Giants of Twilight Land. Creatures of the Rim

Hans Faber
May 24, 2019
9 min read

Updated: 6 days ago

At the intersection of land and sea—where it is hard to tell where one ends and the other begins—life is harsh. The corrosive salt of the sea is ruinous to most land species, which explains the formerly near-treeless, flat, and monotonous tidal marshlands of Frisia. Conversely, most aquatic life cannot handle a sea that turns into land twice a day. Only the strangest of species can survive in this barren twilight zone. The same goes for the peculiar-looking humans who inhabit this singular environment—and who are the subject of this post.

Contrary to what most people think—or expect—the biodiversity of the Wadden Sea is not particularly rich. Only about 10,000 different species inhabit the Wadden Sea. Narrowing that down to the tidal zone, just around 5,000 species manage to survive in this extreme habitat. Compared to the 36,000 species found more inland from the Wadden coast, that’s a modest number (Revier 2019).

The flipside, however, is that once a species has adapted to this harsh environment, competition is limited and food is plentiful. As a result, the number of individuals per species can be enormous. A single cubic meter of Wadden Sea mud can contain millions of brown diatoms (‘kiezelwieren’), along with thousands of tiny crabs, cockles, mussels, snails, lugworms, and sandworms—plus the unmistakable smell that comes with them. It’s the true reward of living on the edge.

On a sobering note, the biodiversity of the Wadden Sea is far from what it should be—estimated at only forty to fifty percent of its ideal level. Despite its designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2014, the region’s species diversity has shown no signs of recovery and has remained stagnant since the 1980s (Algemene Rekenkamer 2013). A key factor behind these disappointing numbers is the lack of fresh water and the overly rigid separation between salt and freshwater systems.

What about humans who managed to survive in this twilight land?

Below one of the oldest descriptions of the behaviour of Celtic/Germanic dwellers along the southern North Sea coast.

oceanico litore obducta est. qui habitant immanes sunt animis atque corporibus, et ad insitam feritatem vaste utraque exercent, bellando animos, corpora adsuetudine laborum maxime frigoris. nudi agunt antequam puberes sint, et longissima apud eos pueritia est. viri sagis velantur aut libris arborum, quamvis saeva hieme. nandi non patientia tantum illis, studium etiam est. (Chorographia by Pomponius Mela, AD 44)

It [Germania] is bound by an ocean shore. The people who dwell there are extraordinary in courage, as in physique, and thanks to their natural ferocity they exercise both prodigiously—their minds by making war, their bodies by habitual hard work but above all by habitual exposure to the cold. They live naked before they reach puberty, and childhood is very long among them. The men dress in wool clothing or the bark of trees even during the harsh winter. Not only they have endurance with swimming, they do it with enthusiasm too.

Of course, much has changed in the last two millennia when we observe the modern dwellers. Putting their slightly autistic behavioural aspects aside, often mistaken as being impassive and unemotional, the inhabitants of the Wadden Sea coastal zone are still odd creatures, indeed. No denying that. An amphibious life-form.

And they are actually giants. If you do not believe it, just Google or Bing ‘tallest people’ and the Netherlands invariably ranks as number 1 on our planet. Even taller than the Dinka marsh people of South Sudan. The average height of males in this small country is a staggering 1.84 meters, and of females, 1.70 meters (Averageweight.co). That is not all. Men of the Wadden Sea coast, i.e., the provinces of Friesland and Groningen in the north of the Netherlands, are on average 2 centimeters taller than their fellow countrymen from the south. Women are even on average 2.4 centimeters taller than their counterparts from the south of the country. So, the tallest men and women the world has ever seen live along the coastal zone of the Wadden Sea: former Frisia.

Tall Big Crusaders — Already in the High Middle Ages, during the Crusades, the Frisian fighters—together with the Danes—were described as the tall big men from the north. Read our post Terrorist Fighters from the Wadden Sea. The Era of the Crusades about this piece of history of Frisia. Maybe those days were a bit more temperamental than today.

Furthermore, when you look at their features, you will notice somewhat long, pale faces, exceptionally long and gangly arms, somewhat forward-bent shoulders, often relatively big ears and noses. Always huge hands and often blond hair. Needless to say, the latter might also be the result of a salty environment that bleaches their heads of hair. You could say, taking everything together, they look a bit like that other sea dog Popeye. And who does not want to look like Popeye?

Those readers who have ventured into the north of the Netherlands and set foot in a local bar—say, in the remote village of Wommels or Bierum—might have felt both impressed and slightly intimidated by the giants surrounding them. Ordering a beer at the bar typically means the counter hits you somewhere around chest level—if you are lucky. As for the men’s toilet: do not even try unless you have brought a climbing aid, or better yet, ask one of the giants for a lift. They are quite used to helping out smaller folk.

These towering locals also tend to make a lot of noise while drinking—noises you probably will not understand either. But do not worry. Stay calm. They are as gentle and good-natured as their drowsy Holstein Friesians—or their nearly extinct Frisian Holland cows.

Really? Are they all that friendly? Well—there was one notable exception. That would be the towering Grutte Pier (“Great Pier”), a pirate, mercenary, and freedom fighter from the tiny village of Kimswerd in the province of Friesland. He lived at the turn of the sixteenth century and became infamous for his violence, brute force, and sheer physical power. We have estimated his height at a staggering 2.3 meters—and that is in the fifteenth century. Check out our post How Great Was Great Pier? (The Sequel) to see the math for yourself.

That the Sama-Bajau—other water people living along the Asian coasts and nicknamed the Sea Gypsies—have developed larger spleens makes perfect sense, given their lifestyle. But why the inhabitants of the Wadden Sea region are so remarkably tall remains a puzzle to biologists. Yes, it is partly genetic. And sure, a rich dairy-based diet helps stimulate growth. But why height became such a dominant trait in the evolutionary selection process of the Frisians is still unclear. Do Frisian women have a specific preference for tall men, perhaps? And if so, why? Interestingly, studies suggest that in the Netherlands, taller men tend to have more offspring, while in the United States, it is men of average height who reproduce more (Stulp et al 2015).

Some argue that the height difference has to do with the historical divide between Protestantism and Catholicism. Catholics in the south tended to have more children than Protestants in the north, which meant nutrition had to be spread more thinly—resulting in shorter stature (Stulp 2024). However, this theory does not quite explain how such environmental differences translate into genetic patterns. Nor does it clarify why Dutch Protestants are taller than their Protestant counterparts in, say, Switzerland, the USA, or Sweden. So, the mystery remains.

It is tempting to simply suggest that the inhabitants of the tidal marshlands had to keep their heads quite literally above water during the many great storm floods. And when it was not floods, their height helped them stand out of the sucking mud of the salt marshes. With their large hands and long arms, they spent generations hauling heavy clay to reinforce, repair, and raise their terps (for a hands-on guide, see our DIY manual Making a Terp in Only 12 Steps), or to build and bolster the dykes. They also dug countless ditches to drain the endless excess water from the land. For centuries, it was a relentless contest: if you wanted to survive, you had to move more soil than the sea did—every minute, every hour, all year round.

It is worth noting, however, that the height of Dutch people only started to rise significantly in the mid-nineteenth century. And natural selection does not work that fast. So the genes for tallness must have already been present in their DNA, lying in wait for the right conditions to stretch themselves out.

Note that the very act of milling or cutting ditches into the landscape is even how the name of the Frisian tribe is thought to have originated. For more on that, see our blog post A severe case of inattentional blindness: the Frisian tribe’s name.

If you assume that such a harsh history has left people with a somber view of life, you are in for a surprise. Despite the fact that the people of Friesland are among the poorest in the country—only edged out by their eastern cousins in Groningen—and despite having one of the highest unemployment rates as well, Frisians consistently rank as the happiest people in the Netherlands. This according to repeated statistical research by the Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek (2017) and the Fries Sociaal Planbureau (2019). It is known as ‘the Frisian Paradox.’ Some refer to it as brede welvaart (‘broad prosperity’), a concept increasingly embraced by the central government—conveniently so—as a reason to stop investing in the rural fringes of the country. After all, they are happy, aren’t they?

On top of all that—setting Disneyland aside—the Netherlands recently ranked fifth among the happiest countries in the world, just behind Finland, Norway, Denmark, and Iceland (World Happiness Report 2019, 2023). Within the Netherlands, the Frisians also report feeling the safest (CBS 2023). Indeed, Frisians truly are a cosy bunch of friendly, worry-free, happy giants. Looking beyond the border, the Nordfriesen ('North Frisians') in Schleswig-Holstein live in the northern German state that has been home to Germany’s happiest people since 2013 (Deutsche Post Glückatlas 2020).

Another interesting fact is that these less well-off but happy Frisians also have the lowest level of trust in the Dutch central government. This sentiment is shared with the provinces of Limburg and Zeeland, as well as the eastern part of Groningen. The general feeling on the country’s edges and/or in (former) mining areas seems to be: ‘We manage better on our own.’

Conclusion

In other words, just like the other 5,000 weird-looking animal species of the salty twilight land, humans, too, had to adapt to extreme circumstances and, therefore, have their own particularities as well. If this feels like an understatement, it is.

Note 1 — For the record, the abbreviation of Roald Dahl's book 'The BFG' is often misinterpreted. It is not Big Friendly Giant, but, of course, Big Frisian Giant. The mix-up is understandable since BFGs are, as explained in this blog post, friendly indeed.

Note 2 — In the year 2018, the marionette street theatre Giants of Royal de Luxe visited the province of Friesland. The big northerners were truly amazed and still talk about it. For the first time in their lives, they saw creatures that were even taller than they.

Note 3 — This blog post focuses mainly on the descendants of Mid Frisia, i.e. the provinces of Friesland and Groningen in the north of the Netherlands. It would be interesting to have more data on the heights and tallness of people living along the Wadden Sea coast in the states of Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein, i.e., the regions of Ostfriesland, Land Wursten, Dithmarschen, and Nordfriesland in Germany. If you have any additional data, please let us know.

Note 4 — Became interested in a personal encounter with a tall Frisian? Study our blog post Grassland conversation. When less is more to be prepared and to get the most, or at least something, out of it.