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One day all the sunken church bells will surface and speak to us, sternly
Imagine a time unlike ours. When there were no engines, amplifiers, and speakers, and the sounds you heard were made by the actions of...
Hans Faber
Jun 231 min read


Der Friesenwall. An unfinished last-ditch coastal defence system
On 28 August 1944, a desperate Hitler ordered the construction of a huge defensive wall in the north of Germany, running all the way...
Hans Faber
May 45 min read


Was it the proverbial two captains on the same boat that made the Frisians free?
The much-celebrated Frisian Freedom is the period between more or less 1250 and 1500, a time when the Frisian terrae ‘lands’, with...
Hans Faber
Mar 305 min read


Comb as you are, as you were
Theories exist that the tribe’s name of the Frisians comes from the Old Frisian word frisle meaning ‘lock of hair’, a word, in turn,...
Hans Faber
Nov 10, 20246 min read


Between Leffinge and Misthusum—understanding the basics of terps
Manmade hills to dwell on. Often considered typical Frisian, but they are not. Only think of the Kincaid Mounds of the Mississippian...
Hans Faber
Sep 29, 202419 min read


“Ich mag Ihre Pelzer- und Schustertöchter nicht!”—a kiss of death
Like everywhere along the Wadden Sea shores in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the small republics of the tidal marshlands had to...
Hans Faber
Jul 28, 202410 min read


Odin’s Ravens ruled over the southern shores. Not the Hammer of Thor
When re-enactors bring to life early-medieval Frisia, you regularly see them wearing a little iron hammer on a leather cord around their...
Hans Faber
Jun 9, 202422 min read


Hengist and Horsa—Frisian horses from overseas that founded the Kentish Kingdom
It is at the inn The Prancing Pony in the village of Bree that the Hobbits hope to be safe from the screeching Nazgûl on their coal-black...
Hans Faber
May 11, 202423 min read


The Chronicles of Warnia. When history seems a fantasy story
The fate of tribes and tribe names during the age of the Wandering of Peoples, between the fourth and the sixth centuries, was uncertain....
Hans Faber
Feb 18, 202415 min read


Guerrilla in the Polder. The Battle of Vroonen in 1297
What is the use of celebrating only the battles you have won? Feeling proud and superior as a nation above that of another, and the...
Hans Faber
Feb 4, 202425 min read


The bishop from Frisia who proceeded The Hunger Games
Katniss Everdeen, a character portrayed by the American actress Jennifer Lawrence, is survivor and victor of The Hunger Games. She comes...
Hans Faber
Jan 13, 20248 min read


Stavoren. A balancer on a slack rope of religion, trade, land, water, Holland, and Frisia
For many turbulent centuries, the town of Stavoren was a tightrope walker before it finally settled as a small harbour at the Lake...
Hans Faber
Jan 7, 202442 min read


The Deer Hunter of Fallward, and his Throne of the Marsh
lighthouse Kleine Preuße 'little Prussian' at the marsh near Wremem, Land Wursten Close to a terp named Fallward near the village of...
Hans Faber
Dec 3, 202314 min read


A Collection of Frisian Forenames of the First Millennium
Despite the fact that some Frisian forenames still find their way into modern name-giving, like Bente, Dirk, Doutzen, Eske, Femke/Famke,...
Hans Faber
Nov 25, 202313 min read


Scratching runes was not much different from spraying tags
Carving runes into combs and stones is basically the same as spraying tags on subway cars and bicycle tunnels. Those who create runes or...
Hans Faber
Nov 12, 202323 min read


Golden Calves, or bursting udders on bony legs?
Beauty is the best guarantee for quality and success. At least, this is how farmers in the province of Friesland thought of dairy cattle...
Hans Faber
Oct 1, 202342 min read


How great was Great Pier? (the sequel II)
To understand the ‘greatness’ of Great Pier, we decided to look into his ‘achievements’. As a freedom fighter (or pirate, if you like)...

Frans Riemersma
Aug 28, 20238 min read


A Dutch king once yelled: “Je suis Frison, et je suis plus têtu que vous!”
In our recent blog post Barbarians Riding to the Capital to Claim Rights on Farmland , we told the famous story of the two Frisian kings...
Hans Faber
Aug 23, 20238 min read


Barbarians riding to the Capital to claim rights on farmland
This is not a blog post about the current agriculture and nitrogen debates between the government in Brussels and farmers in Flanders,...
Hans Faber
Aug 16, 202318 min read


A Croaking Ode to the Haubarg by the Eiderstedter Nachtigall
Haubargs . Cathedral-like farmsteads with hipped-shaped roofs up to twenty meters high that were, and are, icons of the peninsula of...
Hans Faber
Jul 23, 202330 min read
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