The Oera Linda Book, from a Manuscript of the Thirteenth Century
History
The Oera Linda Book, from a Manuscript of the Thirteenth Century
Frisian language -- Texts
On the other side of the Scheldt, at Flyburgt, Sijrhed presided. This
maiden was full of tricks. Her face was beautiful, and her tongue
was nimble; but the advice that she gave was always conveyed in
mysterious terms. Therefore the mariners called her Kalta, and the
landsmen thought it was a title. In the last will of the dead mother,
Rosamond was named first, Min-erva second, and Sijrhed third in
succession. Min-erva did not mind that, but Sijrhed was very much
offended. Like a foreign princess, she wished to be honoured, feared,
and worshipped; but Min-erva only desired to be loved. At last all
the sailors, even from Denmark and Flymeer, did homage to her. This
hurt Sijrhed, because she wanted to excel Min-erva. In order to
give an impression of her great watchfulness, she had a cock put
on her banner. So then Min-erva went and put a sheep-dog and an owl
on her banner. The dog, she said, guards his master and his flock,
and the owl watches that the mice shall not devastate the fields;
but the cock in his lewdness and his pride is only fit to murder his
nearest relations. When Kalta found that her scheme had failed she
was still more vexed, so she secretly sent for the Magyars to teach
her conjuring. When she had had enough of this she threw herself into
the hands of the Gauls; but all her malpractices did not improve her
position. When she saw that the sailors kept more and more aloof from
her, she tried to win them back by fear. At the full moon, when the
sea was stormy, she ran over the wild waves, calling to the sailors
that they would all be lost if they did not worship her. Then she
blinded their eyes, so that they mistook land for water and water for
land, and in this way many a good ship was totally lost. At the first
war-feast, when all her countrymen were armed, she brought casks of
beer, which she had drugged. When they were all drunk she mounted her
war-horse, leaning her head upon her spear. Sunrise could not be more
beautiful. When she saw that the eyes of all were fixed upon her,
she opened her lips and said:--
Sons and daughters of Frya, you know that in these last times we have
suffered much loss and misery because the sailors no longer come to
buy our paper, but you do not know what the reason of it is. I have
long kept silence about it, but can do so no longer. Listen, then,
my friends, that you may know on which side to show your teeth. On
the other side of the Scheldt, where from time to time there come
ships from all parts, they make now paper from pumpkin leaves, by
which they save flax and outdo us. Now, as the making of paper was
always our principal industry, the mother willed that people should
learn it from us; but Min-erva has bewitched all the people--yes,
bewitched, my friends--as well as all our cattle that died lately. I
must come out with it. If I were not Burgtmaagd, I should know what
to do. I should burn the witch in her nest.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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