Remembering king Redbad
Nowadays Friesland is just a province of The Netherlands. But long ago Friesland, or Frisia, was an area much bigger, stretching from what is now part of Belgium, a large part of The Netherlands, northern Germany, up to Denmark. One of the Frisian cities, Dorestad, was one of the most important and flourishing trading places of northwestern Europe, during the early Middle Ages. It was fought over many times against the Franks, a Germanic tribe that later ruled over most of Europe under emperor Charlemagne. At the time christianization took place in Europe, the Franks were already converted to the new religion by the year 500, but the Frisians didn’t want to abandon their old pagan believes they had for a very long time. Around the year 700, Frisia was the only area in northwestern Europe that had not been converted yet. Defender of the old believes was a legendary king of the Frisians, king Redbad.
Redbad was born around the year 648, he became king around 679. During is reign he was in conflict with the Franks many times. The Franks conquered Dorestad in 689, his opponent was Frankish mayor Pepin of Herstal. Pepin conquered the city of Utrecht a few years later, and from that time on the Franks had full control over the important trade route on the Rhine to the North sea. Redbad was forced to retreat. In the following decade it came to a truce between the Frisians and the Franks, and later the daughter of Redbad even got married with a son of Pepin.
Because Frisia had not been converted yet to the Christian religion, the Church of Rome sent several people trying to complete the christianization of northwestern Europe. They were not very successful, the people stayed with their old believes. But a son of Redbad was converted, and Redbad too almost adopted the new religion. That would have been the completion of the christianization, according to the Church at the time an entire group of people was converted if the leader did. Either Wulfram or Willibrord was about to baptize the king, when Redbad asked: “Will I meet my ancestors in Heaven after I die?“, Wulfram or Willibrord responded: “No, they were not baptized, so they are in Hell.” Redbad replied: “Then I rather spend eternity in Hell with my ancestors than in Heaven with my enemies (the Franks).” From that moment on Redbad found new faith in his old pagan believes, and he also wanted the territories back he lost to the Franks.
Redbad had to wait a long time, but when Pepin died in 714, he launched his attack. Two years later he advanced as far as Cologne, where he defeated Charles Martel, a son of Pepin. Frisia would be free for almost twenty years after, and the people were able to keep their old pagan religion. But in 734 Charles Martel invaded Frisia, and the Christian religion was forced upon the population, destroying every pagan shrine. The story didn’t end there, though, even under Frankish rule the Frisians were reluctant to adopt the Christian religion. The Church later sent Boniface, he tried to force Christianity upon the Frisians with his armed, 50 men strong, private army. The Frisians then killed Boniface in 754 at Dokkum.
During his last years Redbad developed an illness and he died in the summer of 719, according to tradition on August 9, on the island of Helgoland. His body was transported to the mainland, and there are two locations where he might be buried, both in modern day Germany and close to the border with The Netherlands: the Rabbelsberg in Dunum, and the Plytenberg not far from the city of Leer.
Today king Redbad is hardly remembered in Friesland, the province of The Netherlands. But in Germany, the area called East Frisia (Ostfriesland), he lives on in many stories and legends, and plays an important part in local folklore. According to legend, so-called “little earthmen” (Erdmantjes) guarded the treasure that was buried with Redbad. When the locals tried to dig up the treasure, the little earthmen scared them away, but to keep the treasure safe, the little earthmen decided to transport the treasure somewhere else. But on the river Ems, the boat capsized and all drowned. The treasure is still on the bottom of the river… Nowadays a little earthman, called Plietje, is the mascot of the city of Leer.
The life of Redbad is an interesting one, and surrounded with many legends and folktales. It was even an inspiration for Richard Wagner when he wrote his opera Lohengrin. Besides the Germans in East Frisia, his memory is kept alive by modern day pagans, and August 9 is their day of remembrance for Redbad. Ten years from now it will exactly 1300 years ago that Redbad died, given his eventful life (I only described here a tiny bit of it) and the history of christianization at the time, it would be a perfect moment for a movie about the king. There are many movies about other people in history, but not one so far about king Redbad. I think he deserves one.
Real nice story !!!
A Sunday morning – learning something about the province I am living in….
Learning on a Sunday morning; WOW…
Nice one!
In Frisia we are still awaiting the return of Grutte Pier….one day all the lost land will be ours again
……btw Rudy…..no doomsday stories of the (financial) world going to hell? I really miss that kind of writing.
I’m happy to hear you liked the story.
About the “doomsday”-stories, it has been a long time I wrote a story about that. Last year the financial world did almost go to hell, and governments rushed to come up with panic stoppers to put a lid on the crisis. There is certainly more to tell about all that, and I will hopefully, other subjects I’ve been busy with caught my attention somewhat more lately.
Very interesting. I’d never heard of this country or king before. Isn’t it amazing such a large place can be almost lost in history?
Yes, the period between the fall of the Roman Empire and Charlemagne, so roughly between 500 and 800, is one we don’t know much about. We know way more about the times of the Roman Empire before than this time. Sometimes the term “Dark Ages” is used for the whole of the Middle Ages, but some use it especially for this time, because what happened during this time is somewhat dark. There is another king in this time that’s legendary and more well known: king Arthur. But we know for sure that king Redbad did live and there are some historical facts about him, some historians think that king Arthur never existed.
Was King Redbad a naughty ginger?!?!
It’s a very nice story, Sjeltur. Interesting also how he became a king at the age of 31 years old according to the dates placed in the post
. If only we’ve a ‘Time Machine’ we would have returned back and became “kings” ourselves 
Redbad isn’t forgotten – my band, Ophidian Forest, recorded a concept album about him and named it “Redbad” (you can hear some tracks on http://www.myspace.com/ophidianforest) and apparently in two years a movie will be filmed about him in The Netherlands (http://www.leeuwardercourant.nl/nieuws/cultuur/article5172355.ece/Arie+Boomsma+mag+koning+Redbad+spelen) – here’s the translation:
Leeuwarden – Director Steven de Jong is working on the heroic epos about medieval king Redbad. Producer Klaas de Jong considers the leading role for “someone like Arie Boomsma”, but he hasn’t been approached for this as yet. “The guy just has the right face for it. In the Netherlands we simply don’t have anyone like Mel Gibson”.
The shooting will begin in two years time. Producer de Jong is estimating the costs between 4 and 5M EU. A script has already been written by Lars Boom. Its focus lies on the duality between Christians and heathens.
Heathen regards,
Zaragil
Great news! I’m not really sure if Arie Boomsma would be my first choice to play Redbad… But we’ll see, perhaps they will find a Dutch/Frisian “Mel Gibson” that can play the king in a believable way. They still have some time before the shooting starts.
And happily surprised there are people out there who still do remember Redbad, as it turns out the king is still an inspiration for artists today!
Oh yes. There was also a song called “Radbods Doop” (if I spelled this right) by an old legendary Dutch band Countess too, recorded quite a while ago – we haven’t heard of it before but the man contacted us on MySpace, uploaded it for us to hear it and we talked about it, exchanged a few impressions, became friends etc. Also, another band made a similar song a year or so ago, can’t remember the name right now…
Anyhow, only our singer is Dutch and I don’t know what is Boomsma’s status or reputation over there. I did a Google image search and on his own page he doesn’t look that bad, on some others… not quite impressive. But since he hasn’t even been approached for the part, who knows, maybe there’s someone better around the corner. We’ll have to wait and see
Cheers!
Z.
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