Frisian people

The Frisians are a group of people of northwestern Europe. They live in an area known as Frisia, mainly in Friesland and Groningen, in the Netherlands, and in East Frisia and North Frisia, in Germany. They are said to be a tall, big-boned and light-haired people with a rich history and folklore.

History

Frisian settlement area.

The Frisians were made an agreement with the Romans at the Rhine River in 28 AD. Sixteen years later, the Frisians defeated the Romans under Tiberius at the Battle of Baduhennawood and were known and respected by the Romans, who made several writings about them. Tacitus wrote about the Germanic peoples in 69 AD and described their habits. He listed many Frisian groups by name;^[1] Of the many groups that he listed, the Frisians are the only ones to have kept their old name.^[2]

The Frisians probably used boats. The North Sea from Great Britain to eastern Denmark was then called Mare Frisia. On lands around them, small groups of Frisians settled. Their homes have been found in England, Scotland, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, France and the Netherlands.

Their lands followed the edge of the North Sea from the mouth of the Rhine River up to that of the Ems River, which was their eastern limit according to Ptolemy's Geographica.

In the 5th century, the Anglo-Saxons went through Frisian territory in northern Germany and the Netherlands to invade Britain, and many Frisians moved with them. The Frisians who stayed in Continental Europe moved to the lands in which the Anglo-Saxons had lived.

Famous Frisians

• Mata Hari
• Wijerd Jelckama
• M.C. Escher
• Pier Gerlofs Donia
• Doutzen Kroes