Frisia

Frisian settlement area (Frisian Coast).

Frisia (West Frisian: Fryslân; North Frisian: Fraschlönj, Freesklöön, Freeskluin, Fresklun, and Friislön’; Saterfrisian (East Frisian): Fräislound; East Frisian Low Saxon: Freesland; Gronings: Fraislaand; German and Dutch: Friesland; Danish: Frisland) is a coastal region along the southeastern corner of the North Sea, i.e. the German Bight. Frisia is the traditional homeland of the Frisians, a Germanic people who speak Frisian, a language closely related to the English language. Frisia extends from the northwestern Netherlands across northwestern Germany and into a little part of southwestern Denmark (to the river Vidå).

Divisions

Frisia is commonly divided into three sections:

1. West Frisia in North Holland, Friesland and Groningen
2. East Frisia in Lower Saxony
3. North Frisia in Schleswig-Holstein

The three groups of the Frisian Islands (the West, East and North Frisian Islands) stretch more or less correspondingly along these three sections of the German Bight coast.

West Frisia is roughly identical with the Dutch province of Friesland, the northern part of North Holland province (the historical region of West Friesland, the westernmost portion of the traditional region of West Frisia) and also modern Groningen province, though the Western Frisian language is only spoken in Friesland proper. In West Frisia, dialects with strong Frisian substrates are spoken (Low German and Low Franconian dialect variants, respectively). In the northern province of Groningen people speak Gronings, a Saxon dialect, which also has a strong Frisian substrate.

East Frisia includes areas located in the northwest of the German state of Lower Saxony, including the districts of Aurich, Leer, Wittmund and Friesland, as well as the urban districts of Emden and Wilhelmshaven, the Saterland, the Land Wursten a former Rüstringen (Butjadingen). East Frisia is also the name of an historical county in that area. The German name "Ostfriesland" distinguishes the former county from "Ost-Friesland", which means the whole eastern Frisian area.

The portions of North Frisia within the German state of Schleswig-Holstein are part of the district of Nordfriesland and stretch along the coast, and including also the coastal islands from the Eider River to the border of Denmark in the north. The North Sea island of Heligoland, while not part of Nordfriesland district, is also part of traditional North Frisia.

A half million Frisians of Friesland province in the Netherlands speak West Frisian. Several thousand more Frisian language speakers, speaking a collection North Frisian dialects often unintelligible with each other and certainly unintelligible with forms spoken beyond North Frisia, are to be found in Nordfriesland and Heligoland in Germany, while a small number of speakers of the Saterland Frisian language live in four villages of Lower Saxony in the Saterland region of Cloppenburg county, just beyond the boundaries of traditional East Frisia. Many Frisians speak Low Saxon dialects, especially in East Frisia, but in West- an North Frisia, too.

History

Frisia changed dramatically throughout time, both by floods and by a change in identity.

Roman times

The Frisians had settled in Frisia from about 500 BC. According to Pliny the Younger, in Roman times, the Frisians (or, as it may be, their close neighbours, the Chauci) lived on terps, man-made islands. According to other sources, the Frisians lived along a broader expanse of the coast of the North Sea (or "Frisian Sea").

Frisia at this time comprised the present provinces of Friesland and North Holland. A large part of the population of the present Netherlands lived in present Friesland, because of the fertile grounds there.

Kingdom of Frisia

East Anglian sources called the inhabitants of 'Frisia' Warnii instead of Frisians. In the 7th and 8th centuries AD, the Frankish chronologies mention this area as the kingdom of the Frisians. However, these were probably not the Frisians of Roman times. This kingdom comprised the then coastal provinces of the Netherlands and the German North Sea coast. During this time, the Frisian language was spoken along the entire southern North Sea coast and, today, this region is sometimes referred to as Greater Frisia or Frisia Magna. The Franks conquered the western part in 689-719 and the eastern part at the end of the 8th century, and in so doing fought against certain named Frisian rulers (see Rulers of Frisia). This Frisia was partly conquered by vikings in the 840s, who were expelled between 885 and 920. It has also been suggested that the vikings did not conquer Frisia, but settled in certain parts (such as the island Wieringen) where they built simple forts and cooperated and traded with the native Frisians. One of their leaders was Godfried, Duke of Friesland.

Loss of territory

Frisians made polders in West Friesland, which moved further and further away from Friesland due to floods. The western part of Frisia became the county of Holland in 1101 after a few centuries of a different history than the other parts. Frisia began to identify itself as a country with free folk in the Middle Ages. The bishopric of Utrecht did not belong to this Frisia anymore. There were many floods in the 11th and 12th centuries, which led to the deaths of many, and the forming of the Zuiderzee. The largest flood was in 1322.

Opstalboom League

The free Frisians (actually petty noblemen) and the city of Groningen founded the Opstalboom League to counter feudalism. It consisted of modern Friesland, Groningen, East Frisia and the German North Sea coast and parts of the Danish North Sea coast. But the Opstalboom league did not only consist of Frisians. The area Zevenwouden was Saxon and the city of Groningen as well. Some Frisians lived under the rule of the counts of Holland in West Friesland. The Opstalboom League was not a success. It collapsed after a few years because of continuous internal strife.

15th century

The 15th century saw the end of the free Frisians. The city of Groningen started to dominate Groningen. A petty nobleman in East Frisia managed to defeat the other petty noblemen and became count of East Frisia. The archbishop of Bremen-Hamburg and the king of Denmark conquered large areas of Frisia. Only Friesland remained for the Frisian Freedom. Friesland was conquered in the 1490s by duke Albert of Saxony-Meissen. Later, the giant Pier Gerlofs Donia would fight for his countries freedom handling his 2,15 meter long sword. He had many sucesses and was undefeated, but didn't succeed in getting Frisia independent; he, nonetheless bestowed himself the title King of the Frisians. He finally died in 1520, as a poor farmer.

Frisian territories

• West Friesland remained a part of Holland and became a part of North Holland around 1800. The current region of West Friesland is smaller than historical West Friesland and there is also an official constitutional region (samenwerkingsregio) of West Friesland for coast protection, the police, and agriculture.
• Friesland got its independence back (with constitutionalized farmer representation) in 1581 and gave it up for good in 1795. It is now a Dutch province.
• East Frisia became a part of the Kingdom of Prussia and was formerly a district of the federal state of Lower Saxony in the Federal Republic of Germany.
• Groningen has been a province of the Netherlands since the 16th century.
• North Frisia was a part of the Danish duchy of Schleswig (also: South Jutland) and belongs now to the German state of Schleswig-Holstein.
• The Frisian islands off the coast of the Netherlands and Germany are the leftover dunes of flooded lands.

Flag

Although the Frisian regions have their own separate flags, Frisia did not have a flag of its own until September 2006. The flag for united Frisia was made by the group of Auwerk, which supports a united Frisia as an official country.

As you can see, the flag has been inspired by the Scandinavic cross, like in the Norse and Icelandic flag. The four pompeblêden refer to the seven pompeblêden on the West-Frisian flag, but the amount of four means the four separated frisian regions.

See also

• Frisian Islands
• German Bight
• Wadden Sea
• Jutland
• Frisian language
• Frisians
• Eala Freya Fresena
• Frise

Literatur

all in german language

• Albert Bantelmann, Rolf Kuschert, Albert Panten, Thomas Steensen: Geschichte Nordfrieslands. 2., durchges. u. aktualisierte Aufl., Westholst. Verlagsanstalt Boyens, Heide in Holstein 1996 (= Nordfriisk Instituut, Nr. 136), ISBN 3-8042-0759-6.
• Thomas Steensen: Geschichte Nordfrieslands von 1918 bis in die Gegenwart. Neuausg., Nordfriisk Instituut, Bräist/Bredstedt 2006 (= Geschichte Nordfrieslands, Teil 5; Nordfriisk Instituut, Nr. 190), ISBN 3-88007-336-8.
• Stefan Kröger - Das Ostfriesland-Lexikon. Ein unterhaltsames Nachschlagewerk, Isensee Verlag, Oldenburg 2006
• Ostfriesland im Schutze des Deiches. Beiträge zur Kultur- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte des ostfriesischen Küstenlandes, hrsg. im Auftrag der Niederemsischen Deichacht, 12 Bände, Selbstverlag, Pewsum u. a. 1969
• Onno Klopp -, Geschichte Ostfrieslands, 3 Bde., Hannover 1854–1858
• Hajo van Lengen - Ostfriesland, Kultur und Landschaft, ruhrspiegel-Verlag, Essen 1978
• Hajo van Lengen (Hrsg.) - Die Friesische Freiheit des Mittelalters – Leben und Legende, Verlag Ostfriesische Landschaft 2003, ISBN 3-932206-30-4
• Franz Kurowski - Das Volk am Meer – Die dramatische Geschichte der Friesen, Türmer-Verlag 1984, ISBN 3-87829-082-9
• Karl Cramer - Die Geschichte Ostfrieslands. Ein Überblick, Isensee - Oldenburg
• Hermann Homann - Ostfriesland – Inseln, Watt und Küstenland, F. Coppenrath Verlag, Münster
• Manfred Scheuch - Historischer Atlas Deutschland, ISBN 3-8289-0358-4
• Karl-Ernst Behre / Hajo van Lengen - Ostfriesland. Geschichte und Gestalt einer Kulturlandschaft, Aurich 1995, ISBN 3-925365-85-0
• Tielke, Martin (Hrsg.) - Biographisches Lexikon für Ostfriesland, Ostfries. Landschaftliche Verl.- u. Vertriebsges. Aurich, Bd. 1 ISBN 3-925365-75-3 (1993), Bd. 2 ISBN 3-932206-00-2 (1997), Bd. 3 ISBN 3-932206-22-3 (2001)