When mentioning Frisia, Frisian law cannot be overlooked! Old Frisian law is a special subject, however. The Old Frisian (legal) texts that have been handed down to us were written in the twelfth to fifteenth centuries. These centuries are part of an era in Frisian history known as the ‘Frisian Freedom’. During this time, Central- and East-Frisia had no ruling lord, such as a count, which meant that early medieval society continued more or less unchanged until the fifteenth century. Frisia thus had an exceptional position compared to the rest of Europe. The Old Frisian legal texts from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries played an important role in legitimising this exceptional position of Frisia. Although these texts were written later than the ninth century, they supplement our knowledge of the law that was spoken in early medieval Frisia. This article therefore attempts to create an overview of early medieval Frisian law from the ninth century, based on early and high medieval sources and literature. It discusses the social context, the organisation of the legal system and the application of the law. Explanations of certain terms are noted at the bottom of the relevant paragraph.

It giet oan!* Skating has been a popular pastime for centuries in the Netherlands. Nowadays, when there is enough frost, people skate the ‘Elfstedentocht’, an ice skating tour along eleven Frisian cities,  as a national sport or skate recreationally on natural or artificial ice for their winter entertainment. However, the way people skate has changed enormously over the centuries. Whereas nowadays people skate on skates such as Norwegian skates and clap skates, in early medieval Frisia people skated on a completely different type of skate: bone skates

It’s time to highlight a new buckle! Some time ago, Robbie Hoen, one of our comrades from the early medieval Frisian reenactment group Swaninga, told us that they had reconstructed a special bone buckle from York. Several buckles have been found in this Northumbrian city, but one stands out in particular: the green buckle found in Clifford Street.

In the early middle ages, it was customary to wear cloaks outdoors to protect against the cold and rain. However, textile remains outside of Frisia reveal that another garment existed that served as a possible alternative for sailors: a woollen vest from Haithabu. We’re convinced a similar garment might have been worn by early medieval Frisians as well. This post will dive into the woollen vest from Haithabu.

“The tenth statute is that the Frisians are not obligated to assist the king in a military expedition which would lead them beyond the river Weser to the east or beyond the Vlie to the west, nor in one which would lead them so far south that they could not get back to the Frisian shores by nightfall, because they have to defend their land against the water and against the heathen armies.”This passage from the Seventeen Laws, an Old Frisian legal text from the late twelfth century, describes one of the privileges that the Frisians had been granted, according to tradition from Charlemagne, for their tribute to the Franks. Although the Seventeen Laws were drawn up to justify and explain the Frisian Freedom – the unique position of the Frisians outside the feudal system during the High and Late middle ages –, the text does refer to an actual exceptional position that the early medieval Frisians had within the Carolingian Empire: the exemption from the usual military obligation to protect the Frisian shores. This article focuses on the organisation of early medieval Frisian coastal defence.

On the coast of present-day Noord-Holland, a discovery of a so-called “key ring” was made in 1989. However, this key ring turned out to be a silver arm ring! The Callantsoog arm ring has a distinctive appearance, consisting of one large ring of 7.6 cm diameter with five smaller rings attached of about 2.5 cm diameter. The arm ring dates from the tenth century.

In the early 20th century, a wooden object was found in the Britsum terp in Friesland: it turned out to be a wooden centrepiece of an instrument dated between 800 and 1000 AD. We would like to highlight a fairly underexposed instrument from early medieval Frisia: the hornpipe.

Early medieval trade cannot be discussed without the Frisians: the early medieval Frisians had such a large part in trade that the word ‘Frisiones’ in a charter from 829 - about the construction of the cathedral in Worms - was an equivalent for “long-distance merchant”! The so-called ‘Frisian trade’ - that will be discussed in this post - has its beginnings and origins in the North Sea culture of the seventh and early eighth centuries. However, this post will focus only on the peak of this trade in the ninth century. The North Sea culture will be discussed later in a separate post.

Spades! Several finds of spades have been found in the terp area of Friesland and Groningen, namely in Oostrum (Fr.) and Joeswerd (Gr.), and possibly also in Ezinge (Gr.). A characteristic feature of these implements is that they are made of a single piece of oak and have a rectangular, slightly tapered blade. This last feature is characteristic of the spade: unlike a shovel – ideally used for scooping, a spade is ideally suited for digging in a more downward direction. The straight, rectangular blade was, for this reason, ideally suited for cutting through sod and peat. Possibly, spades were also used for digging trenches, raising defences such as a burgh or a landweer (an earthen wall with a ditch with thorny hedges in it) and later, raising dykes. The original spades can be admired in the online collections of the Fries Museum and the Groninger Museum.

Reclamations and floods! Whether it is the construction of dams and ditches by the Cananephates, or the Delta Works of the 1970s; living with and fighting against water is in Dutch nature. An important part of Dutch history would drastically change the landscape and eventually cause a lot of flooding; bog reclamations. Perhaps the best known Dutch reclamations are the peat cuttings of the 19th and 20th centuries or the Great Reclamations of the 13th century. However, one of the first bog reclamations took place much earlier, in early medieval Frisia. Especially in so-called Westflinge, excavations took place very early. More on this in this post!

In the Frisian terp area, multiple finds have been found that are thought to have been used as agricultural tools. One such category of finds are pieces of antler comprising two tines. These implements are thought to have been used as hoes to work the soil or as pitchforks. According to Roes, the Fries Museum has more than thirty of these antler pieces. The collections of the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden has three, all hailing from Friesland, and the Groninger Museum has one. Finds of these implements seem to be lacking in the strandwall area of former West-Frisia, suggesting that the antler tools might have been commonly used in the terpen area only.

In the Lex Frisionum, a record of early medieval Frisian law, different classes are mentioned. In these law texts, there seems to be a rigid distinction between the rights of the well-to-do nobility, freemen, and the unfree. In Dutch reenactment, little attention is generally given to the differentiation in class, and the position of slaves and serfs therein. Therefore, this post will give an overview of the position of the unfree during the early middle ages, and by doing this trying to tell something about the unfree in early medieval Frisian society.