#frisians

Germanic Sea Raiders

Yes this post is about sea raiders, no this post isn't about vikings. The Germanic coastal tribes are in fact the earliest recorded sea raiders around the North Sea. Several accounts written by Romans, describe how Germanic warriors were a plague along the coasts of North Western europe, especially the coasts of Britannia and Gaul. The main target of these sea raiders? coastal Roman settlements.

Here is a small account described by Tacitus, the following event took place in 83AD in modern day Scotland:

"The same summer a Usipian cohort, which had been levied in Germania and transported into Britain, ventured on a great and memorable exploit. Having killed a centurion and some soldiers, who, to impart military discipline, had been incorporated with their ranks and were employed at once to instruct and command them, they embarked on board three swift galleys with pilots pressed into their service.

Under the direction of one of them ,for two of the three they suspected and consequently put to death, they sailed past the coast in the strangest way before any rumour about them was in circulation. After a while, dispersing in search of water and provisions, they encountered many of the Britons, who sought to defend their property. Often victorious though now and then beaten, they were at last reduced to such an extremity of want as to be compelled to eat, at first, the feeblest of their number, and then victims selected by lot.

Having sailed round Britain and lost their vessels from not knowing how to manage them, they were looked upon as pirates and were intercepted, first by the Suebi and then by the Frisii. Some who were sold as slaves in the way of trade, and were brought through the process of barter as far as our side of the Rhine, gained notoriety by the disclosure of this extraordinary adventure." - Tacitus, Agricola

Here it seems that a group of disgruntled Germanic auxiliary troops hijacked three galleys and went on a small tour of plunder before stranding on the coasts of the Frisii, modern day the Netherlands. But this is not the only account of piracy conducted by the Germanic people. One Germanic tribe in particular was quite infamous for raiding coastal settlements.

The Chauci tribe, who just like the Frisii lived on small terps right along the coast, mastered the concept of piracy. They were the neighbours of the Frisii, located to the east of them in modern day North-Western Germany. Just like the Frisii, it was for the Chauci absolutely essential that they knew how to sail/row, their landscape was one of water with virtually no trees or suitable ground for crops. Also unlike the Frisii, Batavi and Cananefates, their location was quite isolated, beyond the reach of the Romans.

The Chauci truly terrorised the coasts of Western Europe. Archeological research leads to the theory that raiding was pretty much essential for the development of the Chauci tribe and that they actually organized these raids quite carefully. The first wave of Chauci sea raids occured during the first century AD. Especially between 41-47AD, the Chauci plagued the coasts of Gallia Belgica, leading to much Roman frustration.

The second Chauci wave of raids is even more interesting. This time the Chauci raiders were led by a Cananefates man called Ganascus, the Cananefates were a Germanic tribe located in modern day Zuid-Holland, the Netherlands. Ganascus served as an auxiliary soldier in the Roman army but he deserted. This is the reason why the second wave was so succesful for the Chauci. Ganascus, as ex-Roman soldier, held a lot of knowledge about the structure of the Roman army, their defences, interesting targets and their strength.

The Chauci, under Ganascus, even managed to set a Roman fort on fire, Praetorium Agrippinae, which was located in modern day Valkenburg, the Netherlands. Their luck didn't last and eventually Ganascus was captured and executed.

Besides the Chauci, Usipeti and Cananefates, there was another tribe who took their ships to the sea and rivers to terrorize Roman forts/settlements along the borders of Germania, the Batavi. In 69AD the Batavi people revolted against the Romans, together with the support of neighbouring tribes like the Cananefates and the Frisii, the Batavi raided forts along the river Rhine and managed to capture an entire Roman fleet. The Batavi were even daring enough to engage in an open sea battle with the Romans near the mouth of the river Rhine.

After the Batavi revolt, a short time of relative peace returned to the rivers and coasts of Western Europe but the Chauci raids started to intensify again in 170AD. This time the Chauci raids were larger and more violent than ever. The Roman governor of Gallia Belgica was even forced to recruit more auxiliary troops in order to deal with these raiding Chauci pirates. The Chauci continued to raid the coasts for a few decades, their trail of destruction is still visible for archeologists until this very day.

Two villas in Armorica, modern day Bretagne, were destroyed. Several hidden coin treasures were found as well in Bretagne which shows that the Romans feared these Chauci raiders and tried to hide their valuables underneath the ground. Also modern day England wasn't spared. Several Roman settlements in modern day Essex were destroyed by the Chauci. The Romans desperately tried to defend themselves against these agressive sea raiders by building even more forts and by intensifying their patrols on the sea.

A small geographical change in the coastline of the North sea, from modern day Denmark to Flanders around 230AD, caused the sealevel to rise between 0,9-2,4 meters. This was of course a disaster for the coastal people who by then were part of the Saxon and/or Frankish confederation. Also the Romans were concerned about the rising waters and they began to pull back from the Rhine until around the location of the modern day city of Nijmegen. Together with the political struggles inside the Roman empire, this left the borders severely weakened and the Frankish saw their chance.

Yes even the Franks were known to have conducted sea raids and some of these Frankish sea raids didn't even occur in Western Europe. Around the year 260AD and the year 278AD, the Franks undertook two major sea raids along the coasts of modern day Spain and Morocco. They raided and terrorized settlements for about a decade before they were defeated by the Romans.

Ironically enough, a few captured Frankish pirates were send to the black sea to defeat raiding Goths. You can of course expect this to happen but the Franks stole a Roman galley and turned to piracy again. This was an incredibly dumb idea by the Roman emperor who gave this order, emperor Probus. Now the Franks were raiding settlements along the coasts of Greece, Libia, Sicilia and even Tunesia, until the Romans finally managed to beat them.

The Franks also raided the coasts of modern day England like the Saxons did. Archeological research shows that the Romans suddenly intensified the construction of forts between 250-280AD in Britannia. Eutropius, a Roman historian, described how the Saxons raided along the waters of Gallia Belgica, Armorica and Britannia. These raids eventually resulted in the invasion of Britannia by the Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Frisians.

The last Germanic folk, who sometimes made themselves guilty of piracy, were the Frisians. The Frisians flourished after the fall of the Roman empire. They were incredible traders and they were responsible for the creation of a huge trade netwerk and the growth of several trade settlements, which grew into modern day cities like: Dorestad, Medemblik, Ipswich, Norwich, Schleswig, Quentovic, Southampton and London.

Just like the earlier Chauci and Frisii, the Frisians lived, and still live, on terps. They were and still are surrounded by water so their ships were absolutely essential for their survival. They weren't agressive raiders like the Chauci but decided to focus more on trade instead. This rich trade network turned Frisia into a powerful kingdom and trade continued to grow even after their forceful conversion to Christianity. Unfortunately this all changed when the most famous Germanic people started to raid, the so called vikings.

Elf-Rib

As we know, after the Christianization of Europe, the church tried to adapt pagan customs by adding a Christian element to it like Christmas. The church also attempted to demonize habits, beliefs and people by creating a terrifying story per example the Solse Gat, once a place of worship to Sunna, now a demonic place where witches gather to meet the devil. One of such scary stories is the story of Elf-Rib.

In appearance the Elf-Rib is a water demon who shows himself as a dog roaming outside around wells, trenches and ditches in Noord-Holland, the Netherlands. It is said that you can hear him bark in the middle of the night and any child near his location, will be taken away by the Elf-Rib never to be seen again.

This story is clearly an attempt to teach children not to stay outside after dark. Mothers tell their children that the Elf-Rib might come if the kids aren't back inside their homes on time. Many urban legends and fairy tales that we know today are old folk stories trying to teach children certain lessons but who is the Elf-Rib exactly?

It is believed that the Elf-Rib is actually the spirit of king Radboud, the last pagan king of Frisia/the Netherlands. Radboud is famous for refusing to be baptized proclaiming that he would rather go to hell with his ancestors. The church would have been furious if this incident actually happened.

While Frisia converted to Christianity shortly after Radboud's reign, it would have been in the church's interest to villify Radboud. It might help to convert the Frisians more quickly thus the story of the demonic spirit of Radboud, Elf-Rib, was born. Instead of honouring Radboud as the last true pagan ruler of the Netherlands, people now feared his spirit, afraid that it would take away their children like an ordinary boogeyman.

In some parts of Noord-Holland, children are still being warned for the malicious Elf-Rib demon until this day.

Frisii

The Frisii were a Germanic tribe who lived above the Rhine in areas that are now modern day Noord Holland, Friesland, Groningen and the islands in the Netherlands and East-Frisia in Germany. They settled in these areas around 400BC. I use both the terms Frisii and Frisian for this article in case you get confused.

Tacitus has described two groups of Frisians, the Frisii maiores and the Frisii minores. The minores lived in what is now Noord-Holland, Netherlands and the maiores lived in what is now Frisia, Groningen and East-Frisia. He described the Frisian landscape as following:

"The terrain is fierce, the climate is rough, life and landscape are bleak. You only come here if it's your homeland."

The earliest known written record that we have about Frisia comes from a Roman poet Albinovanus Pedo. One of his poems talks about a disaster that happened to Roman soldiers under command of Germanicus around the Eems river in Frisian territory in 16AD.

"For a long time they had left the day and the sunlight behind them, for a long time they looked - exiles from the well-known part of the world, who had dared to go through forbidden darkness - to the boundaries of nature and the furthest coast of the earth.

From here they saw him, the sea, carrying huge monsters under slow waves with rising wild whales and the dogs of the sea on all sides grabbing ships. The fleet was already in the mud, left behind by a rapid storm. They believed that their unfortunate fate was to be torn apart by these wild sea monsters.

The world was robbed, nothing could be distinguished, his breath was taken from him, and thus he spoke from his heart:

Where do we end up? The day itself is fleeing and nature closes the rest of the world with eternal darkness. Do we sometimes look for people untouched by wars? The gods call us back, forbid that mortal eyes see the end of everything. Why do we violate a strange and consecrated sea with oars? Why do we disturb the silent dwellings of the gods?"

Another mention of the Frisians was found at the wall of Hadrianus in England. A Frisian calvalry unit was stationed at the wall. The inscription mentions the God Tyr, I have written about this inscription before in my post about the Tubanti.

In the year 12BC, the Romans defeated the Frisians and added them to their empire. The Frisians had to pay taxes in form of animal skins and they had to deliver men for the Roman army. In 28AD the Frisians revolted against the Romans. Tacitus described that the reason behind this was the unfair taxes of auroch skins. The Frisii had much smaller cattle so it was impossible for them to pay these taxes.

The Romans took over agriculture fields and turned several Frisian women and children into slaves because the taxes could not be paid. This led to an uprising. The Frisii hung Roman tax collectors and it eventually led to the battle of Baduhenna grove where 900 Roman soldiers were killed.

In 54AD the Frisians took over some lands near the Rhine river. The Romans threatened to send legions to the area, they definitely did not want the Frisians so close near their borders. The Frisii however ignored this Roman threat and settled anyway. Shortly after this, the Frisii were chased away from the area by Roman attacks.

In 69AD the Frisii joined the Batavian revolt. The combination of this conflict, the Teutoburgerwald battle and several other clashes, led to the retreat of the Romans back behind the Rhine river. Permanent borders were established and the Frisii became a free Germanic tribe.

During the great migration period, Frisii territory was almost completely abandoned. Angles and Saxons settled in this area and mingled with the few Frisii who stayed behind. This new combination of people is the start of the modern Frisians who still live here in Friesland, West-Frisia, East-Frisia and North-Frisia.