A Frisian faction

[Kwal]

Yes the Frisians used loads of names with Sax and Ger in it. Fries if you want to get such books they have copies of them at the musea such as in Wieringen, at least when I was there

[Angantyr]

Here is the full discription of the Frisians that Bartholomaeus Anglicus, whom I mentioned earlier in this thread, wrote in 1240 AD, in his well-known De proprietatibus rerum (‘On the Properties of Things’):

(click to show/hide)

Frisia is a province situated in the lower parts of Germany. It consists of a long strip of land along the sea coast, beginning at the mouth of the Rhine and ending at the Danish Sea. The Germans call the inhabitants of this province Frisians. They strongly distinguish themselves from the Germans in dress and customs. Almost all men have cut their hair all around. And the nobler they are, the more honour they reckon it the higher their hair is cut. The Frisians are tall of stature, strong of virtue, severe and sharp of spirit, quick and very agile of body. Instead of arrows they use iron spears.

The land is flat, with marshes, meadows and pastures with grass and herbs, but without trees and woods. They make fire with turfs full of bitumen and with dried cattle dung. The men are free and not subject to the lordship of other nations. They risk their lives for the defence of their freedom and they are rather dead than subject to the yoke of slavery. They therefore reject the dignity of knighthood and do not tolerate that anyone amongst them should raise themselves and be more important under the title of knighthood. However, they are subject to judges whom they annually choose from amongst their midst. These [judges] administer and govern their community.

They greatly love chastity and punish all unchaste deeds very severely. And they keep their children chaste until they have come of full age. And for that reason, when they are married, they get manly and strong children.

Images of this exceptional, typically Frisian hairstyle are found on local seals. The hair was indeed shaved around the head, with the exception of the front. Comparable to the modern undercut. In some cases it looks like a broad mohawk (that doesn't continue down the back). I don't have scans of these seals, but here are modern day approximations:

(click to show/hide)

Interesting to observe what could very well be Frisian descendents in South Africa use this hair style today, but ( to my best knowledge ) inspired by Afro-American culture :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_pS46YRMIQ&list=FLWcx0HPNfVz8&index=119

Edit : Just as an aside 

[Barabas]

Here is the full discription of the Frisians that Bartholomaeus Anglicus, whom I mentioned earlier in this thread, wrote in 1240 AD, in his well-known De proprietatibus rerum (‘On the Properties of Things’):

(click to show/hide)

Frisia is a province situated in the lower parts of Germany. It consists of a long strip of land along the sea coast, beginning at the mouth of the Rhine and ending at the Danish Sea. The Germans call the inhabitants of this province Frisians. They strongly distinguish themselves from the Germans in dress and customs. Almost all men have cut their hair all around. And the nobler they are, the more honour they reckon it the higher their hair is cut. The Frisians are tall of stature, strong of virtue, severe and sharp of spirit, quick and very agile of body. Instead of arrows they use iron spears.

The land is flat, with marshes, meadows and pastures with grass and herbs, but without trees and woods. They make fire with turfs full of bitumen and with dried cattle dung. The men are free and not subject to the lordship of other nations. They risk their lives for the defence of their freedom and they are rather dead than subject to the yoke of slavery. They therefore reject the dignity of knighthood and do not tolerate that anyone amongst them should raise themselves and be more important under the title of knighthood. However, they are subject to judges whom they annually choose from amongst their midst. These [judges] administer and govern their community.

They greatly love chastity and punish all unchaste deeds very severely. And they keep their children chaste until they have come of full age. And for that reason, when they are married, they get manly and strong children.

Images of this exceptional, typically Frisian hairstyle are found on local seals. The hair was indeed shaved around the head, with the exception of the front. Comparable to the modern undercut. In some cases it looks like a broad mohawk (that doesn't continue down the back). I don't have scans of these seals, but here are modern day approximations:

(click to show/hide)

Interesting to observe what could very well be Frisian descendents in South Africa use this hair style today, but ( to my best knowledge ) inspired by Afro-American culture :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_pS46YRMIQ&list=FLWcx0HPNfVz8&index=119

Edit : Just as an aside 

Die Antwoord!!

[Hengwulf]

So to give this old idea some input. Looking for stuff for my terp I found this: a gold treasure dug out of a terp from around 700. It is found in Wieuwerd, if you might wanna look for it yourself (or try Westergo)

(click to show/hide)

[FrisianDude]

Found or found?

[Kwal]

found

[Hengwulf]

yeah I was walking the streets looking for some Frisian stuff and suddenly was like "hey, shiny thingies!"

[Úlfr]

evan tough i have little kowledge for Frisian history i would love too see a new faction BUT most factions need some polishing first (hats, tunics, shields ETC)  hope this happens

[Neidhart]

Hello Guys I just want to say Tanke wol for these informations. Also I'm not of frisian origin I'm impressed by their history and love the country side.

I started modelling a miniatures warband of Frisians for a wargame called SAGA which covers roughly the 'Dark Ages'.
Sadly I only found your discussing thread by now and it seems like you have ended talking about this topic.
Its great to participate on Éadrícs knowledge as in Munich (where I'm atm) I only found books regarding this topic in dutch. With these new informations I'm pretty sure to find new books and sources.

Regarding the weaponry I would not over estimate the usage of long spears in the 11th century as you need quite a lot of chaps to use such a weapon efficiently and you cannot make great use of your shield while fighting with a spear 3meters long. 2-2,5m seems more likely. Staffslings and flails where pretty common weapons through the ages but I would not agree upon taking references of the 13th century as sources for the 11th. Nevertheless I agree that using slings and staffslings requires a lot of training and only a society in which the usage of such a weapon was common would be depicted in book using these.
Flails where only in use as weapons from the 12th century as far as I know but I don't know anymore where I read this.
In conclusion I would take no flails for a Frisian warband, but certainly slings and maybe staffslings (these could be aquivalents to bows in most game terms)

Thank you very much for this thread and specially Éadríc for your work.

Greetings from Munich

PS. those frisians are tall, most frisians i know tower at least 1.8m (both men and women) but the elderly people are only around 1.5m (due to bad nutrition during the wars)

[hrotha]

I re-read the whole thread and man, I'd love to see the Frisians in the game. I want to see all factions along the northern shores of Europe implemented, goddamnit.

[Baleigr]

Well, since the main problem, that prevents us from having a frisian faction, is the limited time of the developers, it might be a good idea to start something like an open development. Our "main" developers could maybe state what exactly is required for creating a new faction and this content could then be provided by the community, supervised by the main developers.

[Lily-Livered River Pirate]

evan tough i have little kowledge for Frisian history i would love too see a new faction BUT most factions need some polishing first (hats, tunics, shields ETC)  hope this happens

Viking lobby! Unite! Give 'em some damn texture updates already, do you realise that I never bought the first tier mail due to how godawful it looked? I made the padded a bit LESS revolting, surely someone else could handle the mail!

[Barabas]

*cough* don't start on that mail *cough*

[Moeckerkalfie]

Well, since the main problem, that prevents us from having a frisian faction, is the limited time of the developers, it might be a good idea to start something like an open development. Our "main" developers could maybe state what exactly is required for creating a new faction and this content could then be provided by the community, supervised by the main developers.

Now that Barabas posted anyway I thought I could write a bit too... indeed we have been thinking about this idea for a bit now, and it does indeed sound tempting. With some organization and structure as well as of course people willing to actually contribute it could get a long way even if nobody necessarily wants to stick to it for a longer time as many people find it more interesting to contribute occasionally. Discussing it with Barabas and Eadric this line of thought went even further, but for now it would be interesting to know if anyone could imagine helping out in such a way, with no long term responsibilities or anything. So if you think you could contribute something, just send me a PM, so that we could get an impression of how many people one could roughly expect to help.

As a side note, the old viking rusty byrnie will probably not be seen next patch at all anymore, there is a certain almost-finshed version on my PC now....^^

[HannesFury]

evan tough i have little kowledge for Frisian history i would love too see a new faction BUT most factions need some polishing first (hats, tunics, shields ETC)  hope this happens

Hear, hear. This is most essential. I find that Gaels (going off what we can see in .95) are still rather unpolished.
*cough, hats, cough shoe-laces, cough*
With that said, I'm all for a Frisian faction, as it would add depth. But let us not rush things, ending up with two factions that are so-and-so.