At the intersection of land and sea, where it's difficult to tell what is land and what is not, life is rough. The corrosive salt of the sea is devastating to most land species. Hence the (former) near treeless landscape of the flat, monotonous tidal marshlands of Frisia. Vice versa, most living things in water cannot cope with a sea that turns into land twice a day. Only the weirdest of species can survive in this barren twilight zone. Same is true for the strange looking humans who dwell in this unique environment and who are the topic of this post.

Contrary to what most people think or expect, the biodiversity of the Wadden Sea is not rich at all. Only around 10,000 different species live at the Wadden Sea. When one focuses on the tidal environment, only about 5,000 species can manage in this extreme habitat. When you compare this to the 36,000 species more inland from the Wadden Sea coast, this is a poor score (Revier 2019). Flipside is, however, once a species has managed to adapt to this harsh environment, competition is limited and food in abundance. Therefore, the numbers of those limited species present are huge. One cubic-meter of Wadden Sea mud contains millions of brown diatoms 'kiezelwieren', thousands of small crabs, cockles, mussels, snails and worms. With accompanying smells; the true reward of living on the edge.

A sad note is that despite being a UNESCA World Heritage site since 2014, the diversity of species in the Wadden Sea area is decreasing. An important reason is the lack of sweet water, and salt and sweet water are too strongly separated from each other.

What about humans who managed to survive in this twilight land?

Below one of the oldest descriptions of the behaviour of Celtic/Germanic dwellers along the southern North Sea coast.

It [Germania] is bound by an ocean shore. The people who dwell there are extraordinary in courage, as in physique, and thanks to their natural ferocity they exercise both prodigiously — their minds by making war, their bodies by habitual hard work but above all by habitual exposure to the cold. They live naked before they reach puberty, and childhood is very long among them. The men dress in wool clothing or the bark of trees even during the harsh winter. Not only they have endurance with swimming, they do it with enthusiasm too.

Of course, much has changed in the last two millennia when we observe the modern dwellers. Putting their slightly autistic behavioural aspects aside, often mistaken as being impassive and unemotional, the inhabitants of the Wadden Sea coastal zone are still odd creatures, indeed. No denying there. An amphibious life-form.

And they are actually giants. If you don't believe it, just Google or Bing ‘tallest people’ and the Netherlands invariably rank as number 1 of our planet. Even taller than the Dinka marsh people of South Sudan. Average height of males in this small country is a staggering 1.84 metres, and of females 1.70 metres (Averageweight.co). That's not all. Men of the Wadden Sea coast, i.e. provinces Friesland and Groningen in the north of the Netherlands, are on average 2 centimetres taller than their fellow countrymen of the south. Women are even on average 2.4 centimetres taller than their competitors of the south. So, the really tallest men and women this planet has ever seen, live along the coastal zone of the Wadden Sea: Frisia.

Tall Crusaders - Already in the Middle Ages during the Crusades, the Frisian fighters -together with the Danes- were described as the tall big men from the north. Read our post Terrorist Fighters from the Wadden Sea. Maybe, those days with a bit more temper than today.

Furthermore, when you look at their features you'll notice somewhat long, pale faces, exceptionally long and gangling arms, somewhat curved shoulders, often big ears and noses. Always huge hands and often blond hair. Needless to say, the latter might also be the result of a salty environment which bleaches their head of hair. You could say, taking everything together, they look a bit like that other sea dog Popeye. And who doesn't want to look like Popeye?

Those readers who have been to the north of the Netherlands before and stepped into a local bar in, let's say, the village of Wommels or Bierum, might have felt impressed and somewhat insecure to be surrounded by these giants. To order a beer means the bar counter is at your chest level. At the very least. Don't even bother to go to the men's toilet. It's impossible to reach it unless you take a crutch with you. Alternatively, have one of the giants to give you a lift. Ask them; they are used to helping out little people. In addition, the giants also make a lot of noise when they drink. A noise you cannot decipher either. But do not fear. Stay calm. They're all really as big and as friendly as their dozy Holstein Friesian cows.

Really? Are all of them so friendly? Well, one exception. This was tall Grutte Pier 'great Pier'. A pirate, mercenary and freedom fighter from the village of Kimswerd who lived at the end of the fifteenth century and who was known for his violence, brutality, and strength. We also calculated his estimated height at a staggering 2.3 meters. Check our post How great was Great Pier? (the sequel).

Why that other water people that lives along the coasts in Asia, the Sama-Bajao (nicknamed the Sea Gypsies), have developed stronger spleens, is evident. But as to why the dwellers of the Wadden Sea region are so tall, is unclear to biologists. Of course it's genetic. And a rich dairy diet has positive influence on growing taller too. But why the feature height became such a strong gene in the evolutionary selection process, they haven't figured out yet. Have Frisian women a specific preference for tall men perhaps? And if they do, why? In general it does seem that taller Dutch men have more offspring, whilst in the US for example, men of average height have more offspring than taller men (Stulp et al 2015).

Some argue that it has to do with the difference between Protestantism and Catholicism. Catholics in the south had more children than Protestants in the north, thus less nutrition, thus less height. Therefore, Frisians and Groningen people are taller (Stulp 2024). However, how this translates to genes, and why Dutch Protestants are taller than those in, for example, Switzerland, the US and Sweden, we do not understand.

It's tempting to simply suggest that those dwellers of the tidal marshlands literally had to keep their heads above the water during the many great storm floods. If it was not during storm floods, their tallness was needed to stick out of the sucking mud of the salt marshes. With their big hands and long arms, they endlessly dragged and moved heavy clay to strengthen, repair, and heighten their terps (to know what a terp is and how to raise one yourself, consult our manual Making a Terp in 12 Steps), and to build or enforce their dykes. But also to dig and empty out the infinitely many ditches they had scraped into the landscape in order to get rid of the excess water. For many centuries, it was a tough competition. If you wanted to survive, you had to move more soil than the sea did. Every minute of every hour of the year. An important observation is that the height of Dutch people increased specifically since the mid-nineteenth century. Still, natural selection can't go that fast, we think, so tall genes must have been in their DNA already.

Note that cutting ditches into the landscape is even how the tribe's name of the Frisians is being explained. See our post A severe case of inattentional blindness: the Frisian tribe’s name.

If you think that because of this history, people have a somber view of life, you'll be surprised. Although the people of the province of Friesland belong to the poorest in the country (only behind their eastern cousins of the province of Groningen) and have one of the highest unemployment rates too, they turn out to be the happiest in the Netherlands. This is according to repeated statistical research of the Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek (2017) and the Fries Sociaal Planbureau (2019). 'The Frisian paradox' as it is referred to. Some call it brede welvaart 'broad prosperity'. On top of this, the Netherlands recently ranked number 5 among the happiest countries in the world, behind Finland, Norway, Denmark, and Iceland (World Happiness Report 2019, 2023). Indeed, Frisians are a cosy bunch of friendly happy giants. When we look at the Nordfriesen 'North Frisians', it's the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein where the happiest people of Germany live, already since 2013 (Deutsche Post Glückatlas 2020).

Another interesting fact is that these less well-off but happy Frisians also have the lowest level of trust in the Dutch government. Something they share with the provinces of Limburg and Zeeland, and with the east of the province of Groningen. 'We manage better on our own,' seems to be the general feeling on the edges of the country.

Conclusion

In other words, just like the other 5,000 weird-looking animal species of the salty twilight land, humans too had to adapt to extreme circumstances and therefore have their own particularities as well. If this feels as an understatement, it is.

Note 1 - For the record, the abbreviation of Roald Dahl's book 'The BFG' is often misinterpreted. It is not Big Friendly Giant, but, of course, Big Frisian Giant. The mix-up is understandable since BFG's are, as explained in this post, friendly indeed.

Note 2 - In the year 2018, the marionette street theatre Giants of Royal de Luxe visited the province of Friesland. The big northerners were truly amazed and still talk about it. For the first time in their lives they saw creatures that were even taller than them.

Note 3 - This post focuses mainly on the descendants of Mid Frisia, i.e. the provinces of Friesland and of Groningen in the north of the Netherlands. It would be interesting to have more data on the heights and tallness of people living along the Wadden Sea coast in the states of Niedersachsen and Schleswig-Holstein (i.e. regions Ostfriesland, Land Wursten, Dithmarshen, and Nordfriesland) in Germany. If you have any additional data, please let us know.

Note 4 – Became interested in a personal encounter with a Frisian? Study our post Grassland Conversations, to be prepared and to get the most, or at least something, out of them.

Suggested music

McFerrin, B., Don't Worry Be Happy (1988)

Further reading

Beuningen, van J. & Akkermans M., Regionale verschillen in geluksbeleving en tevredenheid met het leven in 2013-2019 (2020)

Boon, J., Geld maakt niet gelukkig: Friezen zijn minder rijk, maar wel meest tevreden (2023)

Dahl, R., The BFG (1982)

Darwin, C., The Origin of Species (1859)

Dawkins, R., The Selfish Gene (1976)

Enserink, M., Did natural selection make the Dutch the tallest people on the planet? (2015)

Hendriks, A., The Tall Dutch (2015)

Mela, P., Chorographia (44)

Squatriti, P., Digging Ditches in Early Medieval Europe (2002)

Stulp, G., Barrett, L., Tropf, F.C. & Mills, M., Does natural selection favour taller stature among the tallest people on earth? (2015)

Stulp, G., Universiteit.nl on Instagram (2024)

Sustainable Development Solutions Network, World Happiness Report 2023 (2023)

Tinbergen, N., The Study of Instinct (1951)

Vries, de W., Brander, A., Piekema L., Fernee, H. & Witte, de T., Leven in Fryslân (2019)

Zimmer, C., Why the Dutch became the tallest people on the planet (2015)

Zonderop, Y., ‘Je hoeft hier niet vanaf je zestiende rendabel te zijn’. Groeiende twijfel: De Friese paradox (2022)