Hans Faber
- Mar 21, 2021

With a Noose through the Norsemen’s Door

Groothusen, region Ostfriesland

Although the conversion was a slow and cumbersome process, and only succeeded in-depth in the course of the tenth century, Frisia subsequently turned into the richest ecclesiastical area of Europe. Nowhere else in Europe were that many monasteries and churches packed together. Even though nearly all monasteries have been dismantled with the advent of Protestantism, to this very day nowhere in the world can you find as many high-medieval churches clumped together as along the barren coast of former Frisia. This is, in fact, the Wadden Sea coast. From the island of Wieringen to the island of Rømø. Many of these medieval churches have a common feature, namely a bricked-up little door in the wall facing north. According to folklore, these were the doorways of the Vikings.

A furore Normannororum libera nos, Domine 'from the fury of the Norsemen deliver us, Lord'. Much has been fantasized and written about these little, sinister doors over the years, decennia and maybe centuries. It's still a vivid part of regional folklore. You can find plenty of these so-called Norsemen’s Doors in former Frisia. For example in the churches of Bierum, Buitenpost, Collinghorst, Eggelingen, Fransum, Greetsiel, Groothusen, Heiloo, Heveskes, Hollum, Hoorn (island Terschelling), Jellum, Jelsum, Jennelt, Jorwert, Leons, Marsum, Marum, Oldeberkoop, Oosterend, Oosterland, Oosterwijtwerd, Oudega, Resterhafe, Siddeburen, Stroe, Tettens, Ulrum, Uplengen-Remels, and Wijnjewoude. This selection is not at all meant to be an exhaustive list. Merely and unrestrained, not thought-through pick. By the way, astray from the Wadden Sea coast, examples of Norsemen's Doors exist too. Like in Abcoude, Asselt, Doorn and Sint Laureins, all in the Netherlands.

Doorways of the Norsemen, often no more than five feet high (1,5 meter), are locally known in the different regional speeches as Duvelsdoar, Noardsk doarke, Noarmannepoarte, Noormannendeur, Noormannenpoortje, Normannendör, and Normannentür. In sagas from the islands of Wieringen and Terschelling, above the Norsemen’s Door a head of respectively a pig and a wild boar was hung. Symbols of pagan Germanic believes. Many sagas about these doorways exist in the provinces Noord Holland, Friesland, Groningen in the Netherlands, and in the regions Ostfriesland and Nordfriesland in Germany.

We have (freely) translated one of those sagas, one from Ostfriesland:

Die Nordmänner

The Norsemen often came to Frisia with their longships to rob and plunder. They murdered the Frisian king Rorik and made themselves lord of the area under king Godfrid. Also, they imposed a high tax on the population, the so-called Klingschatz ‘clinking tax’.

A tax collector would place a Frisian warrior shield, in the colour red or brown, in one of the wooden longhouses. Then, the collector would place himself twelve lots away from this longhouse. The Frisians now had to throw their tax money at the shield. If the far-off seated tax collector did not hear the coin clink, he did not accept the payment. All the money that was thrown at the shield but missed the mark, or was too soft for the tax collector to be heard, was also taken by him. This way, all the wealth was taken by Vikings from the Frisians. The Frisians were not allowed to wear any silver or gold jewelry either. Instead, they had to wear around their necks a noose made of willow rods, which was used to hang criminals those days. This was how the pride of the Frisians was broken.

To ensure that they would not forget to whom they were subjected to, houses of Frisians were allowed to have only one doorway, and only on the northern side of the house. This door had to be so low that people were forced to bow to the north each time they left their house. Bowing to the north, the direction where the heathen Norsemen came from. The same rule was enforced concerning their churches. In addition to the south door, also a low northern exit door had to be made for the same horrid purpose. Of course, the Frisians said to themselves, that each time when they bowed to enter their house, they showed their butt to the north.

One day, however, king Godfrid was slain by one of his own warriors. After that, the Norsemen returned to their homelands. The Frisians removed the north-facing doors. All that remains today of those dark days, are the bricked-up doors in the walls in the north-facing walls of old churches.

Firstly, this saga illustrates how far-reaching and unfair taxation systems work out for citizens, if not managed properly. The present Dutch government can tell you all about it. Just google the word ‘kindertoeslagenaffaire’ (i.e. Childcare Allowance Gate) or 'omtzigtelders', and shudder and shiver. Secondly, this saga explains why people in region Ostfriesland are excellent at playing the game of Boßeln or klootschießen. After all, if you missed the red or brown shield, you lost a lot of money.

Moreover, the real relevance of the saga is, that it contains ancient symbols which can be traced back to the period early-medieval Frisia shifted its allegiance from paganism to christendom. From the sphere of influence of the Norsemen coming from the North, to the sphere of influence of the Franks coming from the south. Imagine, how profound Frisia must have been transformed during the tenth and eleventh centuries. From a barren, heathen coastline often in league with the raiding Danes, and thus representing a serious threat to the Frankish empire, to a thorough christen buffer filled with religious stone structures as a first line of defence against those same Danes. Clever framing by the Frankish bureaucracy, a millennium ago. The symbols mentioned in this saga and in many others, as well as in many high-medieval Old Frisian law codes and texts, express this sharp, mental contrast.

They can be grouped as follows in a pretty manipulative mind map (Nijdam 2014):

't Zandt, province Groningen

The above saga Die Nordmänner from Ostfriesland is part of the collective memory of the Frisians. That once, they were under the direct rule of the Danes. In many medieval legal texts, written in Old Frisian language, much consideration is given to the history how Frisians were free, became un-free, and became free again. And how, eventually, they were free to choose their own law.

Roughly the storyline of the sagas is that Frisians were direct descendants of Sem, son of Noach and the first king, and lived in a land called Fresia somewhere in Asia. Read also our post We'll drive our ships to new land. From Asia they migrated to Europe, where they were enslaved by the Northern King (i.e. the Vikings). Then God send Saint Willibrord to help the Frisians to free themselves from the North. Later, again, the Frisians came under the heel of the North. After Frisian warriors had helped to liberate the eternal and holy city of Rome from the heathens, or from rebellious Roman citizens (stories differ), they received their freedom for a second time. This occasion they got the privileges from Charlemagne himself. The Frisians would remain free as long as they would help to defend the Holy Roman Empire against the heathens, i.e. the Danes, and the Saracens, i.e. Muslims from northern Africa. Interesting detail of the saga is that the Frisians went 'naked' into battle (see further below).

North and South

"dat elffherten wapen Radbodi wapen is west, de een tijran ouer de fresen is west, de oeck niet lange darna worde wth gedreuen, want de fresen holten halsbanden mosten dragen vnd hoere doeren na den noerden hebben, so leerden dat se buckende, als nigende vor radbodo, wth den huse gingen" (Gozewinus Acker Stratingh, 1804-1876)

the eleven hearts emblem has been Radbod’s coat of arms, who was tyrant over the Frisians, who also not long after had been driven out, because the Frisians had to bear wooden collars and to have their doors facing north, so they learned that they went bended, as to bow for Radbod, out of their homes

The folklore concerning the Norsemen’s Doors can without any doubt be assigned to the realm of fiction. The many so-called Romanesque hall-churches in Frisia have been built more or less a century after the reign of the Norsemen and the Viking raids. Above, the time when Vikings were active in Frisia, until the end of the tenth century, Frisians were by and large still heathen. Sagas concerning the Norsemen's Doors only started to appear in fifteenth- and sixteenth-centuries chronicles. Of course, they might have been older than that.

It is a typical design of the north along the Wadden Sea coast, Romanesque hall-churches that have two doorways opposed to each other. One in the south-facing wall, and one in the north-facing wall. This concept, however, might be of Anglo-Saxon origin.

bricked up northern door of the Saint Radbod Church of Jorwerd

The real story behind these northside doors is probably that they were entrances for women. From the start, these doors were not high. Gradually, with a steadily raising ground level of the adjacent graveyard, the doors became even lower. Later, when the doors were no longer in use, they were bricked up. The north entrance is in the shadow-side. Thus, the colder, windier, and darker side. The northern part of the graveyard was also the section where criminals were buried. Not for nothing high-medieval Frisian law used the expression ‘the north-facing tree’ as a metaphor for the gallows if someone was to be hanged after a capital crime. The late-medieval Emsinger Recht ('law of Ems') also metaphorically speaks of taking a criminal 'to the north' when he or she was sentenced to death.

"en vrrede and hi wrreth lond and liude and hi fart inur Saxenna merka and hi uthlath thene haga helm and thene rada skeld and thene sareda riddere and hi binna Fresena merkum man sleith and burga barnd, sa ach ma hine north inna thet lef to ferane and theron te sansane" Emsinger Recht

a traitor to the land and he betrays land and people and goes into the border region of the Saxons and gets from there the high helmet and the red shield and the armed knight and he goes into the land of the Frisians and kills men and burns strongholds, then he should be taken northward to the sea and be thrown in the sea

In short, the northern door was an appropriate church entrance for women, who were according to the Bible carrying the original sin after all. After service, they would leave through the door in the southern wall, stepped into the light and into the warmth of the sun. Reborn after prayer, chant, and the uplifting teachings of the priest. Others have a slightly different explanation and think the northern doorway was used by all churchgoers to enter the church. Men, women, and children alike. A more woke and political correct view, of course.

Besides the north entrance, these Romanesque churches regularly have a low, small window placed in the northern wall too. Sometimes (still) with a kneeling bench, for example the church of Ezinge. Unclear exactly what the purpose was of these tiny windows. Perhaps for lepers or for people suffering from other contagious deceases. We can think of one such an infectious disease today. Anyway, its nickname in province Friesland is leproazefinster ‘leper window’. The same low windows might have been used for person who (temporarily) were denied entry into the church, because they had committed a crime and had to serve penance (De Blaauw 2021).

The northern door of the church, is also where the baptismal font was placed. When a child was being baptized, the door was left open so the Devil could flee during the purifying ritual. Furthermore, through the northern door the dead were carried into the church, and the procession left through the southern door. This way not only the soul of the deceased traveled from the darkness into the light, but also the Devil was tricked in the process. It would be waiting outside the northern doorway in vain for the deceased to come out again and then take its soul to hell. Instead, the procession sneaked out through the southern door. Quickly buried the corpse in consecrated ground on the south side of the church, and the soul would be protected until judgement's day. Too late the Devil would find out he was waiting for nothing.

Death & Taxes

The shift from the Klingschatz (‘clinking tax’) or klipskelde taxation imposed by the Danes, to the huslotha taxation imposed by the Franks, was also symbolic for the Frisians as to where their new allegiance lay. The huslotha, by the way, was basically a taxation on property. The system to raise the klipskelde was quite awkward to say the least, as you might have read in the saga Der Nordmänner above.

Interestingly, another similar practice can be found in medieval Frisian law texts. It can be found in the late eighth-century Lex Frisionum ‘law of the Frisians’ and in the Leges Barbarorum. The latter is a collection of several Latin law codes between the fifth and ninth centuries. These laws also contain the practice of throwing stuff at a warrior shield to make it clink. This time it is part of a procedure to settle disputes after a fight: to determine the amount of weregeld ‘blood money’ to be paid by the offender and his/her kin to the victim and his/her kin. In this case, by throwing human bone splinters from the victim’s body to a red or brown warrior shield. If the victim's bone splinters were big enough to clink loud enough to be heard by a man who stood twelve steps away from the shield, then these splinters were fit for setting the compensation. Try to visualize the whole thing.

Find out more about the institute of the weregeld concept, and how compensation was regulated (extensively) in medieval Frisia in our post You killed a man? That’ll be 1 weregeld, please.

"Thit is thiv sivgunde liodkest, thet alle Frisa an fria stole besitte and hebbe fria spreka and fri ondwarde; thet urief us thi kinig Kerl, til hiv thet wi Frisa suther nigi and clipskelde urtege and wrthe tha suthera kininge hanzoch and heroch alles riuchtes tinzes and tegotha, and huslotha urgulde bi asiga dome and bi lioda londriuchte, al with thet wi er north herdon Redbate tha unfrethmonne, al thet Frisona was" Rüstringer Recht

This is the seventh statue, that all Frisians possess a free chair and have free speech [i.e. accusation] and free answer [i.e. defence]; that privilege was granted by Charlemagne, so that we Frisians would turn to the south and refuse to pay taxes in clinking money and would be subordinate and loyal to the southern [i.e. the Franks] king in all levy and tithe, and pay house tax according to the decision of the asega [i.e. law expert] and the people’s land law, all because we once belonged to the north [i.e. the Danes] to Redbad, the quarrelsome, all who were Frisian

noose - the north-facing tree

Another part of the sagas is that the people of Frisia were obliged by the Norsemen to wear a noose made of willow rods around their necks. A sign of not being free. A sign of being a slave. With their shift of allegiance from the Danes to the Franks, the necks of the Frisians were freed from these wooden collars. From then on, Frisians were called 'free-necks', and allowed to wear golden collars and all other jewellery again. This freedom was given to them by Charlemagne, and for this reason he fulfils a central role in the legends and sagas of the Frisians, from province Friesland to Kreis Nordfriesland. Read our post Magnus' Choice. The Origins of the Frisian Freedom.

Incidentally, wearing golden collars around neck is identical to what generally is considered typical Celtic culture of the Late Iron Age, namely the wearing of torcs or torques. In Welsh and Irish sagas the ancient Celts are being described as torc wearers (Clerinx 2023). Another Celtic custom parallel is 'going naked into battle'. The Frisians gained their freedom after fighting naked against the occupiers of Rome. Antique writers described how Celts would go naked onto the battlefield as well, only wearing their torc and belt for weaponry.

Want in sinen tiden, segghen si, Waren si so eighin als ende als Dat si strop droeghen om den hals.

(Rhyme-Chronicle of Holland, mid-fourteenth century)

Note 1 – If you would like to sleep in one of those old churches, know that is possible. A great initiative, we think. In province Friesland quite a few are available as refugio. Check the websites Jabikspaad (‘Jabik path’) and Santiago aan het Wad (‘Santiago at the Wadden Sea’). At the day of writing, you can stay the night in the following churches: Blesum, Boksum, Britsum, Foudgum, Hiaure, Jorwert, Nijland, Peins, Swichum, Sybrandahûs, Terband, Wânswert and Zurich.

The refugios are open from March until September. You need to ring 24 hours in advance and it will cost 15 euro. You need to have either:

a pilgrim pass of the Nederlands Genootschap van Sint Jabob;
a stamp card or route book of the Jabikspaad (‘Jabik path’);
a route book of the Sint Odulphuspad (‘Saint Odulphus path’);
a route book of the Bonifatius Kloosterpad (‘Saint Boniface Monastery path’);
a route book of the Claercamppad (‘Claercamp path’), or be;
a donor of the Âlde Fryske Tsjerken foundation.

Also, the community in Noordbroek in province Groningen has opened its church for overnight stays. Check the website Groninger Kerken.

Note 2 – If you really want to know what happened to Vikings in Frisia, read our post Frisia, a Viking graveyard. Hope the title is not too much of a spoiler.

Note 3 - In England, Norman doorways of churches exist too. There, these doors, together with other Romanesque architectonical elements, are actually created by the invaders of Normandy; the Norsemen.

Note 4 – Featured image is the village of Groothusen, Ostfriesland. Its church has a Norsemen’s door too.

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With a Noose through the Norsemen’s Door

Die Nordmänner

North and South

Death & Taxes

Further reading

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