From the year 2012, around 5,000 foreign fighters from 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 in the defence. But others return to their home country.

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 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 history piled up with foreign fighters participating in 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 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 followed by a second one during the Crusading Period, roughly between 1100 and 1300. In our blog post Terrorist Fighters from the Wadden Sea, we have already elaborated on Frisian crusaders and the society-undermining effects caused by the return of these holy fighters.

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 of these guys was a social reality, and how it was regulated. We will illustrate that both the north of Germany and of the Netherlands have a long legal tradition of a thousand years on how to deal with homecoming foreign fighters.

At the same time, it is instructive to know that Frisians not only participated in Viking raids but also in English naval fleets to combat those very same Vikings. In the year 897, no less than sixty-two Frisians and English 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's difficult to estimate how many men (and women?) of Frisia begi seg på farten 'go on the high seas' and took part in raids of the Vikings across Europe and beyond. The Frisians, however, weren't unique. Other peoples and tribes also participated in the raids of the Norsemen. Probably, the number of participating Frisians was quite relevant. 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 Lindisfarneses. Furthermore, a few years after the attack on the island of Sheppey, it was from the River Scheldt estuary, part of Frisia, that Ubbe the Frisian departed with his army of Scaldingi 'Scheldt Vikings' to invade England. Ubbe, also named Ubbi fríski in Danish, 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 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 Aurich, 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 in Walcheren, 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. 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 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, the Scheldt Vikings, 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 just a Frisian. And, who knows, the distinction between raiding Frisians and Danes was a fluid one, of which Ubbe might have been your typical example.

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

In Yorkshire is the place-name Frizinghall ‘Hall of Frisians’. This name derives from Frisian settlers. Of course, we like to speculate that this is where Ubbe had his hall. Frizinghall belongs with about twenty other place-names to settlements which etymologically can be attributed to Frisian settlers in Britain. Moreover, most of these place names are located in the former Danelaw, indicating the time they settled there. Were there Vikings too? Read also our blog post Have a Frisians Cocktail! 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 land, 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 with 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, whether under the final authority of the Frankish kingdoms or not, was even 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 big parts of Frisia. These areas were: the central river-lands with the most lucrative trade emporium of northwest Europe, namely Dorestat, the coastal zone along the North Sea named Kinhem or Kinnlimasiða in Old-Norwegian (present-day Kennemerland in the province of Noord Holland), and the estuary of the River Scheldt, including the Walachria Island (present-day Walcheren in the province of Zeeland). All located in what is part of the Netherlands today. 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, also East Frisia, region Ostfriesland, was 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 campaign 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 'district' 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 Norderland in 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 is also presumed on the (former) islands Texel (present-day island Texel) and Wieringen (present-day Wieringen) in the northwest of the Netherlands. More about the island Wieringen is 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. Read 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 is 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 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, 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 jn ene lewen wr nioghen fecke huses" (meaning: one can hear them clink in a scale over a distance of nine house lots). The word huslotha is composed of the word hus, meaning 'house', and the word lotha. Of the latter, it is a bit unsure what it means, but it might mean 'part' or indeed, a lot or plot of land. The clipskelde was the tribute paid to the Norsemen/Danes for loyalty to an overlord. The 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 had been established. To get an idea of the scale of Frisian free-trade, read our blog post Porcupines bore U.S. bucks.

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 Balkum in the Nordfriesland region. Island Balkum was located west of the island Föhr. The headstrong and specifically 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 Catholic Church in the meantime too. This was really more than he could bear. From the sacrificial stone that was on the island 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 village and to their family estate in Frisia. The numbers of homecoming foreign fighters were so significant that it was regulated by law. Again, an indication that the Frisians 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 originate from 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! 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' meaning '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 owner 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 life. In other words, they had been acting under duress. That they had been forced to do bad against their own kind. If all 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.

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 their possessions or for some kind of corrective punishment. Neither was it considered a traitorous act. Indeed, it underlines that no international criminal law was applicable (yet). 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.

Since Frisia was a flourishing feudal 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 re-take possession of their former property. To give the reader an idea of the fines that had to be paid in these cases, the following:

If someone killed a person, he or she had to pay a weregild, or wergeld, 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 different conversions with coins like dinari, solidi, sceattas, 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 weregeld 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 Mashariki region in Kenya (Willemsen 2014). There, a weregild amount is fourteen cows and one bull for killing a man. For a woman, it is seven cows and one bull. And, to answer your pressing question: in Frisia (and in East Anglia too), 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 island of Wieringen 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 Old-Frisian speech, denoting a Viking) doing with a weregild in Frisian territory? We do not know. Create your own story! If you are interested in the function of weregeld, read our blog post You Killed a Man? That'll Be 1 Weregeld, Please.

Besides the Westerklief I silver hoard, dated ca. 850, also the Westerklief II silver hoard was found on the same plot of land on Wieringen. This smaller (0.5 kilograms of silver) hoard is dated ca. 876 and contains mainly small hacksilver. Its coins are Arabic (this is contrary to the Westerklief I hoard that contains nearly no Arabic coins) and originate mostly from present-day southern Iraq. Like the Westerklief I hoard, the Westerklief II hoard is also of Viking origin (Besteman 2009).

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

Close to (former) island Wieringen, to the west, lay once the island Huisduinen, or known as Husidina in the eleventh century, and indeed meaning 'house in dunes' (Van Berkel & Samplonius 2018). Today, Huisduinen is the name of a village. Also here, on the former island 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, Gaul, 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. Not, 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 were 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.

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)

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)

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