Today with friends from The Cotswolds we do one of our Frisian History Trails, inspired by my book ‘Liever dood dan Slaaf‘ (Better to be dead than to be a slave), the one that leads us to the Frisian ‘isle of Avalon’, Hogebeintum with the highest artificial hill in the country, the mysterychurch of Jannum where the bodies of mediaeval monks are buried and Dokkum. This is the place where the Anglo Saxon bishop Wynfreth was murdered by Frisian Pagans in the year 754. 

We start off at a Frisian Castle, that we call a ‘stins’…a fortified home with a stins-garden of a Frisian Noble-family. This is at Marsum, where the clay district starts of our journey, the land reclaimed from the Middle Sea. This sea divided Central Frisia in two parts, Westergo (‘gauw’ means ‘shire’) and Oostergo.

Our route follows the Western dike around that sea to the north. The sea was turned into a polder bit by bit by a scheme of ‘offensive’ land reclamation. The monks that cultivated the Frisian lands in the middle ages built dikes across the tidal flats of parts of the Middle Sea that became less flooded over time.

Because with the tides every time, a layer of clay is deposited until the land is elevated above sea level.

At the Wadden Sea this process is still ongoing, and behind the dikes you sea how until last century people tried to reclaim fertile land from the sea. This is how they turned the Middle Sea into land, a process that was finalised around 1500.

The resulting area is now called ‘The Bildt’, and the emblem of the area shows a seashell filled with wheat, the harvest of the fertile land claimed from the sea.

So we drive through the sea, and find some areas where the names still refer to the monks who build the dikes for land reclamation, one of the is ‘Monnikebildzijl’, which means a ‘sluice’ where the monks let the water out into the sea. Frome here we go to Hogebeintum, and cross the seabed from Westergo to Oostergo.

The oldest mention of this place dates from the ninth century as ‘Binthem’, mentioned as a monastery possesion from Fulda in current Germany.

This, Fulda is also the place where the murdered Wynfreth was mummified and buried, more on that later on at Dokkum.

Bint may refer to a type of grass that was common in this salty marsh prairy area. Here the villagers erected their artificial hills called a ‘wart’, ‘wierde’, and they herded their cattle in the nearby area.

The Dutch word ‘Terp’ for these artificial hills refers to ‘dorp’, which means ‘village’…

The wart – like in citynames ‘Leeuwarden’and Bolsward- was used to protect villagers, their cattle and fertile lands from floods, while the area still had no permanent dikes. Hogebeintum grew out to almost nine metres high. After the conversion to christianity in the early ninth century a church was put on top.

The current church’s oldest foundation may date to the 11/12th century. The oldest part was built with vulcanic rock from the Eifel, that the monks shipped all over the Rhine to the chilly north, battered by constant North Sea winds in the autumn and winter season.

Later on the Frisian monks switched to clay bricks, after rediscovering the art of stone baking that their early Roman predecessors already possessed. This is why the Stone Age in Frisia only started after the year 1200. After centuries of organic deposits from the villagers, (they dropped their waste) the earth of the ’terp’ became fertile soil.

This made it a target for 19th century investors. They bought the Terp and as in most Frisian villages they digged away all the Terp-earth, except the little part where the church stood on. They sold the earth as compost for agriculture. So the Terp used to be way bigger, but is now reduced to a steep little hill, like small islands in the sea of clay with the church and typical Frisian saddleroofs on it as a Lighthouse for God.

Fortunately archeologists made use of all the digging to discover about the centuries of history hidden under the Terp Earth. This is why historians now know a lot more about the way of life of Mediaeval Frisians. One of the most spectacular finds – found around 1904- is a so called ‘Fibula’ from the seventh century, a brooch that was used to tie a cloak together.

The find has likeness with both Anglo Saxon and Scandinavian art, and can be seen at the Frisian Museum. Similar brooches were also found at other Terps in Frisia. One of the finds from the seventh century also contained coins from Constantinopel, current Istanbul. So the Frisians were considered well connected seafaring traders at that time.

Current ’typical’ Frisians still carry the DNA of these North Sea Peoples, who migrated to (West) Frisia, traded with the Frisians and mixed with them. The North Sea was called ‘Frisian Sea’ at the time because of all the Frisian (and Angles, Saxons) seafaring traders in their wooden SUV’s of the North Sea.

If English readers want to learn more about this period, they can read Michael Pye’s book about ‘how the North Sea made us who we are’…The Frisians and English share many common features in their early history, also in language. The language of the oldest English saga, the Beowulf is similar to early Frisian language.

Our next stop is the mystery church of Jannum at the Dokkummer ‘Ee’, a river leading to the ‘murder city’ of Dokkum.

While visiting this 12th century monastery church for the photography of my book, it still contained a sarcophagh with the remains of monks in it, and the church functioned as a museum. After an exposition by the Frisian Museum about the period of the Frisian Freedom (until 1498 we lived in clan-structures, comparable to the Scots) most of the old stuff was removed.

They held stone tombs from the middle ages and a baptismal font from a mediaevel Frisian monastery church. Nevertheless, even without the contents and the corpses, the place still holds a form of magic that we are about to rediscover. From here we drive along the Dokkumer Ee. The word ‘Ee’ is Germanic for ‘natural water’, just like an ‘Aa’ in ‘Aachen’…

Here ships could sail to ‘Dockinga’ which was connected to open sea by what would later be called Dokkumer Diep. Until 1678 the Admiralty of the Frisians was harboured in Dokkum, which is why the people there still celebrate ‘admiraliteitsdagen’, a yearly excuse to drink more beer than usual.

Dokkum lost it’s connection to the sea gradually, because clay deposits blocked the route so that tall ships could no longer move in. This is why the Admiralty switched it’s location to Harlingen, the place where my ancestors, the Sailmakers came from. Now Dokkum is in the middle of meadows, still holding its historical appeal as one of the most charming little cities of Frisia.

The Anglo Saxon monk Wynfreth, titled ‘Bonifatius’ picked this place in an attempt to convert Frisan Pagans to christianity. He was too early. The trauma of the defeat of the Frisians by the Franks in 734- when Charles Martel defeated Poppo at the Middle Sea- was still too fresh. Charles ‘Martel’ means ‘Charles the Hammer’, and if you become a ‘martyr’ you are thus hammered.

Martel was the warrior that also defeated the invading Islamists at Tours in France in 732. He was a military hero, that saved Europe from early Islamisation. So its no shame to lose a battle of a Warrior of this statute.

However: The Frisians associated christianity with the territorial demands of the invading Franks.

Which was not a good start for a faith, that by the example of Jesus was said to ’turn the other cheek’, instead of draw the sword to force conversion, which is more the trait of Islam (literally ‘subjection’). So the Frisians killed Wynfreth, believing him to be a hypochristian.

It did not help that Bonifatius had desecrated holy pagan places either, so some say he was executed according to pagan Frisian Law. Anyway, this is why Dokkum until this day is called ‘Murder City’, because the Frisian Pagans killed the Anglo-Saxon priest. Now after all this info and Frisian miles, we have drinks and food at the Dokkumer Diep, at a place where they brew the Bonifatius Beer.

So let’s taste it and enjoy life and our good company together. There is so much more to learn and show of our beautiful Frisia, but let’s not overdo it for one day, and save it for other times to come.

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