21 March 2019

Minerva's Owl

Jacob van Campen, c. 1645 (source)


[063/04] 9a1. The War of Kelta and Minerva, ca. 1630 BCE
THÁ GVNG MIN.ERVA [5] TO ÀND MÍK EN HÀRDER.HVND ÀND EN NACHT.UL INVPPIRA FÁNE. Minerva responded by depicting a herding dog and an owl on her banner.
THENE HVND SÉIDE HJU WÁKTH OVIR SIN HÉR ÀND OVIRA KIDDA ÀND THENE NACHT.UL WÁKTH OVIRA FJELDA TILTHJU HJA THRVCH THA MUSA NAVT [10] VRDÉN NE WRDE. The dog, she said, watches over his owner and the herd, and the owl watches over the field, to keep it from being devastated by mice.


[035/01] 4d. Minos: Minerva
[1] HVAT IS THJU BITJVTENISE FON THI NACHT.ULE. THÉR IMMER BOPPA THIN HOLE SIT. IS THAT LJUCHT.SKVWANDE DJAR ALTOMET THET TÉKEN THINRA KLÁR.SJANHÉD. what is the meaning of the night owl that is always sitting on your head? Might that light-shunning animal be the sign of your clairvoyance?
NÉAN ANDERE HEL.LÉNJA HI HELPTH [5] MY HÜGJA THAT.ER EN SLACH FON MÀNNISKA OVIR JRTHA OMME.DWÁLTH. THÉR EVEN LIK HI IN KÀRKA ÀND HOLA HÉMA. THÉR AN TJUSTER FROTA. No, Helena [a.k.a. Minerva] answered, he helps me remember that a certain kind of people is wandering the earth, also living in temples and holes, gnawing in the dark,
THACH NAVT AS HI. VMB.VS FON MÛSA ÀND ÔRA PLÀGA TO HELPANE. MEN RENKA TO [10] FORSINA. THA ÔRA MÀNNISKA HJARA WITSKIP TO RÁWÁNE TILTHJU HJA THAM TO BÉTRE MÜGE FÁTA VMBER SLÁVONA FON TO MÁKJANDE ÀND HJARA BLOD UT TO SÛGANE. ÉVEN AS VAMPÍRA DVA. but not like him, helping to rid us of mice and other plagues, but rather to invent tricks to rob other people of their knowledge, so they can more easily seize and enslave them, and suck their blood like leeches.


G.W.F. Hegel, 1821 in "Grundlinien der Philosophie des Rechts"

UL, ULE, ULA - Old Frisian
owl - English
ûle - Frisian (üül - Nordfrisian)
uil - Dutch, Afrikaans
Eule - German
ugle - Danish, Norse
uggla - Swedish
ugla - Icelandic, Faroese

17 March 2019

The 'Daughters of Frya' hoax

Update 14 Nov. '20
For his idiotic website, Steele now uses
photo's taken at the outdoor theater play
about Oera Linda, summer '19 in Friesland.

— — — — — — — — — — — —

scene from 1936 Olympic fire ceremony, used to promote the hoax
scene from movie The Wicker Man (1973), used to promote the hoax
Years ago, I decided to never give this topic any attention, hoping that some day it would just disappear from the web. However, since it is still used to discredit the Oera Linda-book, I will now present some of the relevant facts.

Exhibit 1. Tresoar director Bert Looper speaks on Frisian television (Omrop Fryslân), Oct. 31, 2018 (video link)
There is even – as Goffe Jensma described in his book –
a sect in Australia, the 'Daughters of Frya':
young women who live by the rules of the Oera Linda-book.
They wear white skirts all year, winter or summer
and all day they have to perform rituals, inspired by the book.
So that is still living. How weird is that.

In his 2004 dissertation De Gemaskerde God, Goffe Jensma referred to a website about a fantasy cult, the "Daughters of Frya". Most ironically, in his efforts to paint the Oera Linda-book as an 'obvious hoax', and people who take it seriously as naive, silly or potentially dangerous, Jensma was fooled himself:

Exhibit 2. De Gemaskerde God (2004), p. 158 (chapter 11: 'some say, it is a bible')
The 'Daughters of Frya' are a group of women living according to the laws of the Oera Linda-book...

Two years later, his Dutch translation was published, with an introduction that is a summary of the dissertation. His fascination for the women in white must have grown, as this summary contained even more information about, and images of them:

Exhibit 3. Het Oera Linda-boek, Facsimile - Transcriptie - Vertaling (2006), pp. 14 and 39 (introduction).
In Australia a successful sect exists...
[they] wear mini-skirts...

Another eight years later, in 2014, Jensma wrote a speech for a befriended professor who retired from the theological faculty. The parting professor, Yme Kuiper, had helped Jensma in the process of getting his doctors thesis about Oera Linda promoted within the theological faculty and therefore, Jensma now chose Oera Linda as the topic of this farewell speech, in particular the 'Daughters of Frya':

Exhibit 4. Het raadsel van de tohnekka (2014)

... that much of the 'brown'[i.e. Nazi] pre-war ideology was happily
redressed into a fresh New Age tunic, marching on after the war.
Translation (JO):
The tohnekka mystery

There are not many people who have had a decisive influence on both my work and my carreer. Yme is one of them. As for my work, I was most inspired by his historical-anthropological perspective and his fascination for elites and their formation. In 1993 he also arranged a place at the Theological Faculty for my PhD research project of the Oera Linda-book. Therefore, this will be the topic of my farewell speech.

The most important lesson I learned from my Oera Linda-book project may be, that even as a scholar in a dossier like this, one becomes part of what I termed the 'illusion of authenticity'. Most debates about the Oera Linda-book concern questions like 'true or false?', 'parody or serious?' and 'joke or crime?' Whatever position is taken in the debate, one becomes part of a strange knot of contradictions and possible reversals, in which all reasoning can unnoticed be turned around. This confusion is an inseparable part of the Oera Linda-dossier itself (perhaps because confusion is an inseparable part of our reality).

A fantastic example of this mechanism are the Daughters of Frya. My research had led me to this sect of young girls in white skirts. Rather than indulging in sex and alcohol, they had dedicated themselves to worship of Frya, the 'folk-mother' of all Frisians, according to the Oera Linda-book. Of course it is bewildering that an obvious mystification can lead to the foundation of such a New Age-like sect, but I mostly laughed. I thought it was very funny how these girls had chosen those white skirts as a uniform dress, because of the quasi-Old Frisian word tohnekka. That word was used for the 'tunics' that would have been worn by those old Frisian folk-mothers and burg-maidens. The word 'tunic' would – by means of a funny and fine folk-etymologly – have been derived from tohnekka: dress to the neck.

Based on what I later found on the internet, I concluded that the sect was based near Sydney. I got further confirmation on an Australian christian site, where a father complained how this sect had alienated his daughter from him. Of course I tried to contact the cult leaders, but as a man they would not have a chance. According to principles of Oera Linda-book, my male breath would immediately have contaminated the sacred fire of this little matriarchal society.

Reports appeared on the web some years later, that the sect itself would also be a parody, just like the Oera Linda-book. The name Tony Steele was mentioned, author of two books about witches. The girls on the photo would actually have been members of a tennis team. This suddenly no longer seemed implausible. In the meantime, all this was erased from the web again.

However, 'true' and 'false' once more alternated, when some years later I managed to get in touch with a certain Minerva. She was a burg-maiden, a daughter of Frya, from Indiana USA. The few e-mails we exchanged and a note on the web (which was later erased) suddenly offered a very different perspective. Minerva explained why the Daughters of Frya had only made themselves known in 2002, shortly after their founder, a certain Jutta Rüdiger (see photo) had died in old age. Originally the Daughters of Frya had been based in Düsseldorf. The group was a continuation of Glaube und Schönheit [faith and beauty], a section of the Hitler-youth for girls aged 17 to 24. In 2008 they had divisions in Germany, America and Australia.

I bought literature about the subject. In one book about Glaube und Schönheit I found this photo [of girls wearing white skirts], which demonstrates the real origin of the tohnekka, I believe. We don't know what the authors of the Oera Linda-book imagined themselves, but the 'tohnekka's' of the Daughters of Frya are white Hitler-youth skirts. That is to say: if all this is really true, because in the reality of the Oera Linda-book, one can never be certain.

This leads to the – preliminary – conclusion, that the tohnekka is a great example of a phenomenon which is often too easily overlooked, namely that much of the 'brown' [i.e. Nazi] pre-war ideology was happily redressed into a fresh New Age tunic, marching on after the war.

Precisely because of these bizarre twists and weird beliefs I have never regretted doing my PhD about the Oera Linda-book. [...]

Dr. Jensma: "... the 'tohnekka's' of the Daughters of Frya are white Hitler-youth skirts."

the deceiver: Tony Steele, alias Adela, Minerva, etc.
the deceived: Goffe Jensma

fragment of current version of Steele's cyber-fantasy

Exhibit 5. Just a few of many similar comments on various forums.
2005: "Steele admitted it was all a hoax a few months ago"
2008: "Tony Steele and his chickies in tennis garb. Makes you wonder if it isn't an obsession of some sort."
"the thing that bothers me the most about this whole nonsense are those poor girls whose pictures he keeps resurrecting"

Why is Jensma – otherwise very suspicious of people who testified in favor of OLB's authenticity (they are confused or liars) – so gullible when it comes to the Daughters of Frya and the alleged reason for Ottema's suicide (which is nothing but shameless speculation).

The answer can easily be guessed. Associating the Oera Linda-book with negative things like suicide and cultism will help keep it out of the realm of popular culture. Cultural institutions like archives, libraries, public media, musea and universities always lack money. In the Netherlands (Friesland included) people who are dependent from tax money funding know (or feel) very well what the grant providers will and will not favor.

=====
added March 18: Newspaper article Leeuwarder Courant (Dutch/ Frisian) 28-12-2018, p. 32 "Hoe Oera Linda een internetfabel schiep" by Richard de Boer

06 March 2019

Chronology of OLB

allegory of world history, with chronology, genealogy among others, by Bernard Picart 1720

The following fragments - in order of appearance in manuscript - are relevant for reconstruction of chronology. (More fragments will be added, as well as discussion.)

A. Hidde Oera Linda
[00a/16] NÉI ÁTLAND SVNKEN IS. THÀT THRJA THÛSOND-FJVWER HVNDRED ÀND NJUGON ÀND FJVWERTIGOSTE JÉR.
THAT IS NÉI KERSTEN RÉKNONG THAT TVELF.HVNDRED. SEX ÀND FIFTIGOSTE JÉR.

in the three thousand, four hundred, forty-ninth year after Atland sank.
That is in Christian reckoning the twelve hundred and fifty-sixth year.
(3449 - 1256 - 1* = 2192 BCE) *year 'zero': 2192 BCE + 1 + 1256 CE = 3449 a.a.s.

B. Liko Ovira Linda
[00b/23] ACHT.HONDRED ÀND THRJU JÈR, NÉI KERSTEN BIGRIP.
year eight hundred and three in Christian understanding.
(1256* - 803 = 453 years before Hidde wrote) * see A (also, see note below)

1a. Council in Confusion
[001/02] THRITTICH JÉR ÀFTERE DÉI THÀT THJU FOLKS MODER VMBROCHT WAS
Thirty years after the day that the folk mother was killed
(588* - 30 = 558 BCE) *see 11b

2a. Vesta, Take up your Stylus
[006/01] THÀT WAS FRYA HIS DÉI 
ÀND TO THÉRE STONDE WAS.T VRLÉDEN SJVGUN WÁRA SJVGUN JÉR. THAT FÀSTA WAS ANSTÀLD AS FOLK.MODER 
NÉI FRYA.S JÉRTA.

It was Frya's Day, 
seven times seven years since Vesta had been ordained as folk mother 
by Frya's desire.
(this fragment seems to rather be mythological than historical - it was added here to demonstrate the use of symbolic numbers: 7 x 7 = 49 years)

7b. How Aldland Sank
[049/25] ÁLDLAND. TRVCH THA STJÛRAR ÁTLAND HÉTEN SVNK NÍTHER
Aldland — or ‘Atland’ as the steersmen say — sank down
(2192 BCE) see A

8a. Magyars and Finns
[050/31] 100 ÀND 1 JÉR NÉI THAT ALD.LAND SVNKEN IS
One hundred and one years after Aldland sank
(2192* - 101 = 2091 BCE) *see A
[note: 101 = prime number]
[052/22] ACHTTANTICH JÉR FORTHER
Eighty years later
(2091 - 80 = 2011 BCE)

9a. The War of Kelta and Minerva
[062/08] 563 JÉR NÉI ALD.LAND SVNKEN IS.
Five hundred and sixty-three years after Aldland sank
(2192* - 563 = 1629 BCE) *see A
[note: 563 = prime number]

9d. Jon and Minerva Resettle
[068/19] 10 JÉR ÀFTER JON WÉI.BRIT WAS
Ten years after Jon had left
(1629* - 10 = 1619 BCE) *see 9a

9e. The Gerdmen Move to Punjab
[074/20] ET LESTE LÁNDON HJA ET PAN'G.AB (...) HÍR SETON HJA HJARA SELVA NITHAR
At last they landed at Punjab (...) Here they settled
(1551 BCE) see 14d

10a. Ulysses’ Quest for a Lamp
[075/08] AN THA JÉRA 1000 ÀND 5 NÉI ÁLDLAND SVNKEN IS
In the year one thousand and five after Aldland sank
(2192* - 1005 = 1187 BCE) *see A
[1005 = 15 x 67]

11a. Denmarks Lost
[079/13] 1600 ÀND 2 JÉR NÉI ALDLAND VRGVNGON IS.
sixteen hundred and two years after Aldland perished.
(2192* - 1602 = 590 BCE) *see A
[note: 1602 = 18 x 89]

11b. Death of Frana/ 11c. Death of the Magus
[082/01] TWA JÉR NÉIDAM KÉM THENE MÁGÍ
Two years later, the magus came
(590* - 2 = 588 BCE) *see 11a

14a. Frederick: Fryasland Swamped
[117/19] THÀT SKÉD 1888 JÉR NÉI THÀT ÁTLÁND SVNKEN WAS.
All this happened 1888 years after Atland sank.
(2192* - 1888 = 304 BCE) *see A
[note: 1888 = 32 x 59] NB This chapter has a detailed internal chronology (month-wise).

14b. Gosa: Expulsion of the Blacks
[117/20] IN 282 JÉR NÉDON WI NÉN ÉRE.MODER NAVT HAT
For 282 years we had not had an honored mother
(304* + 282 = 586** BCE) *see 14a, **compare 11b
[note: 282 = 6 x 47]

14c. A Fleet Arrives
[119/02] TWA JÉR NÉITHAT GOSA MODER WRDE
Two years after Gosa had become mother
(304* - 2 = 302 BCE) *see 14a

14d. Alexander the King
[120/15] NEI THÀT WI 12 MEL 100 ÀND TWIA.12 JÉR BI THA FIF WÉTRUM SÉTEN HÉDE (...) KÉM ALEXANDRE THAM KÉNING
After we had lived at the Five Waters [Punjab] for twelve hundred and twice twelve years (...) Alexander the king came
(1224 + 327* = 1551 BCE) * convential dating of arrival Alexander at Indus

14e. Demetrius and Friso
[Note: various names and events mentioned, known from conventional history: Nearchus, Demetrius, Antigonus, Ptolomeus, etc./ Friso and family also known from Frisian Chronicles]

14f. Northland

[130/23] VNDERA TIDA THAT VS LAND DEL SÉG
While our lands sank
(304 BCE) see 14a

15c. Yesus or Buda of Kashmir
[136/08] 16 WÁRA 100 JÉR LÉDEN IS ÁTLAND SVNKEN. ÀND TO THÉRA TIDUM BÉRADE THÉR AWAT HWÉRVPPA NIMMAN RÉKNED NÉDE.
It was sixteen hundred years since Atland sank, when something happened that no one had expected.
(Literally: ‘16 Times 100 years ago Atland has sunk, and in those times something happened that no one had expected.’ — It would not make sense when this ‘something’ happened when Atland sank, because all dating is relative to the sinking of Atland. It would simply have been: ‘When Atland sank...’.)
(2192* - 1600 = 592 BCE) *see A

= = = = =

Note to B. Liko Ovira Linda
It is remarkable that Liko writes "they want to obliterate all traces of our ancestral heritage" and yet dates his writing by referring to the year in 'KERSTEN' reckoning: 803, rather than using the system 'after Atland sank'. Had the latter system already gotten out of use? In that case, how trustworthy is the key provided by Hidde on page 00a, using both systems (1256 KERSTEN and 3449 ÁTLAND)? If Yesus/Buda is the same as Buddha, than ca. 600 BCE seems to be right. Also, if Friso's fleet arrived ca. 300 BCE, then this corresponds with the conventional dating of Alexander the Great.
On the other hand, there are good arguments for theories in which the first millennium was in fact considerably shorter than 1000 years (at least 300 up to perhaps 700 years). See for example Toronto 2016 lecture by dr. Gunnar Heinsohn* and listen to the 1 hour interview in German of dr. Herbert Illig.

*In a later interview, Heinsohn estimated that the era between the years 600 BCE and 1000 CE actually lasted only ca. 700 years in total.