Oera Linda Book: An Ancient Frisian Manuscript

Jan Ott was born and raised in rural Westfriesland in North-Holland, and later settled in Germany. In 2009 he began studying the Oera Linda Book (OLB), a controversial Frisian manuscript that became well known in the 1870s and had a revival in the 1930s. He has been blogging about the OLB since 2011 and made a one-hour video in English, German, Dutch, Norse and Frisian, debunking the main claims of the hoax-theory. Ott is working on a new English translation, which will be published together with a new transliteration and scans of all 190 pages.

Jan joins us to discuss his extensive research into the fascinating language and content of the Oera Linda Book, a story that begins in the 6th century BC and contains information predating 1500 BC. The manuscript first surfaced in 1867, when third-generation shipbuilder Cornelis Over de Linden enlisted a Frisian history and language research society to assist in deciphering and translating the ancient text. Jan explains the heated controversy that surrounded the 1872 publication of the translation, which came at an unstable period in European history and greatly upset the centuries-old established belief system. We learn about the structure of the Old Frisian alphabet, said to have been created by the mythological folk mother, Frya and based on the six-spoke wheel, the JOL or yule, a sacred symbol representing time, eternity and perfection, as well as the origin of everything. Jan talks about the main components of the book, including two letters of warning addressed to descendants of the book’s creators, corresponding names from ancient Nordic, Germanic and Greek mythology, mention of a Golden Age devastated by a cataclysmic geological shift and a great flood, and movements of Caucasians throughout the northern hemisphere.

In the members’ segment, we discuss the time frame during the 1930s political uprising of National Socialism when the OLB resurfaced with renewed interest and more rejection by official scientists. Jan explains SS leader Heinrich Himmler’s interest in the book, its connection to Indo-Aryan/European culture, and the creation myth that describes how the three main races (white, yellow and black) would have descended from three primal mothers. We consider the various sets of laws contained within the book that are typically frowned upon today by Whites who are instilled with a sense of self-hatred and lost identity. Then, Jan gets into the long history of connections and splits between Germanic and northwest Indian tribes, and we look at the role migration has played in shifting around various cultural and linguistic elements within northern Europe. We end by weighing up the current Western political power structure that actively dismisses, demonizes and destroys anything that may strengthen a sense of belongingness, identity and veneration for the amazing ancient European world and its ancestors.