FROM GODDESS TO KING
A History of Ancient Europe from the
OERA LINDA BOOK
By Anthony Radford
APPENDIX B
ADDRESS TO THE FRIESLAND SOCIETY, 1871
The preface of Dr. Ottemas original modern publication of the Oera Linda Book
that was read at a meeting of the Friesland Society, February, 1871.
Over de Linden, Chief Superintendent of the Royal Dockyard at the Helder, possesses
a very ancient manuscript which has been inherited and preserved in his family
from time immemorial, without anyone knowing whence it came or what it contained,
owing to both the language and the writing being unknown.
All that was known was that a tradition contained in it had from generation
to generation been recommended to careful preservation. It appeared that the tradition
rests upon the contents of two letters, with which the manuscript begins, from
Hiddo oera Linda, anno 1256, and from Liko Oera Linda, anno 803. It came to C.
over de Linden by the directions of his grandfather, Den Heer Andries over de
Linden, who lived at Enkhuizen, and died there on the 15thof April
1820, aged sixty-one. As the grandson was at that time barely ten years old, the
manuscript was taken care of for him by his aunt, Aafjie Meylhoff, born Over de
Linden, living at Enkhuizen, who in August 1848 delivered it to the present possessor.
Dr. E. Verwijs having heard of this, requested permission to examine the manuscript,
and immediately recognized it as very ancient Fries. He obtained at the same time
permission to make a copy of it for the benefit of the Friesland Society, and
was of the opinion that it might be of great importance, provided it was not suppositious,
and invented for some deceptive object, which he feared. The manuscript being
placed in my hands, I also felt very doubtful, though I could not understand what
object any one could have in inventing a false composition only to keep it a secret.
This doubt remained until I had examined carefully executed facsimiles of two
fragments, and afterwards of the whole manuscript - the first sight of which convinced
me of the great age of the document.
Immediately occurred to me Caesars remark upon the writings of the Gauls and
the Helvetians in his `Bello Gallico (i. 29, and vi. 14), `Graecis utuntur literis,
though it appears in v. 48 that they were not entirely Greek letters. Caesar thus
points out not only a resemblance - and a very true one - as the writing, which
does not altogether correspond with any known form of letters, resembles the most,
on a cursory view, the Greek writing, such as is found on monuments and the oldest
lapidary. Besides, I formed the opinion afterwards that the writer of the latter
part of the book had been a contemporary of Caesar.
The form and the origin of the writing is so minutely and fully described in
the first part of the book, as it could not be in any other language. It is very
complete, and consists of thirty-four letters, among which are three separate
forms of a and u, and two of e, i, y, and o, besides four pairs of double constants
- ng, th, ks, and gs. The ng, which as a nasal sound has no particular mark in
any western language, is an indivisible conjunction; the th is soft, as in English,
and is sometimes replaced by d; the gs is seldom met with - I believe only in
the word segse, to say, in modern Fries sidse, pronounced sisze.
The paper, of large quarto size, is made of cotton, not very thick, without
watermark or makers mark, made upon a frame or wire-web, with not very broad
perpendicular lines.
An introductory letter gives the year 1256 as that in which this manuscript
was written by Hiddo overa Linda on foreign paper. Consequently it must have come
from Spain, where Arabs brought into the market paper manufactured from cotton.
On this subject, W. Wattenbach writes in his `Das Schriftwesen im Mittelalter
(Leipzig, 1871), s. 93:
`The manufacture of paper from cotton must have been in use among the Chinese
from very remote times, and must have become known to the Arabs by the conquest
of Samarkand about the year 704. In Damascus this manufacture was an important
branch of industry, for which reason it was called Charta Damascena. By the Arabians
this art was brought to the Greeks. It is asserted that Greek manuscripts of the
tenth century written upon cotton paper exist, and that in the thirteenth century
it was much more used than parchment. To distinguish it from Egyptian paper it
was called Charta bombicina, gossypina, cuttunea, xylina. A distinction from linen
paper was not necessary. In the manufacture of cotton paper raw cotton was originally
used. We first find paper from rags mentioned by Petrus Clusiacensis (1122-50).
`The Spaniards and the Italians learned the manufacture of this paper from
the Arabians. The most celebrated factories were at Jativa, Valencia, Toledo,
besides Fabriano in the March of Ancona.
In Germany the use of this material did not become very extended, whether it
came from Italy or Spain. Therefore the further this preparation spread from the
East and the adjoining countries, the more the necessity there was that linen
should take the place of cotton. A document of Kaubeuren on linen paper of the
year 1318 is of very doubtful genuineness. Bodman considers the oldest pure linen
paper to be of the year 1324, but up to 1350 much mixed paper was used. All carefully
written manuscripts of great antiquity show by the regularity of their lines that
they must have been ruled, even though no traces of the ruled lines can be distinguished.
To make the lines they used a thin piece of lead, a ruler, and a pair of compasses
to mark the distances.
In old writings the ink is very black or brown; but while there has been more
writing since the thirteenth century, the color of the ink is often gray or yellowish,
and sometimes quite pale, showing that it contains iron. All this affords convincing
proof that the manuscript before us belongs to the middle of the thirteenth century,
written with clear black letters between fine lines carefully traced with lead.
The color of the ink shows decidedly that it does not contain iron. By these evidences
the date given, 1256, is satisfactorily proved, and it is impossible to assign
any later date. Therefore all suspicion of modern deception vanishes.
The language is very old Fries, still older and purer than the Fries Rjuchtboek
or old Fries laws, differing from that both in form and spelling, so that it appears
to be an entirely distinct dialect, and shows that the locality of the language
must have been (as it was spoken) between the Vlie and the Scheldt.
The style is extremely simple, concise, and unembarrassed, resembling that
of ordinary conversation, and free in the choice of words. The spelling is also
simple and easy, so that the reading of it does not involve the least difficulty,
and yet with all its regularity, so unrestricted, that each of the separate writers
who have worked at the book has his own peculiarities, arising from the changes
in pronunciation in a long course of years, which naturally must have happened,
as the last part of the work is written five centuries after the first.
As a specimen of antiquity in language and writing, I believe I may venture
to say that this book is unique of its kind.
The writing suggests an observation, which may be of great importance.
The Greeks know and acknowledge that their writing was not their own invention.
They attribute the introduction of it to Kadmus, a Phoenician. The names of their
oldest letters, from Alpha to Tau, agree so exactly with the names of the letters
in the Hebrew alphabet, with which the Phoenician will have been nearly connected,
that we cannot doubt that the Hebrew was the origin of the Phoenician. But the
form of their letters differs so entirely from that of the Phoenician and Hebrew
writing, that in that particular no connection can be thought of between them.
Whence, then, have the Greeks derived the form of their letters?
From `thet bok tha Adela folstar (`The Book of Adelas Followers we learn
that in the time when Kadmus is said to have lived, about sixteen centuries before
Christ, a brisk trade existed between the Frisians and the Phoenicians, whom they
named Kadhemer, or dwellers on the coast.
The name Kadmus comes too near the word Kadhemer for us not to believe that
Kadmus simple meant a Phoenician.
Further on we learn that about the same time a priestess of the castle in the
island of Walcheren, Min-erva, also called Nyhellenia, had settled in Attica at
the head of a Frisian colony, and had founded a castle at Athens. Also, from the
accounts written on the walls of Waraburgt, that the Finns likewise had a writing
of their own - a very troublesome and difficult one to read - and that, therefore,
the Tyrians and the Greeks had learned the writing of Frya. By this representation
the whole thing explains itself, and it becomes clear whence comes the exterior
resemblance between the Greek and the old Fries writing, which Caesar also remarked
among the Gauls; as likewise in what manner the Greeks acquired and retained the
names of the Finn and the forms of the Fries writing.
Equally remarkable are the forms of their figures. We usually call our figures
Arabian, although they have not the least resemblance to those used by the Arabs.
The Arabians did not bring their ciphers from the East, because the Semitic nations
used the whole alphabet in writing numbers. The manner of expressing all numbers
by ten signs the Arabs learned in the West, though the form was in some measure
corresponding with their writing, and was written from left to right, after the
Western fashion. Our ciphers seem here to have sprung from the Fries ciphers (siffar),
which form had the same origin as the handwriting and is derived from the lines
of the Juul?
The book as it lies before us consists of two parts, differing widely from
each other, and of dates very far apart. The writer of the first part calls herself
Adela, wife of Apol, chief man of the Linda country. This is continued by her
son Adelbrost, and her daughter Apollonia. The first book, running from page 1
to 88, is written by Adela. The following part, from 88 to 94, is begun by Adelbrost
and continued by Apollonia. The second book, running from page 94 to 114, is written
by Apollonia. Much later, perhaps two hundred and fifty years, a third book is
written, from page 114 to 134, by Frethorik; then follows from page 134 to 143,
written by his widow, Wiljo; after that from page 144 to 169, by their son, Konered;
and then from page 169 to 192 by their grandson, Beeden (a doubtful assumption).
Pages 193 and 194, with which the last part must have begun, are wanting, therefore
the writer is unknown. He must have been a son of Beeden.
On page 134, Wiljo makes mention of another writing of Adela. These she names
`thet bok tha sanga (theta boek) tha tellinga, and `thet Hellia bok;
and afterwards `tha skrifta fon Adela jeftha Hellia.
To fix a date we must start from the year 1256 of our era, when Hiddo overa
Linda made a copy, in which he says that it was 3449 years after Atland was sunk.
This disappearance of the old land (aldland, atland) was known by the Greeks,
for Plato mentions in his `Timaeus, 24, the disappearance of Atlantis, the position
of which was only known as somewhere far beyond the Pillars of Hercules. From
this writing it appears that the land stretching far out to the west of Jutland,
of which Helgoland and the islands of North Friesland are the last barren remnants.
This event, which occasioned a great dispersion of the Frisian race, became the
commencement of a chronological reckoning corresponding with 2193 before Christ,
and is known by geologists as the Cimbrian flood.
On page 80 begins an account in the year 1602, after the disappearance of Atland,
and thus in the year 591 before Christ; and on page 82 is the account of the murder
of Frana, `Eeremoeder, of Texland, two years later - that is, in 589. When, therefore,
Adela commences her writing with her own coming forward in an assembly of the
people thirty years after the murder of the Eeremoeder, that must have been the
year 559 before Christ. In the part written by her daughter Apollonia, we find
that fifteen months after the assembly Adela was killed by the Finns in an attack
by surprise of Texland. This must accordingly have happened 557 years before Christ.
Hence it follows that the first book, written by Adela, was of the year 558 before
Christ. The second book, by Apollonia, we may assign to the year 530 before Christ.
The later part contains the history of the known kings of Friesland, Friso, Adel
(Ubbo), and Asega Askar, called Black Adel. Of the third king, Ubbo, nothing is
said, or rather that part is lost, as the pages 169 to 188 are missing. Frethorik,
the first writer, who appears now, was a contemporary of the occurrences, which
he relates, namely, the arrival of Friso. He was a friend of Liudgert den Geertman,
who, as rear admiral of the fleet of Wichhirte, the sea-king, had come with Friso
in the year 303 before Christ, 1,890 years after the disappearance of Atland.
He has borrowed most of his information from the logbook of Liudgert.
The last writer gives himself out most clearly as a contemporary of Black Adel
or Askar, about the middle of his reign, which Furmerius states to have been from
70 before Christ to 11 after the Birth of Christ, the same period as Julius Caesar
and Augustus. He therefore wrote in the middle of the last century before Christ,
and knew of the conquest of Gaul by the Romans. It is thus evident that there
elapsed fully two centuries between the two parts of the work.
Of the Gauls we read on page 84 that they were called the `Missionaries of
Sidon. And on page 124 `that the Gauls are Druids. The Gauls, then, were Druids
and the name Galli, used for the whole nation, was really only the name of an
order of priesthood brought from the East, just as among the Romans the Galli
were priests of Cybele.
The whole contents of the book are in all respects new. That is to say, there
is nothing in it that we were acquainted with before. What we here read of Friso,
Adel, and Askar, differs entirely from what is related by our own chroniclers,
or rather presents it in quite another light. For instance, they all relate that
Friso came from India, and that thus the Frisians were of Indian descent; and
yet they add that Friso was a German, and belonged to a Persian race which Herodotus
called Germans. Accordingly to the statement in this book, Friso did come from
India and with the fleet of Nearchus; but he is not therefore Indian. He is of
Frisian origin, of Fryas people. He belongs, in fact to a Frisian colony, which
after the death of Nyhellenia, fifteen and a half centuries before Christ, under
the guidance of a priestess Geert, settled in the Punjab, and took the name of
Geertmen. The Geertmen were known by only one of the Greek writers, Strabo, who
mentions them as being entirely different from Phoenicians (slightly edited) in
manners, language and religion.
The historians of Alexanders expeditions do not speak of Frisians or Geertmen,
though they mention Indo-scythians, thereby describing a people who lived in India,
but whose origin is in the distant, unknown North.
In the accounts of Liudgert no names are given of places where the Frieslanders
lived in India. We only know that they first established themselves to the east
of the Punjab, and afterwards moved to the west of those rivers. It is mentioned,
moreover, as a striking fact, that in summer the sun at midday was straight above
their heads. They therefore lived within the tropics. We find in Ptolemy, exactly
24N. on the west side of the Indus, the name Minnagara; and about six degrees
east of that, in 22N., another Minnagara. This name is pure Fries, the same as
Walhallagara, Foolsgara, and comes from Minna, the name of an Eeremoeder, in whose
time the voyages of Teunis and his nephew Inca took place.
The coincidence is too remarkable to be accidental, and not to prove that Minnagara
was the headquarters of the Frisian Colony. The establishment of the colonists
in the Punjab in 1551 before Christ, and their journey thither, we find fully
described in Adels book; and with the mention of one most remarkable circumstance,
namely, that the Frisian mariners sailed through the strait in whose times still
ran into the Red Sea.
In Strabo, book i. pages 38 and 50, it appears that Eratosthenes was acquainted
with the existence of the strait, of which the later geographers make no mention.
It existed still in the time of Moses (Exodus xiv. 2) for he encamped at Piha-chiroht,
`the mouth of the strait. Moreover, Strabo mentions that Sesostris made an attempt
to cut through the isthmus, but that he was not able to accomplish it. That in
very remote times the sea did flow through is proved by the result of the geological
investigations on the isthmus made by the Suez Canal Commission, of which Mr.
Renaud presented a report to the Academy of Sciences on the 19thJune
1856. In that report, among other things, appears the following: `Une question
fort controvers est celle de savoir, si Loque oles Hebreux fuyaient de
lEgypte sous la conduite de Moe, les lacs amers faisaient encore partie de
la merrouge. Cette dernie hypothes accorderait mieux qu lhypothe contraire
avec le texte des livres sacres, mais alors il faudrait admettre que depuis loque
de Moe le seuil de Suez serait sorti des eaux.
With regard to this question, it is certainly of importance to fall in with
an account in this Frisian manuscript, from which it seems that in the sixteenth
century before Christ the connection between the Bitter Lakes and the Red Sea
still existed, and that the strait was still navigable. The manuscript further
states that soon after the passage of the Geertmen there was an earthquake; that
the land rose so high that all the water ran out, and all the shallows and alluvial
lands rose up like a wall. This must have happened after the time of Moses, so
that at the date of the Exodus (1564 BC) the track between Suez and Bitter Lakes
was still navigable, but could be forded dry-foot at low water.
This point, then, is the commencement of the isthmus, after the forming of
which, the northern inlet was certainly soon filled up as far as the Gulf of Pelusium.
The map by Louis Figuier, in the `Ann scientifique et industrielle (premie
ann), Paris, Hachette, 1857, gives a distinct illustration of the formation
of this land.
Another statement that occurs only in Strabo, finds also here a conformation.
Strabo alone of all the Greek writers relates that Nearchus, after he had landed
his troops in the Persian Gulf, at the mouth of the Pasitigris, sailed out of
the Persian Gulf, by Alexanders command, and steered round Arabia through the
Arabian Gulf. As the account stands, it is not clear what Nearchus had to do there,
and what the object of the further voyage was. If, as Strabo seems to think, it
was only for geographical discovery, he need not have taken the whole fleet. One
or two ships would have sufficed. We do not read that he returned. Where, then,
did he remain with the fleet?
The answer to this question is to found in the Frisian version of the story.
Alexander had bought the ships on the Indus, or had had them built by descendants
of the Frisians who had settled there - the Geertmen - and had taken into his
service sailors from among them, and at the head of them was Friso. Alexander
having accomplished his voyage and the transport of his troops, had no further
use for the ships in the Persian Gulf, but wished to employ them in the Mediterranean.
He had taken that idea into his head, and it must be carried into effect. He wished
to do what no one had done before him. For this purpose Nearchus was to sail up
the Red Sea, and on his arrival at Suez was to find 200 elephants, 1,000 camels,
workmen and materials, timber and ropes in order to haul the ships by hand over
the isthmus. This work was carried on and accomplished with so much zeal and energy
that after three months labor the fleet was launched in the Mediterranean. That
the fleet really came to the Mediterranean appears in Plutarchs Life of Alexander;
but he makes Nearchus bring the fleet round Africa, and sail through the pillars
of Hercules.
After the defeat at Actium, Cleopatra, in imitation of this example, tried
to take her fleet over the isthmus in order to escape to India, but was prevented
by the inhabitants of Arabia Petraea, who burnt her ships. (See Plutarchs Life
of Antony). When Alexander shortly afterwards died, Friso remained in the service
of Antigonus and Demetrius, until, having been grievously insulted by the latter,
he resolved to seek out with his sailors their fatherland, Friesland. To India
he could not, indeed, return.
Thus these accounts chime in with and clear up each other, and in that way
afford a mutual confirmation of the events.
Such simple narratives and surprising results led me to conclude that we had
to do here with more than mere Saga and Legends.
Since the last twenty years attention has been directed to the remains of the
dwellings on piles, first observed in the Swiss lakes, and afterwards in other
parts of Europe. (See Dr. E. Rkert, Die Pfahlbauten; Wurzburg, 1869. Dr. T.
C. Winkler, in the Volksalmanak, t.N.v.A.1867). When they were found, endeavors
were made to discover, by the existing fragments of arms, tools and household
articles, by whom and when these dwelling had been inhabited. There are no accounts
of them in historical writers, beyond what Herodotus writes in book v. chapter
16, of the Paeonen. The only trace that has been found in one of the panels of
Trajans Pillar, in which the destruction of a pile village in Dacia is represented.
Doubly important, therefore, is it to learn from the writing of Apollonia that
she, as `Burgtmaagd (chief of the virgins), about 540 years before Christ, made
a journey up the Rhine to Switzerland, and there became acquainted with the Lake
Dwellers (marsaten). She describes their dwellings built upon piles - the people
themselves - their manners and customs. She relates that they lived by fishing
and hunting, and that they prepared the skins of animals with the bark of the
birch-tree in order to sell the furs to the Rhine boatmen, who brought them into
commerce. This account of the pile dwellings of the Swiss lakes can only have
been written in the time when these dwellings still existed and were still lived
in. In the second part of the writing, Konered oera Linda relates that Adel, the
son of Friso (approximately 250 years before Christ), visited the pile dwellings
in Switzerland with his wife Ifkja.
Later than this account there is no mention by any writer whatever of the pile
dwellings, and the subject has remained for twenty centuries utterly unknown until
1853, when an extraordinary low state of the water led to the discovery of these
dwellings. Therefore no one could have invented this account in the intervening
period. Although a great portion of the first part of the work - the book of Adela
- belongs to the mythological period before the Trojan war, there is a striking
difference between it and the Greek myths. The Myths have no dates, much less
any chronology, nor any internal coherence of successive events. The untrammeled
fancy develops itself in every poem separately and independently. The mythological
stories contradict each other on every point. `Les Mythes ne se tiennent pas,
is the only key to the Greek Mythology.
Here, on the contrary, we meet with a regular succession of dates starting
from a fixed period - the destruction of Atland, 2193 before Christ. The accounts
are natural and simple, often naive, never contradict each other, and are always
consistent with each other in time and place. As, for instance, the arrival and
sojourn of Ulysses with the Burgtmaagd Kalip at Walhallagara (Walcheren), which
is the most mythical portion of all, is here said to be 1,005 years after the
disappearance of Atland, which coincides with 1188 years before Christ, and thus
agrees very nearly with the time at which the Greeks say the Trojan war took place.
The story of Ulysses was not brought here for the first time by the Romans. Tacitus
found it already in Lower Germany (see `Germania, chap. 3), and says that at
Asciburgium there was an alter on which the names of Ulysses and his father Laes
were inscribed.
Another remarkable difference consists in this, that the Myths knew no origin,
do not name either writers or relaters of their stories, and therefore never can
bring forward any authority. Whereas in Adelas book, for every statement is given
a notice where it was found or whence it was taken. For instance, `This comes
from Minnos writings - this is written on the walls of Waraburgt - this in the
town of Frya - this at Stavia - this at Walhallagara.
There is also this further. Laws, regular legislative enactments, such as are
found in great numbers in Adelas book, are utterly unknown in Mythology, and
indeed are irreconcilable with its existence. Even when the Myth attributes to
Minos the introduction of lawgiving in Crete, it does not give the least account
of what the legislation consisted. Also among the Gods of Mythology there existed
no system of laws. The only law was unchangeable Destiny and the will of the supreme
Zeus.
With regard to Mythology, this writing, which bears no mythical character,
is not less remarkable than with regard to history. Notwithstanding the frequent
and various relations with Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, we do not find any traces
of acquaintance with the Northern or Scandinavian Mythology. Only Wodin appears
in the person of Wodan, a chief of the Frisians, who became the son-in-law of
one Magy, King of the Finns, and after his death was deified.
The Frisian religion is extremely simple and pure Monotheism. Wr-Alda or Wr-Aldas
spirit is the only eternal, unchangeable, perfect and almighty being. Wr-Alda
created everything. Out of him proceeds everything - first the beginning, then
time, and afterwards Irtha, the Earth. Irtha bore three daughters - Lyda, Finda
and Frya - the mothers of the three distinct races, black, yellow and white -
Africa, Asia and Europe. As such, Frya is the mother of Fryas people, the Frieslanders.
She is the representative of Wr-Alda, and is reverenced accordingly. Frya has
established her `Tex, the first law, and has established the religion of the
eternal light. The worship consists of the maintenance of a perpetually burning
lamp, foddik, by priestesses, virgins. At the head of the virgins in every town
was a Burgtmaagd, and the chief of the Burgtmaagden was the Eeremoeder of the
Fryasburgt of Texland. The Eeremoeder governs the whole country. The kings can
do nothing, nor can anything happen without her advice and approval. The first
Eeremoeder was appointed by Frya herself, and was called Fasta. In fact, we find
her the prototype of the Roman Vestal Virgins.
We are reminded here of Velleda (Welda) and `Aurinia in Tacitus (`Germania,
8.Hist., iv. 61, 65; v. 22,24. `Annals i. 54), and of Gauna, the successor of
Velleda, in Dio Cassius (Fragments, 49). Tacitus speaks of the town of Velleda
as `edita turris, page 146. It was the town of Mannagarda forda (Munster).
In the country of the Marsians he speaks of the temple Tanfane (Tanfanc), so
called from the sign of the Juul.
The last of these towns was Fastaburgt in Ameland, temple Fost, destroyed,
according to Occa Scarlensis, in 806.
If we find among the Frisians a belief in a Godhead and ideas of religion entirely
different from the Mythology of other nations, we are the more surprised to find
in some points the closest connections with the Greek and Roman Mythology, and
even of the origins of the two deities of the highest rank, Min-erva and Neptune.
Min-erva (Athene) was originally a Burgtmaagd, priestess of Frya, at the town
of Walhallagara, Middelburg, or Domburg, in Walcheren. And this Min-erva is at
the same time the mysterious enigmatical goddess of whose worship scarcely any
traces beyond the votive stones of Domburg, in Walcheren, Nyhellenia, of whom
no mythology knows anything more than the name, which etymology has used for all
sorts of fantastical derivations.
The other, Neptune, called by the Etrurians Nethunus, the God of the Mediterranean
Sea, appears here to have been, when living, a Friesland Viking, or sea-king,
whose home was Alderga (Ouddorp, not far from Alkmaar). His name was Teunis, or
Cousin Teunis, who had chosen the Mediterranean as the destination of his expeditions,
and must have been deified by the Tyrians at the time when the Phoenician navigators
began to extend their voyages so remarkably, sailing to Friesland in order to
obtain British tin, northern iron, and amber from the Baltic, about 2,000 years
before Christ.
Besides these two we meet with a third mythological person - Minos, the lawgiver
of Crete, who likewise appears to have been a Friesland sea-king, Minno, born
at Lindaoord, between Wieringen and Kreyl, who imparted to the Cretans an `Asegaboek.
He is that Minos who, with his brother Rhadamanthus and Aeacus, presided as judges
over the fates of the ghosts in Hades, and must not be confounded with the late
Minos, the contemporary of Aegeus and Theseus, who appears in the Athenian Fables.
The reader may perhaps be inclined to laugh at these statements, and apply
to me the words that I myself lately used, fantastic and improbable. Indeed at
first I could not believe my own eyes, and yet after further considerations I
arrived at the discovery of extraordinary conformities which render the case much
less improbable than the birth of Minerva from the head of Jupiter by a blow from
the axe of Hephaestus, for instance.
In the Greek Mythology all the gods and goddesses have a youthful period. Pallas
alone has no youth. She is no otherwise than adult. Min-erva appears in Attica
as high priestess from a foreign country, a country unknown to the Greeks. Pallas
is a virgin goddess, Min-erva is a Burgtmaagd. The fair, blue-eyed Pallas, differing
thus in type from the rest of the gods and goddesses, evidently belonged to Fryas
people. The character for wisdom and emblematical attributes, especially the owl,
are the same for both. Pallas gives to the new town her own name, Athenai, which
has no meaning in Greek. Min-erva gives to the town built by her the name Athene,
which has an important meaning in Fries, namely that they came there as friends
- `Athen.
Min-erva came to Athens about 1600 years before Christ, the period at which
the Grecian Mythology was beginning to be formed. Min-erva landed with the fleet
of Jon at the head of a colony in Attica. In later times we find her on the Roman
votive stones in Walcheren, under the name of Nyhellenia, worshipped as a goddess
of navigation; and Pallas is worshipped by the Athenians as the protecting goddess
of shipbuilding and navigation.
Time is the carrier who must eternally turn the `Jol (wheel) and carry the
sun along his course through the firmament from winter to winter, thus forming
the year, every turn of the wheel being a day. In winter the `Jolfeest is celebrated
on Frys day. Then cakes are baked in the form of the suns wheel, because with
the Jol Frya formed the letters when she wrote her `Tex. The Jolfeest is therefore
also in honor of Frya as inventor of writing.
Just as this Jolfeest has been changed by Christianity into Christmas throughout
Denmark and Germany, and into St. Nicholas Day in Holland; so, certainly, our
St. Nicholas dolls - the lover and his sweetheart - are a memorial of Frya, and
the St. Nicholas letters a memorial of Fryas invention of letters formed from
the wheel.
I cannot analyze the whole contents of this writing, and must content myself
with the remarks that I have made. They will give an idea of the richness and
importance of the contents. If some of it is fabulous, it must have an interest
for us, since so little of the traditions of our forefathers remains to us.
An internal evidence of the antiquity of these writings may be found in the
fact that the name Batavians had not yet been used. The inhabitants of the whole
country as far as the Scheldt are Fryas people - Frieslanders. The Batavians
are not a separate people. The name Batavi is of Roman origin. The Romans gave
it to the inhabitants of the banks of the Waal, which river bears the name Patabus
in the `Tabula Pentingeriana. The name Batavi does not appear earlier than Tacitus
and Pliny, and is interpolated in Caesars `Bello Gallico, iv. 10. (See my treatise
on the course of the rivers through the countries of the Frisians and Batavians,
p. 49, in `DeVrije Fries. 4thvol. 1stpart, 1845).
I will conclude with one more remark regarding the language. Those who have
been able to take only a superficial view of the manuscripts have been struck
by the polish of the language, and its conformity with the present Friesland language
and Dutch. In this they seem to find grounds for doubting the antiquity of the
manuscript.
But, I ask, is, then, the language of Homer much less polished than that of
Plato or Demosthenes? And does not the greatest portion of Homers vocabulary
exist in the Greek of our day?
It is true that language alters with time, and is continually subject to slight
variations, owing to which language is found to be different at different epochs.
This change in the language in this manuscript accordingly gives ground for important
observations to philologists. It is not only that of the eight writers who have
successively worked at the book, each is recognizable by slight peculiarities
in style, language and spelling; but more particularly between the two parts of
the book, between which an interval of more than two centuries occurs, a striking
difference of the language is visible, which shows what a slowly progressive regulation
it has undergone in that period of time. As a result of these considerations,
I arrive at the conclusion that I cannot find any reason to doubt the authenticity
of these writings. They cannot be forgeries. In the first place, the copy of 1256
cannot be. Who could have at that time forged anything of that kind? Certainly
no one. Still less any one at an earlier date. At a later date a forgery is equally
impossible, for the simple reason that no one was acquainted with the language.
Except Grimm, Richthofen and Hettema, no one can be named sufficiently versed
in that branch of philology, or who had studied the language so as to be able
to write in it. And if one could have done so, there would have been no more extensive
vocabulary at his service than that which the East Frisian laws afford. Therefore,
in the centuries lately elapsed, the preparation of this writing was impossible.
Whoever doubts this let him begin by showing where, when, by whom, and with what
object such a forgery could be committed, and let him show in modern times the
fellow of this paper, this writing, and this language.
Moreover, that the manuscript of 1256 is not original, but is a copy, is proved
by the numerous faults in the writing, as well as by some explanations of words
which already in the time of the copyist had become obsolete and little known,
as, for instance, in pages 82 (114), `to thera flete jefta bedrum; page 151 (204),
`bargum jefta tonnum fon tha besta bjar.
A still stronger proof is that between pages 157 and 158 one or more pages
are missing, which cannot have been lost out of the manuscript because the pages
157 and 158 are on the front and the back of the same leaf.
Page 157 finishes thus: `Three months afterwards Adel sent messengers to all
the friends that he had gained, and requested them to send him intelligent people
in the month of May. When we turn over the leaf, the other side begins, `his
wife, he said, who had been Maid of Texland, had got a copy of it.
There is no connection between these two. There is wanting, at least, the arrival
of the invited, and an account of what passed at their meeting. It is clear, therefore,
that the copyist must have turned over two pages of the original instead of one.
There certainly existed then an earlier manuscript, and that was doubtless
written by Liko oera Linda in the year 803.
We may thus accept that we possess in this manuscript, of which the first part
was composed in the sixth century before our era, the oldest production, after
Homer and Hesiod, of European literature. And here we find in our fatherland a
very ancient people in possession of development, civilization, industry, commerce,
literature, and pure elevated ideas of religion, whose existence we had never
conjectured. Hitherto we have believed that the historical records of our people
reach no farther back than the arrival of Friso the presumptive founder of the
Frisians, whereas here we become aware that these records mount up to more than
2,000 years before Christ, surpassing the antiquity of Hellas and equaling that
of Israel.
This appendix was taken from the Introduction to the Oera Linda Book by W.
R. Sandbach, published in London by Trubner & Co., in 1876. It is an English translation
of Dr. J. G. Ottemas Dutch Translation of the original Frisian text, published
in Friesland, in 1872 under the title Thet Oera Linda Bok. The London edition
contains the Frisian text on the left and English on the right and was verified
by Dr. Ottema.
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