Nietzsche's Poisonous Snakes

Nietzsche in 1868

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) in 1888 wrote Der Antichrist, of which only parts were published in 1895. A specific part, written on September 30, Gesetz wider das Christenthum ('Law or Decree against Christianity'), was not published until 1961.

Three elements of it remind of Oera Linda, one of them in particular. Together they raise the quenstion if Nietzsche may have been inspired by the 1875 German edition of Historische Skizzen auf Grundlage von Thet Oera Linda Bok (original Dutch published anonymously in 1874 by A.J. Vitringa, translated by Hermann Otto).

1. The 'decree' is dated by Nietzsche: am 30. September 1888 der falschen Zeitrechnung ('according to the false timeline').
2. It is very much anti-priesthood, e.g. The priest is the most vicious type of person: he teaches anti-nature. Priests are not to be reasoned with, they are to be locked up. (...) [they] should be ostracised, starved, driven into every type of desert.
3. Most striking is the third article: The execrable location where Christianity brooded over its basilisk eggs should be razed to the ground (...) Poisonous snakes should be bred on top of it. ('Man soll giftige Schlangen auf ihr züchten.')

The third article in Nietzsche's handwriting (source)

That toxic plants (or animals) would grow on places where something bad happened (or was buried) is reminiscent of the following fragments:

2f. Frya’s Tex

Anyone who robs another of his freedom, even if the other were in debt to him, I would parade with collar and leash like a slave girl — though I advise you to burn his corpse and that of his mother in a barren place. Thereafter, bury their ashes fifty feet deep, so not a single blade of grass might grow upon them. For such grass would kill your most precious animals. (Otto: denn solches Gras würde euer bestes Vieh tödten)

5d. Punishments for Evildoers

The navigators should take his mother and all his relatives to a distant island and there scatter his ashes, so that no poisonous herbs (FENINIGE KRÛDON) may sprout from them here.

11b. Frana's Prophecy

Then shall the blood of the wicked flow over thy body, O Earth, but you must not drink of it. In the end, the toxic vermin (FENINIGE KWIK) shall feast upon it and perish.

Fragments 5d and 11b don't seem to have been part of Otto's (and Vitringa's) publication, but the Dutch or English translation may have been accessible as well in Germany.

Hettema about meaning 'Friesland'

In Oud en nieuw Friesland, of aardrijkskundige beschrijving van die provincie (1840) by Montanus Hettema, on page 109 his theory about the name Friesland (with italics as in original):

Dat Friso de stichter zoude geweest zijn kan ik niet aannemen. Dit behoort mijns inziens onder de fabelen en vertelsels der oudewijven, welke in zeker tijdstip de overhand op het gezond verstand hadden. Bij mij is het de taal van een volk en de liggin van het land, welke de naamsoorsprong kunnen aangeven. Dat nu het Oudfriesch, met het oud Saksisch zeer naauw verwant is, zal niemand betwisten, — vandaar dat ik stel, dat wij met die oude Saksen in vroegere tijden één volk hebben uitgemaakt. De Saksers zich vroeger meer landwaarts in bevindende en dus van de zee verwijderd, kenden dit land zeer waarschijnlijk niet, en niet voor dat een deel hunner zich hier nedergezet had, leerden zij dit kennen. (...) Deze streek nu noemden de oude Saksers het Frisse land en de bewoners Frissen, hetwelk de Latijnen in Frisia en Frisii hebben overgebragt. Friesland is dus niets anders dan het Frisse- of Nieuweland ter onderscheiding van het oude land. (...)

That Friso would have been the founder, I cannot accept. In my opinion this belongs to the fables and tales of old wives, which at a certain time prevailed over common sense. For me it is the language of a people and the location of the country, which can indicate the origin of the name. No one will dispute that Old Frisian is very closely related to Old Saxon — which is why I argue that we were one people with those old Saxons in earlier times. The Saxons, who used to be more inland and therefore away from the sea, were very probably not familiar with this country, and they did not get to know it until some of them had settled here. (...) The ancient Saxons called this region the Fresh land and its inhabitants the Fresh, which the Latins transferred to Frisia and Frisii. Friesland is therefore nothing other than the Fresh- or Newland as distinguished from the old land. (...)

North Frisian

Short study of fris / fresh

Fragments

[125/24] SIN FRISKA (→ FRESKA) HUD AND BLÁWA ÁGON MITH WIT HÉR

[his] fair skin, blue eyes, and white hair

[126/03] SÁ BJUSTRE FRES (→ FRESK) AS JEF HJA PÁS UT FRYASLAND WÉIKVMEN WÉRON

exceptionally fair, as if they had just come from Fryasland

Cognates

Dutch - fris, vers (old: ve(e)rs(ch), varsch, vrisch)

German - frisch (old: frisc, vrisch)

Frisian - farsk (old: fersk)

English - fresh (old: fersc)

French - frais (old: freis, fresche)

Norse, Danish - frisk (old: ferskr)

Swedish - färsk, frisk, fräsch

Icelandic - ferskt

Spanish, Portuguese, Italian - fresco

Greek - φρέσκο