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: piracy
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?”
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 isContinue reading “Pagare il fio”
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 theContinue reading “They want you as a new recruit”
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 SeaContinue reading “The raider’s portrait from Appels”
Yet another wayward archipelago
Peoples of islands and archipelagos do not 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 is from here where sea explorers, tax evaders, sturdy Arctic whalers, self-righteous women, pirates, privateers, and other vagabonds came from. An archipelago whichContinue reading “Yet another wayward archipelago”
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 andContinue reading “It all began with piracy”
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 aContinue reading “Latið meg ei á Frísaland fordervast!”
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”
Atlantis found! Wait, there is another one, or 7, wait 12 in total… No, 19!
Atlantis found! Wait, there is another one, or 7, wait 12 in total… No, 19! Frisia could easily claim the title: land of Atlantis. 19 inhabited islands and 244 villages drowned along the old Frisian coast trail in the past 1,500 years. We bet there are more out there… Atlantis emerged in the writings ofContinue reading “Atlantis found! Wait, there is another one, or 7, wait 12 in total… No, 19!”
Frisia Coast Trail 