On the west bank of the mighty River Rhine, halfway between the cities of Koblenz and Mainz, lies the town of Sankt Goar. Named after Saint Goar of Aquitaine, a hermit who retreated here in the sixth century. Diagonally across the river stands the famous and mystical Lorelei Rock: steep and over 130 meters high. A whisper rock where many skippers and ships were wrecked. It is here where the River Rhine reaches its greatest depth of 27 meters, including treacherous rapids and whirlpools that reach the surface. Shipwreck is what almost happened to two Frisian skippers, too, around the year 800. In this blog post, we will tell how these greedy businessmen narrowly escaped fate.
The Early Middle Ages. When rivers were even more vital to society than today. Rivers were lifelines, along which people lived on its banks, and where the soil was fertile and suitable for agriculture. And the river provided fish as a protein source. Besides these resources, the water flow was used to build mills. In addition, rivers were essential for the travel of persons, the transport of goods, and for military traffic. Bridges and ferries stimulated the local economy and were part of the riverine ecosystems. The biggest bridge built in the Early Middle Ages, in the year 803, was the one over the River Rhine at the town of Mainz. Charlemagne had ordered the construction, and it was 500 paces long, according to Annales S. Albani Mogunitini.
Besides these beneficial dimensions, rivers constituted a serious risk as well. Riverine travel and river crossing were never without the danger of accidents and drowning, as we will see in this blog post. It explains why saints watched over people travelling on river, as we will see further on. Moreover, sometimes rivers could (suddenly) swell and overflow, and flood the land. Ruining crops and causing people and livestock to drown (Arnold 2024).
Rivers also were boundaries between empires, ethnicities, cultures, and beliefs during much of European history. Certainly, this was the case with the mighty River Rhine. In the Late Iron Age, the River Rhine marked the border between the Roman Empire and the Germanic tribes north and east of it. During the Early Middle Ages, the River Rhine was, for a long time, the border between, among others, the realms of the Franks on one side and the Frisians and the Saxons on the other side. Not only a barrier between hegemonies but also between beliefs. The land north of the Lower and Upper Middle Rhine was pagan; south and west of it was Christian. This blog post is about Frisian skippers who traded literally on this division line, turning a natural barrier into a natural link. By then, the Frisians were still only superficially Christianized during the eighth and ninth centuries and, as a people, were culturally tuned into both worlds, as we will see.
Frisians, albeit a coastal people, were very much present on rivers, especially on the River Rhine and its tributaries. The Early Middle Ages were a time when Frisians were the freighters of north-western Europe. They transported goods back and forth to the British Isles, southern Scandinavia, northern France, and the German hinterland. The cargo trade up and down the great River Rhine was pivotal in making money for these merchants.
If you would cruise the River Rhine in the eighth and ninth centuries, chances are you would bump into Frisian tradesmen all the time, until the moment you would get fed up with them. You would encounter these crude men in Xanten, Duisburg, Cologne, Worms, Mainz, and Strasbourg, often with their own Frisian business quarters. In Mainz, they even had the best quarters in town, near the river docks (Van der Tuuk 2013). Friesenplatz square in modern Cologne also reminds us of their former omnipresence. Raw, unmannered businessmen, always shouting and always in a hurry, we imagine. Most of them were christened only in name, whereas the entire Frankish Rhineland was god-fearing. Being both 'trader and minister', as the culture of their successors of the Dutch Republic in the seventeenth century would be characterized.
Much has changed since the Early Middle Ages. Now we follow on social media hip female Rhine skippers like Iris Dijs, Bianka Rössler, and Liana Engibarjan. Steering the huge riverboats all by themselves, because no crew is needed anymore. Nothing reckless about that anymore.
Rijnaken, as the long barge ships are called in the Dutch language, can have a loading capacity of over 600,000 kilograms. For such giant boats, of course, rivers had to be straightened, bypassed with canals, and freed from obstacles like rocks in shallows to facilitate passage. A process, however, that already started in the Early Middle Ages. Reshaping a river even changed its biodiversity because the water of a slower-flowing river with a broad riverbed and wide floodplain is much clearer than the murky highways filled with sedimentation they have become through the centuries. This supports different fish species and other aquatic life.
Legends of the Lorelei
The deep waters near the Lorelei Rock at the River Rhine were, and are, dangerous to navigate. Especially in foggy weather (Lebecq 1983). For as long as one could remember, these waters at a narrow of the river, were a stretch where skippers often drowned. Where precious cargo and fortunes were lost. At the same time, the setting is stunning and dramatic. Inevitably, therefore, many sad sagas and legends exist around it, including of mythical beings inhabiting the place. Part of human nature is to create stories around exceptional, beautiful landscapes and attach meaning to them. In this case, the universal human mental coding that beauty can lead one to overlook danger. The riverscape of the Lorelei Rock is such a spot of beauty and danger (Arnold 2024). Full of fantasy stories dating back to at least around 1500, with new ones being created up until quite recently.
For example. It was the Devil that appreciated the splendour of the River Rhine and the Lorelei Rock, too. One time it made een reisje langs de Rijn ‘a leisure trip along the Rhine’. The Devil travelled from the lower reaches of the River Rhine, where – as is well-known – all idolatry and evil come from, upstream. On reaching the Lorelei Rock, the Devil noticed that everyone admired the rock and praised God for this wonder of nature. This made the Devil furious. When the Devil grabbed the rock to throw it away, it heard the Lorelei softly sing. Now it understood the beauty of the spot too, and left the rock in place. However, the Devil’s fire-hot body had made an effigy in the rock that you can see to this day.
In 2002, UNESCO too, like the Devil before, understood the beauty of the valley, and declared the Upper Middle Rhine valley a world heritage site.
Another story is the one in which the fair creature Lorelei is a water nymph, one of the many daughters of old Rhenus Pater 'father Rhine'. Lorelei would sit atop the massive rock, and you could only see her when moonlight struck the mountain and the river, combing her long golden hair. A handsome young fisherman was lucky and often enjoyed her company at night. Lorelei told him also where to fish the next day. In other stories, beautiful Lorelei, also written as Lore Lay, was a maiden who waited in vain for her unfaithful lover to return. After having waited for ever and ever, she lost her will to live any longer. To end her tragic life, she threw herself from the high rock into the river. In yet another story, every man who fell in love with the beautiful girl Lorelei died for some reason. For this, Lorelei was falsely accused of witchcraft, and she was sent by the bishop to a monastery in order to be locked up, so-called for her own safety. In this story too, Lorelei lost the will to live and threw herself from the rock.
Maybe similar legends existed when monk Goar of Aquitaine decided to build his cella here in the sixth century, devoting his life to God with prayer and fasting. During his life, miracles happened, and he was able to cure the sick and the ill; un saint sans frontières. Saint Goar's life has been documented in the Vita et miracula sancti Goaris ‘life and miracles of Saint Goar’ written by monk Wandalbert of Prüm, a town in the Westeifel, in the first half of the ninth century. Legend has it that Saint Goar saved boatmen from drowning. At the same time, Goar was a tough cookie. He would always ask whether the skipper was heathen or Christian. If the skipper answered "heathen," Saint Goar would hold the skipper’s head underwater until the man volunteered to be converted. If not, Saint Goar would throw the person back into the river to let him drown. After the death of Saint Goar, skippers made offerings to this saint for safe passage through the Lorelei valley, or they paused to make a prayer at the saint’s shrine. Saint Goar became a special patron of the Rhine skippers.
However, Frisian skippers were often very careless.
Reckless Rhine skippers from Frisia
The aforementioned Vita et miracula sancti Goaris, written in the first half ninth century, recounts two incidents with specifically Frisian skippers who were too casual when passing the Lorelei.
The first incident was a skipper traveling upstream, whose ship was towed by slaves or servants. The skipper did not stop at the Saint Goar’s shrine because he was afraid of getting behind and would not be able to finish the transport in time (Lebecq 1983). We know Frisian skippers travelled in convoys (Van der Tuuk 2013).
Negotiator ex supradicta Fresonum gente nauem per Rhenum flumen agebat et, ut moris est, quia aduerso flumine nauigabat, fune a suis nauem circa litus trahendam curauerat.
A merchant from the above-mentioned Frisian tribe led his ship up the River Rhine and, as is customary when navigating upstream, he had taken care to pull his ship by rope from the shore.
The skipper was alone on his boat with only one servant. The number of servants or slaves pulling the barge was probably three (Franconi 2014). When the current pulled the ship to the dangerous riverbank, the skipper — on his own — was not able to steer his vessel away from it. The servants had to let go of the towing rope. The moment they did, one of them got entangled in the rope and drowned. Aware that a prayer at the shrine of Saint Goar is not an unnecessary luxury after all, the Frisian skipper hastily made a prayer. Immediately, the drowned servant was awakened. He coughed up some blood and walked away. To really make up for his misbehaviour, the skipper from Frisia left a pound of silver at the shrine. In addition, of course, the world was a zombie richer in the process as well. If interested in stories about zombies from Frisia, check our blog post Make way for the homesick dead!
From the above, it becomes clear that making upstream the River Rhine was a laborious enterprise because the ship had to be rowed and towed. To every rule, there is an exception. This was Saint Boniface. When he was murdered in Frisia in 754, and his body was transported to the city of Mainz, the monks only needed to sing psalms and hymns, and the boat sailed up te river without the need to row or tow (Arnold 2024).
The second incident with a Frisian skipper not taking things too seriously at the narrow of the Lorelei Rock happened when no stopover was made at the shrine of Saint Goar. His boat was smashed against the rocks. Understanding in the meantime the gravity of the situation, this Frisian skipper, too, made a little prayer. Saint Goar, not the worst, saved the Frisian and his precious cargo anyway. To balance the scores, the skipper left one of the silk garments of his transport behind at the shrine (Pye 2014).
Lessons to be learned
Firstly, if you see beauty, there is danger. Secondly, if you want to make a lot of money quickly without unnecessary delays and prayers, you’d better make use of highways and railways instead of the Rhine River.
Note 1 – More downstream the River Rhine at the town of Rhenen, another saint guards over boatmen and ships, namely Saint Cunera. See our blog post Don’t believe everything they say about sweet Cunera. The queen who killed Cunera threw herself from a hill into the River Rhine as well.
Note 2 – The best guess as to how the boats of Frisian Rhine skippers looked is the medieval boat excavated in the town of Utrecht in 1930. It is dated around the year 1000 (Van der Wijk 1933, Kuiper et al 2011). The so-called Utrecht ship can be admired in a confined basement of the Centraal Museum Hofland in Utrecht. The space does not match that of the Vikingtidmuseet in the city of Oslo in Norway, for which there is no good reason, but you can see the ship anyway. The design – i.e., long, slender hulls, shallow draft, and strong one-piece bottoms – of the Utrecht ship is much older, probably from the early eighth century, and may well have flourished on the River Rhine. This is because they were stronger than planked bottoms for braving the dangerous rocky rapids between the cities of Koblenz and Mainz (Arnold 2024).
Note 3 – Saint Goar, or Sint Gewier, is worshiped in the Netherlands as well, namely near the village of Meerlo in the province of Limburg. Here in the woods stands a chapel built in 1662. Prayers to Saint Goar can help against cold fevers.
An interesting anecdote comes from the life of Saint Goar. According to this vita, rumours were spreadin' around that Saint Goar lived an indecent life. Bishop Rusticus of Trier accused Goar and only wanted to believe Goar's innocence if he could name the parents of a three-year-old foundling. Goar prayed to God, and the baby miraculously started to speak. The infant said that the name of its mother was Flaris and the name of its father was Rusticus (De Jong website). In local legends concerning the Lorelei Rock, it is often Lorelei who is being accused of living an indecent life. The bishop assumed the role of protector. Maybe it felt better that women were weak and dishonourable, instead of men being so.
Note 4 – Featured image: Lorelei Rock – River Rhine.
Suggested hiking
For hikers, there is the Rheinsteig Trail. A 320 kilometer trail on the east bank of the River Rhine between the cities of Bonn and Wiesbanden, through the UNESCO World Heritage declared Upper Middle Rhine area.
Suggested music
Silcher, F., Ich weiß nicht, was soll es bedeuten (1837)
Willy Alberti & Willeke Alberti, Een reisje langs de Rijn (1969)
Madonna, Like a Prayer (1989)
Further reading
Arnold, E.F., Medieval Riverscapes. Environment and Memory in Northwest Europe, c. 300-1100 (2024)
Brentano, C., Godwi oder Das steinerne Bild der Mutter (1801)
Demangeon, A. & Febvre, L., Le Rhin. Problèmes d'histoire et d'économie (1935)
Drouen, L., Het verhaal van het schip in het Centraal Museum (2016)
Franconi, T.V., The Economic Development of the Rhine River Basin in the Roman Period, 30 BC-AD 406 (2014)
Guerber, H.A., The legends of the Rhine (1895)
Heine, H., Ich weiß nicht, was soll es bedeuten (1824)
Hendriksma, M., De Rijn. Biografie van een rivier (2017)
Jong, de J., Bedevaart en bedevaartplaatsen in Nederland. Meerlo, H. Goar (website)
Kuiper, J.B., Jensma, G. & Vries, O., Nederland in de Middeleeuwen. De canon van ons middeleeuws verleden (2011)
Lebecq, S., Marchands et navigateurs Frisons du haut moyen age (1983)
Lives of the Saints, Saint Goar. Priest and Hermit († 575) (website)
Pye, M., The Edge of the World. How the North Sea made us who we are (2014)
Tichelaar, S. & Booij, A., Schippersvrouwen. Verhalen boven water (2023)
Tuuk, van der L., De eerste gouden eeuw. Handel en scheepvaart in de vroege middeleeuwen (2011)
Tuuk, van der L., De Friezen. De vroegste geschiedenis van het Nederlandse kustgebied (2013)
Wijk, van der P.H., Utrechts schip (1933)
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