Hans Faber
- Jan 13, 2019

We'll drive our ships to new land

In the series Myths of Nations we disclose to you this time that the Frisians, in fact, didn't come from India, as the old legends tell us. A bummer, we know. And, what's proven yet again in this post, we should listen more often to Led Zeppelin. In particular to their Immigrant Song. Install yourself, click this link to listen to Robert Plant’s whining and crying voice, and, above all, read about the nonsense and truth behind origin of nation myths.

Have you memorized the lyrics above? Especially elements like soft-green, grass fields, overlords, ships, sea, new land? Check also the record label 'Atlantic'. Good! Please, you may continue reading.

The oldest documented myth about the origin of the Frisians can be found in the Hunsinger Codex of the early fourteenth century. It recounts:

Tha alle Fresa skipad weren, tha leweden hia, hoc hira sae rest thene londgong nome, thet hia ene pictunna bernde end tha otherum thermithe kethe, thet hia londgong nimen hede.

The language is Old Frisian and it states “When all the Frisians were shipped-in, then they promised that he who went ashore first, would light a barrel of pick to indicate to the others that they had gone ashore.”

By the way, the whole barrel-lighting thing is still being practiced by former, early-medieval Frisian emigrants on the north-western shores of the Wadden Sea in Germany. A North-Frisian tradition known as biikin or biikebrennen or pederblus. Read our post Beacons of Nordfriesland to learn more about these bon-fires of spring.

In the second half of the fifteenth century, the so-called Gesta-group legend surfaces. Gestae meaning 'deeds' in Latin language. These gestas are different documents all with a similar fame history of Frisia. It's assumed by smart people these texts go back to a common, lost source. A source probably written between 1300 and 1340 (Bremmer 2004). Examples of these different documents are Gesta Fresonum, Gesta Frisiorum, and Olde Freesche Cronike. Although some have a title in Latin language, these were nevertheless written in Old Frisian language. The document closest to the original source is Historia Frisae, which ends its history in the year 1248. The Historia Frisae probably is written around the middle of the fifteenth century.

The Gesta papers, being imaginative historiography, are quite militant and nationalistic pieces of work, and therefore thought not to have been written by clergy. Such nationalistic papers are quite, or even very, unique for Europe at that time. In the meantime we're flooded with the stuff worldwide, but this aside. Its purpose then was, to convince the people of Frisia of the fame and glory of their apparent noble history. In an effort to mobilize people to fight against the Habsburg threat, and to defend the much celebrated and mythical Frisian Freedom. Yes, the Gesta stories even draw parallels with the Jewish people, suggesting Frisians too were a by-God-chosen people. Off topic, if we look back, chosen for what? Hardship and misery? Concerning the much celebrated Frisian freedom, read our post Magnus' Choice: The Origins of the Frisian Freedom.

Relevant for this post is that the Gesta papers also contain an origin-of-nation story. This origin legend is about the three brothers living in province Fresia of the island India, and who were forced to leave their lands. They were called Bruno, Friso and Saxo. The three brothers built a big ship they named di Mannigfuald ‘the manifoldness’, and sailed for the southern coast of the North Sea. Predictably, Friso became founder of Frisia. He had seven sons, and each son became ruler of a sealand. Thus forming the historical league of the Seven Sealands stretching from the region Westfriesland in the Netherlands to the river Weser in Germany. Bordering to east with the autonomous and (also) lord-free region Dithmarschen. Click the link above to read more about this supranational organisation avant la lettre. To complete the picture, Saxo founded Saxony, and Bruno founded Brunswick.

Island Frisland - The province Fresia of India is not to be confused with the mythical Island Frisland which appeared on nautical maps by sixteenth- and seventeenth-centuries cartographers (see image above). A mythical island in the Nordic Sea, maybe mixed up with Iceland or the Faroes. On some eighteenth-century maps, the island Frisland is still present (Smith 2019). Interestingly, on the Faroes legends exist about Frisian pirates who settled there, and killing their bishop, among others. Read our post Latið meg ei á Frísaland fordervast! for these Faroese sagas and children rhymes.

Apart from myths, the Brunonids did exist. This Saxon dynasty was founded by Brun the duke of Saxony in the late ninth century. During the eleventh century, they governed the pagi 'districts' Westergo, Oostergo and Zuidergo, i.e. current province Friesland.

Interestingly, the almandine stones used in the magnificent fibula from the seventh century, found in a two-thousand-year-old terp near Wijnaldum in province Friesland, have been traced back to, guess what? Indeed, India. Like almandine, also pepper and cinnamon were imported from India as well by then.

And it was also the Anglo-Saxon King Alfred who send the thanes Sigehelm and Æthelstan to India in AD 880. They brought alms for the shrine of Saint Thomas in southern India. And Sigehelm brought back marvelous precious stones. Read our blog post Ornament of the Gods found in a mound of clay to read more about this piece jewelry and its creator.

In the year 1517, Cornelius Gerardi Aurelius, also Cornelis Geritszoon, wrote the Cronycke Van Hollant, Zeelant ende Vrieslandt 'chronicle of Holland, Zeeland and Friesland' also called the Divisiekroniek. In this chronicle, Coninc Diderick van Frieslant 'king Diderick of Friesland' is an ancestor of the famous king Radbod. Diderick was king from around 305, and had his castle in the town of Medemblik in present-day province Noord Holland.

This same Diderick guy appears in a history book again a century later. It's in 1609 that Martini Hamconii, also named Maarten Hamckema, printed his version of the Frisian history in two volumes titled Frisia seu de viris rebusque. One of the legends is about Diederik Haronis. This time not an ancestor but a grandson of the famous heathen king Radbod instead. According to Maarten Hamckema, count Diederik crossed lake Flevo, present-day IJsselmeer, in the year 300. There, on the western shores of the lake, he founded the town of Medemblik. In the year 330, he proclaimed himself king. This against the will of king Haron of Frisia. Finally, Haron gave him the title count (dux) of West Frisia. Voila, the start of the counts of West Frisia, and later to become the powerful counts of Holland.

Read our post In debt to the beastly Westfriesland to learn why the town of Medemblik is called the grand dame of western Frisia, and our post The Abbey of Egmond and the rise of the Gerulfings to know all about the emergence of the counts of Frisia and Holland.

(fictional) Count Diederik

A legend related to the former, is the legend of the thirteen asegas.Asegas were judge-like functionaries or legal experts in the High Middle Ages of Frisia. In Old Frisian language A meant 'law', and sega meant 'to say'. Therefore, an asega was a law-speaker. These functionaries also guided the proceedings during the thing assembly. Check our post The Thing is... for more about the thing meetings.

The legend of the thirteen asegas is preserved in the thirteenth-century Old-Frisian law book, the Codex Unia. The codex recounts how the twelve asegas, as a punishment by Charlemagne, were put on a ship into open sea without rope, rudder, and oar. They were saved by a thirteenth asega, who suddenly appeared on the ship too once they were at sea. Of course this was Christ. At the spot where they went safely ashore again, the thirteenth asega created a water source. He did this with his axe, since along the Wadden Sea coast there was no piece of rock to be hit with a stick, which is the more common thing to do, of course. This place was named Eswei since. The word eswei can be translated as ’path of gods’. In region Dithmarschen in Germany, bordering the Wadden Sea as well, such a water source would be named quickborn, meaning a fast-running source. The asegas also founded Axenshove at the spot where they went ashore. But above all, they received from the thirteenth asega the divine laws for the Frisian people.

Want to know more about this legend of the twelve asegas and their exciting round trip at sea, read our post In debt to the beastly Westfrisians.

seal of the town Medemblik of AD 1294 - boat with 13 people

Around 1860, another imaginative historiography surfaces from an unknown author or authors; the Oera Linda book. It too presents an origin-of-nation story, but this time in a fictional old Frisian language and in a self-invented writing. According to the Oera Linda book, Frisian history started 4,000 years ago. Frisians descended from the goddess Frya, were governed by women, and ruled over the whole of Europe until the Greek and other peoples drove them away. At first, the Oera Linda book was even considered authentic by some scholars, and to this day communities exists in the UK and Australia who live by the laws of this book. Just google for 'Daughters of Frya'. Study of the handwriting, however, shows it's written with much equivocation and irony. Also it contains an apocryphal layer, namely inspired by the Modernism movement popular in the nineteenth century (Jensma 2006).

What to make of all these excellent stories?

First of all, all credits go to Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin. He's right in the way that the people came from overseas, or across the lake in the case of count Diederik, with ships and they became new overlords. They were stranger-kings, stranger-founders. Indeed, they were immigrants. And rightly so, they were attracted by the soft, green fields, as the song recounts. Exactly the image of the tidal marshlands of Frisia. But, in the case of the Frisians, they didn't came from ‘the land of ice and snow’ as the lyrics of the Immigrant Song go. Friso came all the way from hot India, instead. Unless, of course, province Fresia in India was located high in the Indian Himalayas.

It's worth mentioning that one of the Dutch early historians, reverent Nicolaus Westendorp (1773-1836), from the village of Farmsum in province Groningen, was convinced that the Vriezen 'Frisians' came from overseas as well. Possibly even that they were descendants of the Trojans, withleader Grunus who founded the city of Groningen in the year 433. When the murderous Frisians arrived, they replaced the native Celts. These Frisians were recognized by their blonde hair, tied into a ponytail.

On the other hand, Westendorp also wrote that initially the coastal lands were empty, and only a few centuries before the beginning of the era the first men settled. They were descendants of the Celts or the Cimbri. After these new settlers admixed with the Germanic tribes, they received the name Vriezen. At first, the Frisians lived on higher, sandy grounds of province Drenthe, and only hunted and fished on the lower lands more to the sea. Later on, they learned to cultivate the land, which supported population growth. When as a consequence land became scarce, the Frisians settled on the clay soils of the salt marshes as well, and began erecting terps, artificial dwelling mounds, to be protected against floods. It goes without saying it was a brave people, where women fought side by side with their men in battle, who opted death before slavery. Everything according to reverent-historian Nicolaus Westendorp (Arentzen 2022).

Indeed, science and sagas could be difficult to tell apart during the Romantic period. Of course, no longer this is the case. So, no reason for panic.

Are the Frisians unique for this type of origin legends?

Let’s take a look at their siblings, the Anglo-Saxons. For this, of course, we must have a glance first at the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (ASC) written as early as in the ninth century.

According to the ASC, the Britons were the first inhabitants of the British Isles. They came all the way from Armenia and settled in the south of the island. You could say, a cradle not even that far remote from province Fresia in India where the three ancestors of the Frisians came from. And believe or not, the Picts came from Scythia. Scythia being the Great Steppe of Eurasia. Chew on that! The Picts came with long-ships which they drove to northern Ireland. Things would never be the same again there.

In 449, everything really started moving. It was the year the south-Scandinavian brothers Hengist and Horsa invaded Britain with a fleet full of angry Angles, Saxons and Jutes. In the year 477, more invaders came. This time three ships landed on the shores. Ships that were under the command of Ælla, who would found Wessex. The same year, two ships of a warlord named Port landed at the spot that would be known as Portsmouth from then on. In the year 514, West-Saxons landed with, again, three ships at Cerdic’s-ore. After this, landings of foreigners with ships at the British shores paused for a while, according to the ASC. Indeed, the migration period had come to an end.

Then there is also the Old-English epic Beowulf. The events of Beowulf date back to the Migration Age too. One of the stories is that of the hero Scyld Scefing. He was an orphan and “who in former time forth had sent him sole on the seas, a suckling child”. But this little Moses of the North Sea survived, and became an important leader of the Danes. Again, an overking crossing the seas.

For the record, besides the Frisians and the Anglo-Saxons, also the Scandinavians have origin myths whereby a dynasty is founded by a king arriving from overseas. These kings were descendants of the god Freyr (Dijkstra 2011). A god that possessed the magical ship Skíðblaðnir meaning 'assembled from thin pieces of wood'.

So, the Frisians certainly aren't unique with overseas keels or cyulis 'ships' and immigrants founding new peoples. Interesting thing about these stories is that, according to historians (IJssennagger 2017) these legends might be the social memories of the dramatic events of the migration period. A period many people(s) were on the move, and new peoples and cultures were founded or emerged. And, in the case of the Frisians and that of the Anglo-Saxons as well, it was a maritime migration, colonization history. To get a sense of this dark era, please listen to the long howls of Robert Plant in the Immigration Song again. Now, do you feel it?

At the same time, maybe in spite of the social memory theory explained above, it all merely might be part of a process of ethnogenesis, as we so often see. Authorities and/or people deliberate creating myths of origins and royal dynasties and so forth, to bind a society and to legitimate its existence against the hostile 'outside' world.

People migrating overseas didn't stop after the migration period. Sometimes in a hostile manner, sometimes in a more friendly way. For example. At the turn of the seventh and eighth centuries, many more ships reached the shores of Britain, namely that of Viking war bands. In 865, the Great Heathen Army landed near Kent, an army originating partly from Frisia with 'Ubba the Frisian' being one the three commanders of this dreaded pagan army. In 1066, yet again, invaders at the doorstep of British isles. This time it was William the Conqueror from Normandy saying hello, and no goodbye. All this, exactly the thing the Immigrant Song of Led Zeppelin is all about.

An expedition of founding immigrants from overseas with a peaceful goal, however, was the ship the Mayflower that sailed with hundred colonists on board, and who founded the Plymouth Colony in the Americas in the year 1620.

Many more examples can be listed that tells us migration via sea is probably of all centuries. You get our drift when reading todays news.

Note 1 - If you are interested in what historically happened origin-wise with the Frisian people during the migration period, and to what extent these events match the social memory of this period, read our post Have a Frisians Cocktail.

Note 2 - Other scholars contest the idea that the British isles turned into chaos after the Romans had retreated, leaving only their chickens and cats behind, and was invaded by hordes of Angles and Saxons, as there is actually no real support for, neither historical nor archaeological (Oosthuizen 2019). Instead, Romano-British society was never invaded and continued to exists. It 'only' re-oriented itself as being part of the North Sea (if you like Germanic) culture after around 410 the Romans had pulled out all together, and the society was culturally detached from the Mediterranean or Roman culture. The presence of Anglo-Saxons warriors in the fifth century can be seen as a continuation of the Roman tradition to hire Germanic mercenaries from the Continent, as had been done for centuries, including Frisian mercenaries (both the Frisii and the Frisavones tribes). Read our post Frisian Mercenaries in the Roman Army.

Suggested music

Hallig, Neues Land (2018)

Led Zeppelin, Immigrant Song (1970)

Frisia Coast Trail.com

The 1,000 mile coastal hike for people with fear of heights
and interest in 2,500 years of living on the sharp edge of land and sea

We'll drive our ships to new land

What to make of all these excellent stories?

Suggested music

Further reading

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