The landscape is the background against which history takes place. A people is shaped by a landscape, but a landscape is also shaped by a people. This is particularly the case for the Frisians. Two different landscapes can be recognised in early medieval Frisia, namely; the terpen region and the strandwal region.
Terpen region
The terpen region of Central, Eastern and Northern Frisia consisted of a vast, treeless salt marsh area veined with creeks and gullies. The higher areas of the salt marsh flooded only during storm tides and were dry for most of the year. On these higher areas, the early medieval Frisians lived on artificial hills, which we now know as terpen or wierden. Further inland, they found poorly accessible, densely vegetated, stinking swamps and boggy forests; a truly respectable peat bog! The early medieval Frisians who lived in this terpe area supported themselves with cattle breeding and arable farming. Crops such as broad beans, barley and emmer wheat provided the Frisians with food, while hemp, flax, wool and dye plants served to make rope and clothing. Due to the lack of trees on the salt marsh, the Frisians in this area built their houses out of sod. A reconstruction of such a distinctive sod house has been recreated in Firdgum; Het Zodenhuis. In this watery landscape, transport by ship was much faster than by land.
Strandwal region
In contrast, there was also another landscape in which the early medieval Frisians lived: The strandwal landscape of West Frisia consisted of a wooded area of dunes and strandwallen interrupted by river mouths. Strandwallen are elongated, sandy mounds that lie parallel behind the dunes. Between and behind these sand barriers, lower-lying plains were found that consisted of marshes, wetlands and peat cushions. The peat drained in creeks into major rivers, such as the Rhine, Meuse and Scheldt, which flowed into the sea. In this swampy landscape, the higher strandwallen basically served as natural mounds. Settlements were therefore mainly concentrated on the strandwallen and on creek ridges and embankments along river mouths. The Frisians who lived in the strandwal region lived – same as in the terp area - from cattle breeding and arable farming. The higher parts of the strandwallen, embankments and creek ridges served as arable land, on which crops such as barley, gold-of-pleasure, horse bean and flax were grown. The lower parts served as grazing land for sheep, pigs and horses. The Frisians of West Frisia built houses from wood that grew in forests on the strandwallen. This farm type is characterised by a living, working and stable area. Also in West Frisia, transport by ship across the many rivers and creeks was faster than land transport.
Description of Frisia from a source
In the Egils saga from the thirteenth century, there is a passage describing a raid in Frisia that takes place in the tenth century. What is interesting about this is that it also describes the landscape:
As autumn came on they came back northward harrying, and lay off Friesland. One night when the weather was calm they went up a large river-mouth, where was bad harbourage, and the ebb of the tide was great. There up on land were wide flats with woods hard by. The fields were soaked because there had been much rain. They resolved to go up there, and left behind a third of their force to guard the ships. They followed up the river, keeping between it and the woods. Soon they came to a hamlet where dwelt several peasants. The people ran out of the hamlet into the fields, such as could do so, when they perceived the enemy, but the freebooters pursued them. Then they came to a second village, and a third; all the people fled before them. The land was level, flat fields everywhere, intersected by dykes full of water. By these the corn-lands or meadows were enclosed; in some places large stakes were set, and over the dyke, where men should go, were bridges and planks laid. The country folk fled to the forest. But when the freebooters had gone far into the settled parts, the Frisians gathered them in the woods, and when they had assembled three hundred men, they went against the freebooters resolved to give them battle.
A landscape shapes a people. In the case of the early medieval Frisians, the landscape made them a resourceful, sailing people focused on water and sea.
Sources and further reading:
- Dijkstra, M.F.P., ‘Boerderijen en schuren: constructiewijze en culturele relaties (2e-10e eeuw)’ in: Noord-Holland in het 1e millennium, deel 1 (2023) 236-329.
- Dijkstra, M.F.P., Rondom de mondingen van Rijn en Maas (Leiden 2011).
- Eerden, R. Van, en P. Vos, ‘Een verrassend leefbaar land aan de rand van wateren’ in: Noord-Holland in het 1e millennium, deel 1 (2023) 50-95.
- Postma, D., Het zodenhuis van Firdgum. Middeleeuwse boerderijbouw in het Friese kustgebied tussen 400 en 1300 (Groningen 2015).
- Schepers, M., en P. Vos, ‘Welvarend wonen op een kwelder’ in: M. Stoter en D. Spiekhout, Wij Vikingen. Friezen en Vikingen in het kustgebied van de Lage Landen (2019) 44-53.
- https://www.gjallar.nl/bronnen_Egil.html
- https://sagadb.org/egils_saga.en
- https://archeologie.frl/steunpunten/firdgum/
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