’s most impressive navies. That of England, and that of the Republic of the…
Like Father, Unlike Son
The Battle of Tours in 732 was a turning point in the wars against the Umayyad Caliphate. The Caliphate was one of the biggest empires in history, but it lost this battle. At the confluence of the rivers Clain and Vienne, the Franks, led by statesman maior domo Charles Martel, only just managed to defeat…
The Thing is…
The heart of western democracies is the joint assembly of parliament, cabinet and high councils of state. Its Germanic origin is the thing, also called ting, ding, ðing or þing in other writings. Today, national assemblies in Scandinavian countries still refer to this ancient tradition. For example, the parliaments of the Faroes Løgting, of Greenland…
A Frontier known as Watery Mess: the Coast of Flanders
At the end of the eighth century, by decree of Charlemagne and under supervision of the wise men Wlemar and Saxmund, customary law of the Frisians was codified. It is the Lex Frisionum. Its jurisdiction was, among other, the land inter Flehum et Sincfalam fluvium ‘between Vlie and Sincfalam river’. The river Flehum flowed into…
10 words to travel 1,500 years and miles across the Frisian shores
Are these white letters on the wall encrypted gibberish to you? With learning a handful of keywords, you’ll have deciphered them in no time. Even better, tens of thousands of town names will hold no longer any secrets for you. Each placename will reveal its unique story to you. You will make a great impression…
The raider’s portrait from Appels
In the year 1934, while dredging upstream the river Scheldt near the village of Appels in the region of Flanders, an extraordinary ship’s figurehead (see featured image above) was found. It is dated around the year AD 400. Among scholars there seems agreement it is Germanic and that it originates from the southern North Sea…
Wa bin ik, wa bist do en wa bin wy?
“If you don’t care about your own history, you may as well leave the classroom.” Words from the geography teacher at high school Simon Vestdijk in the port town of Harlingen in 1988. We, the two Frisian bastards, were about sixteen years old and in the fifth grade of VWO (i.e. pre-university education). The annoyed…
More Flying ‘Dutchmen’
On the first of February 2020, one of the Frisian bastards of the Frisia Coast Trail tramped the trail section from the town of Bad Nieuweschans to the village of Termunten. It’s a hike of 30 kilometres along the southern shores of the Dollart Bay. The day before, in the evening, the bastard arrived at…
Happy Hunting Grounds in the Arctic
If you want to find out who’s responsible for killing the whale, the Frisia Coast Trail area is the prime spot to look. When you stop people on the streets in this coastal region and ask them if they have knowledge of who did it, they probably will respond with: “I hear nothing, I see…
Yet another wayward archipelago
The peoples of islands and archipelagos don’t let others dictate how to live their life. One of those archipelagos that meets these criteria as well, is the Wadden Sea. For centuries it’s from here where sea explorers, tax evaders, sturdy Arctic whalers, self-righteous women, pirates, privateers, and other vagabonds came from. An archipelago which the…
With a Noose through the Norsemen’s Door
Although the conversion was a slow and cumbersome process, and only succeeded in-depth in the course of the tenth century, Frisia subsequently turned into the richest ecclesiastical area of Europe. Nowhere else in Europe were that many monasteries and churches packed together. Even though nearly all monasteries have been dismantled with the advent of Protestantism,…
Frisia, a Viking Graveyard
When reading about the famous deeds of great Viking warriors, often not much attention is given to the moments of failure. Not much is written about where and when the glorious men, and women, died. As it turns out, the coast of Frisia is one big Viking graveyard. It’s here, in the (still) smelly blue…
History is written by the victors – a history of the credits
New York City, the Capital of the World. Other names are Gotham, Modern Gomorrah, The Big Apple, Empire City and Baghdad-on-the-Subway. With Times Square being the self-proclaimed Centre of the Universe. Amidst all this grandeur and bigness, portraits of two seventeenth-century men from the small villages Peperga and Koudum in the south of province Friesland,…
Presence of mind to ask the right question
‘The path will provide,’ is a familiar saying among hikers while on the trail. The flipside of this attitude is you might not have the keenness to recognize an exceptional opportunity. Your mind gets lazy. It is exactly what happened to one of the Frisian bastards during his solo-hike through the harsh mountains of Corsica.…
A Wadden Sea Guide and His Twelve Disciples
For those outdoor freaks who consider hiking the mud flats of the Wadden Sea, it is essential to know this is, in fact, not a worldly journey but a spiritual one. The whole Frisia Coast in a way is a spiritual belt. Protecting the southern coast of the North Sea against northern darkness, according to…
Expelled from Regal Grounds
July 1987. The two Frisian bastards, both being sixteen years old at the time, went to the village of Wijnaldum, or Winaem in Mid-Frisian language. Reason to go, was twofold. Firstly, the yearly street-kaatsen tournament was taking place that day. Secondly, one of their most beautiful classmates, Gerda, lived closed to the village. The yearly…
The Killing Fields, of the Celts
About 2,000 years ago a tragedy unfolded. A sixteen-years-old girl, who suffered during her young life from scoliosis, was killed. Her red hair was shaved off on one side, she was stabbed at the base of her neck on the right shoulder, and strangled with a woolen rope. The rope was still around her neck.…
Rowing souls of the dead to Britain: the ferryman of Solleveld
In 2004, a unique discovery was made at the early-medieval grave field of Solleveld, just south of the city of The Hague: a boat grave. Exactly two hundred kilometers, perfectly east, across the North Sea, of the legendary boat burial of Sutton Hoo. With this one-of-a-kind found, the Netherlands joined the ranks of ship-burial-countries. A…
It all began with piracy
The arrival of the Romans in northwest Europe at the beginning of the era, with the river Rhine as frontier, was the starting signal for five centuries of widespread piracy. Piracy that not only affected the coasts of Britannia and Gaul. It stirred things up even as far as the coasts of the Mediterranean and…
Out of averting the inevitable a community was born
March 25, 2020 today. The COVID-19 pandemic is climbing towards its second peak. Uncertainty of how destructive the pandemic is going to be in the long run. How many family members and loved ones will it take? A phenomenon of chaos and destruction that confronts us with the limitations of an engineered world. Some people…
With the White Rabbit down the Hole
R1b/Hg1/Eu18; R-M213; R-M9; R1b-M45; R-M207; R-M173; R-M343; R-L278; R-L754; R-L389/R1b1a1; R-M415; R-P297/R1b1a1a; R-M269/R1b1a1a2; R-M520; R-L23; R-M412; R-L11; R-S21/U106/M405/R1b1a1a1a2a1a1… Knock Knock… Wake up Neo… Follow the White Rabbit… | These serial numbers, chronologically arranged, represent groups and subgroups of people who genetically share one common ancestor. Pulling these protein strands is like going down the Rabbit…
Make way for the dead!
High in the Swiss Alps in the region Bernese Oberland, many men, women and children have experienced the great horror of dead Frisians marching back to their homeland under the dark of night. The path the walkers follow is called The Frisians Way. Connecting the Haslital ‘Hasli valley’ in the Bernese Oberland with the shores…
Latið meg ei á Frísaland fordervast!
Latið meg ei á Frísaland fordervast! ‘Do not let me perish in Friesland!’ A cry-out of a Faroese young woman when she was being kidnapped by Frisian pirates in the Middle Ages. The question of this post is not about how on earth it was possible that the youth on the Faroes had such a…
Sailors escaped from Cyclops
“Reason I’m late for class? Well, you know, there was a strange cat in our barn this morning, and I stepped in its poop. Therefore, I first had to clean my shoes before I could go to school. That’s the reason, ma’am. Really!” A similar pretext was made by a bunch of Frisian seamen in…
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Frisia Coast Trail 