"Why am I late to class? Oh, you're gonna love this—there was this random cat in our barn this morning, right? Total stranger. And guess what? I stepped right in its poop. Yep. So before I could even think about school, I had to deal with the whole mess—literally scrubbing my shoes like it was a crime scene. That’s why I’m late, I swear!" A similar pretext was made by a group of Frisian sailors in the year 1040. These sea dogs claimed they had sailed to the North Pole, escaped many great dangers, and even saw the World's End. The truth is, it was a story of bribery and prejudice.

Below the English translation of this thousand-year-old lie recorded by magister Adam of Bremum—originally the city of Bremen was called Bremum—in his Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum 'deeds of bishops of the Hamburg Church' written circa 1075. Magister Adam came from the Margravate of Meissen. He was a chronicler connected to the church of Bremum. Why this context is important, will become apparent reading this blog post.

But also a warning before reading: this text is not suitable for underage because of violent scenes.

Archbishop Adalbert of blessed memory likewise told us that in the days of his predecessor [this is Alebrand, see below] certain noble men of Frisia spread sail to the north for the purpose of ranging through the sea, because the inhabitants claimed that by a direct course toward the north from the mouth of the River Weser one meets with no land but only that sea called the Libersee.

The partners pledged themselves under oath to look into this novel claim and, with a joyful call to the oarsmen, set out from the Frisian coast. Then, leaving on the one side Denmark, on the other Britain, they came to the Orkneys. And when they had left these islands to their left, while they had Norway on their right, the navigators landed after a long passage on icy Iceland. And as they furrowed the seas from that place toward the farthest northern pole, after they saw behind them all the islands spoken about above [namely Vinland—i.e., Newfoundland—and Greenland], they commended their way and venture to Almighty God and the holy confessor Willehad.

Of a sudden they fell into that numbing ocean’s dark mist which could hardly be penetrated with the eyes. And, behold, the current of the fluctuating ocean whirled back to its mysterious fountainhead, and with most furious impetuosity drew the unhappy sailors, who in their despair now thought only of death, on to chaos; this they say is the abysmal chasm—that deep in which report has it all the backflow of the sea, which to decrease, is absorbed and in turn re-vomited, as the mounting fluctuation is usually described.

As the partners were imploring the mercy of God to receive their souls, the backward thrust of the sea carried away some of their ships, but its forward ejection threw the rest far behind the others. Freed thus, by the timely help of God, from the instant peril they had had before their eyes, they seconded the flood by rowing with all their might.

No sooner had the mariners escaped the peril of darkness and the land of frost, than unexpectedly came upon an island fortified like a town by very high cliffs which encircled it. When they disembarked there to explore the place, they found men lurking in underground hollows at midday. Before the entrances lay a countless number of vessels of gold and of metals of a kind considered rare and precious by mortals.

When they had taken as much of the treasure as they could carry away, the happy oarsmen returned quickly to their ships. Of a sudden they saw coming behind them amazingly tall men whom our people call Cyclops. Before them ran dogs exceeding the usual size of these quadrupeds, who in their attack seized one of the comrades and in a twinkling tore him to pieces before their eyes. The rest, however, took to the ships and escaped the peril. The giants, as they said, followed them, with vociferations, almost out to the high sea.

Attended by such good fortune, the Frisians came back to Bremen (Bremum) where they told Archbishop Alebrand everything as it had happened and made offerings to the blessed Christ and His holy confessor Willehad for their safe return.

Would, nowadays, a schoolteacher believe such a story for being late for class? "I sailed to the Arctic and back, saw the end of the world, escaped from a maelstrom, found a lot of valuables and precious things just laying around on a treasure island, fled from Cyclops and huge dogs, bút I made it back alive from terra incognita; rowing. That's why I'm late, ma'am." No, of course, she would not.

These Frisians were clearly ordinary pirates, raiding with their shippe, which is pirate slang for ship, the islands and coasts of the North Sea—a ship, who knows, named the Merrimac; see further below. It was a made-up story to explain to the ecclesiastical authorities that all the booty this lowlife was carrying was obtained legitimately.

The Code — These eleventh-century pirates sailed already under oath, as became clear from the medieval account of Adam of Bremum. Centuries later, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, pirates and buccaneers before embarking had to sign the code of the ship. These were the ship's articles how to behave, the penalties on misbehaviour, and how the loot, booty, or prize was divided; the so-called Pirate Codes. Besides signing the Code, the crew member had to swear an oath of allegiance, too. Hence, we boldly conclude, an old pirate tradition dating to 1000 at least.

But Archbishop Alebrand, apparently, did believe the story. That is, after the Frisians had made offerings to Christ and Saint Willehad. That means some of the booty was donated to the church. Oh, hold on a second, that puts everything in a different light! Maybe Alebrand's judgment was clouded and blinded by the shining precious metals given to the church, and he wanted to believe they had not been pirating, raiding, and Lord knows what more. A man of a pragmatic nature.

And the lie grew even bigger. Adam of Bremum recorded this story, which he must have heard from Alebrand, as true in his above-cited Gesta. What was Magister Adam's motive to record such a lie? Or did he really believe the miraculous story? If the latter is the case, what does that say about the rest of his voluminous and much-appreciated work by historians? Or were these so-called euphemistic 'joyful ranging trips' still going on when Magister Adam wrote down his accounts in the Gesta, decades later? Were these pirates still offering a percentage of their loot and prizes to Christ and to Saint Willehad? Was his judgment, therefore, clouded as well?

Wadden Sea and Piracy

This region, the southern coasts of the North Sea, including the Wadden Sea, has a long-standing pirating tradition, dating back even to the period of the Great Wandering of Peoples, also known as the Migration Period. Check our blog post Our civilization—it all began with piracy to learn how a true pirate culture developed along these southern shores in Roman times already.

At the time of this story, around the year 1000 in the High Middle Ages, but also during the Late Middle Ages, the Wadden Sea was (still) infested with pirates. At the end of the fourteenth century, the Vitalienbrüder or Victual Brothers, in the Low Countries also known as Likedeelers 'those who share equally', moved their enterprise from the Baltic Sea to the North Sea, establishing their base of operations at ports in the regions of Ostfriesland and Butjadingen, such as the ports of Greetsiel, Marienhafe, and Einswarden; even the town of Dokkum in the province of Friesland was a base for these sea dogs for some time (Janse 1993). Two commanders of the Victual Brothers active in the Wadden Sea area were Godeke Michels and the infamous Klaus Störtebeker from the town of Wismar. The Victual Brothers made deals with local big men, like Widzel and Keno tom Brok, Edo Wiemkes, and Lubbe Sibet, seriously harming Hanseatic trade. In any case, they were seriously harming Hanseatic trade, too, which in turn prompted Lübeck and the Hanseatic League to take military action. Klaus Störtebeker and Godeke Michels would pay with their neck in the end.

Intrinsic to pirates, the loyalty of the Victual Brothers, with their motto Godes vrende unde alder werlt vyande 'God's friend and the enemy of all the world', was determined by the highest bidder. Sometimes fighting for the count of Oldenburg, but also fighting alongside the factional parties of the Vetkopers and the Schieringers in the permanent state of civil war that divided Frisia between 1350 and 1498. The Victual Brothers alternately fought for and against the count of Holland and were part of the privateering war between Holland and Friesland in the early fifteenth century, confiscating ships and their loads, and capturing crews for ransom everywhere in the Wadden Sea, North Sea, and Zuiderzee.

In our blog post Yet Another Wayward Archipelago—the Wadden Sea, you can read more about all the pirate activity in the Wadden Sea region during the late medieval and early modern periods, when yet another group of pirates emerged in the waters of the Wadden Sea, namely the Watergeuzen or Sea Beggars. These Victual Brothers 2.0 played a pivotal role in the wars of independence of the Low Countries against Spain from the mid-sixteenth century.

Lastly, read also a Faroese saga about heathen Frisian pirates who settled on the Faroe Islands in our blog post Latið meg ei á Frísaland fordervast! And the murder of a bishop.

Puritans and pirates

The Frisian and internationally renowned writer Simon Vestdijk (1898-1971) from the port town of Harlingen on the shores of the Wadden Sea, and one of the most significant writers of Netherlands literature ever, wrote in 1945 the novel 'Puriteinen en piraten' ('puritans and pirates'). It is the story of the ship the Merrimac, built in the city of Boston in the state of Massachusetts in the year 1718. At first, it is unclear for what purpose the ship was built by its sponsors. Later, its purpose as a pirate ship became clear. The sponsors of the entire enterprise were Puritans, a Protestant denomination that split from the Anglican Church, who secretly wanted to amass a mundane, not-so-pure fortune. Simon Vestdijk, by the way, was the man of whom it was said that he could write faster than God could read.

We cannot help but see parallels between Simon Vestdijk's book and this high-medieval story, namely the ostensibly faithful in league with depraved pirates for booty. In addition, it is a story of Frisians operating as pirates from the mouth of the River Weser at the Wadden Sea, the same murky sea where Simon Vestdijk lived, too.

Note 1 — The bright side of that the whole expedition to the Arctic was a lie, is that another Frisian sailor, Willem Barentsz from the Wadden Sea island of Terschelling, still can claim to be the first Frisian to have wintered in the Arctic, i.e., on today's archipelago Novaya Zemlya in Russia in the year 1596. Soon after Barentsz' winterly pastime, when Frisians were en masse at the whaling in the northern ice seas, many more stayed the winter in the Arctic, like on Greenland, Spitsbergen, Beereneiland, and on Jan Mayen Island. Read our blog post Happy Hunting Grounds of the Arctic to find more information about this piece of shivering history.

Note 2 — When talking about the theme of church and piracy, there was even a pirate who made it to pope. Baldassarre Cossa (ca. 1365-1419) from the city of Naples in Italy raided, among others, the Adriatic Sea for some time. In the year 1410, Baldassarre was elected Antipope John XXIII.

Suggested music

Sex Pistols, Friggin' In The Riggin' (1979)

Further reading

Barrie, J.M., Peter Pan (1904)

Bremen, of A., History of the Archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen. Translated with an introduction & notes by Francis J. Tschan. With a new introduction & selected bibliography by Timothy Reuter (2002)

Defoe, D., A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates (1724)

Inspiring Elise (blog)

Janse, A., Grenzen aan de macht. De Friese oorlog van de graven van Holland omstreeks 1400 (1993)

Kurowski, F., Die Friesen. Das Volk am Meer (2019)

Meier, D., Seefahrer, Händler und Piraten im Mittelalter (2004)

Puhle, M., Die Vitalienbrüder. Klaus Störtebekerund die Seeräuber der Hansezeit (2012)

Schröder, S., Piraterie und Hanse. Kaperkriege und Vitalienbrüder (2016)

Schroor, M., Harlingen. Geschiedenis van de Friese havenstad (2015)

Simpson-Housley, P., The Arctic: Enigmas and Myths (1996)

Stevenson, R.L., Treasure Island (1883)

Toorn-Piebenga, G.A., Friese ontdekkingsreizigers in de elfde eeuw (1986)

Vestdijk, S., Puriteinen en piraten (1945)