Wa bin ik, wa bist do en wa bin wy?

"If you don't care about your own history, you may as well leave the classroom." Words from the geography teacher at high school Simon Vestdijk in the port town of Harlingen in 1988. We, the two Frisian bastards, were about sixteen years old and in the fifth grade of VWO (i.e. pre-university education). The annoyed words were addressed to two giggling girls from the villages of Arum and Witmarsum, sitting in the back of the classroom. The teacher had already opened the door and told them they did not need to report to the Vice Principal. Then, somewhat surprised, our classmates grabbed their school bags and left the classroom. Two other girls, from the villages of Witmarsum and Kimswerd, followed suit.

The geography lesson was about terps (i.e., artificial settlement mounds). We had no idea what those things were. The teacher dedicated a lesson to terps because of his hobby in archaeology. “On my knees, picking in the clay on the flank of a terp in search of pottery sherds,” as he put it. A soil rich not only in minerals but also in history. Until then, we had little idea of the Frisian culture. Typical kids of the ‘70s. A non-Dutch identity was not something that was actively promulgated or taught by parents. It should come as no surprise that there was little interest in Frisian heritage at a high school in the town of Harlingen, where the Frisian language is regarded as something foreign. Until suddenly that geography lesson. The teacher's words, “if your own history doesn't interest you,” had a zoink effect on us. Did we, sitting there together as a class, really have our own history? We stayed put. We had to learn all kinds of things about China, the Dutch East Indies, and WWII, but this we wanted to hear for ourselves.

school plate - terp village of Niehove in province Groningen, by Riekele Prins (1905-1954)

A seed was planted, and since then interest in the Frisian culture has grown. Looking back, this interest was initially focused on the conflict side and the strive for equality. Struggle against Holland, standing up for equal rights, language, and culture. To the icons Warns, Fedde Schurer, Radbod, Grutte Pier, and Frisian Freedom. That is okay, but it has a downside. Who are you trying to convince, and for what purpose? In other words, what do you add or create? The energy focuses on the strongest opposition, and therefore on where there may never be any real change, no matter how unjust. “Mar wat no as wy dêr sels ris wat mear oan dogge?” ('but what if we do a bit more ourselves?') as the chairman of the Jongfryske Mienskip ‘Young Frisian Community’ once said (Van Hes 2019).

The lesson of the geography teacher got to the heart of the matter in several ways. Not proud of Frisia and all that, but simply out of interest. Just because it is there. And those who were not interested could leave class without any consequences. The teacher was not going to impose anything upon us about our own history and identity. But he also made us aware of the uniqueness of the landscape. He taught us how to see. Moreover, he explained that landscape and culture, geography and history, are intertwined. Something that certainly applies to the history of Frisia. Is it not amazing that kids learn more about the Chinese Gang of Four than about the ancient terps on which they live?

And so, we arrive at our hobby: the Frisia Coast Trail. A long-distance trail that strings together the facts of this area's history. Invented at the beginning of the year 2017. Admittedly, it took us a while to start this initiative after that particular geography lesson about terps. It was after a hike in Spain that we had walked together that we came up with the idea. When guys from the port town of Harlingen devise a trail, it is inevitable this will be a coastal path. And that the Wadden Sea will have a prominent place in it as well. The trail runs from Nature Park The Zwin in Belgium along the coast of the Netherlands, including a big swing inland via the town of Wijk bij Duurstede (former emporium Dorestat), continuing along the coast of north-western Germany, ending in the town of Ribe in Denmark.

The peoples, languages, and dialects that were, and are, spoken along this path are countless. That is part of its history. A history of people living on the low-lying lands of a gigantic delta. On dunes, clay, and peat. On wobbly salt marshes, meandering riverbanks, and walking islands. The Marsh Arabs of Europe, you might say. A water culture of which the Frisian lands are a part. Not just the Frisians. The Zeelanders, Hollanders, Groningers, (Elbe-Weser) Saxons, and Ditmarshians also participate in this balancing act. Against this background, we have chosen English as the lingua franca of our blog and website.

school plate – terp near the town of Dokkum in province Friesland, by Bernardus Bueninck (1864-1933). In the right a field with flax sheaves

Unforeseen positive effects were that the blog and website are also being read overseas, especially in the United States of America. About twenty to forty percent of the visitors are American, perhaps partly Frisian emigrants and their offspring. If so, then with the Frisia Coast Trail, we offer a piece of history, however modest, in a language that can be understood by the descendants of these emigrants. Whether they come from the province of Friesland, the region of Ostfriesland, or from Landkreis Nordfriesland, they have little or nothing to fall back on. Magazines and history books are in Danish, German, Frisian, or Dutch, and thus are of no use at all to them. This is so different from the descendants of Irish and Scottish emigrants in Australia, Brazil, Canada, and the United States of America. Also for us, the history of Ostfriesland, Dithmarschen, and Nordfriesland is difficult to access due to language barriers.

The history of Frisia is one of continuous screw-ups and irresponsible use of land and natural resources. Immense pieces of land have been swept away by the water because of it. Deus mare, Friso litora fecit ('God created the sea, the Frisian the coast' or 'Gott schuf das Meer, der Friese dessen Grenze') is really too heroic a representation. Rather: God created the sea, and the Frisian devastated the coast. However, this hostile wetland offered economic opportunities. The landscape is changing to this very day. Still, there is no status achieved of a lasting balance. Where peat was previously extracted, now it is gas, salt, and wind that are being mined, with all its known and unknown future consequences. Moreover, how sustainable are 'solid' dykes? How long will the inhabitants of the last real terps on the Hallig islands of Landkreis Nordfriesland survive? In sum, a fascinating, both old and current story.

It is addictive. Reading and writing about this history, and with that knowledge hiking through the soggy lands. Often along dikes strewn with slippery-green sheep droppings. (Re-)constructing this history feels like beachcombing and puzzling. The forty-year-old history book 'Oorsprong en de geschiedenis van de Friezen' ('Origin and the History of the Frisians') by S.J. Van der Molen needs a reprint, as it were. Dutch history books quickly jump from the Roman Period to the Golden Age and therefore offer little solace. Also, Van der Molen's history book is a history of the province of Friesland. In other words, most history is written from the perspective of one's own country or province. It is Hollandic, Zeelandic, Dutch, Frisian, German, Gronings, Saxon, Jutlandic, etc.

school plate - terp village Hogebeintum in province Friesland, by Ferdinand Hart Nibbrig (1866-1915)

We are not free from sin either. We too engage in politics a bit with the Frisia Coast Trail blog and website, by placing everything within the frame of Frisia (see also notes). The Coast Trail takes 'the inhabitants of the southern North Sea coast' as a starting point. Frisia is not Frisian. It is also Frisian. The inhabitants have a history in common which is largely determined by the fusion of fresh and saltwater. These water people were, and remain, connected to each other by the sea. They are also connected by land via the Golden Ring. With the coastal dweller as our perspective, we want to highlight a history that connects. It belongs to everyone who thinks she or he is part of this coastal landscape. There are no ditches or dykes around this identity. More importantly, if there is one thing that traditionally typifies the identity of this long coastal strip, it is its external and international orientation. Indeed, an open mienskip 'open community'.

The underlying story of this blog post is that young people can be made aware of their own regional identity. And we dare to dream. If a hobby of one geography teacher was able to spark the interest of two Ouwe Seunen (i.e., the nickname of any person originating from the port town of Harlingen, meaning ‘old sons’) in their own regional history, and thus in an enriched overall identity, then surely it must be possible for their hobby to also spark interest in four more young people?

We like to make one appeal.

Invest in the digital, visual narrative. When young people acquire knowledge, they search the web. They do not order expensive books, let alone buy scientific articles. If it cannot be found on the internet for free, it simply does not exist. What is striking, then, is the scarcity of images, cartoons, and other visual stories about the (ancient) history of the Frisian lands on the web. Only a few, otherwise beautiful, artist impressions by illustrators like Glimmerveen, Nijman, and Zuidhoek exist. Of course, besides some former school teaching illustrations, mostly about the time the Frisians were Christianized. But when you google for images of kampvechters ('duel fighters'), early-medieval villages of Wijnaldum and Rijnsburg, Battle of Norden, Battle of Cologne, trading place Dorestat, or for King Finn, it is pure poverty what you get. How different when you google for, let's say, Saxons, Vikings, King Æthelstan, or Battle of Stamford Bridge. It is precisely these historical drawings, paintings, illustrations, and impressions that can stimulate the imagination and arouse interest. If only we could ask the Frisian artist Sir Lourens Alma-Tadema again!

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Note 1 — This blog post is a translation of a guest article written by the Frisian bastards and published in the member’s magazine Nij Frisia 'New Frisia', 2nd edition June 2021.

Note 2 — Where in this blog post we say we are not free from sin either, because we have our own Frisian bias, think of this as 'reconstructing history' as writer Atte Jongstra (2024) explained. "It is the recreation of the historic house of Frisia." 'Reconstructing history' is an answer to a period of 'deconstructing history' that happened in the nineteenth century whereby much of the history has been destroyed. All Frisian sagas, myths, and legends were regarded as mere fantasy and thus annihilated.

Note 3 — Why Frisians have to write their own history, check our blog post Three books (and a comic) reviewed ‘on Frisia’: Is history evidence based? The books reviewed are: Willemsen, A & Kik, H. (eds.), Dorestad and its Networks. Communities, Contact and Conflict in Early Medieval Europe (2021), Nieuwenhuijsen, K., Robrecht de Fries. Graaf van Vlaanderen, held van Holland (2022), and Heerma van Voss, L., et al. (eds.), Nog meer wereldgeschiedenis van Nederland (2022).

Note 4 – The title “Wa bin ik, wa bist do en wa bin wy?” (‘who am I, who are you, and who are we?’) is the Mid Frisian language and a quote from the song Trije (‘three’) from the album Magysk Teater, allinnich foar gekken (‘magical theatre, exclusively for the insane’) written by the band Reboelje ‘rebellion’, published in the year 1991.

Suggested Music

Reboelje, Trije, Magysk Teater (1991)

The Offspring, Come Out and Play (Keep 'Em Separated) (1994)

Further Reading

Molen, van der S.J., Oorsprong en geschiedenis van de Friezen (1981)

Faber, H.C., In Rechte Fries. Een juridisch bestuurswetenschappelijk onderzoek naar het gebruik van de Friese taal in het rechtsverkeer (1995)

Faber, H.C., Sizzen dwaan. Een onderzoek naar de factoren die van invloed zijn op het taalbeleid in acht gemeenten in Fryslân (1995)

Bazelmans, J., Zijn de Friezen wel Friezen? (1998)

​Knottnerus, O.S., De vergeten Friezen. Een mislukt pamflet van Benny Siewertsen over een boeiend thema (2008)

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

Kurowski, F., Die Friesen. Das Volk am Meer (2019)

Steensen, T., Die Friesen, Menschen am Meer (2020)

Doorn, van F., De Friezen. Een geschiedenis (2021)

Hines, J. & IJssennagger-van der Pluijm, N.L. (eds.), Frisians of the Early Middle Ages (2021)

Jongstra, A., Friezen in Rome (2024)