FROM GODDESS TO KING

A History of Ancient Europe from the

OERA LINDA BOOK

By Anthony Radford

CHAPTER 6

MINNA AND THE NORTHERN CAMPAIGN

A modern statue of the god Odin who was once the general Wodin.

Thecatastrophe that beset Europe and possibly the world at the beginning of the twenty-second century BC was immediately accompanied by nomadic invasions in the north and also in the south following the thinning of the Great Forest. What civilization had established could not survive the following generations without resorting to organized military campaigns. The modern countries of Finland and Hungary were then sparsely populated and soon became settled by the yellow race. The Black Forest still divided them in the middle but they shared a language and a political system with the Magy as their priest-king. This system is here described and according to the tone of the writer who is unknown, it was not liked at all; it was feared; freedom had to be protected by strict adherence to Fryas laws or else the consequences were annihilation.

Lack of vigilance had cost them their northern territories, and the Earth Mother Minna called a national levy to gain back their Schoonland, the present day Scandinavia not including Denmark. The long campaign that was the outcome of this was destined to let down its vigilance and another saga began the saga of Wodin and eventually the historical story of Neptune and the origins of the Phoenicians. We do not know when the following inscription was first made at Aldgamude, but that port apparently was a trading center dating from the beginning of the age or even earlier.

This is Inscribed on the Waraburgt by the Aldgamude:

The Waraburgt is not a maidens city, but the place where all the foreign articles brought by sailors were stored. It lies three hours south from Medesblik.

This is the Preface:

Hill, bow your heads; weep, ye streams and clouds. Yes, Scandinavia blushes, an enslaved people tramples on your garment, O Frya.

This is the History:

One hundred and one years after the submersion of Aldland, a people came out of the East. That people was driven by another. Behind us, in Germany, they fell into disputes, divided into two parties, and each went its own way. Of the one no account has come to us, but the other came in the back of our Scandinavia, which was thinly inhabited, particularly the upper part. Therefore they were able to take possession of it without contest, and as they did no other harm, we would not make war about it. Now that we have learned to know them, we will describe their customs, and after that how matters went between us. They were not wild people, like most of Findas race; but, like the Egyptians, they have priests and also statues in their churches.

The priests are the only rulers; they call themselves Magyars, and their headman the Magy. He is high priest and king in one. The rest of the people are of no account, and in subjection to them. This people have not even a name; but we call them Finns, because although all the festivals are melancholy and bloody, they are so formal that we are inferior to them in that respect. But still they are not to be envied, because they are slaves to their priests, and still more to their creeds. They believe that evil spirits abound everywhere, and enter into men and beasts, but of Wr-Aldas spirit they know nothing. They have weapons of stone, the Magyars, of copper. The Magyars affirm that they can exorcise and recall the evil spirits, and this frightens the people, so that you never see a cheerful face.

When they were well established, the Magyars sought our friendship, they praised our language and customs, our cattle and iron weapons, which they would willingly have exchanged for their gold and silver ornaments, and they always kept their people within their own boundaries, and that outwitted our watchfulness.

Eighty years afterwards, (101+80-2193 = 2012 BC) just at the time of the Julefest, they overran our country like a snowstorm driven by the wind. All who could not flee away were killed. Frya was appealed to, but the Scandinavians had neglected her advice. Then all the forces were assembled, and three hours from Godasburgt they were withstood, but war continued. Kat or Katerine was the name of the priestess who was Burgtmaid of Godasburgt. Kat was proud and haughty, and would neither seek counsel not aid from the Mother; but when the Burgers knew this, they themselves sent messengers to Texland to the Earth Mother. Minna - this was the name of the Mother - summoned all the sailors and the young men from Ostflyland and Denmark. From this expedition the history of Wodin sprang, which is inscribed on the citadels and is here copied.

The great Norse god Wotan or Odin was the God of War and because his day was identified with Wednesday or Mercredi which is from the Roman Mercury, he was believed to be connected to the classical pantheon. Here we have a more personal story of a great warrior who freed the North from the power of the Magi but he was not wise enough to keep hold of the peace. Norse tradition says that Odin swapped one of his eyes for wisdom; perhaps he needed to do that.

A description of military command is given wherein the elected king was the leader of the campaign, the "witkoning" or sea-king led the marines and the admiral commanded the ships or navy. The navy whether military or merchant, often employed foreign rowers. The Viking fleets three thousand years later were smaller and rowed by the fighting force when sails were not employable, but here it is presumed that the military men would also lend a hand as necessary. This custom was not part of either Greek or Roman tradition but was mentioned by Homer. Both types of ships were built of wood but no evidence as to the style of a vessel that ancient has been found, only some outlines of artifacts or cargo located near Rhodes a few years ago, a simple vessel carrying amphorae. Ancient Egyptians pictured their own boats with oars while northern ships were shown without them but with high, decorated prows and sterns. This style is also reproduced in very old rock carvings found in Sweden. Unfortunately, timber does not last that long in the ocean but if it does survive the worms then it disintegrates immediately on contact with the air. Julius Caesar describes the Celtic ships of Gaul with much admiration for their size and strength and recently such a ship has been found in the English Channel that validates Caesars writing which as usual were subject to disbelief. It was heavily built of oak and strictly a freighter carrying pitch that had caught on fire. The time of Caesar is at the end of the Age of Aries. A ship that is two thousand years older is yet to be found.

Wood was getting less common in the Eastern Mediterranean and very scarce in the Fertile Crescent. True there were giant cedars and reed craft of considerable size but to maintain a maritime tradition like that of the sea-kings required European timber and a riverside building legacy. This fact does not favor a Phoenician navy yet they were a maritime nation and sold much cedar timber including finished ships to ancient Egypt.

The three nephews of the old sea-king Sterik were Wodin, the eldest, and the brothers Teunis and Inka. The campaign of approximately 2010 BC lasted long enough for many Finns to appreciate what freedom from the Magy was like and also for Wodin and some supporters to be corrupted by privilege. The clever Magy regained his power using his daughter in marriage, flattery and "magic herbs" to stupefy the old king. After his death, the Magy deified Wodin and proclaimed his young grandson by Wodin the new king with himself as regent. This disgusted the remaining seamen who took to the ships with many Finnish rowers who had tasted the free life-style of the campaigners. Led by Teunis and Inka, they intended to return to Flyland.

At Aldgamude there lived an old sea-king whose name was Sterik, and whose deeds were famous. This old fellow had three nephews. Wodin, the eldest, lived at Lumkamakia, near the Eremude, in Ostflyland, with his parents. He had once commanded troops. Teunis and Inka were naval warriors, and were just then staying with their father at Aldgamude. When the young warriors had assembled together, they chose Wodin to be their leader or king, and the naval force chose Teunis for their sea-king and Inka for their admiral. The navy then sailed to Denmark, where they took on board Wodin and his valiant host.

The wind was fair, so they arrived immediately in Scandinavia. When the northern brothers met together, Wodin divided his powerful army into three bodies. Frya was their way-cry, and they drove back the Finns and Magyars like children. When the Magy heard how his forces had been utterly defeated, he sent messengers with truncheon and crown, who said to Wodin:

"Oh almighty king, we are guilty but all that we have done was from necessity. You think that we attacked your brothers out of ill will, but we were driven out by our enemies, who are still at our heels. We have often asked your burgtmaid for help, but she took no notice of us. The Magy says that if we kill half our numbers in fighting with each other, then the wild shepherds will come and kill all the rest. The Magy possesses great riches, but he has seen that Frya is much more powerful than all our spirits together. He will lay down his head in her lap. You are the most warlike king on the earth, and your people are of iron. Become our king, and we will all be your slaves. What glory it would be for you if you could drive back the savages! Our trumpets would resound with your praises, and the fame of your deeds would precede you everywhere."

Wodin was strong, fierce, and warlike, but he was not clear-sighted, therefore he was taken in their toils, and crowned by the Magy. Very many of the sailors and soldiers to whom this proceeding was displeasing went away secretly, taking Kat with them. But Kat, who did not wish to appear before either the Mother or the general assembly, jumped overboard. Then a storm arose and drove the ships upon the banks of Denmark, with the total destruction of their crews. This strait was afterwards called the Kattegat.

When Wodin was crowned, he attacked the savages, who were all horsemen. They fell upon Wodins troops like a hailstorm; but like a whirlwind they were turned back and did not dare to appear again. When Wodin returned Magy gave him his daughter to wife, whereupon he was incensed with herbs; but they were magic herbs, and by degrees he became so audacious that he dared to disavow and ridicule the spirits of Frya and Wr-Alda, while he bent his free head before the false and deceitful images. His reign lasted seven years, and then he disappeared. The Magy said that he was taken up by their gods and still reigned over us, but our people laughed at what they said.

When Wodin had disappeared some time, disputes arose. We wished to choose another king, but the Magy would not permit it. He asserted that it was his right given him by his idols. But besides this dispute there was one between the Magyars and Finns, who would honor neither Frya nor Wodin; but the Magy did just as he pleased, because his daughter had a son by Wodin, and he would have it that this son was of high descent. While all were disputing and quarreling, he crowned the boy as king, and set up himself as guardian and counselor. Those who cared more for themselves than for justice let him work his own way, but the good men took their departure. Many Magyars fled back with their troops, and the sea-people took ship, accompanied by a body of stalwart Finns as rowers.

The saga continued with the fleet trying to return home to Flyland in Texland, approximately twelve years after the northern campaign began. This is a very interesting story of the real life hero Neef Teunis who became deified as Neptune like his older cousin Wodin. The northern campaign had stayed away too long and had been contaminated according to the Earth Mother. They could not come home and bring the ways of the Magi with them, nor could they bring their Finn wives or rowers into Fryas land. They had won the war but lost the peace and apparently the Mother was willing to sacrifice Scandinavia.

Whether Minna was still the Mother at this time is not made clear but sacrifice for principles was a commanding force. The Burgtmaid Kat had killed herself rather than accept defeat or matronage from an ally and the Earth Mother was willing to sacrifice their northern territories to prevent a "contaminated" fleet from returning. They still had Denmark and were strong enough to turn back this formidable fleet of their own kind of fighting men and their families.

Fasta had advised a policy of waiting and education of the foreigners that apparently had worked very well but perhaps not in the way they would have liked. The fleet, being denied the opportunity to return to the Rhine, continued south towards the Mediterranean landing near present day Cadiz in Spain. There, Inka and Teunis divided the fleet with, surprisingly, more foreign rowers than Friends (one of the names for the Children of Frya) being willing to follow Neef Inka into the unknown Atlantic rather than face the prospects of serving another Finda king. The disreputable fleet that was led by Teunis had best find a new and free home and not subject to an Eastern king.

Teunis, who had no desire to loose his command by returning to Texland, went on to found Tyre near older Sidon, a city of Phonisia, or palm land, a place with which they had previously traded. Tyre was named after a god of the Finnish rowers that we now know of as Thor (as in Thursday) and of course Phonisia became Phoenicia. Modern Lebanon in 2000 BC became his new home but not for long as his further exploits became legend. The book tells more than once how descendants of Frisian traders, Finns and black men from Libya became the Phoenician traders of antiquity and that they became influenced by the Golan or priests of Sidon into Findas idolatrous ways.

They had the language and writing; they were familiar with the countries of the west and they knew seafaring more than any Mediterranean nation. In addition Teunis had been to the East before the northern campaign. Such a sea-king would not have been satisfied to stay home and that Tunisia is named for him is testimony to that. Tunisia became simply "Africa" in many references, a place where the Thyriers would one day (814 BC) found Carthage which meant "new town" in Phoenician.

The activity of these traders of Teunis became too dominating or actually too influential for the Mother who limited the number of ships that they would allow to visit Texland each year to trade. Their ways were no longer those of Frya since they now included many Finnish customs such as Magyar idolatry and the ways of the Golen. With two generations of foreign wives and new families it would have been impossible for them to maintain the original customs of the men in other than vocational ways, the skills of the sea and trade. For the first time the sea-kings of Texland had competition worthy of them.

Apparently nearly two hundred years after the loss of Atland, the Mediterranean area was still suffering hardships. Crete had been part of the European Mother system but had been lost because of this disaster. We are getting a picture of a pre-submergence united Europe under a protective matriarchal political and social regime that survived in a resemblance of its former self as a western federation which was still perhaps the most formidable nation of the time. The sea-kings with their iron weapons and oak ships dominated the foreign commerce and were not necessarily united Frisians but rather independent city states such as Thera, the east Mediterranean island nation, Tyre in modern Lebanon, Malta and Pharos at the mouth of the Nile. There are many more sites that are candidates for these independent trading city states in the Mediterranean. At this time Egypt had recovered and was considered wealthy but not free.

All This is Inscribed Not Only on the Waraburgt, But Also on the Burgt Stavia, Which Lies Behind the Port of Starve:

When Teunis wished to return home, he went first towards Denmark; but he might not land there, for so the Mother had ordered, nor was he to land at Flyland, nor anywhere about there. In this way he would have lost all his people by want and hardship, so he landed at night to steal and sailed on by day. Thus coasting along, he at length arrived at the colony of Kadik, (present day Cadiz in Spain) so called because it was built with a stone quay. Here they bought all kinds of stores, but Tuntia, the burgtmaid, would not allow them to settle there. When they were ready they began to disagree.

Teunis wished to sail through the straits to the Mediterranean Sea, and enter the service of the rich Egyptian king, as he had done before, but Inka said he had had enough of all those Findas people. Inka thought that perchance some high-lying part of Atland might remain as an island, where he and his people might live in peace. As the two cousins could not agree, Teunis planted a red flag on the shore, and Inka a blue flag. Every man should choose which he pleased, and to their astonishment, the greater part of the Finns and Magyars followed Inka, who had objected to serve the kings of Findas people. When they had counted the people and divided the ships accordingly, the fleet separated. We shall hear of Teunis afterwards, but nothing more of Inka.

Neef Teunis coasted through the straits to the Mediterranean Sea. When Atland was submerged there was much suffering also on the shores of the Mediterranean, on which account many of Findas people, Cretans, and people from Lydas land, came to us. On the other hand, many of our people went to Lydas land. The result of all this was that the Cretans far and wide were lost to the superintendence of the Mother. Teunis had reckoned on this, and had therefore wished to find there a good haven from which he might go and serve under the rich princes; but as his fleet and his people had such a shattered appearance, the inhabitants on the coasts thought that they were pirates, and drove them away. At last they arrived at the Phoenician coast, one hundred and ninety-three years after Atland was submerged (2000 BC). Near the coast they found an island with two deep bays, so that there appeared to be three islands. In the middle one they established themselves, and afterwards built a city wall round the place. Then they wanted to give it a name, but disagreed about it. Some wanted to call it Fryasburgt, others Neeftunia; but the Magyars and Finns begged that it might be called Thyrhisburgt.

Thyr was the name of one of their idols, and it was upon his feast-day that they had landed there; and in return they offered to recognize Teunis as their perpetual king. Teunis let himself be persuaded and the others would not make much quarrel about it. When they were well established, they sent some old seamen and Magyars on an expedition as far as the town of Sidon; but at first the inhabitants of the coast would have nothing to do with them, saying, "You are only foreign adventurers whom we do not respect." But when we sold them some of our iron weapons, everything went well. They also wished to buy our amber, and their inquiries about it were incessant. But Teunis, who was farseeing, pretended that he had no more iron weapons or amber. Then merchants came and begged him to let them have twenty vessels, which they would freight with the finest goods, and they would provide as many people to row as he would require. Twelve ships were then laden with wine, honey, tanned leather, and saddles and bridles mounted in gold, such as had never been seen before.

Teunis sailed to the Flymeer (the mouth of the Fly river in Texland) with all this treasure, which so enchanted the Grevetman of Westflyland that he induced Teunis to build a warehouse at the Flymeer. Afterwards this place was called Almanland, and the market where they traded at Wyringen was called Toelaatmarkt. The mother advised that they should sell everything except iron weapons, but no attention was paid to what she said. As the Thyriers had thus free play, they came from far and near to take away our goods, to the loss of our seafaring people. Therefore it was resolved in a general assembly to allow only seven Thyrian ships and no more in a year.

Tunisia in northern Africa and named after Neef Teunis, became an important intermediate country to the Phoenicians on their trades with the Rhine areas and with the tin producing region of Cornwall in Westland, the old name for Britain. These enterprising traders soon needed additional bases. They had ports in Tunisia and in Spain but needed to open up France, sparsely settled at the time, to their growing influence.

Sidon and Tyre had become a united Phoenicia with the priests of Sidon assuming a dominant role. Little of Fryas teachings or her bloodline had survived. Remember that only men went on the campaign of the Mother and they returned to the Mediterranean with many Finish wives and rowers. Trading through Tunisia in Africa must have added the blood of Lydas children to this nation. In other words, they became typical of the eventual racial blend that became the present day European with darker and lighter areas of skin colors mostly dependent on geography.

In this section we see the origins of Gaul, or modern France, beginning as a trading island in the south at Marseilles and spreading northwards. We also see how the priests from the Golen Heights in Phoenicia, the Golen or Druids gave their name to the country. The old Welsh word derwydd or oak-seer is credited with giving us the word druid but these people tell a different story or perhaps the Welsh got their word from the older ancient Frisian. In another part of the book the origin of the German name Frank is explained, a name that was to replace Gaul after the time of Caesar. The Druids were brought to Britain by the same ships, a place ripe for foreign influence because these exiles wanted more women and freedom to run their own affairs. The Mothers influence was naturally being lost in the sparsely populated Westland.

Recent research on Crete and some Greek islands such as Thera show an early commercial city civilization. Tyre, Sidon and Carthage were not monarchies but merchant and priestly oligarchies with their wealth based on maritime trade, not agriculture. These communities apparently descended from the early sea-kings adopting and developing the distant voyaging skills and record-keeping requirements of that profession. Fastas early principles of fair trade and sharing did not survive mans natural competitive and selfish nature. Mercenary he became but many of the stories of their adventures have given us a rich mythology from that time.

What The Consequence of This Was:

In the northernmost part of the Mediterranean there lies an island close to the coast. They (the Golen led Phoenicians) now came and asked to buy that, on which a general council was held.

The mothers advice was asked, and she wished to see them at some distance, so she saw no harm in it; but as we afterwards saw what a mistake we had made, we called the island Missellia (Marseilles, miss-sell). Hereafter will be seen what reason we had. The Golen, as the missionary priests of Sidon were called, had observed that the land there was thinly peopled, and was far from the mother. In order to make a favorable impression, they had themselves called in our language followers of the truth; but they had better have been called abstainers from the truth, or, in short, "Triuwenden," (Druids) as our seafaring people afterwards called them. When they were well established, their merchants exchanged their beautiful copper weapons and all sorts of jewels for our iron weapons and hides of wild beasts, which were abundant in our southern countries; but the Golen celebrated all sorts of vile and monstrous festivals, which the inhabitants of the coast promoted with their wanton women and sweet poisonous wine. If any of our people had so conducted himself that his life was in danger, the Golen afforded him a refuge, and sent him to Phoenicia, that is, Palmland. When he was settled there, they made him write to his family, friends and connections that the country was so good and the people so happy that no one could form any idea of it. In Britain there were plenty of men, but few women. When the Golen knew this, they carried off girls everywhere and gave them to the Britons for nothing. So all these girls served their purpose to steal children from Wr-Alda in order to give them false gods.

FROM GODDESS TO KING

A History of Ancient Europe from the

OERA LINDA BOOK

By Anthony Radford

CHAPTER 5

FASTA, THE FIRST EARTH MOTHER

The Temple of Vesta in Rome

Fasta became the first of a very long line of earth mothers in the twenty-second century BC. She established the rules for the Matriarchal Age, how society would be organized and defended in the post-deluvial organization of Europe. Each district was to build a citadel in its principal town, housing the maidens that would protect the "constitution" of the nation by preserving and expanding the art of writing. They were home to the `seven virgins of the week who would also maintain the sacred lamp, lit from the one at Texland. This lamp became a symbol of legitimacy and power that featured prominently in the struggles with the Magy, the leader of the people of Finda, the mother of the yellow race, or that group of them that was forever moving westward. This tells us that they counted the week as seven days.

Fasta established the observance of a weekly day of worship to celebrate Frya and cautioned against working on that day. "Frya" or the Norse spelling "Frigg" has given us "Friday" and it is supposed that this became the day of rest although rest was not necessarily intended. There is reference to the seventh day being Sunday because the sun was symbolic of Wr-Alda, their term for God. In any case Sunday has become the "Lords Day"; probably because the early Christians found it easier to adopt existing customs than trying to change them. Throughout the Book their is constant reference to the number seven from the `Seven Islands of Frya to the `Seven Virgins of... making it a special number for them and even today seven has a charm about it.

Fasta also instigated the custom of inscribing the new laws on the walls of the citadels, thus making them permanent laws. The following passage was taken from the walls at a much later date in the sixth century BC and represents the words of Fasta. Note how a system of electing officials and choosing or voting for, not so much representatives, but task performers is instituted. These people did not have slaves and public tasks still had to be done. Trade by sea was considered more important and a more honorable profession than working the land even though what they traded in, originated as a direct result of working the local land. Remember that these laws date from the twenty-second century BC.

This Has Fasta Spoken:

All the regulations which have existed a century, that is, a hundred years, may by the advice of the Earth Mother, with the consent of the community, be inscribed upon the walls of the citadel, and when inscribed on the walls they become laws, and it is our duty to respect them all. If by force or necessity any regulations should be imposed upon us at variance with our laws and customs, we must always return to our own again. That is Fryas will, and must be that of all her children.

Fasta said, "Anything that any man commences, whatever it may be, on the day appointed for Fryas worship shall eternally fail," for time has proved that she was right; and it is become a law that no man shall, except from absolute necessity, keep that day otherwise than as a joyful feast.

Following that description of the mechanics of the Executive, Supreme Court and Constitutional Law for local and national government we have a section entitled "Universal Law" in which social rights concerning marriage, property, and the market are spelled out. These sections have been reproduced in full in the Appendix. The land was to be held in common with private use for each family during their lifetime only. Normally these rights could not be made hereditary. There was common ground for grazing and wood-cutting but any ostentatious show of private property usage was frowned upon. The community was encouraged to help one another in providing a house for a newly married couple for example, just as such cooperation was part of our own pioneering days.

The market provided tax revenue but the moneylenders and vendors with poor quality merchandise were to be expelled on discovery. The system is effectively the same today but we do it with inheritance taxes, zoning regulations, building permits and disability disbursements. Nobody owns their land today anymore than they did then. Only the intervening two thousand years of privatization based on might as right can be called free-held, a meaning that is now very different from that meant by the application of Fastas laws. She meant to develop a sense of obligation to ones community instead of the booty of individualism that followed.

Fastas laws over the next few earth mothers grew to be the code of Europe and were inscribed on every citadel. The final grouping of this section follows but has a curious introduction because the homeland of the Finda people is also called Aldland . We are told that the seafarers shortened the word "ald" to "at" meaning of course "old", so that it is not unreasonable for each mobile group to have a homeland. Among the Pacific Islanders, the name Hawaiki refers to the old land for many different islands. It has made the work of historical anthropologists more difficult.

This section was instituted as a war manual for the defense of the country. There are strict rules to prevent a king from succeeding himself or his children from doing so. A king could not bear arms although he was the general of a campaign. His contribution was to be his wisdom in council, not his personal skill at arms. This meaning of the word "king" is so different from what it subsequently became at the end of the Age of Aries XE " Age of Aries" when hereditary offices became the norm that it shows the fears they had even at that time. The fact that they were able to hang on to a remnant of these precautions for nearly two thousand years is remarkable. Even today subjects like nepotism and venality have a strong negative connotation for the free world but, in ancient times, that did not stop them from practicing propaganda even though they feared its influence on their own community. It is not explicitly stated here but these sentiments became identified with racial discrimination based on hair color although they were not above teaching representatives of their enemies the advantages of their own society as they perceived them.

In early times almost all the Finns lived together in their native land, which was called Aldland, and is now submerged. They were thus far away, and we had no wars. When they were driven here, and appeared as robbers, then arose the necessity of defending ourselves, and we had armies, kings and wars.

For all this there were established regulations, and out of the regulations came fixed laws.

Here Follow The Laws Which Were Thus Established:

Every Frisian must resist the assailants with such weapons as he can procure, invent, and use.

When a boy is twelve years old he must devote one day in seven to learning how to use his weapons.

As soon as he is perfect in the use of them they are to be given to him, and he is to be admitted as a warrior.

After serving as a warrior three years, he may become a citizen, and may have a vote in the election of the headman.

When he has been seven years as a voter then he may have a vote for the chief or king, and may be himself elected.

Every year he must be re-elected.

Except the king, all other officials are re-eligible who act according to Fryas laws.

No king may be in office more than three years, in order that the office may not be permanent.

After an interval of seven years he may be elected again.

If the king is killed by the enemy, his nearest relative may be a candidate to succeed him.

If he dies a natural death, or if his period of service has expired, he shall not be succeeded by any blood relation nearer than the fourth degree.

Those who fight with arms are not men of counsel, therefore no king must bear arms. His wisdom must be his weapon, and the love of his warriors his shield.

These Are The Rights of the Mothers and the Kings:

If war breaks out, the Mother sends her messengers to the king, who sends messengers to the Grevetmen to call the citizens to arms.

The Grevetmen call all the citizens together and decide how many men shall be sent.

All the resolutions must immediately be sent to the Mother by messengers and witnesses.

The Mother considers all the resolutions and decides upon them, and with this the king as well as the people must be satisfied.

When in the field, the king consults only his superior officers, but three citizens of the mother must be present, without any voice. These citizens must send daily reports to the Mother, that they may be sure nothing is done contrary to the counsels of Frya.

If the king wishes to do anything which his council opposed, he may not persist in it.

If an enemy appears unexpectedly, then the kings orders must be obeyed.

If the king is not present, the next to him takes command, and so on in succession according to rank.

If there is no leader present, one must be chosen.

If there is no time to choose, any one may come forward who feels himself capable of leading.

If a king has conquered a dangerous enemy, his successors may take his name after their own. The king may, if he wishes, choose an open piece of ground for a house and ground; the ground shall be seven hundred steps to the boundary in all directions from the house.

His youngest son may inherit this, and that sons youngest son after him; then it shall return to the community.

Here Are The Rules Established For The Security of all Frisians:

Whenever new laws are made or new regulations established, they must be for the common good, and not for individual advantage.

Whenever in time of war either ship or houses are destroyed, either by the enemy or as a matter of precautions, a general levy shall be assessed on the people to make it good again, so that no one may neglect the general welfare to preserve his own interest.

At the conclusion of a war, if any men are so severely wounded as to be unable to work, they shall be maintained at the public expense, and shall have the best seats at festivals, in order that the young may learn to honor them.

If there are widows and orphans, they shall likewise be maintained at the public expense; and the sons may inscribe the names of their fathers on their shields for the honor of their families.

If any who have been taken prisoners should return, they must be kept separate from the camp, because they may have obtained their liberty by making treacherous promises, and thus they may avoid keeping their promises without forfeiting their honor.

If any enemies be taken prisoners, they must be sent to the interior of the country, that they may learn our free customs.

If they are afterwards set free, it must be done with kindness by the maidens, in order that we may make them comrades and friends, instead of haters and enemies.

The following section was copied from the walls in the sixth century BC. It tells of Fasta about 2140 BC on the occasion of opening a new citadel at Medesblik by lighting the lamp, during which Frya XE " Frya" spoke to Fasta and the tradition of recording their history was begun.

The Earth Mother lived in Texland at Fryasburgt where Fasta XE " Fasta", the first of her line, originally built her citadel of stone; subsequent citadels were mostly built of wood. Only the tiny island namesake of Texel remains today, the southern most of the Frisian Islands and the Fly river; was it the northern mouth of the Rhine in those times as they do mention `the southern mouth of the Rhine? The modern Vlie River is not a major river but it does have namesakes in the towns of Flyessen and Vlieland. Modern Holland has changed its coastline much even without the events of cataclysmic earthquakes. It is unlikely any stone works built on mud would have survived but if they did then they would have been used for subsequent constructions.

We are given a description of these works around a citadel when the book gets to Apollonia, a burgtmaid after the last Earth Mother but for now here is told a story that was 1500 years old at the time it was put into the book.

This was inscribed upon the walls of Fryasburgt in Texland as well as at Stavia and Medesblik:

It was Fryas day, and seven times seven years had elapsed since Fasta was appointed Earth Mother by the desire of Frya. The citadel of Medesblik was ready, and a Burgtmaid was chosen. Fasta was about to light her new lamp, and when she had done so in the presence of all the people, Frya called from her watch-star, so that every one could hear it: "Fasta, take your style and write the things, that I may not speak." Fasta did as she was bid and thus we became Fryas children, and our earliest history began.

The following tale is an example of the attitude instilled in their communities to cooperate and share. It was not compulsory to be a communal citizen as at that time of low population, open lands and forest anyone could set himself up away from the rest. Some must have done so because we have childrens stories of individuals living in the forest, often scary ones but the teaching was that Wr-Alda would not help you if you turn your back on your neighbor.

The burgtmaidens acted as social and religious councilors as well as legal arbitrators. They recognized that a trained woman could use her special aptitudes, that may be more valuable than those of a man, to serve the various communities even as they recognized a mans special abilities for such callings such as defense and commerce.

This is Written on Parchment - (Skrivfilt"), Speech and Answer to Other Maidens as an Example:

An unsociable, avaricious man came to complain to Troost, who was the Maiden of Stavia. He said that a thunderstorm had destroyed his house. He had prayed to Wr-Alda, but Wr-Alda had given him no help.

"Are you a true Frisian?" Troost asked.

"From father to forefather." replied the man.

Then she said, "I will sow something in your conscience, in confidence that it will take root, grow, and bear fruit."

She continued, "When Frya was born, our mother stood naked and bare, unprotected from the rays of the sun. She could ask no one, and there was no one who could give her any help. Then Wr-Alda wrought in her conscience inclination and love, anxiety and fright. She looked around her, and her inclination chose the best. She sought a hiding place under the sheltering lime trees, but the rain came, and the difficulty was that she got wet. She had seen how the water ran down the pendant leaves; so she made a roof of leaves fastened with sticks, but the wind blew the rain under it. She observed that the stem would afford protection. She then built a wall of sods, first on one side, and then all round. The wind grew stronger and blew away the roof, but she made no complaint upon it. Having found how hard it is to toil alone, she showed her children how and why she had done it. They acted and thought as she did. This is the way in which we became possessed of houses and porches, a street, and lime trees to protect us from the rays of the sun. At last we have built a citadel, and all the rest. If your house is not strong enough, then you must try and make another."

"My house was strong enough," he said, "but the flood and the wind destroyed it."

"Where did your house stand?" Troost asked.

"On the bank of the Rhine." he answered.

"Did it not stand on a knoll?" Troost asked.

"No," said the man, "my house stood alone on the bank. I built it alone, but I could not alone make a hillock."

"I knew it," Troost answered, "the maidens told me. All your life you have avoided your neighbors, fearing that you might have to give or do something for them; but one cannot get on in the world in that way, for Wr-Alda, who is kind, turns away from the niggardly. Fasta has advised us, and it is engraved in stone all over the doors. If you are selfish, distrustful towards your neighbors, teach your neighbors, help your neighbors, and they will return the same to you. If this advice is not good enough for you, I can give you no better." The man blushed for shame, and slunk away.

FROM GODDESS TO KING

A History of Ancient Europe from the

OERA LINDA BOOK

By Anthony Radford

CHAPTER 4

FRYA AND THE LAND THAT WAS HOME

The first translation of the first letter into modern Frisian.

Theopening lines of the Oera Linda Book are by Hiddo Over de Linda. He was the last to copy it in the year 1256 AD. His only additional contribution is this opening letter in which he entreats his descendants to keep the book safe so that it may never be lost. Very significantly, he dates all the older times by referring them to the number of years since the submergence of Atland, the Old Land or the original home of these pre-Christian Europeans. The date is given as 3449 less 1256 or 2193 BC and marks the beginning of the continental post submergence calendar that is referred to several times in the Oera Linda Book. Here we have the tone of the Book set in the first letter; protection from power sources that cannot tolerate free expression and the gift of exciting historical facts. That original date is even confirmed again from a different source as we read on.

The actual writings from the Book are listed in type with serifs after the authors commentary. The translation is modern but retains much of the original style that these ancient narrators, members of a Frisian family, used when compiling a collection of history and sociology near the end of a very long and proud age.

The book begins:

Okke My Son

You must preserve these books with body and soul. They contain the history of all our people, as well as of our forefathers. Last year I saved them from the flood, as well as you and your mother; but they got wet and therefore began to perish. In order not to lose them, I copied them on foreign paper.

In case you inherit them, you must copy them likewise, and your children must do so too, so that they never may be lost.

Written at Liudwert, in the three thousand four hundred and forty-ninth year after Atland was submerged - that is according to the Christian reckoning, the year 1256.

Hiddo, surnamed Over de Linda - Watch.

The second letter is by Liko Over de Linda who added it to the Book that he probably copied from an older unknown edition in the year 803 AD. Hiddo Over De Linda in his edition reproduced it, the work that is most likely to be the actual Oera Linda Book which was introduced to the modern world in 1871.

Liko makes his earlier entreaty to keep the book out of the hands of the Christian monks who "Conspire with foreign kings to destroy all that we derive from our forefathers."

Beloved successors, for the sake of our dear forefathers, and of our dear liberty, I entreat you a thousand times never let the eye of a monk look on these writings. They are very insinuating, but they destroy in an underhand manner all that relates to us Frisians. In order to gain rich benefices, they conspire with foreign kings, who know that we are their greatest enemies, because we dare to speak to their people of liberty, rights and duties of princes. Therefore they seek to destroy all that we derive from our forefathers, and all that is left of our customs.

Ah, my beloved ones! I have visited their courts! If Wr-Alda permits it, and we do not show ourselves strong to resist, they will altogether exterminate us.

Liko, Surnamed Over de Linda.

Written at Liudwert,

Anno Domini 803.

The next passage reproduced here does not occur in this sequence in the Oera Linda Book as it was apparently added about 530 BC by Apollonia, the daughter of Adela. Adela was an important defender of the Free Land but refused to become the new Earth Mother because she wanted to marry and have a family. Apollonia became a Burgtmaid of Liudgaard and added the passage because it was missing from the collection at that time. It was taken from a much older inscription on the outside wall of the tower of the Citadel of Liudgaard. An important town of the time near the Rhine, or where that river may have been in ancient times as the rivers and islands of modern Holland are very different from the geography of thousands of years ago.

Creation is ascribed to Wr-Alda who is essentially their name for God. Neither male nor female, Wr-Alda is the formless concept of a monotheistic belief older than the biblical references to the originally plural translation of the word "Elohim". However recent research shows that even the ancient Sumerians had a concept of a singular creative force or entity behind their many references to different gods. Like the monotheistic teachings of the Pharaoh Akhenaton of Egypt in the fourteenth century BC, the symbolism of the sun to represent one god was also used by these people. This could be the oldest written record of the concept of monotheism.

They show a good working definition of "wickedness", not the popular dualistic interpretation that implies something morally bad or evil but one that is related to "heaviness, carelessness and stupidity" or the Hindu term "Tamas" and ignorance. Such dichotomies for example, wicked-saintly, or good-evil, et cetera may contribute to a cultures inability to respond to change. If transgressors are branded by society, then what is the point in teaching them new values? All this hundreds of years before the Vedas were written was lost because Europe did not develop or was unable to maintain a mystic tradition like India. Even the word mystic attests to a need for protection from censure in the East as well as the West.

In the oldest passages, Wr-Alda is referred to in the feminine. Later sections refer to the Oldest One in the masculine. Apparently they had the same lack of general pronouns as we do today. It is disrespectful to refer to God as "It" and "They" is very confusing. This gender change is an example how the Matriarchal Age changed to the patriarchal. The early Christian editors of the Bible completed it in the first three centuries AD.

The old legend which is written on the outside wall of the city tower is not written in The Book of Adelas Followers. Why this has been neglected I do not know; but this book is my own, so I will put it out of regard to my relations.

The Oldest Doctrine:

Hail to all the well-intentioned children of Frya! Through them the earth shall become holy. Learn and announce to the people Wr-Alda is the ancient of ancients, for he created all things. Wr-Alda is all in all, for he is eternal and everlasting. Wr-Alda is omnipresent but invisible, and therefore is called a spirit. All that we can see of him are the created beings who come to life through him and go again, because from Wr-Alda all things proceed and return to him. Wr-Alda is the beginning and the end. Wr-Alda is the only almighty being, because from him all other strength comes, and returns to him. Therefore he alone is the creator, and nothing exists without him. Wr-Alda established eternal principles, upon which the laws of creation were founded and no good laws could stand on any other foundation. But although everything is derived from Wr-Alda, the wickedness of men does not come from him. Wickedness comes from heaviness, carelessness, and stupidity; therefore they may well be injurious to men, but never to Wr-Alda. Wr-Alda is wisdom, and the laws that he has made are the books from which we learn, nor is any wisdom to be found or gathered but in them. Men may see a great deal, but Wr-Alda sees everything. Men can learn a great deal, but Wr-Alda knows everything. Men can discover much, but to Wr-Alda everything is open. Mankind are male and female, but Wr-Alda created both. Mankind love and hate, but Wr-Alda alone is just. Therefore Wr-Alda is good, and there is no good without him. In the progress of time all creation alters and changes, but goodness alone is unalterable; and since Wr-Alda is good, he cannot change. As he endures, he alone exists; everything else is show.

All peoples have their myth of the original creation of mankind. In most of Europe today, the Biblical book of Genesis that has been borrowed from the Hebrew, Akkadian and Sumerian myths serves this purpose. Every child knows about Adam and Eve. Much of Asia shares a common but different story and in more remote islands and tribes, these stories can be very individual and specific for that culture. Here is recorded the early European version of creation in which Irtha or Mother Earth created the mothers of mankind twelve years after the earth was created by God. It is also very specific and written from the point of view of the "Children of Frya" or the Friends of Europe. It is recorded as fact just as is the story of Genesis.

Most importantly this "Oldest Doctrine" shows the basis of the entire attitude of these people. They were taught as children to never trust the yellow invaders of the country, Findas people. They were taught to respect the `Tex that was engraved in stone on the first citadel at Texland. From this word we have our modern words "text and textbook." They were introduced to a moral code and a political one for the preservation of their independence. They were reminded of the earliest beginnings that were drastically interrupted by a natural disaster but they were not left alone by their Mother Goddess when at that time she "ascended to heaven," from Texland.

This is our earliest history:

Wr-Alda, who alone is eternal and good, made the beginning. Then commenced time. Time wrought all things, even the earth. The earth bore grass, herbs, and trees, all useful and all noxious animals. All that is good and useful she brought forth by day, and all that is bad and injurious by night.

After the twelfth Julefest she brought forth three maidens:

Lyda out of fierce heat.

Finda out of strong heat.

Frya out of moderate heat.

When the last came into existence, Wr-Alda breathed his spirit upon her in order that men might be bound to him. As soon as they were full grown they took pleasure and delight in the visions of Wr-Alda.

Hatred found its way among them. They each bore twelve sons and twelve daughters - at every Jule-time a couple. Thence come all mankind.

Lyda was black, with hair curled like a lambs; her eyes shone like stars, and shot out glances like those of a bird of prey.

Lyda was acute. She could hear a snake glide, and could smell a fish in the water.

Lyda was strong and nimble. She could bend a large tree, yet when she walked she did not bruise a flowers stalk.

Lyda was violent. Her voice was loud, and when she screamed in anger every creature quailed.

Wonderful Lyda! She had no regard for laws; her actions were governed by her passions. To help the weak she would kill the strong, and when she had done it she would weep by their bodies.

Poor Lyda! She turned gray by her mad behavior, and at last she died heartbroken by the wickedness of her children. Foolish children! They accused each other of their mothers death. They howled and fought like wolves, and while they did this the birds devoured the corpse. Who can refrain from tears at such a recital?

Finda was yellow, and her hair was like the mane of a horse. She could not bend a tree, but where Lyda killed one lion she killed ten.

Finda was seductive. Her voice was sweeter than any birds. Her eyes were alluring and enticing, but whoever looked upon them became her slave.

Finda was unreasonable. She wrote thousands of laws, but she never obeyed one. She despised the frankness of the good, and gave herself up to flatters.

That was her misfortune. Her head was too full, but her heart was too vain. She loved nobody but herself, and she wished that all should love her.

False Finda! Honey-sweet were her words, but those who trusted them found sorrow at hand.

Selfish Finda! She wished to rule everybody, and her sons were like her. They made their sisters serve them, and they slew each other for the mastery.

Treacherous Finda! She died in the bloom of her age, and the mode of her death is unknown.

Hypocritical children! Her corpse was buried under a costly stone, pompous inscriptions were written on it, and loud lamentations were heard at it, but in private not a tear was shed.

Despicable people! The laws that Finda established were written on golden tablets, but the object for which they were made was never attained. The good laws were abolished, and selfishness instituted bad ones in their place. O Finda! Then the earth overflowed with blood, and your children were mown down like grass. Yes Finda! Those were the fruits of your vanity. Look down from your watch-star and weep.

Frya was white like the snow at sunrise, and the blue of her eyes vied with the rainbow.

Beautiful Frya! Like the rays of the sun shone the locks of her hair, which were as fine as spiders webs.

Clever Frya! At the glance of her eye the lion lay down at her feet and the adder withheld his poison.

Pure Frya! Her food was honey, and her beverage was dew gathered from the cups of the flowers.

Sensible Frya! The first lesson that she taught her children was self-control, and the second was the lover of virtue; and when they were grown she taught them the value of liberty; for she said, "Without liberty all other virtues serve to make you slaves, and to disgrace your origin."

Generous Frya! She never allowed metal to be dug from the earth for her own benefit, but when she did it, it was for the general use.

Most happy Frya! Like the starry host in the firmament, her children clustered around her.

Wise Frya! When she had seen her children reach the seventh generation, she summoned them all to Flyland, and there gave them her Tex, saying, "Let this be your guide, and it can never go ill with you."

Exalted Frya! When she had thus spoken the earth shook like the sea of Wr-Alda. The ground of Flyland sunk beneath her feet, the air was dimmed by tears, and when they looked for their mother she was already risen to her watching star; then at length thunder burst from the clouds, and the lightning wrote upon the firmament: "Watch!"

Farseeing Frya! The land from which she had risen was now a stream, and except her Tex all that was in it was overwhelmed.

Obedient children! When they came to themselves again, they made this high mound and built this citadel upon it, and on the walls they wrote the Tex, and that every one should be able to find it they called the land about it Texland. Therefore it shall remain as long as the earth shall be the earth.

We continue with Apollonias additions to the "Book of Adela" from the "Oldest Doctrine" to show what was recorded about their homeland or Atland (Aldland or Old Land) as the sailors referred to it. They remembered it fondly, but it was more than a Garden of Eden because it was the cultural center for a very diverse and ancient people who were spread from the Atlantic to the Ural Mountains where the Slavonic and Scythian races were once remembered as Fryas people.

In reading the description of the geography of Atland, it is difficult to place it with any certainty upon a modern map. It does not necessarily show it to be a separate island or subcontinent that descriptions of Atlantis usually conjure up in the mind. It could have been no more than a western extension of present day Europe in the North sea like a huge Helgoland, a North Sea bank or the lost alluvial lands built up at the mouths of the major rivers. If the account is true, then there is no question that the catastrophe referred to was of major, global proportions. The directions of the compass, or more correctly, the directions of the rising and setting of the sun so described, are difficult to correlate to todays geography. It is possible that an imbalance in the masses of the earths crust could suddenly shift whole continents so that the earth looks like it has flipped or shifted its poles. It is impossible that such a huge momentum inherent in the spin of the earth itself could have changed in any recorded time.

Temples have been dated in Egypt and South America to an age probably older than 2193 BC. These edifices show a north-south or even a specific star alignment that is very accurate according to todays positions. The star alignments have to take into account the precession of the earth, a fact that has been used to date them but it makes it all very unlikely that any global shift has occurred in recorded times. A shift of exactly ninety degrees is possible but highly improbable, but it is intriguing as the following description does locate Aldland at ninety degrees to common understanding.

Nevertheless, all cultures have stories of floods and disasters. It would be very interesting if some of these different stories could be specifically dated to 2193 BC. We have to bear in mind that this was not the popular understanding of the Atlantis of Plato or the Flood of Genesis. These events, should they have occurred, would have predated Atland by seven to nine thousand years.

This Stands Inscribed Upon All Citadels:

Before the bad time came our country was the most beautiful in the world. The sun rose higher, and there was seldom frost. The trees and shrubs produced various fruits, which are now lost. In the fields we had not only barley, oats and rye, but wheat which shone like gold, and which could be baked in the suns rays. The years were not counted, for one was as happy as another.

On one side we were bounded by Wr-Aldas Sea, on which no one but us might or could sail; on the other side we were hedged in by the broad German land through which the Finda people dared not come on account of the thick forests and the wild beasts.

Eastward our boundary went to the extremity of the East Sea (Black Sea), and westward to the Mediterranean Sea; so that besides the small rivers we had twelve large rivers given us by Wr-Alda to keep our land moist, and to show our seafaring men the way to His sea.

The banks of these rivers were at one time entirely inhabited by our people as well as the banks of the Rhine from one end to the other. Opposite Denmark and Jutland we had colonies and a burgtmaid. Thence we obtained copper and iron, as well as tar and pitch, and some other necessaries. Opposite to us we had Britain, formerly Westland, with her tin mines. Britain was the land of the exiles, who with the help of their burgtmaid had gone away to save their lives; but in order that they might not come back they were tattooed with a "B" on the forehead, the banished with a red dye, the other criminals with blue.

Moreover, our sailors and merchants had many factories among the distant Cretans and in Lydia (Libya). In Lydia the people are black. As our country was so great and extensive, we had many different names. Those who were settled to the east of Denmark were called Jutten, because often they did nothing else than look for jutten (amber) on the shore. Those who lived in the islands were called Letten, because they lived an isolated life. All those who lived between Denmark and the Sandval, now the Scheldt, were called Stuurlieden, Zeecampers and Angelaren (boatmen, shore-dwellers and fishermen). The Angelaren were men who fished in the sea, and were so named because they used lines and hooks instead of nets. From there to the nearest part of Crete the inhabitants were called Kadhemers, because they never went to sea but remained ashore.

Those who were settled in the higher marches bounded by Germany - were called Saxons, because they were always armed against the wild beasts and the savage Britons. Besides these we had Marsaten, and Woud or Hout Zaten (marsh-dwellers and woodsmen).

From the section called The Book of Adelas Followers, there is the only description of the disaster. It is entitled How the Bad Time Came. It tells of a psychological warning of how people felt before the event that apparently extended over three years. If there were warnings of a physical nature it could have been in the form of subsonic rumblings. It is widely believed that animals can detect some earthquake warning phenomena then so must humans if we could tune into it.

The description of some lands rising while others sank would be consistent with a balanced geological disturbance. The forest fires could have been caused by either lightning strikes or by volcanic eruptions or even both. The purpose of this book is not to speculate with a series of "What if"s or to try to verify the material of the Oera Linda Book. The purpose is simply to present this information in a readable form. We are all curious about these phenomena, especially today when there is much talk of earthquakes, new ages et cetera. Be that as it may, the material is very entertaining, but a serious advocate must consult the original material and relate it to what modern open-minded research can find.

In the remoter regions of the continental nation, the thinning of the forest barriers permitted Findas people to move westwards and settle onto some of the devastated or deserted regions while the Slavonic communities were lost to freedom and gave the word "slave" to our vocabulary. A new era began as the Age of Taurus gave way to the Age of Aries.

How The Bad Time Came:

During the whole summer the sun had been hid behind the clouds, as if unwilling to look upon the earth. There was perpetual calm, and the damp mist hung like a wet sail over the houses and the marshes. The air was heavy and oppressive, and in hearts of men was neither joy nor cheerfulness. In the midst of this stillness the earth began to tremble as if she was dying. The mountains opened to vomit forth fire and flames. Some sank into the bosom of the earth, and in other places mountains rose out of the plain. Aldland, called by the seafaring people Atland, disappeared, and the wild waves rose so high over hill and dale that everything was buried in the sea. Many people were swallowed up by the earth, and others who had escaped the fire perished in the water.

It was not only in Findas land that the earth vomited fire, but also in Germany. Whole forests were burned one after the other, and when the wind blew from that quarter, our land was covered with ashes. Rivers changed their course, and at their mouths new islands were formed of sand and drift.

During three years this continued, but at length it ceased, and forests became visible. Many countries were submerged, and in other places land rose above the sea, and the wood was destroyed throughout half of Germany. Troops of Findas people came and settled in the empty places. Our dispersed people were exterminated or made slaves. Then watchfulness was doubly impressed upon us, and time taught us that union is force.

After the disaster, Frya, the Mother Goddess of Europe leaves her abode at the mouth of the Fly river, and "ascends to heaven," but before disappearing she leaves her Tex with her children and recognizes her Maiden Fasta as her earthly successor. Her Tex was her counsel. It is not so much the basis of the temporal laws that followed but a social and spiritual code. She hints of an afterlife, she acknowledges that Wr-Alda is also the protector of the peoples of Lyda and Finda but strongly cautions her children to protect their freedoms from the other two races with which relations are strictly regulated. Even the law of karma is expressed as being beyond any secular justification. Her Tex has given us the word "Textbook" and after her time Fryasburgt became the capital of Texland where the greatest citadel in all Europe was built. The Tex is given in the Appendix.

A comment is needed at this point on the language and alphabet used to record these laws and events. The Oera Linda Book may have been copied in 1256 AD by Hiddo Over de Linda, but it specifically refers to the wall inscriptions that were themselves copied in the six century BC onto paper or skrivfilt. They in turn refer to wall inscriptions that were recorded as early as 2000 BC. It makes reference to their written language being with little change until the influences at the end of the fourth century BC.

It is generally recognized that writing began in the land of Sumer in hieroglyphic form about six thousand years ago. It may have been much earlier as references to pre-Deluvian texts are made in Sumer and that could make writing at least thirteen thousand years old. Hieroglyphics gave way to cuneiform or wedge marks in soft clay as a more convenient and faster way of recording events and contracts. The cuneiform symbols were like scripted styles of the original hieroglyphics. They were not a new or phonetic code, the symbols represented whole root words, the meaning of which was very dependent on the context. This in turn became Akkadian cuneiform, which represented consonants only, vowels were missing, and then it evolved into other Semitic alphabets used in Egypt and the Fertile Crescent.

The sea-trading nation of Phoenicia is credited with the first phonetic alphabet coming out of the North Semitic one about the eleventh century BC. It has given its name to our alphabet and in turn was supposed to have influenced the Greek alphabet, which through Rome gave our current West European versions. It was an alphabet of twenty-two characters, writing consonants only, from right-to-left and continued to evolve for another thousand years. Does this appear to be the forerunner of what you are now reading? The Greek alphabet has Phoenicians characters but Semitic names and writes from left-to-right. The Oera Linda Book tells a different story. Frya deliberately constructed a phonetic alphabet out of segments of a six-spoked wheel or jule, symbolic for the sun sign, a day or a year. The alphabet consisted of thirty-three characters. (See Plate I). This was taught to Fasta and the tradition of literacy was institutionalized in the citadels with very little changes from twenty-three hundred BC to twelve hundred AD when the book was last copied into Old Frisian.

Isidore of Seville wrote in the early seventh century that the alphabet was invented by the Goddess herself but locates her in Greece. He attributes the ordinary Greek alphabet to the Phoenicians. Soon after the "standing" invention, a freehand alphabet was developed called "running" which has given us the runic characters although within the next two thousand years that form became straightened out again because of its use in carvings where curves are harder to accomplish. Very early on, decimal numbers were added by a sea-king named Godfried; they were no doubt a commercial necessity. There are many references to Phoenician traders, both their coming to the Atlantic nations and the Rhine fleets going to the Mediterranean so they did interact, trade and compete. The Book relates how the Phoenician people came from a mixture of Rhinelanders and Finns with no doubt a portion of Lydas people from Tunisia, mixing with the inhabitants of Sidon.

It is known that languages and alphabets travel via trade, not migrations of people. The American version of English is an example of that, being used by the majority of citizens whose ancestors never spoke English.

Commerce cannot be accomplished without a number system and here again we miss-give the credit to the Arabs. They write from right to left like in the East but record numbers from left to right like in the West. Just look at arabic numbers. The important invention of the zero that was not part of the cumbersome Roman system is dated to the Middle Ages in Europe. Our symbol for zero in Arabic represents their number five and besides we have here, recorded in this book, numerical dates and quantities millennia before any Arab civilization. Most Semitic based languages solved the number problem by assigning a numerical value to each letter in their particular alphabetical sequence. The hieroglyphic languages on both the Old and the New world used a weighted building block system to count in numerical quantities such as six, ten, twenty, sixty and higher.

Because of the connections between Minno, a sixteenth century BC sea-king from the Rhine, and Crete the alphabets found on Crete should be mentioned. Dating from 1700 BC, clay tablets using a cipher referred to as Linear A have been found throughout Crete. It replaced an earlier hieroglyphic form, is written from left to right and was apparently used mainly for inventories, not literature. The language inscribed with the characters of Linear A is unknown but is presumed to be Minoan. These syllabic glyphs are believed to be forerunners of Linear B which was deciphered in 1952 and found to be early or Mycenaean Greek used from 1400 to 1150 BC only in Knossos. Throughout the long period of heroic history and into classical times, the alphabets made many changes, particularly to meet the needs of different languages that had "borrowed" their alphabets. This process does not appear to have happened until much later in the countries of origin or west Europe until the fourth century BC when many nations splintered off the motherland. The names of Classical Greek characters come from Hebrew or perhaps the related Hittite but the language and the symbols do not.

Again it is not the intention to prove or disprove this information but only to present it for what can be very interesting discussions. Here follows a section concerning the alphabet that comes from the "Writings of Minno" an ancient sea-king and was taken from the walls of an important sea-trading center. The date of the original inscriptions was probably the sixteenth century BC.

What Is Written Hereunder Is Inscribed On The Walls of Waraburgt:

What appears at the top is the signs of the Jule - that is, the first symbol of Wr-Alda, also of the origin or beginning from which Time is derived; this is the Kroder, which must always go round with the Jule. According to this model Frya formed the set hand which she used to write her Tex. When Fasta was Earth Mother she made a running hand out of it. The Witkoning - that is, the Sea-king Godfried the Old - made separate numbers for the set hand and for the runic hand. It is therefore not too much that we celebrate it once a year. We may be eternally thankful to Wr-Alda that he allowed his spirit to exercise such an influence over our forefathers.

In her time Finda also invented a mode of writing, but that was so high-flown and full of flourishes that her descendants have soon lost the meaning of it.

Afterwards they learned our writing - that is, the Finns, the Thyriers, (seamen of Tyre) and the Cretans - but they did not know that it was taken from the Jule, and must therefore always be written round like the sun. Furthermore, they wished that their writing should be illegible by other people, because they always had matters to conceal. In doing this they acted very unwisely, because their children could only with great difficulty read the writings of their predecessors, whereas our most ancient writings are as easy to read as those that were written yesterday.

When Christianity was struggling to replace the pagan religions of Western Europe, it is known that some propaganda devices were used to dissuade adherence to the old ways. One of these was the invention of the unlucky number, "thirteen," and in particular, "Friday the thirteenth." Friday was Fryas day and thirteen represented the number of twenty-eight day months in a year. (13 x 28 = 364).

Apparently a thirteen-month calendar was in use before the old Roman calendar that dated from the founding of Rome. The early Vedic calendar did use a twenty-eight day month with a leap-month every sixty months but most Hindu reckonings since then have used lunar calendars. The Egyptians had standardized on a thirty day month and the Greeks had adopted this system which probably influenced that early calendar, reformed by Tarquinius Priscius (616-579 BC), the fifth king of Rome. Prior to his time, the calendar had six months of thirty days and four of thirty-one days giving a total of only 304 days that were counted. After each winter break, it was restarted in March. One ancient vestige of the Teutons does survive and that is, the custom of counting nights instead of days. We have the fortnight or fourteen-night system, which is half of a twenty-eight day month.

Because the priests and senators of Rome had manipulated the calendar for political purposes, Julius Caesar felt the need to reform it, leaving us essentially the system used by the early Christians for 550 years. In the sixth century AD, it was proposed that the calendar be dated from the birth of Christ. They knew He had been born in the 28thyear of the reign of the emperor Augustus but forgot that he had already ruled for four years as Octavius before the senate conferred that august title on him, thus our modern calendar should have been dated from 4 BC.

The Julian Calendar had a total of 365 days and did contain one twenty-eight day month (with no weeks) that was relegated to the minor gods. In recent times, the International Fixed Calendar has been proposed in which the year is divided into thirteen months of twenty-eight days with an extra day at the end. Perhaps men are no longer feeling intimidated by the magic of the twenty-eight day menstrual cycle, a cycle close to but more easily facilitated than multiples of the lunar month of approximately 29 days. The concept however is not very original for such a calendar was in common use until the eighteenth century in spite of church influence. A twenty-eight day period was known as the ancient common month. Have we not all heard of the phrase, "a year and a day" and are there not many different references to the number thirteen?

FROM GODDESS TO KING

A History of Ancient Europe from the

OERA LINDA BOOK

By Anthony Radford

CHAPTER 3

THE GODDESS MYTHS

Papatuanuku A Maori representation of the creation myth. It represents the coming together of the Sky Father and the Earth Mother to give birth to a daughter and a son who created all of mankind.

Atthis time in the Nineties, there is much new literature on the goddess concept. Many books list all the traditional stories of powerful female figures from mythology and many now incorporate newly discovered (to the Western press that is), stories from the more remote cultures of the world. The world is full of stories and selecting a segment of them shows a need to reveal an underlying message, one that has not been fairly told, either traditionally or even with modern embellishment rewriting new traditions.

It may be discouraging to the feminists who are seeking the empowerment of modern women to learn that the Matriarchal Age, if it existed at all and then only in Western Europe, was not one of female domination or control but more enlightened. There existed an equality that is just beginning to be enjoyed again and only in a few nations of todays world; an age that called upon men and women in sometimes separate ways that were appropriate to the strengths of each. There was mutual respect as feminine wisdom was used to temper the more adventuresome or rash aspects of men. Sometimes women fought alongside men in defense of their home and on long commercial expeditions the voyages of the sea-kings included wives and families. Women had the responsibility of education, scientific research and were the conscience of communities, especially in foreign affairs.

Read Homer who describes a so-called pastoral age in which the status of women is not the same as men but neither is it inferior like in the Victorian Age from which we are still emerging.

What is aggravating to the reader of these modern publications is the lack of substantiating written material from long ago. The Oera Linda Book is one of the very few sources of written information surviving and gives us a more wholesome picture of those times than the subsequent mythology has portrayed. In a world dominated by the patriarchal government, family and the market place for thousands of years, the time has come for change. That world has engendered survival traits associated with feminine behavior as it is known. Compliance, even submissiveness, feminine intuition or wily ways, and subtle, less direct forms of communication have been associated with the feminine. Is this natural biological behavior or has it been learned of necessity?

Men and women are not the same thankfully even though the basic differences of being are very slight. It would be a mistake to try to make all members of society the same just as it would be foolish to attempt to reverse the situations of inequity. Fortunately evolution is working things out and more quickly than before. The rapidity of todays changes is no accident; it is of course related to the speed of communications in this electronic world, but more importantly, our consciousness is built upon all that has happened. We can remember and know what we really want and what to avoid. There will be resistance to change, even some backward steps but out of the diversity will come quality.

The Oera Linda Book shows us at least three distinct periods in which woman assumed major roles in the choices that have affected the planet before the dominance of the male. They stated that four and a half thousand years ago, when "the years were not counted" there were goddesses on Earth, females who lived beyond time and were able to ascend to the stars and were wise beyond learning. This was the mythology of these ancient peoples which is not unlike that still told today in much of the world and referred to in modern publications with increasing frequency as fourth-dimensional. The author does not wish to pursue this subject in this work except to point out that such beliefs were presented by the Book as facts like the histories and that several occult practices which were referred to as citadel practices are mentioned but not described.

This brings us to the second period of female overt contribution; the two thousand year age of the earth mothers and citadel maidens. Their contributions are detailed in the Book, which included many scientific practices concerning foreign plant specimens and anthropological exhibits that were collected by the voyages of the sea-kings. We owe many of our European tree and food sources to this research. They are depicted as practical, caring mothers of the towns, not goddesses but with knowledge from study that was the awe of the common man.

The third stage is more complicated as it was a reaction to the pragmatism of the earth mothers by both, a basic need to believe in the first age and a desire for power by the succeeding patriarchs. These men initially needed the mothers to give legitimacy to their ambitions, often deifying them so that proclamations could be made in the name of the deceased. Vile rituals were introduced to add to the fear and mystery and in many cases these high priestesses exercised an independent power that became a new tradition, the goddess age that eventually became referred to in Europe as the old religion.

The goddesses are taking their rightful place besides the gods of our aspirations. These concepts are as important to men as to women and cannot be denied by our powerful social conditioning. Men are discovering a feminine side that is not a sexual issue although too often it is confused as such. Both women and men who project a socially accepted role of conduct have ridiculed men for showing an understanding, a softer side or an emotional vulnerability. They have learned to guard their expression of these aspects and play the role. Women have taken their masculine presentation in the business world home to everyday life and likewise have lost a valuable part of themselves, sometimes even their marriages.

The Oera Linda Book is essentially the story of Fryas children. Frya was the mother of their race and her story was told with the same breath as the factual histories of sea-kings and the generals of military campaigns. She lived with them in the "Old Land" but after the disaster at the beginning of the Age of Aries, left the "Earth plain" but not before giving them laws for their own society on the mainland. In this book, the author is using the term "Matriarchal Age" to represent the Age of Aries from the point of view of the Western free people who were losing their lands over a two thousand year period to the invaders from the East. The yellow people imposed the "Patriarchal Age" onto Europe and did not consider Aries as a feminine age at all and so we have this attitude in our histories with only a mythical or even a mystical understanding of the feminine aspects.

Practically no myths have arisen out of Fryas people since the loss of Atland, that "Old Land" the former oceanic home. That is not to deny the rich folklore of Baltic and Germanic traditions but they evolved afterwards when the land was no longer Fryas, and by the mixed races of a later date. In this category we would have to add the diverse traditions of the original White Goddess which because of more popular classical literature has become a Greek legend. This is true but it is also always been a European legend. All our European and near Asian myths with which we are so familiar, come from that mixture of cultures, black, yellow and white which replaced the homogeneous continent described as "all Fryas children" before the "bad times came". The process began with the enslavement of the Slavonic race, the most remote members and continued with the steady advance of the Magyar-Finn people. This admission of that loss shows us how expansively these people believed the original free continent extended. Even Crete (or they could have been referring to Cyprus) is written about as being lost to the Mother in a time long before the story of Minos.

Whatever the heroes did in real life, the stories do better. The actions of the gods, ancestors and heroes do not have any autonomous intrinsic value, but they stir something that is both within and beyond us; they become sacred folklore. The mythicization of historical personages occurs in sagas and poems soon after their physical death, even in historically recent times such as in the cases of Rip Van Winkle or that of George Washington. The true facts of heroes are ignored for the archetype of the mythical hero. It was the Finns that deified Wodin, not the Frisians who stayed at home. His military exploits were as entertaining as his family adventures thus giving the people to come, a vicarious sense of participation in these activities.

It is interesting to note that most of our known myths come from subjugated peoples, those so often mentioned in the Oera Linda Book as subject to priests and princes. In modern democracies and according to the Book, in the ancient lands of Frya, few myths arose from contemporary personages perhaps because a free expression of our own autonomy does not need the entertainment of a myth to do that for one. We still have that tendency however in our adulation of sport and movie heroes who nearly always turn out in personal life to be just as frail and vulnerable as anyone else. And it is the young who are not yet free in our competitive society that give the greatest acclaim to the present day super heroes of the moment.

Typically, the new gods have their lineage rewritten here. Wodin or Odin was acclaimed to be of parentage by the Magy the leader of the Finns. Of course his grandson by Wodin and his daughter would be all the more legitimate for the succession, a principle not part of the traditions of the occupying army. Here is an example of the beginning of claiming divine rights for kings in Europe, nothing divine, just politics as usual, duping the populace. Spouses of the new divinities also became divine just as the more ancient belief in the families of the gods is a repeating pattern.

When we eulogize the deceased at a service or wake, it pleases us to see the good in them even if it is larger than the actual life of the departed. It pleases us to remember the best in our own lives and forget the mediocre. And so we have myths of Odin, Minerva, Neptune, Minos and Ulysses, all real people who have been placed on the stage of fantasy for our enjoyment.

The concept of the Earth Mother is usually equated with a preliterate religion where Mother Earth is the eternal source of the everyday needs of life. Although considered female, as she gives birth to all things and all things die and return to her, she is not presumed a sexual being needing intercourse to gestate. That her breasts feed everything is symbolic. It is a symbolic concept reflecting the comfort of personification and an example of `as in the microcosm, so in the macrocosm. The Book refers to Irtha as a female deity and after Wr-Alda (their term for God) as the most ancient one in importance. Then it shows the mythical beliefs of three goddesses, Lyda, Finda and Frya as being the actual mothers of the races of mankind.

Finally, the word Eeremoeder or Earth Mother is used as the title of the chief of state elected from the various Mothers or the leading maiden in the many district citadels. All this is from a period before most of classical mythology was formulated so naturally these myths and our personal abstractions are a combination of old beliefs and historical figures. This is a universal concept that in various forms is recounted throughout the world. In Hinduism there is Gaya who corresponds with Irtha and Gaea in classical mythology, but in the southern forested regions, Mother Earth is a great goddess whose marriage with the Earth or the Sun is celebrated annually. The Maoris of the South Pacific represented Papatuanuku as earth mother who with Rangi (the Sky Father) were their primal parents. In one version of the Chinese Earth myth, Ti Mu (earth mother) and Tien Lung (Celestial Dragon) are credited with reproducing all of creation, including man. In another delightful version, a god, Plua Ku fashioned man from clay, some of which became wet with rain and so gave deformed people.

Baltic mythology is typical of much of Europe in that it has male sky gods and female earth gods except in Lithuanian tradition where they also have an Earth Master. Deities have always been given mates and in many instances have changed their sex such as in China where Buddha became Kwan Yin, an exception to the usual rule of female to male transformations. It was a slow transformation because in the Sixth Dynasty in the sixth century AD there was Guanyin, a male Bodhisattva, whose statues could easily be mistaken for female. That Buddhist mythology, which is usually limited to male stories making an intellectual point, should transform Buddha himself to a mother figure is understandable. A female Buddha had to be created and the virgin mother of Sakyamuni, Mahamaya (Great Consort) became the mother of all Buddhas, showing how Buddhist discipline could not escape its Hindu origins. She was known as Tara and is identified with supreme wisdom just as Sophia was once a feminine aspect of God, in early Christian theology, suppressed by male decree while female figures became male in the telling of a myth.

In classical Greek myth, the Hesperides were the daughters of Hesperus or the Daughters of the Evening Land. Their names were Aegle, Erytheis, Hespera and Hestia (Fasta). They were said to dwell beyond the ocean at the extreme western limit of the world. They lived in a wondrous garden and guarded its golden apples or some say its celestial flock of sheep. This myth speaks of western origins and identifies wonders out there.

There was once an old satyr named Silenus who was sleeping after drinking too much wine in a rose garden that was owned by King Midas. The guards bound him and brought him before the king whom he assuaged with wondrous tales of a huge continent lying beyond the ocean and separate from either Europe or Africa (legendary Atlantis?). Those people had splendid cities, enjoyed an equitable legal system, and were tall and lived long. They launched a mighty expedition on ships to the land of Hyperboria (the land beyond the north winds) but determined it to be no more desirable than their own country. Silenus told Midas many fantastic tales, which may have saved him from the Kings displeasure or may have been from the known stories of that time. There are other stories of Hyperboria mentioned by Herodotus. People lived a thousand years in that paradisal place but soon died when they left it. It was like a western version of Shangri-La.

That many significant Greek gods had an eastern origin or counterpart is not in question. The point is, a civilization that must have seemed wondrous to the early Greeks existed in the west or northwest.

Of enormous importance to the whole national concept of unity to Fryas peoples were the sacred lamps. The first mention of them comes in the goddess Fryas `Tex that she gave to the first Earth Mother, Fasta. Before Frya left the earth plane, she said:

"Then shall the lamp which I have lighted for you never be extinguished. Its brightness shall always illuminate your intellect, and you shall always remain as free from foreign domination as your fresh river-water is distinct from the sea."

And so the whole concept of nationalism and freedom began. The sacred lamp is mentioned twenty-two times in the Book but there is no mention of sacred fire. It is easy to combine the two but not really appropriate as nowhere in the Book is there mention of sacrifices or sacrificial fire made except in disgust when referring to the rituals of the Magy. There are cruel entries of the use of fire as a legal punishment just as it has been used in more recent historical times but it can be assumed that the lamp symbolized light or enlightenment of consciousness and freedom.

A new citadel could not be consecrated except with a lamp lit from the original one at in Fryasburgt in Texland. The Tex states:

When a citadel is built, the lamp belonging to it must be lighted at the original lamp in Texland, and that can only be done by the mother.

The mother of Texland may have twenty-one maidens and seven assistants, so that there may always be seven to attend the lamp day and night.

It does not take such a large number of maidens to keep a light burning at all times so Frya must have had other benefits in mind for her chosen ones. These were the benefits of meditating on the light, a practice gaining popularity in the West at this time but long rendered in the East and apparently in the ancient West as well. This practice was considered essential to maintain a wholly state of mind for the maidens whose duties were similar to the magistrates of today but also combined elements of the academic world of biology, astronomy, education and the serious side of international peacekeeping.

When many women learn of the history of the deliberate suppression of the feminine aspects of God by the Church there is anger against men in general but actually the present goddess movement is related to the re-empowerment of women. She may not be staying home raising his children so much now but is still subject to the "patronizing" social definitions she did not help establish. There exists today besides, just formal religion and our language inequities, injustices in such services as health. Traditionally women have been healers, using plants and tender loving care to cure but our medical institutions, staffed with masculine doctors of both sexes, enforce a male power-stand for prescription drugs and appears to be against herbs and nutrition. Has this not led us into the present health crises of expensive medicine? It has been proven that "feminine" remedies of touching, caring and problem attention rather than symptom fixing can greatly reduce health costs, which ought to be of interest to insurance companies, as well as state budget mongers, even if not to the medical associations. Were not the witch hunts male attacks on female healers?