The Story of Freedom

Grandmother tells about freedom

I start the journey in my childhood. In the story that my grandmother told me, I learned something about the historical background of my native Eastfrisia.

My little journey through time begins on a rainy weekend.

It was a Saturday and I remember it had been raining all day. It was one of those quiet rainy days in summer. The air was mild and it seemed as if the drops had merged into fine threads to connect heaven and earth.

I was bored, so I climbed the steep stairs and knocked on the door of my grandmother's room. "Koom rin mien Leev!"(Come in my dear), she called and I stepped inside. My grandmother was sitting in her favorite chair, looking over the edge of her reading glasses. I asked her if I could stay with her for a while, she nodded
and then I sat down on the sofa. 

"Will you tell me about the people by the sea?" I asked her.

A few days ago she had promised to tell me a very special story and so I looked at her with expectant eyes.

In the meantime, she had taken the book out of her hands. It was now open on the round living room table. My eyes fell on the book. Based on the design of the pages I could see that my grandmother had read in the old family Bible. A page from a calendar was also between the open pages of the book. My grandma was a believing woman, but she did not carry it outside, but felt it as her own, a very private connection to God. She closed the bible and took off her glasses.

She smiled, got up and got a second teacup from the old living room cupboard, which she put on the table in front of me. Her cup, from which she had already drunk, stood beside the now closed Bible.
As I watched as a cloud slowly rose to the surface in the cup, my grandmother began to told the story in our mother tongue:

„Once a people lived by the sea. They lived in peace with each other and what nature and the sea offered them. It was rare for strangers to come to them, for not only the sea but also wide swamps surrounded the land. Anyone who got off the right path was then devoured and disappeared into the black morass for all times. In addition, they spoke a different language from the rest of the world and so they lived most of the time among themself.

It was a hardworking people, who was also attached to the words of the Almighty! "Do you mean God!"  asked in I between. My grandmother looked at me: "Some call him God, for others it is the Messiah or Creator, the Almighty has many names and many forms." Then she went on to tell:

“It was a hard life these people led. Storms often swept across the flat land, bringing the sea with them. Despite this danger for humans and animals, they remained loyal to the country and learned to live in harmony with the rough wilderness. In the long winter nights the fires burned in the simple hats. Fed with the peat that they dug out of the moors in summer, they now protected people from the cold breath of frost. It spread relentlessly across the wide land and often allied itself with the storms of the sea. So the people stayed in their huts, lived off the supplies they carefully guarded and told each other stories born of life by the sea. In the glow of the light that painted the blazing flames on the faces, one could see the glow of the children's eyes, listening to the words by the fire.

This pleased Neptune, the king of the sea. Often he rode on the wavesfoam, watching the bustle of the coast people. The humans had learned to make nets with which they went fishing on the edge of the sea.The men stood in the floods right up to their chest, taking only as much out of the sea as they needed to feed their families. Before they stepped into the water they commemorate to Neptune. They asked for his protection and a good catch before they entered and threw out their nets. This pleased Neptune so much that he make an agreement with the Almighty, and so this people got the inspiration for building boats. From then on, they drove out to the open sea to eject their nets and were rewarded richly. They followed the gulls with their ships, which showed them the best fishing spots. But there, where the sea began to go to the infinite depth, they stayed away. For there in the depths was Neptune's kingdom and nobody should disturb him. In no case did they want to summon the wrath of Neptune, who otherwise sent out the huge monsters to pull down the sailors into his kingdom. So was the commandment of the sea and the people followed him.

The people by the sea had learned to live with the tides. They endured Neptune's whims again and again if he were sending the water into the country.People now build their homes on little hills  and dikes protect the land from flooding.

But more and more strangers came to the small country by the sea and wanted to make them serfs. Also through Neptune's empire came powerful ships and wanted to conquer this land. But this humans had learned to fight. This country had made her strong. So they defeated all the enemies who wanted to take away their freedom and way of life.

They rather be dead than slaves.                                                                                               

Here I have posted a small excerpt from my story about Frisian freedom. The whole story will soon be available in the login area, which I am currently setting up.