You are hiking the Frisia Coast Trail in the northwest of Germany, and after a long day looking for a place to stay, you can try your luck at a private home. Before the owner of the house agrees to give you lodging for the night, it might be that you have to show him your silver. Additionally, like a computer ‘safe button’ avant la lettre, probably a child gets sore ears as well during the process. These were the ways of the first legally blondes to conclude an agreement.
Be prepared that you might encounter some ancient habits in the region of Ostfriesland, also East Frisia, in the northeast of Germany. More specific, the community (Gemeinde) Brookmerland in the west of the region. This is not former tidal marshland but former moor land. An area colonized after the great flood of Saint Julian of AD 1164, when the Frisians from the region of Norderland near the shores of the Wadden Sea were forced to move more inland (find here an overview of great floods).
When hiking in the area of Brookmerland on the Frisia Coast Trail, you will probably need lodging at seven stops. If you are the type who prefers to stay practical, of course, you can check in at a guesthouse or hotel, or pitch your tent at a campsite. No surprises here. Paying simply with plastic, your smartphone, or with one of the many varieties of bitcoin is possible. And all permits and taxes are automatically paid for.
It may happen that you cannot find lodging, for example, in high season during the summer months. Germans from all over the country are crazy about the sea and move north in large numbers during holidays. Then, asking an Ostfriesische local to stay the night in his or her private home, or to pitch your tent on his or her property or yard, might be the only option left if you have not made reservations at a regular place in advance. In this case, be prepared for some ancient, strange habits. Let us help you to be basically prepared:
Show me the money
The odds are reasonable an Ostfries (‘East-Frisian’) agrees you can stay the night in her/his house or outside on the yard. Especially after having said moin ‘hello’ to the owner. Extending shelter to travellers is an old practice. But, the owner might, politely, ask you to show him all the silver you carry. Of course, you do not actually have any silver in your backpack. Too heavy for a hiker and there is no such thing as ultra-light silver. Do not panic. The owner is not planning to rob you. Instead, show him all the cash you are carrying together with all other valuable items you have on you.
The reason behind it is that according to Old-Frisian medieval law the person who gives shelter to a stranger, is fully responsible for this person’s actions. That means he is liable for all the damage the stranger might cause to his co-villagers, the community, or the mienskip, as people fashionably say these days. So, if the owner of the house or farm is prepared to shelter you, he or she only wants to make sure upfront you will be able to reimburse him or her in the unlikely event he or she will be held liable by the community for such costs.
This was the law and practice of the Seven Sealands of Tota Frisia in the High Middle Ages. The Seven Sealands were a loose federation of free farmer republics along the Wadden Sea coast, a strip of land stretching from the current region of Westfriesland in the province of Noord Holland in the Netherlands, to the region of Ostfriesland in Germany. From the (former) River Vlie to the River Weser.
The law on foreigners was as follows:
Hwasa thene vthemeda husath ieftha howath ieftha oppa sinne werf set, sa skel hi thes wachtia, hwetsa hi deth.
'Who receives a foreigner in his house or in his court or seats on his yard, shall be responsible for all that he does.' (Brookmerbrief, c.AD 1250)
The Old-Frisian word for foreigner was vthemeda and is very similar to the present Dutch word uitheems. This means ‘out of heem’ where hemeda stands for home or homestead (compare also: hiem in Frisian or, indeed, home in English). The part vt or ut means ‘out’. So, an vthemeda is someone from outside-the-homestead, someone from out-home.
Sore little ears
But this might not be your only surprise. There is another, even weirder, medieval Frisian custom to be prepared for when travelling through the area of Brookmerland in the region of Ostfriesland.
After the aforementioned silver and cash ritual, the owner might call for his or her son or daughter before you can stow your valuables back into your rucksack (a German loanword, by the way). The child probably will have the age of between ten and fifteen years old. Again, you will be asked to present your valuables. But this time in the presence of the child. After you have shown all your precious stuff, the child receives quite a slap on his or her ears by the owner. The owner then rounds up with following medieval eternity formula.
Alsoe langhe, soe di wynd fan dae vlkenum wayth ende ghers groyt ende baem bloyt ende dio sonne optijocht ende dyo wrald steed
'As long as the wind blows from the clouds, and grass grows and tree blossoms and the sun rises and the world stands'
Now you can finally stow your valuables back again. Besides a crying kid with a red ear, everything honky dory.
The underlying reason behind this procedure, is that the owner needs to make sure he or she has a witness in the future for what was agreed upon. In this particular case, in the event the owner will be held liable for damage you caused to one of his co-villagers. Then it will be important the owner still has a witness who lives and can confirm that you should be wealthy enough to reimburse him or her. The child will be that future witness if needed. Your insurance policy, as it were.
Choosing a minor to be witness is the best guarantee your witness will be available for probably the rest of your life. Slapping the child makes sure the brains of the minor store the important moment, and will remember it the rest of its life. Just like hitting the ‘save button’ of your laptop today.
Just like hitting the 'save button' today!
Therefore, too, the child should not be too young. Otherwise, it will not remember it anyway, regardless of how hard the slap will be. The only lasting result will be that it will need a shrink when the child reaches the age of mid-thirties. “Who does not have one by that age, anyway?” we hear you think.
After this ceremony the owner will grin and show you your Ruum which is Oostfreesk for Zimmer or room. Really, it is still perfectly safe to stay! Sweet dreams and enter sandman.
Note that the custom to hit a child’s ear as a ‘save button’, must be distinguished from hitting children otherwise. The Ostfriesen pride themselves for a long-standing freedom tradition with great liberties for people. Ostfriesen like to joke that when a father is about to hit his child for some wrongdoing, the child says: “No, father, no, our country is a land of justice, not force!” (Knottnerus 2004).
Epiloog
Sorry Reese Witherspoon, but the blonde Ostfriesen are the first legally blondes. In the High Middle Ages they put everything on paper. The Brookmerbrief was only one of many codices or law books of medieval Frisia. Besides these texts, the volume of legal documents (e.g. contracts on land, arrangements, debt statement, etc.) dating from this period is really enormous. Nearly absurd. All written in the Old-Frisian language. And, because slapping your children is not a durable solution, the Frisians tried to write every transaction, deal or agreement on paper. This was motivated in an original, creative way with the following beautiful, high-medieval lines.
Quoniam secundum Boetium de Consolatione Philosophiae cor humanum inter mobilia, mobilius fere discognitur et ideo naturaliter obliviosum, idcirco solemniter acta necessa est literarum caractere roborari et confirmari.
'Because, according to The comfort of the philosophy of Boethius, the human heart, more agile than the agile things, hardly remembers anything and is therefore naturally forgetful, it is for that reason necessary to affirm and confirm matters in the form of a written document.'
Not much poetry has survived in the Old-Frisian language. Although the eternity formula quoted above comes close. But at least we know how the (formal) Old-Frisian language was written. Maybe the habit to record everything on paper had to do with the fact there was no government at all in Frisia, and the republican federation of the Seven Sealands was also a feud society.
Moreover, according to an old-Frisian saga of the thirteenth century, the law was given to them by God himself. It is the story how twelve asegas, i.e. law experts who guided the course of a trial, were sent by Charlemagne onto the sea in a boat without rudder and oars. God sent a thirteenth asega, being Christ of course, to rescue them. Apparently God and Charlemagne were not fully in alignment. Read our blog post: In Debt to the Beastly Westfrisians for a more elaborate review of this saga. Anyhow, from then on, Frisian law was divine and thus to be uphold under any circumstance. You might say a variation of the Roman law pacta sunt servanda. And yes, the Frisians can be quite stubborn still, and attached to laws and rules. Not without reason the incident of Kneppelfreed ‘baton Friday’ in 1951 was caused by a judge’s interdiction to speak the Frisian language in his court. Read our blog post Leeuwarden 2018: European Capital of Exiled Governments for more.
We, too, end with a rhyme inspired by the costumery rhymes of medieval copyists, mostly monks, at the end of books they copied. Akin a spell to prevent the work from being stolen:
Explicit expliceat, ludere scriptor eat. Est liber hic scriptus, qui scripsit sit benedictus. Qui me scribebat, Frisia Trahentium Maritimas [Frisia Coast Trail] nomen habebat. Non vindeat Christum, qui librum subtrahat istum.
'It is finished and let it be finished, the writer may play. The book is written here [it's finished], may the one who wrote it be blessed. He wrote me, called Frisia Coast Trail. May the one who stole this book, not see Christ [the Hell].'
Note 1 – Albeit Reese Witherspoon is not the first legally blonde, as hikers of the Frisia Coast Trail we must give her credit for her role as Cheryl Strayed in the movie ‘Wild. From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail’.
Note 2 – For more about medieval Frisian law on foreigners, etc., go our blog post Medieval Migration Law. A Matter of Liability.
Further reading
Knottnerus, O., Culture and society in the Frisian and German North Sea Coastal Marshes (1500-1800) (2004)
NOS, Uniek en kwetsbaar rechtsboek uit 1491 naar Fries letterkundig centrum (2025)
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).