The Oera Linda Book

The manuscript of the Oera Linda Book (1876) explores historical, mythological, and religious themes that emerged in the Frisian culture, in the North of the current Netherlands, between 2194 BCE and 803 CE. However, it is shrouded in mystery. It was Cornelis Over de Linden who in 1867 claimed he inherited a 13th century copy of an older manuscript and made it available for translation from the original Old Frisian into Dutch in 1872 by Jan Gerhardus Ottema, a prominent member of the Frisian Society for History and Culture. Labeled a forgery by some scholars, they asserted that this manuscript was not an ancient text, but written in the 19th century either by Eelco Verwijs (1830-1880), a Dutch linguist or Francois Haverschmidt (1835-1894), a Protestant minister. This 1876 replica combines original Frisian material with the first English translation by William R. Sandbach, and offers a fascinating insight in Frisian and human history.