EN00b.01 Liko
Ott 2025
Letters of Instruction
B. Liko Ovira-Linda
b.01 [00b] My dear heirs,
For our beloved ancestors’ sake, and for the sake of our precious freedom, a thousand times I bid you — dearest[1] — never to let the eyes of a papist come upon these writings.[2]
They utter sweet words, but they subtly distort all that concerns us Fryas. To gain rich endowments,[3] they collaborate with the puppet kings.[4] These know that we are their greatest enemies because we dare speak to their people of freedom, justice, and the obligations of nobility. Thus, they make certain to obliterate all traces of our ancestral heritage and what is left of our morals.[5]
My dear ones! I have visited their palace.[6] If Wralda allows, and if we fail to make ourselves strong, they will exterminate us all.
Written in Liudwerd, year eight hundred and three in Christian understanding.
Liko, surnamed Ovira-Linda.[7]
Notes
- ↑ ‘Dear ... beloved ... precious ... dearest’ — in original all LJAWA/-E.
- ↑ ‘papist’ (PÁPE.KAPPE) — lit.: ‘priest-cloak’; likely used as an invective, reducing the subject to an external characteristic. Possibly also ‘friend of the clergy’; see ‘keppe’ in Dictionary of the Dutch language (WNT).
- ↑ ‘endowments’ (PREBENDNE) — a ‘prebend’ is a stipend paid to a clergyman in the service of the Church.
- ↑ ‘puppet kings’ (POPPA KENINGGAR) — i.e., figureheads loyal to or controlled by hidden powers, like marionettes. The West-Frisian invective ‘poepe’ and even Dutch ‘poep’ (English: poop) may have been derived from this use of the word.
- ↑ ‘morals’ (SÉDUM) — Dutch: ‘zeden’; SÉDUM or SÉDA can also mean ‘seeds’.
- ↑ Rulers at the time would have been: Hamacarus, Bishop of Utrecht (no historical records other than his name); Charlemagne, who subdued the Frisians after a three-year war (783-785); and Leo III, Pope of Rome.
- ↑ ‘Ovira-Linda’ (OVIRA.LINDA) — a variety of ‘Oera Linda’; see note at a.01.
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Chapters A and B: Sandbach 1876