stage 6: River Ems

River Ems (DE) to River Jade (DE)

• Length: 305 km (190 miles) in 15 sections
• Terrain: flat
• Region: East Frisia

​From the River Ems to the River Jade, marking the end of region Ostfriesland or East Frisia (Germany). The coast of stage 6 was know for its pirates in the Late Middle Ages. Still the trail means hiking along the Wadden Sea, but the track also leads more inland to the city of Aurich where in the High Middle Ages the so-called ‘Seven Sealands’ of tota Frisia gathered at the ting called the Upstalboom. As you hike east, look out for the last Angles, Jutes and Saxons migrating west, a migration that started 1,700 years ago.

​Trail Sections

• section 6.1: Nieuweschans – Soltburg
• section 6.2: Soltburg – Oldersum
• section 6.3: Oldersum – Aurich
• section 6.4: Aurich – Loppersum
• section 6.5: Loppersum – Krummhörn
• section 6.6: Krummhörn – Greetsiel
• section 6.7: Greetsiel – Norden
• section 6.10: Norden – Neßmersiel
• section 6.11: Neßmersiel- Dornumersiel
• section 6.12: Dornumersiel – Harlesiel
• section 6.13: Harlesiel – Hooksiel
• section 6.14: Hooksiel – Willemshaven
• section 6.15: Willemshaven – Varel

​Description

During Roman Period this was the territory of the Chauci minores ‘minor Chauci’. A probably with the Frisii maiores (Frisians) related people or vice versa, and of which we know from the Romans in the first century AD they lived on terps (i.e. artificial dwelling mounds) as well. In German a terp is called a Wurt (and in Lower-German Warft, Warf or -just like in the province Groningen in the Netherlands- wierde). 

​After the fall of the Roman Empire, the Chauci disappeared and over the course of fifth and sixth centuries, the (new) Frisians extended their influence into this area, from then on East Frisia (present-day region Ostfriesland). The law code Lex Frisionum (law of the Frisians) of ca. AD 780 described this area as inter Laubachi et Wisaram, meaning between the River Lauwers and the River Weser.

​From this region a rich Old-Frisian law corpes of the High Middle Ages has been kept. Of course, the region Ostfriesland is as said also where Aurich is and where the Upstalsboom was. Here delegates of the Seven Sealands would meet every year on the first Tuesday after Pentecost. Check our blog post Upstalsboom: why solidarity is not the core of a collective. East Frisia encompassed the Sixth and Seventh Sealand. The medieval shires of East Frisia are: Overledigerland, Saterland, Moormerland, Lengenerland, Emsigerland, Brokmerland, Auricherland, Norderland, Harlingerland, Wangerland, Östringen and Rüstringen. Sometimes Dithmarschen is included, although it has no Frisian history.

​And later, in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, this was the coast of pirates, a.o. the Vitalienbrüder. Ports like Greetsiel and Norden were important hide-outs of pirates like Klaus Störtebeker and Godeke Michels. Their fleets were a serious threat for the Hanseatic League trade interests. 

​With the rise of the Hauptinge or Hoventlinge, slowly the farmers republics fell apart. The Frisian language has disappeared here too, just like province Groningen, and has been replaced by Oostfreesk, a speech of the Low-Saxon language in the Middle Ages and closely related to the Low-Saxon dialect spoken in the region Ommelanden in province Groningen in the Netherlands (former Mid Frisia).

Recommended posts

• A severe case of inattentional blindness: the Frisian tribe’s name
• Like Father, Unlike Son
• Rescuing Rolling Sheep
• Harbours, Hookers, Heroines and Women in Masquerade
• The Thing is…
• Happy Hunting Grounds in the Arctic
• Yet another wayward archipelago
• With a Noose through the Norsemen’s Door
• Frisia, a Viking graveyard
• It all began with piracy
• Out of averting the inevitable a community was born
• Make way for the dead!
• Merciless medieval merchants
• A Theelacht. What a great idea!
• Atlantis found! Wait, there is another one, or 7, wait 12 in total… No, 19!
• Rats with wings or Masters of the Sky
• Shipwrecked people of the salt marshes
• Have a Frisians Cocktail
• Weladu the flying blacksmith
• You killed a man? That’ll be 1 weregeld, please
• Is Magna Frisia fact or fiction?
• Foreign Fighters returning from Viking war bands
• Upstalsboom: why solidarity is not the core of a collective
• Porcupines bore U.S. bucks
• Haute couture from the salt marshes
• King Redbad’s last act
• Why was Redbad skinny dipping in eau de Cologne?
• Half a million deaths. A forgotten North Sea disaster…
• Racing the Wadden Sea with a mud sled
• The battles of Redbad, unplugged
• Women of Frisia: free and unbound?
• The biography of Aldgisl, unplugged
• PRESS RELEASE: Consensus Frisia Tribunal
• Tolkien pleaded in favor of King Finn
• Terrorist Fighters from the Wadden Sea
• Lodging etiquette in Ostfriesland
• Manual Making a Terp in 12 Steps

Photo’s

​For a first, visual impression of this stage, click here.

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