EN001.16 Adela
Ott 2025
C. Introduction
Adela’s Advice
1.16 At last, Adela requested the floor, and spoke:
“You all know that I was three years a burgmaid. You also know that I was chosen to become Folksmother[1] and that I did not accept, as I desired to be wed with Apol. But what you do not know is that I have studied all that has befallen as if I were Folksmother indeed. Long have I traveled far and wide to observe what was happening. In this way, many things have been revealed to me that others do not know. You said yesterday that our kinfolk on the other side of the Weser were meek and spineless. Yet I may tell you that the Magy did not conquer a single district by force of arms, [002] but solely through deceitful intrigue, and still more through the greed of the military leaders and noblemen.
Frya said we should not allow unfree people to dwell among us. But what have they done? They have imitated our enemy, for instead of killing their prisoners or setting them free, they have ignored Frya’s guidance and used them as slaves. Because they did so, Frya could no longer watch over them. They took the freedom of another and thus lost their own. Though all this was already known to you, I shall now tell how, by degrees, they sank so low.
The wives of the Finns bore children. These grew up with our Frya children. At times they romped and rollicked together about the yard or sat with one another beside the hearth. There, our children listened eagerly to the outrageous sagas of the Finns, because they were provocative and new. This is how, despite the authority of their parents, they lost their Fryas identity. When our children grew up and saw that the children of the Finns could not use weapons and must only toil, a disdain for work flourished among them and they grew very haughty. The chieftains and their best sons laid down with promiscuous Finn girls. Their own daughters, led astray by this bad example, allowed themselves to bear children of the best looking Finn boys, in mockery of their foul parents. When the Magy got wind of this, [003] he selected the most attractive of his Finns and Magyars and promised them cows with golden horns if they could find a place amongst our folk and spread his doctrine.[2] But his people went yet further: Children were kidnapped and taken to the Upsalands.[3] And when they had been brought up in the Magyars’ evil ways, they were sent back.
As these outward slaves could speak our language, they cozied up to the military leaders and nobles, declaring that, if they would submit to the Magy, their sons could succeed them without election by the folk. Those who, for their good deeds, had gained a share of land before their house were promised another share behind on behalf of the Magy.[4] Those who had already earned a front and a back yard were promised a surrounding yard, and who had a surrounding yard was promised an entire estate. If the nobles were still loyal Fryas, the usurpers changed tack and aimed at the degenerate sons.
Yesterday, some of you suggested that we mobilize all our folk to force the eastern states back to the old ways. But, in my humble opinion, that would have miserable consequences. Imagine, for a moment, that our cattle here had previously been plagued by a serious lung disease that was still raging elsewhere: Would you then risk allowing your healthy animals to go amongst their sick ones? Surely never! If all must agree and affirm that this would lead to nothing but trouble, who then would dare [004] send his children into the midst of an utterly depraved folk?
Were I permitted to give my advice, I should say that, before anything else, you must elect a new Folksmother. I know that you are grappling with this prospect because, of the thirteen burgmaids who yet remain, no fewer than eight desire the honor. But I would take no heed of this. Tuntia, maid of the burg Medeasblik, never aspired to it; and yet she is full of wisdom and clarity, and as loyal to her folk and our ways as all the others combined.
I would also counsel you go to the burgs and copy all the laws, Frya’s Tex, all of the histories and everything else you can find on the walls, so that nothing will be lost if the burgs are destroyed. It is written there that the Folksmother and each burgmaid shall have, besides helpers and messengers, twenty-one maidens and seven maiden apprentices. Were I to add something, it would be to write: ‘... and as many worthy daughters as the burgs can house to come and study.’
For I say in truth, and time shall bear it out:
If you wish your children to remain true Fryas, not to be conquered either by intrigue or force of arms, then you must see to it that your daughters become real Frya women. You must teach the children how great our lands once were, what a great people our ancestors were, how great we are still compared to others. Tell them of the heroes, [005] of their heroic deeds, and of distant sea voyages. These tales must be told by the hearth, around the homestead, or anywhere else — in times of joy and of tears. But, for them to be etched into the minds and hearts, the teachings must flow from the lips of your wives and daughters.”
Adela’s advice was followed.
Notes
- ↑ ‘Folksmother’ (MODER) — lit.: ‘mother’; this translation is used whenever confusion with a child's mother would otherwise be possible.
- ↑ 'cows with golden horns’ is an expression that still exists in Dutch, referring to a promise of ‘good things that are not realistically possible’, like unending riches or mountains of gold.
- ↑ ‘Upsalands’ (VPSALÁNDUM) — could refer to the region around Uppsala, Sweden, a historic center of Nordic paganism.
- ↑ ‘Those who ... share behind’ — see 19.08, 5th law.
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Chapter C: Sandbach 1876