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Imagine a time unlike ours. When there were no engines, amplifiers, and speakers, and the sounds you heard were made by the actions of men, beasts, or the elements of nature. Be quiet and listen. Can you hear the chatter of children and vendors, and the hooves of horses on the streets? Can you hear the loose sails of docked ships flapping, drying in the wind? A time when communities, villages, and towns were of manageable size. This soundscape was a world where the sound of t

On 28 August 1944, a desperate Hitler ordered the construction of a massive defensive line in northern Germany, stretching from the...

The much-celebrated Frisian Freedom refers to the period roughly between 1250 and 1500, when the Frisian terrae  (‘lands’)—bearing...

Like everywhere along the Wadden Sea shores in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the small republics of the tidal marshlands fought battle after battle against foreign aggressors seeking to subdue them. Counts, bishops, and cities alike tried to lay their hands on these fertile and strategically located lands. And if the threat was not from outside, it came from local headmen striving to establish dominion over a republic. The region of Butjadingen and Stadland, at the

It is at the inn The Prancing Pony in the village of Bree that the Hobbits find refuge from the screeching Nazgûl on their coal-black horses. It is also here that they encounter Strider, the mysterious wanderer who is later revealed to be Aragorn—future king of the Reunited Kingdom. Horses, wanderers, fugitive royalty, shifting alliances, the forging of armies, and the rise of kings—these are also the hallmarks of the epic North Sea saga of Hengist and Horsa. A tale set 1,600

The fate of tribes and their names in the age of the Great Migration, between the fourth and sixth centuries, was anything but certain....

What is the use of celebrating only the battles you have won? Feeling proud and superior as a nation over others, with the differences emphasized in the process. Why not follow the example of the Scots? Every year, they commemorate their defeat at the Battle of Culloden on April 16, 1746—fought between the Jacobite Army and the British Army. An estimated 1,350 soldiers died that day. Women, children, and (elderly) men from nearby villages are not included in that count, as th

Katniss Everdeen, portrayed by American actress Jennifer Lawrence, is both a survivor and victor of The Hunger Games . She comes from District 12, the impoverished mining region of the country called Panem. In fact, Katniss was never meant to be a tribute in the games. Her younger sister was originally chosen, but Katniss volunteered to take her place. Each year, twenty-four residents—known as tributes—were selected by lottery from the twelve districts of Panem to fight to th

lighthouse Kleine Preuße 'little Prussian' at the marsh near Wremem, Land Wursten Near a terp called Fallward, close to the village of Wremen in the region of Land Wursten, archaeologists uncovered a remarkable site that opens a rare window onto life during the Migration Period—the world of the so-called ‘Old Saxons’ who once inhabited the tidal marshes of the Wadden Sea at the mouth of the River Weser. Excavations at the Fallward terp revealed two burial grounds dating from

Despite the fact that some Frisian forenames still find their way into modern name-giving, like Bente, Dirk, Doutzen, Eske, Femke/Famke,...

Carving runes into combs and stones is basically the same as spraying tags on subway cars and bicycle tunnels. Those who create runes or...

Beauty is the best guarantee for quality and success. At least, this is how farmers in the province of Friesland thought of dairy cattle...

To understand the ‘greatness’ of Great Pier, we decided to look into his ‘achievements’. As a freedom fighter (or pirate, if you like) his core business was to ransack ships and towns. If you listen or read about the places Great Pier sacked the area and number are quite impressive. Considering Great Pier was only active for some four years, his ‘productivity’ is huge or deceiving. To name a few examples of anecdotal places Great Pier ‘paid a visit’. Recently, a friend inform

In our recent blog post Barbarians Riding to the Capital to Claim Rights on Farmland , we recounted the famous story of the two Frisian kings who travelled to Rome 2,000 years ago to seek an audience with Emperor Nero. In this blog post, the roles are reversed. Nearly two centuries ago, a delegate from Rome journeyed to the barbarians in the north to parley with their king in the city of The Hague. “ Je suis Frison, et je suis plus têtu que vous! ” (I am Frisian, and I am mor

This is not a blog post about the current agriculture and nitrogen debates between the government in Brussels and farmers in Flanders,...

Haubargs . Cathedral-like farmsteads with hipped roofs soaring up to twenty meters high, icons of the Eiderstedt peninsula in the region...

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 exact

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

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,