Oera Linda Book
The Oera Linda Book is a controversial manuscript that is claimed by its supporters as being a Frisian historical, mythological, and religious text that first came to light in the 19th century. Though modern linguistic analysis has tended to favour the hypothesis that the book is a hoax (Breuker, 1980), the overall themes presented within the text have led a few people in each generation to consider it genuine.
History
The Oera Linda Book, originally known as Thet Oera Linda Bok, came to light in 1867 when Cornelis Over de Linden (1811-1874) handed the manuscript, claimed to have been kept in the Over de Linden family for generations, over to Eelco Verwijs (1830-1880), the provincial librarian of Friesland, for translation and publication. Verwijs rejected the manuscript, but in 1872 Dr. Jan Gerhardus Ottema (1804-1879), a prominent member of the Friesch Genootschap ter Beoefening van Friesche Geschiedenis, Oudheid en Taalkunde, published a Dutch translation [[1]] of Thet Oera Linda Bok. The book was subsequently translated into English by William Sandbach (1876).
Over de Linden claimed to have inherited the manuscript from his grandfather, via his aunt. He claimed that the manuscript was written in an ancient form of the Westfriesch dialect. The Frisian language is the language most similar to English in terms of linguistic grouping on the conventionally accepted model of Indo-European language family relationships.
The current manuscript claims to date from 1256 CE. Internal claims suggest that it is a copy of older manuscripts that, if genuine, would have been written by multiple people between 2194 BCE and 803 CE.
Themes
Themes running through the Oera Linda Book include catastrophism, nationalism, matriarchy, and mythology. The text alleges that Europe and other lands were, for most of their history, ruled by a succession of "Reverend Mothers" presiding over a hierarchical order of celibate priestesses, dedicated to the goddess Frya (purportedly an early variant [citation needed] of the Norse Freyja) and her father, the supreme god Wralda. Modern historiography is essentially ignored, particularly in the area of basic chronology of known events in the recent and distant past of Europe. Geological as well as geographical evidence that was readily available even as far back as Over de Linden's time is also mostly absent from the manuscript.
The earliest portion of the Oera Linda Book, namely "Frya’s Tex," was supposedly composed in 2194 BCE, whereas the most recent part, the letter of Hidde Oera Linda, dates to 1256 CE. Almost half of the entire book comprises The Book of Adela’s Followers, the original text around which the rest grew. It is said to have been compiled in the 6th century BCE from a mixture of contemporary writings and ancient inscriptions, though none of this alleged source material has survived, nor any reference to it aside from the Oera Linda manuscript. The last two sections of the Oera Linda Book, the writings of Konered and Beden, contain a number of lacunae; indeed, the book itself breaks off in mid-sentence.
The book articulates the first known example of the concept of root races (though it doesn't call them that), and probably influenced H.P. Blavatsky to develop her own, much more elaborate ideas on the subject, as outlined in The Secret Doctrine (1888). It also mentions Atlantis under the name of "Atland," which was supposedly submerged in 2194 BCE.
Scepticism
Within the first few years after the appearance of the Oera Linda Book, there was great scepticism concerning its authenticity, not only for the exceptional claims being made, but also because of a number of anachronisms it contained. Research was performed on the quality of the paper, and it was claimed to have come from a papermill in Maastricht circa 1850. This skepticism has not prevented the book from being a source of inspiration for a number of occultists, speculative historians, and political parties during the century or more since its emergence.
The authenticity of the book is supported by at least some Neo-Nazi groups, possibly because it indicates a Northern European origin for several Middle Eastern civilisations — this despite the fact that the book itself heavily criticises the ancestors of the Germans as uncouth barbarians. The book has also received interest from feminist and New Age groups and is commonly quoted in books about Atlantis.
Modern research has evidenced a concern with identifying the unknown author of the manuscript, with the most likely candidates being Cornelis Over de Linden or Eelco Verwijs. A popular third choice is the Protestant preacher François Haverschmidt (1835-1894), well known for writing poetry under the pseudonym Piet Paaltjens. Haverschmidt lived in Friesland and was an acquaintance of Verwijs. Certainly, only a handful of scholars in the Netherlands were well versed enough in ancient Frisian and had extensive enough knowledge of Classicism to create such a book. However, it has never been conclusively proven that any of these persons created Thet Oera Linda Bok.
Latest developments
In 2004 the historian Goffe Jensma published a book about the case: De gemaskerde god. François Haverschmidt en het Oera Linda-boek. In his book, Jensma argued that Haverschmidt was the main writer of the book, with the help of Over de Linden and Verwijs. According to Jensma, Haverschmidt intended the Oera Linda Book as a parody of the Christian Bible.
References
Jensma, Goffe "Het Oera Linda-boek. Wat er is en wat er mist", PBF. De Provinsjale Biblioteek fan Fryslân, 150 jaar geschiedenis in collecties. Tresoar, 2002.
Breuker, Ph.H. "It Friesch Genootschap, it Friesch Jierboeckjen en it Oera Linda Boek. De striid om taalbefoardering tusken 1827 en 1837", De Vrije Fries 60 (1980), 49-65.
Newbrook, Mark "Linguistic reconstruction and revisionist accounts of ancient history", The Skeptic Winter 2000, 42-47. [2]
Vinckers, Door J. Beckering "De onechtheid van het Oera Linda-Bôk, aangetoond uit de wartaal waarin het is geschreven.", Haarlem, Erven F. Bohn. 1876. [3]