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This is not a blog post about the current agriculture and nitrogen debates between the government in Brussels and farmers in Flanders, Germany and the Netherlands. Not about farmers driving to The Hague capital with their tractors. No, this is the two-millennia-old story of two Frisian kings who travelled all the way to Rome, the capital of the great Roman empire, to obtain the right to cultivate fertile fallow land along the River Rhine. We cannot predict the outcome of the

Haubargs. Cathedral-like farmsteads with hipped roofs soaring up to twenty meters high, icons of the Eiderstedt peninsula in the region of Nordfriesland. These monumental farms embody the peak of the friesische Großhäuser building tradition—yet also its end. This tradition, characteristic of the marshlands along the southern North Sea coast from Amsterdam to Husum, flourished from the mid-sixteenth to the nineteenth century. Haubargs, with the wealth they signified, so stirre

The Second World War. Despite a clear warning from the German Wehrmacht to buzz off, the nosy and inquisitive Hanso Idzerda returned to the crash site of a V2 rocket on Parkweg Road in Scheveningen—not far from his own home. Ignoring the warning, he was caught a second time by a Wehrmacht patrol. This time, there would be no friendly asking anymore. On November 3, 1944, Idzerda was executed on charges of espionage at the estate of Oosterbeek. He had been investigating the cra

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 taking it quite literally: how tall was Great Pier? No, we did not find and measure Great Piers remainings. We know where he is buried, but we don’t know exactl

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 (read how tall exactly). Spoiler alert: his name gave away that he was tall, right? If you would ask your friends and family what they know about Grutte Pier, then most of them would be able to tell you a handful of characteristics. Some might be even able to add a small story to that name. What most of them kn

Who’s afraid of Jóða Fenris, 'the offspring of Fenrir'? Afraid of hund hrynsævar hræva, 'the hound of the roaring sea of corpses'? Who, today, fears the wolf? The dark creature that once haunted the shadowed forests of the East is rising again in Europe. Nearly two centuries have passed, yet the wolf has returned to the southern shores of the North Sea. Returned to former Frisia, rekindling ancient fears thought long extinguished. It is killing sheep. More unsettling still, m

Where the English Channel meets the Celtic Sea, the ships of the Frisian brothers Corsold and Coarchion are said to have sailed, raided, and held sway in the early sixth century. For a time, they may even have established a short-lived kingdom in Brittany. Breton legend holds that the village of Kersaout—modern-day Corseul—was once the residence of dux Corsold. The place name (Haut)-Bécherel, known for its Roman ruins, might derive from the Old Frisian word beki, meaning ‘str

On the west bank of the mighty River Rhine, halfway between the cities of Koblenz and Mainz, lies the town of Sankt Goar. Named after...

Imagine this: one day your husband brings home a young, unmarried woman. A virgin, even. He simply takes her into your house, openly shows her affection—and who knows what else. But that is not all. He also gives this maiden full access to your pantry and your savings account, which she—for crying out loud—starts spending on charity. And when you dare to speak up, your husband brushes you off by comparing you to the jealous queen in Snow White, or Cinderella’s evil stepmother

The name Frisii for the people who lived along the southern coast of the North Sea is ancient—very ancient. It dates back to Late Antiquity. Today, we call them Frisians. Roman and Greek historians, as well as bureaucrats, recorded the tribe’s name nearly two millennia ago. Because of this, modern Frisians carry one of the oldest documented tribal names in all of Europe. Yet, there is no agreement on what the name actually means. Countless theories still circulate in scholarl

On the Facebook page 'Frisian Americans', the question popped up regarding the 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 federal government. Interestingly, a former captain of the Continental Army by the name of John Fries was in charge of a mili

In the year 1500, when the people of the farmers’ republic of Dithmarschen achieved a stunning victory over a large professional Danish–Holstein army of Landsknechts at the Battle of Dusenddüwelswarft, a girl named Tjede Peckes was born. She came into the world in the hamlet of Padingbüttel, in the region of Land Wursten on the eastern banks of the River Weser. This was a salt-marsh region that the Wurstfriesen ('Wurst Frisians') had skillfully embanked and cultivated. For ce

Let’s go to the omega. To the end of the Frisia Coast Trail . To Ribe in southern Jutland, Denmark. The oldest town in Scandinavia. A town located on the banks of the Ribe Å. A modest river that flows out into the Wadden Sea stoically slow, opposite the islands of Fanø and Mandø. Ribe started as a seasonal marketplace. Year-round settlement began around the year 700. Everything in peaceful times yet. Only with the raid on the island of Lindisfarne in Northumberland in 793 did

This blog post is not about Aindreas Ó Céirín (1840–1915), better known as Brother Walfrid, the Irish founder of the Scottish football club Celtic F.C.. No, this post is about the original—the one and only: the Frisian Walfrid. The one who, according to legend, was murdered by a band of roaming Vikings in the late tenth century. These atrocities are said to have taken place in the village of Bedum, in that part of former Frisia which today forms the (still exploited and occas

Dockyards, quays, terminals, warehouses, wharves, anchorages, lighthouses, and beacons. Craftsmen, shipping companies, customs offices, pilot services, and other port authorities. Fish auctions, boarding houses, lodgings, packing sheds—you name it. Seaports exist to meet the needs of everything that arrives from the sea or sets out to it. But beyond commerce, ports have traditionally also responded to another, persistent demand: sex. Since the Frisia Coast Trail tells the sto

Pagare il fio is Italian for 'paying the penalty,' though literally it means 'paying the fee,' a phrase inherited from the northern peoples—the so-called Barbarians—who toppled the Western Roman Empire. The English word fee comes from Old English feoh , which survives as fee in Mid Frisian, vee in Dutch, and Vieh in German, all meaning 'cattle.' The Anglo-Frisian rune ᚠ, feh , likewise signified 'wealth.' The literal sense of pagare il fio is therefore 'paying the cattl

'In the navy', a song by the Village People. Of the small villages along the southern coast of the North Sea. A water people once united in the mythical Seven Sealands . Moreover, a people who laid the foundations of two of history’s most impressive navies: that of the Kingdom of England and that of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands. It should not come as a surprise we are talking about Frisians. In spite of the Latin saying Frisia non cantat ‘Frisia does not sing

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 majordomo Charles Martel, only just managed to defeat the great army of Emir Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi, governor of al-Andalus ‘Andalusia’. Historians estimate tens of thousands of soldiers died. In the run-up to this historic batt

The heart of Western democracies is the joint assembly of Parliament, Cabinet, and High Councils of State. Its Celtic-Germanic origin is the thing, also called ting, ding, 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 Landsting, of Iceland Alþingi, and of Norway Storting. However, the oldest written attestation of the thing institution come

At the end of the eighth century, by decree of Charlemagne and under the supervision of the wise men Wlemar and Saxmund, the customary law of the Frisians was codified. It is called the Lex Frisionum . Its jurisdiction included the land between the Flehum and Sincfalam rivers 'between Vlie and Sincfalam River'. The River Flehum flowed into the North Sea, where the sea strait Vlie is located today, between the islands of Terschelling and Vlieland. Sincfalam , also written as