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The Frisians were a Germanic coastal people between the Rhine and the Elbe, on the North Sea. Because the land often flooded, they built terpen (dwelling mounds) – artificial hills on which farms and villages defied the tide.
Tacitus already knows the "greater and lesser Frisians". For a time they paid Rome tribute in ox-hides, but rose in AD 28 against demands that grew too harsh. For centuries they remained an independent coastal people, famed for cattle-raising, salt-making and sea trade.
In the early Middle Ages the Frisians under kings such as Radbod long resisted Frankish rule and Christianity. From this era comes the famous "Frisian freedom": the idea of being subject to no duke, only to the king or emperor. Frisian trade later linked the North Sea as far as Hedeby and England.
"The Frisians … are called the greater and the lesser according to their strength."after Tacitus, Germania 34 (public domain, own translation)
The Frisians belong to the world of the North Sea coast – like the Chauci and Saxons. Continue with them.
The Chauci · The Saxons · The North Frisian ring forts · Viking traces in Germany · Nehalennia.
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