From the year 2012, around 5,000 foreign fighters from different European countries went to the Levant to fight. Six years later, an estimated fifteen percent have died in battle. Others are still in the Middle East, imprisoned or perhaps on the move to centers of conflict elsewhere in the world, now that the terrorist groups are on the defensive. But others return to their home countries. This influx of returnees is worrisome but, we are sorry to say, not something new. Already nearly a thousand years ago, laws were drafted on how to deal with it as a society.

The phenomenon of homecoming foreign fighters somehow surprised European countries and their sophisticated policymakers. Criminal legislation reforms were rather reactive and ad hoc, as if everyone expected that all of them would be killed in battle anyway. How is this possible? Especially for countries bordering the Wadden Sea. This region has, after all, a long history piled up with fighters joining foreign forces, whether it was for reasons of faith, or for booty and glory, or, in practice, a toxic combination of these incentives.

Oh, you did not know that the Wadden Sea area is an important breeding ground for these spiritual warriors? It's essential that you finish reading this blog post.

If we leave the Frisian mercenaries in the Roman Imperial Army two thousand years ago aside – go to our blog post Frisian Mercenaries in the Roman Army to learn more about these fighters – there have been two major waves of homegrown foreign fighters. The first wave was during the Viking Age, roughly between 800 and 1000. This was closely followed by a second one during the Crusading Period, roughly between 1100 and 1300. In our blog post Terrorist Fighters from the Wadden Sea. The Era of the Crusades, we elaborate on Frisian young men who took the Cross and on the society-undermining effects caused by the return of these holy fighters. For one thing, many of them must have suffered from PTSD and/or been radicalized, conditions that medieval man had no words for yet.

In this blog post, we will zoom in on the return of Frisian fighters who took part in ransacking Viking warbands, how the process of homecoming for these individuals was a social reality, and how their reintegration was regulated. We will illustrate that both the north of Germany and the Netherlands have a lengthy legal tradition of about a thousand years on how to deal with these homecoming troublemakers.

At the same time, it is instructive to know that Frisians not only participated in Viking raids, but just as well in Anglo-Saxon naval fleets to combat those very same Vikings. In the year 897, no less than sixty-two Frisians and Englishmen died in battle in the service of King Alfred's army against the Danes. Sing along with our blog post ♪ They want you as a new recruit ♪ to learn more details of this piece of English-Frisian history.

It is difficult to estimate how many men – and women? – of Frisia begi seg på farten (‘go on the high seas’) took part in raids by Vikings across Europe and beyond. The Frisians, however, were not unique. Other peoples and tribes also participated in the raids of the Norsemen. Probably, the number of Frisians who were ploughing against the foaming waves with the Northmen was quite significant. For example, in the year 855, an army of pagans, of Dani et Frisones (‘Danes and Frisians’), landed on the island of Sheppey in East England, according to the Annales Lindisfarnenses. Another lead comes from the excavations in western France, at Île de Ré, where Viking remains were uncovered attesting the probable presence of Frisian men as well (Bolle, Ciesielski & Torchut 2025). By the way, Île de Ré is a saltmarsh environment Frisians were very familiar with.

Furthermore, a few years after the attack on the island, it was from the estuary of the River Scheldt, an area belonging to West Frisia still, that Ubbe the Frisian departed with his army of Scaldingi ('Scheldt men') to invade England. Ubbe, also named Ubbi fríski in the Danish language, is one of the three founding commanders of the legendary fearsome Great Heathen Army. This same Ubbe is said to have led, together with the leaders Inguar and Halfdene, the raid on the island of Sheppey.

Who was Ubbe? – Often it is assumed that Ubbe is Danish since he is a son of Ragnarr Loðbrók according to legends. However, we can safely assume Ragnarr was non-historical (IJssennagger 2017), which makes Ragnarr irrelevant for proof concerning Ubbe's 'nationality'. Part of the Loðbrók legend is that Ubbe had a Frisian mother.

The name Ubbe is a Frisian first name to this day, and derives from the first name Obe. Old Frisian legends speak of the third prince of Frisia named Ubbo I. He ruled over Frisia between 151-71 BC and was a grandson of Prince Friso, who founded Frisia. Ubbo I is also the founder of the city of Cologne. The fourth duke of Frisia was Ubbo II. He ruled over Frisia between AD 240-299, according to old non-historical legends again, of course. Another Ubbo is the high-medieval local ruler, Ubbo Habbena from the town of Aurich in the region of Ostfriesland. Anyway, plenty of Ubbes and Ubbo's in Friesland.

There are scholars who suggest that the name Ubbe is, in fact, Old Norse and derives from Úlfr, thus adding an ‘l’ to the name. According to this theory, Ubbe and the Viking warlord Rodulf (Rod Ulf, meaning 'praise wolf') were one and the same person, and Ubbe was born and raised on the island of Walcheren in West Frisia (Lewis 2018). To complicate things even more, at the mouth of the River Old Rhine, the Frisian settlement Hrothaluashem ‘Rodulfsheim’ existed, meaning 'house of Rodulf.' Today, it is known as Rijnsburg in the province of Zuid Holland. Hrothaluashem is considered to be part of an early medieval elite central place complex, as can be found in southern Scandinavia as well. Concerning more background on CPCs, check out our blog post Tolkien pleaded in favour of King Finn: An immortalized royal tragedy. If interested in wolf names, read our blog post Who’s afraid of Voracious Woolf? – the Dread Beast is Back.

Or, should we keep it simple?

Firstly, Ubbe is, as stated, a typical Frisian first name. Secondly, Ubbe was not nicknamed ‘the Frisian’ without reason. Thirdly, he did not command the Scaldingi, i.e., warriors from the River Scheldt in West Frisia, for no reason either. Fourthly, ‘foreigners’ participating in Viking raids were common. In conclusion: Ubbe is a Frisian. And, who knows, the distinction between raiding Frisians and Danes was a fluid one, of which Ubbe might have been a typical example.

That ‘to viking’ was also a job description, besides denoting an ethnic Scandinavian group, is confirmed in recent genetic research (Margaryan 2020). Genetic samples of ‘Viking burials’ from among others the British Isles to Italy, Russia, and Ukraine show that graves typified as Vikings were, in fact, sometimes locals or non-Scandinavians. Also, albeit in limited cases, that so-called Viking warriors buried in Scandinavia turned out to be Sámi. Unfortunately, no old genetic samples from the southern North Sea coast (i.e., Frisia) have been included in this recent research. Maybe they were too close and overlooked?

In Yorkshire exists the place-name Frizinghall, meaning ‘hall of Frisians’. This name derives from Frisian settlers. Of course, we like to speculate that this is where Ubbe the Frisian had his hall. Frizinghall belongs, along with about twenty other place-names, to settlements that etymologically can be attributed to Frisian settlers in Britain. Moreover, most of these place-names are located in the former area of the Danelaw, indicating the time when the Frisians also settled there. Were they Vikings, too? Read also our blog post Have a Frisians Cocktail! A rich composition to learn more about Frisian place-names in Britain.

If interested to know more about this chap Ubbe and his Great Heathen Army read, only during daylight, our blog post Walcheren Island. Once Sodom and Gomorrah of the North Sea.

For now, we leave all the sea fog surrounding Ubbe behind us and return to political Frisia.

Early-medieval Frisia encompassed the lands, islands, and waters between the mouth of the River Scheldt in the southwest of the Netherlands and the mouth of the River Weser in the northwest of Germany. It also included the region of Nordfriesland, bordering the lands of the Danes in the north. The coast stretched for hundreds of kilometers, with sandy, muddy, and peaty terrain that was difficult to traverse. Geographically, this coastline was centrally located between the Dena lagunema ('Danelaw') on the British Isles to the west, and Denmark, as well as southern Norway and Sweden, to the east and northeast.

The influence of the Vikings in what is today the Netherlands, whether under the final authority of the Frankish kingdoms or not, was very direct. In the ninth century, Viking warlords like the renowned Rorik of Dorestad, Hemming Halfdánsson, Rodulf, Harald Klak, and Godfrid the Sea-King governed large parts of medieval Frisia. These areas were: the Central Riverlands with the most lucrative trade emporium of northwest Europe, namely Dorestad, the coastal zone along the North Sea named Kinhem or Kinnlimasiða in Old Norse (present-day region of Kennemerland in the province of Noord-Holland), and the estuary of the River Scheldt, including the island of Walcheren in the province of Zeeland. Read also our blog post The Abbey of Egmond and the Rise of the Gerulfing Dynasty for more background about these Danish warlords ruling (West) Frisia.

Besides West Frisia and Mid Frisia, East Frisia, the modern region of Ostfriesland, was also ruled by a Danish warlord. East Frisia and Mid Frisia were, in a way, considered by the Danes as their outer provinces. Twelfth-century sources report that the Danish king received an annual tribute of 10-30 marks of silver from his Frisian possessions after a military campaign of the Danes in Frisia in 810. This was, in fact, a modest and respectable tax comparable to other 'outer' provinces (Sindbæk 2011). From the year 826 onwards, it was Viking earl and warlord Harald Klak Halfdansson, brother of Halfdane Hemming who died on the island of Walcheren in 837, who ruled on behalf of the Franks over the pagus 'territory' Rüstringen of Frisia in the northwest of Germany. From there, he controlled the mouths of the rivers Weser and Jade. The great Battle of Norditi in the area of Norderland in the region of Ostfriesland in the year 884 was also a consequence of the (semi) permanent presence of Norsemen. The battle was won by the Frisians and Franks, and it took the lives of a staggering 10,377 Danes. Read our blog post A Theel-Acht. What a great idea!

Long-term presence of Norsemen in Frisia is also presumed on the (former) islands of Texel and Wieringen, located in the province of Noord Holland in the northwest of the Netherlands. More about the former island of Wieringen will be discussed further below.

Concerning the (semi-) permanent presence of Vikings in Frisia, a fascinating example is given in the ninth-century Annales Fuldenses of a Norseman living among the Frisians and helping them when a Viking raiding party attacks his host country. Go to our blog post Frisia, a Viking graveyard to read the full account. Furthermore, the presence of the aforementioned Ubba the Frisian and the Scaldingi chapter in the modern province of Zeeland are also relevant in this context. Lastly, distribution patterns of the so-called imitation gold solidi (i.e., coins) indicate the (semi-) permanent presence of Vikings in Frisia, especially in the current provinces of Friesland and Groningen. These coins were probably minted by Vikings rather than Frisians, as was previously assumed (Coupland 2016).

The Frisian and Danish sea tribes were also culturally related. Parts of Frisia had been converted to Christianity recently, but before that, they shared the same heathen beliefs as their northern cousins for centuries. Yes, they might even have identified themselves with the Norsemen. Despite the fact that the Franks had incorporated most of Frisia into their kingdoms over the course of the eighth century, and despite the many Anglo-Saxon monks from the monastery of Rath Melsigi in Ireland who had tried to evangelize Frisia, Frisians living at the outer rim of their motherland might not have been fully pacified and certainly not baptized yet during the Early Middle Ages. They, therefore, kept interacting with their pagan neighbours as ever before.

All Frisians once belonged to the north over the sea to the terrible corner and all were heathen, who were Frisians (Old-Frisian Emsinger Law). (transl. by IJssennagger)

These texts date from the High Middle Ages. By then, Frisians were indeed a people who had recently changed their allegiance, from the heathen, barbaric north to the Christian, supposedly civilized south. This is symbolized by the tribute or tax they had to pay, namely from the clipskelde to the huslotha. The word clipskelde is composed of the Old-Frisian word clippa/klippa, meaning 'to clink', and the word skelde, meaning 'debt'. So, a clinking debt. Old-Frisian law prescribed that the pennies to be paid had to be so heavy that ma him moeghe hera clinna in ene lewen wr nioghen fecke huses ('one can hear them clink in a scale over a distance of nine house lots'). The word huslotha is composed of the element hus, meaning 'house', and the element lotha. Of the latter, it is a bit unsure what it means. It might mean 'part' or, indeed, a lot or plot of land. Clipskelde was the tribute paid to the Norsemen, i.e., Danes, for loyalty to an overlord. Huslotha was a tribute paid to the Franks.

That we Frisians subjected ourselves to the south and clipskelde [tribute] refused and became subordinate and obedient to the southern king, regarding all rightful tenths [kind of tax] and paid huslotha [house tax], according to the asega’s [law expert] judgement and according to the people’s land-law, because we belonged to [king] Redbad the unpeaceful-man, all that was Frisian. (transl. by IJssennagger)

For more on the huslotha and clipskelde taxes, study our blog post With a Noose through the Norsemen’s Door.

In addition, both Scandinavians and Frisians were heavily involved in the rich supra-regional trade for a long time. Throughout southern Scandinavia, important trading ports, Frisian trade colonies, and Frisian guilds have been established. To get an idea of the huge scale of Frisian free trade, read our blog post Porcupines Bore U.S. Bucks. The Birth of Economic Liberalism.

Participation of the Frisians in the Viking warbands could be voluntary or involuntary. During raids, the noerdtscha diuelen (Old Frisian for 'northern devils') could take captives – sometimes young children and sometimes adults. These captives could be sold as slaves back home or somewhere else for a fair price. Alternatively, they could be bought free by their relatives, which still meant a profit for the cunning Vikings. Lastly, captives could be forced to participate in plundering, killing, and raping during raids. This blog post focuses on these aspects.

Saga of the Headstrong Frisian – This saga, of the Viking Age, is about a North Frisian from the Wadden Sea island of Balkum in the region of Nordfriesland. The island of Balkum was located west of the island of Föhr. The headstrong and heathen Frisian participated in Viking raids. When one day he returns from one of his raiding trips, his island has been swallowed by the sea. Although this was already quite a blow for him, furthermore, all of his kin and friends were converted by the Roman Catholic Church in the meantime, too. This was really more than he could bear. From the sacrificial stone that was on the island of Balkum, he threw himself into the sea and drowned.

Some of the captives were able to flee or were bought free at a later time, after which they returned to their humble village and to their family estate in Frisia. The number of homecoming foreign fighters was so significant that it was regulated by law. Again, an indication that the Frisians frequently manned Viking longships, too.

The Old Frisian codices or law books of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries still contained articles or clauses concerning homecoming Frisians from Viking captivity. Some of these codices have been built up over the centuries, traceable from ca. 1000. The medieval Old Frisian law books contain different names for the word Viking. These are: witzing, witzeng, wising, and witzend, and are related to the Old English word wicing, meaning 'pirate'. Similarly, the origin of the word 'Saxon' also means 'pirate' (Springer 2003). Read our blog post Have a Frisians Cocktail! A rich composition on the topic of the origin of Saxons, too. Thus, Viking and Saxon were terms to indicate a 'profession', if you like, and, at first instance, not to denote a people or tribe.

A different etymological explanation is that the word Viking derives from the Old Swedish verb vika or Old Norse vikja, meaning 'to change rowers' and 'to give way'. It is comparable to the modern Mid-Frisian verb wykje. So, 'to give way on a rowing bench for a rested rower'. Therefore, vika and 'to viking' translate to 'sea voyage with rowers changing' (Heide 2005).

Below are the clauses of two law books concerning the return of Frisian fighters, namely the Fivelgo Manuscript and the First Rüstringer Codex. Fivelgo is a former pagus 'district' in the present-day province of Groningen in the Netherlands, and Rüstringen is a former pagus in the present-day region Ostfriesland in Germany. The First Rüstringer Codex, or R1 in the jargon of historians, dates from ca. 1300. The Fivelgo Manuscript, or F in the same jargon, dates from ca. 1450. Both texts concern the Twenty-four Land Laws.

Rüstringen text – Thit is thet twintegoste londriucht: Sa hwersa Northman an thet lond hlapath, and hia enne mon fath and bindath and ut of londe ledath, and eft withir to londe brangath and hini therto thwingath, thet hi hus barne and wif nedgie and man sle and goishus barne and hwetsa hi to lethe dwa mi, alsa hi thenne vndfliuch ieftha lesed werth, and withir to londe kumth and to liodon sinon, and hi mugi bikanna brother and swester and londethele and erue and sinera aldera hof and hus, sa fari hi oua sin ein erue uter liodskelde. Sa willath him tha liode thing toseka and sinne opawerpa thruch thet grate morth, ther hi er mith tha witsingon efremid heth. Sa mire thenna afara thene warf gunga and iechta mire tella; enne eth hach hi thenne opa tha heligon to swerande, thet hit al debe bi there need, alsa him sin hera bad, ther hi was liues and lethana en vnweldich mon. Sa ne thuruon him tha liode ne frana tohalda seka ni sinna, thruch thet thi frana ne machte thes fretha waria; thi skalk skolde dwa, alsa him sin hera bad, thrum thes liues willa.

This is the twentieth land law: When the Norsemen invade the land and they take a man captive and bind him and carry him off abroad and later take him back in the land and force him to burn down houses and rape women and kill men and burn down churches and whatever sort of evil he may do, and if he flees or is released and he comes back to his land and to his folk, and he recognizes his brother and sister and family estate and ground and his parents’ court and house, then he can take back his own land without payment to the folk. When his people want to charge him and accuse him of a crime because of the great murdering that he had committed with the Vikings. Then he may come before the assembly and plead guilty and confess; then he must swear on the relics that he had done everything because he was forced by his lord against whom he could not voluntarily decide over his body or life. Then neither the people nor the frana (*) can charge him as guilty or with crime, because the frana cannot secure his peace; the servant had to do what his master ordered, for his life’s sake. (trans;. by IJssennagger)

(*) The frana was a functionary originally who acted on secular matters on behalf of the bishop. Task of the frana was to guarantee the peace and execute legal rulings. For this the frana had the monopoly for violent action against disobedient. It was his duty to execute the legal rulings. Originally, the frana, together with the asega (literally meaning 'law saying', a legal expert and priest combined and the one guiding the trial) led the process of the law thing. Frisians happen to have a notable history concerning the thing gatherings. Read our blog post Well, the Thing is…

Fivelgo text – Thet twinthechgiste londriucht is: jefter Northmon kumath and anne mon hendat and bunden to tha skipe brengat and hi mith himman in sine ayna londe to ene thorpe kumpt an hi ther hus barnt ande wif a need nimth ande mon slaith en hwet sa hi to ewela decht, jef hi thenna vunfliucht jefta leszed wert, sa stant hi an liudworpena ware an on tha bonnena thinge; and sprecht ma him to, thet hi alle ewela deda den hebbe, sa iecht hi the salles and queth, hi hebbe alsa den; end hi ne thor ther nen bote vmbe iewa and ac nanne frethe felle, hwant hi dede tha hwile, alsa hi en skalc was; thi schalc scolded wan, alsa him sin hera bad, thruch thes liwes willa.

The twentieth land law is: when Norsemen come and take a man captive and bring him tied up to their ships and with them he comes back in his own land in a village and he burns houses and rapes women and kills men and whatever evil he does, then he appears, when he escapes or is bought free, before a yard gathered by the people and in the banned thing (*); when he is accused for doing all these evil deeds, then he confesses all and says he has done that; and he neither needs to pay a fine nor to pay for the peace, because he did it, when he was a servant; the servant must do what his lord commands to save his life. (transl. by IJssennagger)

(*) A thing – or ting or ding – was a governing assembly of northern Germanic societies of which Frisia was part. The parliament in Iceland still is named Alþing. Frisians happen to have a notable history concerning the thing gatherings. Read our blog post Well, the Thing is…

Striking how similar both texts are. Even after more than a century had passed between the two. The underlying central social question was the legal certainty concerning the property of men who were taken captive by Vikings. When returning, these foreign fighters could retake possession of their former family property and land. But only under certain conditions.

The first condition was that they could prove to be the rightful owners through recognizing their family and their family estate and goods. A workable alternative in a society without passports and without a central registration of citizens. The second condition was that they made their claim within a certain period of time. The particular clauses mentioned above contain no fatal deadlines, but from other Old-Frisian sources, we know thirty years was a typical deadline. So, they were not in a hurry to return. The third condition was that, in case they had been fighting, murdering, burning down houses, raping women, etc., inside the territory of Frisia, they had to make it plausible they had done so to save their own lives. In other words, they had to make credible that they had been acting under duress, that they had been forced to do bad against their own kind. If these three conditions were met, they could retake their possessions without paying anything to anyone.

But what was the consequence if the returnee had been killing and raping his own people of his own free will? We find an answer in the Old Frisian Hunsinger codices from the fourteenth century. It concerns not Viking warbands, though, but men who joined Saxon forces 'with the high helmets' and who fought against their own land, Frisia. The answer: they were considered traitors.

Hunsinger Recht text – 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 hef to ferane and theron te sansane.

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 northwards to the sea and be thrown in the sea. (transl. by IJssennagger)

'To be taken north and thrown into the sea' did not mean going for a refreshing swim at the North Sea beach or taking a stroll across the mud flats of the Wadden Sea. No, it meant the person was being drowned. It could even be worse. If you had violated a religious sanctuary, you were castrated and your ears were split as well before being tied up to a pole during the ebb. Then you had to wait for the flood to come. In modern law, the 'traitor' or foreign fighter is no longer stripped of his life, testicles, ears, etc., but stripped of his nationality. So, it goes from something tangible to something fictional, some might argue. Notice, the point of compass is north. That is where heathendom is. Where the Frisians were so-called liberated from by the Christian Franks and the Anglo-Saxon missionaries.

Be that as it may, the keen reader may have deduced already that the fact that returning foreign fighters had been killing, plundering, and raping outside the territory of Frisia was totally irrelevant for retaking one's possessions or for some kind of corrective punishment of the homecoming foreign fighter. Neither was it considered a traitorous act. Indeed, it underlines that no international criminal law was applicable. As it happens, former West Frisia is proud to have the Capital of International Law on its territory today, with all the international courts that go with it – namely the city of The Hague. Its authority is such that when an international court declares, for example, military action or occupation by a state illegal, the state concerned does make the effort to answer the court and say it will not abide by its verdict.

Since Frisia was still a feud society, another option for retaking possessions may have also been applicable, namely; a foreign fighter who had been killing and engaging in similar activities among his own people inside the territory of Frisia without being forced to do so by a master could compensate the victim's family and his or her relatives by paying a 'fine' together with a possible fine to restore the broken peace. After paying these fines or weregild (see below), everything was buried and forgotten, and the individual could retake possession of his or her former property. To give the reader an idea of the fines or blood money that had to be paid in these cases, the following:

If someone killed a person, that person had to pay a weregild, or wergeld, literally meaning ‘man price’. A weregild for killing a freeman amounted to 1,664 grams of fine silver. This amount of silver was more or less stable, irrespective of all the different conversions with coins like dinar, solidus, sceatta, marks, pounds, etc., in the legal texts throughout time. Yes, the amount of silver for a weregild stayed stable throughout the whole Middle Ages. When you convert the weregild of 1,664 grams into the current money of payment (date of this blog post 2018), it would be, for example, 1,193 US dollars that you would have to pay to the heirs.

Research has been done into the still-existing fines of the Kamba tribe in the region of Mashariki in Kenya (Willemsen 2014). There, a weregild amount for killing a man is fourteen cows and one bull. For a woman, it is seven cows and one bull. And, to answer your pressing question: in Frisia – and in East Anglia – the weregild for a woman was the same as that for a man, of the same social status, of course. In other Germanic tribes, however, the weregild for a woman was mostly higher, sometimes three times as much, especially if she had reached the age of fertility. If you want to understand the logic of these differences better, read our blog post Women of Frisia: Free and Unbound?

One of the Viking hoards found in Frisia, on the former Wadden Sea island of Wieringen in the province of Noord Holland in the Netherlands, contains exactly 1.7 kilograms of silver (see image above). The silver pieces are complete ornaments and unfragmented heavy silver ingots (Besteman 2009). It is the so-called Westerklief I silver hoard and is dated around 850. Was it a weregild maybe, or is it just a coincidence? And if it was a weregild, what was a northeska wigandum ('northern fighter' in the Old Frisian language, denoting a Viking) doing with a weregild in Frisian territory? We do not know. Create your own story! If the reader is interested in the function of weregeld, and he should, read our blog post You Killed a Man? That'll Be 1 Weregeld, Please.

Besides the Westerklief I silver hoard, dated ca. 850, the Westerklief II silver hoard was also found on the same plot of land on Wieringen. This smaller silver hoard, 0.5 kilograms, is dated ca. 876 and contains mainly small hacksilver. Contrary to the Westerklief I hoard, which contains nearly no Arabic coins, its coins are Arabic and originate mostly from present-day southern Iraq. Like the Westerklief I hoard, the Westerklief II hoard is also of Viking origin (Besteman 2009). As a side remark, if the reader thinks hacksilver is something typical of Vikings, it is not the case. Already the Romans bought the allegiance of Germanic tribes with hacksilver, as the hoard found at the town of Echt in the province of Limburg, dated around 411, illustrates (Wijnendaele 2024).

The name Wieringen, by the way, derives from Wirense as it was already known in the ninth century. Wieringen means 'land of wiers', with the element wier meaning 'elevated height'. Compare the word wierde in the province of Groningen for a 'terp' (Van Berkel & Samplonius, 2018).

Close to the (former) island of Wieringen, to the west, lay once the island of Huisduinen, which has been incorporated into the polders and forms part of the coastline. Huisduinen was known as Husidina in the eleventh century, indeed meaning 'house-dunes' (Van Berkel & Samplonius 2018). Today, Huisduinen is the name of a small village with the lighthouse Lange Jaap ('tall Jacob'). Also here, on the former island of Huisduinen, there are leads pointing to Viking presence, like on Wieringen. Sand dredged from before the coast contained a Viking sword, a silver armlet with five rings attached to it, and English and Arabic coins (Roos 2011).

Note 1 – The raids of the Vikings are often the focus when we talk about raiding in northern Europe. In fact, the wider North Sea had a long-standing tradition of piracy. During the first five centuries of the Common Era, piracy was widespread and extended from the southern coast of the North Sea to Britannia, Brittany, and all the way to the Mediterranean. Read our blog post Our civilization – It all began with piracy.

Note 2 – Quite a number of Vikings have found Walhalla on Frisia territory in the ninth century. Do a body count reading our blog post Frisia, a Viking graveyard. We counted 11,180 deaths. No, not mistakenly one 1 too many!

Note 3 – The Senja Neck-Ring Runes

Up in the high north of Norway at the small village of Senja, a beautiful silver neck-ring has been found dating mid-eleventh century. The neck-ring is being kept at the Norges arktiske universitetsmuseum in Tromsø. Onto both ends of the clasp runes have been carved. It is a half stanza of four lines. It goes as follows:

Fórum drengja Fríslands á vit ok vígsfǫtum vér skiptum

Different translations are possible. At first the inscription was translated as:

• We went to visit the young lads of Frisia and we it was who split the spoils of war (Page 1987, Van der Tuuk 2015), or

• We went to meet the valiant men of Frisia and we divided the spoils of the fight (Riksantikvarieämbetet website)

More recently it has been translated as follows:

• We went to visit young Frisian warriors and divided up the war-gear (Barnes 2012), or

• We went to visit young Frisian trading partners and exchanged war-gear (Barnes 2012)

So, either it was Vikings who raided Frisia halfway the eleventh century (which is a bit too late because by that time no documented raids on Frisia have taken place anymore) and after they divided up the booty, or Vikings and Frisians went raiding together and divided up the booty, or Vikings traded with Frisian merchants and divided war-gear.

Note 4 – If interested in an overview of the documented attacks of the Northmen in Frisia, check the website of Gjallar – Aanvallen in de Lage Landen.

Note 5 – Featured image by Jørn Løvland.

Suggested music

Eric & the Vikings, Time Don't Wait (1972)

Further reading

Algemene Inlichtingen- en Veiligheidsdienst (AIVD), Uitreizigers en terugkeerders (website)

Barnes, M.P., Runes. A handbook (2012)

Besteman, J., A second Viking hoard from Wieringen: Westerklief II (2009)

Berkel, van F. & Samplonius, K., Nederlandse plaatsnamen verklaard. Reeks Nederlandse plaatsnamen deel 12 (2018)

Bremmer, R.H., Hir is eskriven. Lezen en schrijven in de Friese landen rond 1300 (2004)

Bolle, A., Ciesielski, E. & Torchut, J.S., Des tombes inattendues à l’île de Ré témoignent d’échanges avec le monde nordique (2025)

Bos-van der Heide, H.S.E., Het Rudolfsboek (1937)

Coupland, S., Recent Finds of Imitation Gold Solidi in the Netherlands, The Numismatic Chronicle 176 (2016)

Engelkes, G.G., Der schwarze Rolf (1936)

Finlay, A. cs (ed.), Saga-Book Vol. XL (2016)

Halink, S., “Almost Like Family. Or Were They?” Vikings, Frisian Identity, and the Nordification of the Past (2022)

Heide, E., Viking – ‘Rower shifting?’ An etymological contribution (2005)

Henstra, D.J., The evolution of the money standard in medieval Frisia. A treatise on the history of the systems of money of account in the former Frisia (c. 600 – c.1500) (1999)

IJssennagger, N.L., Between the Frankish and the Vikings: Frisia and the Frisians in the Viking Age (2017)

Hilder, M., The Last Kingdom: Ubbe (2023)

IJssennagger, N.L., Central because Liminal. Frisia in a Viking Age North Sea World (2017)

Jacobs, T.J.M., Friese vosten (2020)

Klæsøe, I.S. (ed.), Viking Trade and Settlement in Continental Western Europe (2010)

Lewis, S.M., Rodulf and Ubba. In search of the Frisian-Danish Viking (2018)

Margaryan, A, et al, Population genomics of the Viking world (2020)

Meertens Instituut, Corpus of First Names in The Netherlands, Nederlandse voornamen (website)

Nieuwenhuijsen, K., Lex Frisionum. Inleiding (2010)

Nijdam, H., Klinkende munten en klinkende botsplinters in Oudfriese rechtsteksten: continuïteit, discontinuïteit, intertekstualiteit (2009)

Nijdam, H., Lichaam, eer en recht in middeleeuws Friesland. Een studie naar de Oudfriese boeteregisters (2008)

Nederlands Omroep Stichting (NOS), Twaalf Nederlandse IS-vrouwen en hun 28 kinderen opgehaald uit Syrië (2022)

Page, R.I., Runes. Reading the past (1987)

Riksantikvarieämbetet, Runor (website)

Roos, R. (ed.), Duinen en mensen. Noordkop en Zwanenwater (2011)

Schoorstra, W., Erfskip. De saga fan Ubba Skylding (2023)

Siems, H., Studien zur Lex Frisionum (1980)

Sindbæk, S., Silver Economies and Social Ties: Long-Distance Interaction, Long-Term Investments – and why the Viking Age happened (2011)

Sinn, A.T., Der Exot von Hattstedt. Auf den Spuren eines besonderen Sondenfundes (2019)

Stoter, M. & Spiekhout, D. (eds.), Wij Vikingen. Friezen en Vikingen in het kustgebied van de Lage Landen (2019)

Tuuk, van der L., De Friezen. De vroegste geschiedenis van het Nederlands kustgebied (2013)

Tuuk, van der L., Vikingen. Noormannen in de Lage Landen (2015)

Tuuk, van der L. & Mijderwijk, L., De Middeleeuwers. Mannen en vrouwen uit de Lage Landen, 450-900 (2020)

Vinkenoog, H., Frisians in the Great Heathen Army (2020)

Vries, O., Asega, is het dingtijd? De hoogtepunten van de Oudfriese tekstoverlevering (2007)

Vries, O., De taal van recht en vrijheid. Studies over middeleeuws Friesland (2012)

Vries, O., De wylde Wytsing (2019)

Willemsen, A., Gouden Middeleeuwen. Nederland in de Merovingische wereld, 400 – 700 na Chr. (2014)

Wetenschappelijk Onderzoeks- en Documentatie Centrum (WODC), Justitiële verkenningen. Terugkeer en re-integratie van ex-Syriëgangers (2022)

Wijnendaele, J.W.P., De wereld van Clovis. De val van Rome en de geboorte van het Westen (2024)