Among Finda's people there are false teachers, who, by their
over-inventiveness, have become so wicked that they make themselves
and their adherents believe that they are the best part of Wr-alda,
that their spirit is the best part of Wr-alda's spirit, and that
Wr-alda can only think by the help of their brains.
That every creature is a part of Wr-alda's eternal being, that they
have stolen from us; but their false reasoning and ungovernable pride
have brought them on the road to ruin. If their spirit was Wr-alda's
spirit, then Wr-alda would be very stupid, instead of being sensible
and wise; for their spirit labours to create beautiful statues,
which they afterwards worship. Finda's people are a wicked people,
for although they presumptuously pretend among themselves that they
are gods, they proclaim the unconsecrated false gods, and declare
everywhere that these idols created the world and all that therein
is--greedy idols, full of envy and anger, who desire to be served
and honoured by the people, and who exact bloody sacrifices and rich
offerings; but these presumptuous and false men, who call themselves
God's servants and priests, receive and collect everything in the
name of the idols that have no real existence, for their own benefit.
They do all this with an easy conscience, as they think themselves
gods not answerable to any one. If there are some who discover their
tricks and expose them, they hand them over to the executioners to
be burnt for their calumnies, with solemn ceremonies in honour of the
false gods; but really in order to save themselves. In order that our
children may be protected against their idolatrous doctrine, the duty
of the maidens is to make them learn by heart the following: Wr-alda
existed before all things, and will endure after all things. Wr-alda
is also eternal and everlasting, therefore nothing exists without
him. From Wr-alda's life sprang time and all living things, and his
life takes away time and every other thing. These things must be made
clear and manifest in every way, so that they can be made clear and
comprehensible to all. When we have learned thus much, then we say
further: In what regards our existence, we are a part of Wr-alda's
everlasting being, like the existence of all created beings; but as
regards our form, our qualities, our spirit, and all our thoughts,
these do not belong to the being. All these are passing things which
appear through Wr-alda's life, and which appear through his wisdom,
and not otherwise; but whereas his life is continually progressing,
nothing can remain stationary, therefore all created things change
their locality, their form, and their thoughts. So neither the earth
nor any other created object can say, I am; but rather, I was. So no
man can say, I think; but rather, I thought. The boy is greater and
different from the child; he has different desires, inclinations,
and thoughts. The man and father feels and thinks differently from
the boy, the old man just the same. Everybody knows that. Besides,
everybody knows and must acknowledge that he is now changing, that he
changes every minute even while he says, I am, and that his thoughts
change even while he says, I think. Instead, then, of imitating
Finda's wicked people, and saying, I am the best part of Wr-alda,
and through us alone he can think, we proclaim everywhere where it
is necessary, We, Frya's children, exist through Wr-alda's life--in
the beginning mean and base, but always advancing towards perfection
without ever attaining the excellence of Wr-alda himself. Our spirit
is not Wr-alda's spirit, it is merely a shadow of it. When Wr-alda
created us, he lent us his wisdom, brains, organs, memory, and many
other good qualities. By this means we are able to contemplate his
creatures and his laws; by this means we can learn and can speak of
them always, and only for our own benefit. If Wr-alda had given us
no organs, we should have known nothing, and been more irrational
than a piece of sea-weed driven up and down by the ebb and flood.
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
maid of Stavia. He said 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 and forefathers, 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 round 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 pendent 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 of Wr-alda. She made a roof of rushes,
and put stones 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
neighbours, 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. Fâsta has advised us,
and it is engraved in stone over all our doors. If you are selfish,
distrustful towards your neighbours, teach your neighbours, help your
neighbours, 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.
NOW I WILL WRITE MYSELF, FIRST ABOUT MY CITADEL, AND THEN ABOUT WHAT
I HAVE BEEN ABLE TO SEE.
My city lies near the north end of the Liudgaarde. The tower has six
sides, and is ninety feet high, flat-roofed, with a small house upon
it out of which they look at the stars. On either side of the tower
is a house three hundred feet long, and twenty-one feet broad, and
twenty-one feet high, besides the roof, which is round. All this is
built of hard-baked bricks, and outside there is nothing else. The
citadel is surrounded by a dyke, with a moat thirty-six feet broad
and twenty-one feet deep. If one looks down from the tower, he sees
the form of the Juul. In the ground among the houses on the south
side all kinds of native and foreign herbs grow, of which the maidens
must study the qualities. Among the houses on the north side there
are only fields. The three houses on the north are full of corn and
other necessaries; the two houses on the south are for the maidens
to live in and keep school. The most southern house is the dwelling
of the Burgtmaagd. In the tower hangs the lamp. The walls of the
tower are decorated with precious stones. On the south wall the Tex
is inscribed. On the right side of this are the formulæ, and on the
other side the laws; the other things are found upon the three other
sides. Against the dyke, near the house of the Burgtmaagd, stand the
oven and the mill, worked by four oxen. Outside the citadel wall is the
place where the Burgtheeren and the soldiers live. The fortification
outside is an hour long--not a seaman's hour, but an hour of the sun,
of which twenty-four go to a day. Inside it is a plain five feet
below the top. On it are three hundred crossbows covered with wood
and leather.
Besides the houses of the inhabitants, there are along the inside
of the dyke thirty-six refuge-houses for the people who live in the
neighbourhood. The field serves for a camp and for a meadow. On the
south side of the outer fortification is the Liudgaarde, enclosed by
the great wood of lime-trees. Its shape is three-cornered, with the
widest part outside, so that the sun may shine in it, for there are a
great number of foreign trees and flowers brought by the seafarers. All
the other citadels are the same shape as ours, only not so large;
but the largest of all is that of Texland. The tower of the Fryaburgt
is so high that it rends the sky, and all the rest is in proportion
to the tower. In our citadel this is the arrangement: Seven young
maidens attend to the lamp; each watch is three hours. In the rest of
their time they do housework, learn, and sleep. When they have watched
for seven years, they are free; then they may go among the people,
to look after their morals and to give advice. When they have been
three years maidens, they may sometimes accompany the older ones.
The writer must teach the girls to read, to write, and to reckon. The
elders, or "Greva," must teach them justice and duty, morals, botany,
and medicine, history, traditions, and singing, besides all that may be
necessary for them to give advice. The Burgtmaagd must teach them how
to set to work when they go among the people. Before a Burgtmaagd can
take office, she must travel through the country a whole year. Three
grey-headed Burgtheeren and three old maidens must go with her. This
was the way that I did. My journey was along the Rhine--on this side
up, and on the other side down. The higher I went, the poorer the
people seemed to be. Everywhere about the Rhine the people dug holes,
and the sand that was got out was poured with water over fleeces to
get the gold, but the girls did not wear golden crowns of it. Formerly
they were more numerous, but since we lost Schoonland they have gone
up to the mountains. There they dig ore and make iron. Above the Rhine
among the mountains I have seen Marsaten. The Marsaten are people who
live on the lakes. Their houses are built upon piles, for protection
from the wild beasts and wicked people. There are wolves, bears, and
horrible lions. Then come the Swiss, the nearest to the frontiers of
the distant Italians, the followers of Kalta and the savage Twiskar,
all greedy for robbery and booty. The Marsaten gain their livelihood
by fishing and hunting. The skins are sewn together by the women,
and prepared with birch bark. The small skins are as soft as a woman's
skin. The Burgtmaagd at Fryasburgt (Freiburg) told us that they were
good, simple people; but if I had not heard her speak of them first,
I should have thought that they were not Frya's people, they looked
so impudent. Their wool and herbs are bought by the Rhine people, and
taken to foreign countries by the ship captains. Along the other side
of the Rhine it was just the same as at Lydasburcht (Leiden). There
was a great river or lake, and upon this lake also there were people
living upon piles. But they were not Frya's people; they were black
and brown men who had been employed as rowers to bring home the men
who had been making foreign voyages, and they had to stay there till
the fleet went back.
At last we came to Alderga. At the head of the south harbour lies the
Waraburgt, built of stone, in which all kinds of clothes, weapons,
shells, and horns are kept, which were brought by the sea-people from
distant lands. A quarter of an hour's distance from there is Alderga,
a great river surrounded by houses, sheds, and gardens, all richly
decorated. In the river lay a great fleet ready, with banners of
all sorts of colours. On Frya's day the shields were hung on board
likewise. Some shone like the sun. The shields of the sea-king and
the admiral were bordered with gold. From the river a canal was dug
going past the citadel Forana (Vroonen), with a narrow outlet to the
sea. This was the egress of the fleet; the Fly was the ingress. On
both sides of the river are fine houses built, painted in bright
colours. The gardens are all surrounded by green hedges. I saw there
women wearing felt tunics, as if it were writing felt. [3] Just as at
Staveren, the girls wore golden crowns on their heads, and rings on
their arms and ankles. To the south of Forana lies Alkmarum. Alkmarum
is a lake or river in which there is an island. On this island the
black and brown people must remain, the same as at Lydasburgt. The
Burgtmaagd of Forana told me that the burgtheeren go every day to teach
them what real freedom is, and how it behoves men to live in order to
obtain the blessing of Wr-alda's spirit. If there was any one who was
willing to listen and could comprehend, he was kept there till he was
fully taught. That was done in order to instruct the distant people,
and to make friends everywhere. I had been before in the Saxenmarken,
at the Mannagardaforde castle (Munster). There I saw more poverty
than I could discover wealth here. She answered: So whenever at
the Saxenmarken a young man courts a young girl, the girls ask: Can
you keep your house free from the banished Twisklanders? Have you
ever killed any of them? How many cattle have you already caught,
and how many bear and wolfskins have you brought to market? And
from this it comes that the Saxons have left the cultivation of
the soil to the women, that not one in a hundred can read or write;
from this it comes, too, that no one has a motto on his shield, but
only a misshapen form of some animal that he has killed; and lastly,
from this comes also that they are very warlike, but sometimes as
stupid as the beasts that they catch, and as poor as the Twisklanders
with whom they go to war. The earth and the sea were made for Frya's
people. All our rivers run into the sea. The Lydas people and the
Findas people will exterminate each other, and we must people the
empty countries. In movement and sailing is our prosperity. If you
wish the highlanders to share our riches and wisdom, I will give
you a piece of advice. Let the girls, when they are asked to marry,
before they say yes, ask their lovers: What parts of the world have
you travelled in? What can you tell your children about distant lands
and distant people? If they do this, then the young warriors will
come to us; they will become wiser and richer, and we shall have no
occasion to deal with those nasty people. The youngest of the maids
who were with me came from the Saxenmarken. When we came back she
asked leave to go home. Afterwards she became Burgtmaagd there, and
that is the reason why in these days so many of our sailors are Saxons.