Warning: The data on this page may contain spoilers for episode 01x02.

 

Who was Greate Pier?

Legends

His life and death

Where did Pier come from?

Frisian history in a nutshell

 

 

Who was Greate Pier?

 

The name of the USS Greate Pier was taken from a Frisian freedom fighter and pirate who was born around the year 1480.

 

Real name: Pier Gerlofs Donia

Nicknames:

Frisian:

Grutte Pier / Greate Pier

Dutch:

Grote pier / Lange Pier

English:

Tall Pier

Latin:

Pierius Magnus

Born:

~1480

Died:

October 28th 1520

 

 

Greate Pier illustrated in 1622

Incorrectly showing a 17th century outfit

 

 

 

Legends

 

Many legends surround this historical man who started out as a farmer in Kimswerd… Pier was ascribed to have measured no less than 2 meters a 15 centimeters tall (7 feet), the same length as his equally legendary sword. He was reputed to have had superhuman strength, which seems to be ‘confirmed’ by a myriad of legendary tales that are told of him:

 

- He could bend coins between his thumb and index finger.

- He could lift a horse over his head.

- Perhaps he didn’t need the horse, as he could plough the fields without one.

- He was able to wield his huge sword (2.15m / 7 ft and 6.6 kg / 14.5 lbs).

- He was able to cut the heads off of multiple victims with one swing of his sword.

 

No doubt some of these stories must have been at least slightly exaggerated over the years. Probably much like the next story that has been passed along over the centuries, Fivefal (English: “Five fall”).

 

Back in those days, Frisia (Today: Fryslân; Dutch: Friesland) was not yet a part of the Netherlands like today. The Saxons and the Dutch regularly attacked the Frisians, with varying degrees of success. Fivefal is a story about 5 Dutch men who came looking for Pier, having heard of his immense strength. They came to pick a fight, to see if he really was that strong, and probably intended to kill him. Pier’s horse was drawing one of those old fashioned ploughs with wooden beams through a field. The men asked him: “Can you tell us where Greate Pier lives?”. Pier undid the plough from his horse and lifted it up with one hand, pointing the whole thing at his farm. “Look, that’s where he lives…”, he said. With his other hand he made a fist and beat himself on the chest and continued: “…and here he stands”.

 

 

Greate Pier during a 1516 raid, painted by

Johannes Hinderikus Egenberger during the 1800's

 

 

 

His life and death

 

When his farm was burnt down by Saxon troops in 1515, something snapped. He developed into a fierce opponent of the Saxon and Dutch enemies. An army of around 4.000 peasant rebels from Frisia and Gelre was formed, known as the Arumer Zwarte Hoop (English: “The Black Gang from Arum”). Under the command of Pier they pirated Dutch and Burgundian ships on the Zuiderzee (English: Southern Sea), todays Ijsselmeer (English: Lake Ijssel). They also raided many coastal villages. Their victories include the successful siege of the city of Medemblik. But the most notable victory was when the pirate army sank 28 Dutch ships…

 

Pier is also credited to have invented a famous shibboleth. A shibboleth usually is a sentence which has to identify whether or not the speaker belongs to a certain group. In this case, Pier’s shibboleth contained Frisians words that could not be properly pronounced by the Dutch or any other foe. He used this to identify whether a ship was Frisian or not. The shibboleth he used:

 

“Bűter, brea en griene tsiis, wa't dat net sizze kin, is gjin oprjochte Frysk.”

 

It doesn’t rhyme or even sound poetic in English, but this is the literal translation:

 

“Butter, bread and green cheese, who cannot say that, isn’t a real Frisian.”

 

 

Statue of Greate Pier in Kimswerd by Anne Woudwijk

 

 

The loot from the ships who failed this test and the coastal villages that were raided, was supposedly given to Duke Karel van Gelre who promised support in the war against the Dutch. When, in 1517, Karel van Gelre tried to obtain a position of power in Frisia himself, Pier was disappointed. So disappointed in fact, that he gave command of his army to his nephew Wijard Sybrans Donia in 1518.  Pier spent the rest of his life in Snits (Dutch: Sneek), where he died in his bed on October 28th 1520.

 

The person Greate Pier is mentioned in the episode entitled "Meat and circuses" (01x02).

 

 

 

Where did Pier come from?

 

Fryslân

Frisian:

Fryslân

Dutch:

Friesland

Old Frisian (In Pier's time):

Frisia

 

 

 

The Frisian flag

 

Today Fryslân is a province in the north of The Netherlands, but it used to be independent. Fryslân is known for its water; the Wadden Sea and its islands, Lake Ijssel and many other lakes. But also for the well-known black Frisian horse breed.

 

The Frisian language is the official second language of the Netherlands, spoken by about 440.000 people (in 2004) mainly in Fryslân and parts of the neighboring province of Groningen. A publication in 1967 estimated that around 700.000 people worldwide speak the language.

 

 

 

The Frisian coat of arms

 

 

 

Frisian history in a nutshell

 

This is a brief history of the Frisian people. By no means a complete history, but just some highlighted events and periods.

 

Between 400 and 200 BCE a protofrisian culture formed. The Frisii, as the Romans called them, heavily revolted against the conquerors from Rome. In the year 12 CE however, Nero Claudius Drusus beat them and made them pay taxes from that day on, mostly in the form of ox skins. But after a dispute about the ox skins they rebelled against the Romans again in 28 CE in the battle at Baduhenna, helped by the Batavians and Cananefates. The result was that a number of tax collectors was crucified and around 1300 Romans were killed.

 

Between 500 and 734 Magna Frisia (English: Great Frisia), as is was then called, was at its peak, stretching from the Zwin in Belgium to the river Weser in Germany.

 

 

Magna Frisia (500-734 CE)

 

   

The pagan Frisians whom honored gods like Wodan weren’t too keen to see Boniface (Bonifatius / Bonifacius) trying to convert them to the christian faith. He visited the Frisians 3 times between 716 and 754. Escorted by 52 fellow missionaries and probably a large number of armed guards he returned for the last time in 754. They were all murdered by Frisians near Dokkum. Boniface is mentioned both in the text and the title of the religiously themed episode called "Bonafide Boniface" (01x14).

 

 

In 754 Bonifatius tries to convert the Frisians to the christian faith again, but get's killed

 

 

From 834 to around the year 1000 there were the necessary battles with the Vikings. Many battles lost and won by both sides…

 

Around the 10th century the Old Frisian language slowly started to form.

 

In 1345 Count Willem IV of Holland led the attack on the Frisians. Their ships sailed from Enkhuizen and landed in 2 locations, Stavoren and Laaxum. They wanted to use the St. Odulphus monastery as a fortress. The Dutch knights wore harnesses, but didn’t ride horses as there was no room for them in the ships. The first group, led by Count Willem IV of Holland himself, impatiently started the attack, without waiting for the rest of his army. At Warns the small group of around 500 knights were attacked by locals. The impractical heavy armor of the Dutch contributed to sealing their fate. They fled, but the angry Frisians massacred them. The Frisians then attacked the remainder of the Dutch army. They were also decimated and of the entire army only a few Dutchmen lived to tell the tale and returned to Amsterdam. At Reaklif (English: Red cliff), near Warns, a commemorative stone was placed in 1951 with the following words carved into it: “Leaver dea as slaef” (English: “Rather dead than slave”).

 

 

The monument at Warns reads "Leaver dea as slaef"

("Rather dead than slave")

 

 

The last war between the Frisians and the Dutch, from 1515 to 1524, was the war that made Pier Gerlofs Donia an immortal legend. Better known as Greate Pier.

 

In the centuries to come, the rule over the Frisian lands changed hands many times and it became smaller and smaller. Near the end of that era, in 1782, the Frisians were the first to acknowledge the independence of the United States of America under the leadership of their second president, John Adams.

 

In 1795 Fryslân became a province of the Netherlands, which it still is today. Here's a map of the Netherlands as it is today.

 

 

The Netherlands today

 

 

The name of the province officially changed from the Dutch “Friesland” into the Frisian “Fryslân” In 1997. But Fryslân is also referred to as “It Heitelân” (English: “The Fatherland”) by its people.

 

The proud, stubborn and independent nature of the Frisians throughout history is still present in modern day Frisians, including yours truly. And if we have to believe the stories of USS Greate Pier, it will continue to be so in the future.

 

Lord Thanatos