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, butContinue reading “How great was Great Pier? (the sequel)”
Tag Archives: legends
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 theyContinue reading “How great was Great Pier?”
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 haveContinue reading “Who’s afraid of Voracious Woolf?”
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,Continue reading “Don’t believe everything they say about sweet Cunera”
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.Continue reading “Dissolute Elisabeth and her devil”
Walfrid, You’ll Never Walk Alone.
This post is not 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 at theContinue reading “Walfrid, You’ll Never Walk Alone.”
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 defeatContinue reading “Like Father, Unlike Son”
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,Continue reading “With a Noose through the Norsemen’s Door”
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 shoresContinue reading “Make way for the dead!”
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 inContinue reading “Sailors escaped from Cyclops”
Frisia Coast Trail 