Sailors’ superstitions: The Mannigfual and other colossal ships

Mimir’s Brunnr Note.

This interesting article on old sea tales of the great ship Mannigfual, was written by a follower of Mimir’s Brunnr called Alexander. He comes from a long line of Dutch Sailors, and has many interesting tales to tell, the story of the Mannigfual being one of them.

*Related images in gallery bellow*

The existence of the world contemplated as a colossal ship. A myth, a legend or an exaggerated tale?

The existence of the world is perhaps the most often made and debated question of mankind. And why are we here? Those questions will be challenging us for an eternity. However, our very own forefathers left us tales that go far beyond any written knowledge we know of today.

From generation to generation tales were told and passed along in oral tradition. Tales that informed you about your ancestors and their culture and heritage, and all the myths and legends involved.

In all cultures around the world, there is at least one story on the existence of the world, each in its own words and beliefs. Each is contradictory to all others. Besides that, there is also historical, literary and pious forgery. What exactly is forgery?

That might depend on who you ask, and what you yourself believe. In any religion or myth there are references to supernatural beings, superstition and unexplained events. What makes one myth trustworthy? Perhaps the number of believers or the one that is more easily corroborated by science or history books? It cannot be denied that many ancients and people refer to specific common events.

The old North Frisians, a germanic people living mainly on the islands between Denmark and Germany, believed in the existence of the world contemplated as a colossal ship that would wander the world seas, a belief common in Northern Europe, from Norway down to France. A ship so enormous the mountains were to be its masts. A counterpart of the immense mythical ash tree ‘’Yggdrasill’’ that plays a central role in Norse cosmology.

The Edda (Norse mythology) also mentions many large vessels such as the Skíðblaðnir (Freyr’s ship), Naglfar (described as being made from the human nails and captained by Hrym), Sessrúmnir (Both associated with Freyja’s halls and a ship) and Hringhorni (Baldr’s ship which is claimed to be the greatest of all).

All the Abrahamic religions have their shares of a gigantic ship in their mythologies as well. They are put in a different context though. The ship is called Noah’s Ark (Hebrew: תיבת נח‎) (Arabic:سفينة نوح‎) and is part of the story that tells of God’s decision to return the Earth to its pre-creation state by the submersion of the world caused by a great flood which is generally known as the Genesis flood narrative or simply Great Flood in the Bible (Christian), Tanakh (Hebrew) and the Quran (Islam).

So what does the ancient Frisian’s consideration of the world contemplated as a colossal ship have to do with Christianity? Or more correctly , what does Christianity have to do with our ancient beliefs? One separate tale speaks of 3 Frisian brothers who lived somewhere on the Asian Continent (claimed to be either The Levant or the area what we know today as Indonesia)and were forced to leave because of overpopulation in their region . Almighty Weda would guide them towards a new land to settle. They sailed aboard a Great Ship named ‘’Mannigfual’’ that was built by them for this expedition. The ‘’Mannigfual’’ was their world and gave them their new land. At some point, the three brothers had to separate again. This might have led to the decision to return the Earth to its pre-creation state.

During Ragnarök (a series of catastrophic events detailed in Norse mythology) a catastrophic flood was created by Jǫrmungandr, the great World serpent which rose up from the watery depths, drowning the lands. As the event came to an end, the earth was reborn and a new age of humanity had begun.

The manuscript called ‘Thet Oera Linda Bok’ (Oera Linda Book) written in a form of Old Frisian does not have the world contemplated as a huge ship but does speak of a great flood. Unfortunately the manuscript is widely considered to be forgery though it is an important work and contains interesting details. It is included in the ‘Kanon fan de Fryske skiednis’, a list of works with important events in the history of Friesland.

Who was Weda?

The ship’s captain was named Weda. He was one-eyed and long-bearded, his name was Frisian for Wōdan, from Proto-Germanic Wōdanaz and he was more commonly known by his Scandinavian/Norse name: Óðinn [ᚢᚦᛁᚾ]. There are a lot of spellings for his name: ‘’Odin’’, ‘’Woden’’, ‘’Wotan’’, ‘’Wuotan’’ and finally in native Dutch ‘’Woen’’. Wednesday (Old English wōdnesdæg) in Dutch is Woensdag and is obviously named after him

During the Christianisation of Europe, a lot of pagan elements and myths were changed in order to fulfill the wishes of the church and in support to make a successful religious conversion of the people. Numerous traditions were absorbed from the midwinter event called Yuletide (Yule, Wild Hunt) and converted into celebrations that eventually became the modern Christmas as we know it.

Weda or Odin as you wish, were eventually transformed into Father Christmas, Santa Claus and he finally became Saint Nicholas [Άγιος Νικόλαος]. The interesting thing about this early Christian bishop is that he originates from the Greek maritime city Myra (Modern day Demre) and therefore is the patron saint for sailors and merchants (as well as for archers, children, brewers and more).

The Dutch celebration of Sinterklaas has strong connections to both the Germanic and Christian traditions. He traditionally arrived by a ship, usually a steamship. He had helpers [Zwarte Piet] just like Odin had during the Wild Hunt. He rode a horse, as did Odin.

In the Eastern Orthodox Church, Saint Nicholas [Святи́тель Николай] is honored every 6th December and traditionally fish is served for the meal of the day. The lighthouse at the end of a long pier in Bulgaria’s port of Varna on the Black Sea has a large mosaic of St. Nicholas.

Therefore it would be no surprise that this story of the Great ship received a lot of Christian elements and references besides the Frisian and Nordic connections.

What is known about the story of the „Mannigfual“?

The story is primarily known in the Netherlands and being part of our national folklore. I am using the book ‘’Volksverhalen der Lage Landen’’ (folklore of the Lower Countries), 1989. Written by Alet Schouten and Illustrated by Anton Pieck as main reference. It is quite detailed and has a lot of connections with local existing towns.

Considerably the story I am writing is a translation of the book from Dutch to English complemented with a lot of additional details taken from a diverse array of literature which is related to the same tale both in the Netherlands and internationally. While the details of the tale differs per country, the main story line remains mostly intact.

The story written by Alet Schouten correctly stated that the story has been told from generation to generation, from one to another. Many would remember the old man in a chair telling you any story when you were little. As time passes and things change, their understanding and interpretation of certain details is apt to be different from that of an outsider, which comes from a different region.

The oldest known written version in The Netherlands dates from the ‘’Friesche Volks-Almanak voor het jaar 1842’’ and is written in 1841 in the Stads-Friese Amelander dialect. Ameland (Amelân) is one of the West Frisian Islands in the Waddenzee. Although this version goes into the origins of the old tale, it gives many details that are not given in any other tale related to more popular short folklore.

However written down only by 1841 doesn’t mean the story isn’t older than that. A lot of stories would be around for decades until someone decided to finally write it down, however this is how tales and legends are born. What we can say for sure is that the story has always been passed on through time, generally as a sailor’s tale assuming mythical proportions.

A lot of local tales, myths and poems enabled this amazing story to take its shape as it is now.

The Tale

More than 7000 years ago, when England was still connected to France with a tiny piece of land, the Great ship ‘’Mannigfual’’ smashed herself through during a thick fog. Doggerland as we knew it would no longer exist and Britain was split from continental Europe. A great flood followed and the English Channel was formed.

Perhaps she was the oldest ship of the world, some actually contemplated her as the world in the form as a colossal ship, captained by Weda (who had two ravens with him) and crewed by Frisian sailors, sailing through the seas of all realms and worlds.

Undoubtedly the largest ship of all time, she was known in Norway and all the way down to Bretagne, the British Isles and even in North America and beyond.

She was truly a genuine sailing ship, her sails bulged like white stacked clouds against the horizon. Her masts were so tall that they disappeared into heaven and her sails were seen as clouds.

No one saw the ship often. She usually blew past in a flying storm and a gust of rain, or snuck quietly through the fog. At any rate, even in good weather she was too big for human eyes to observe and her name could only be read from a distance of a kilometre or more.

During one voyage, the captain decided to pass through the English Channel after docking in Spain, but unfortunately the ship got stuck. The Captain ordered the crew to smear the ship’s hull with Spanish soap. With a lot struggle she scrapped through. However, some of the remaining soap led to her being nicknamed ‘’White Cliffs of Albion’’ or ‘’White Cliffs of Dover’’

The noise from her flapping sails was louder than war drums and when she sailed nearby the people of England, France and The Netherlands thought a thunder storm was passing as milk turned sour, chicken hatches failed and when the jib’s were catching full wind, the ship’s movement made all the herring to swim to the shores.

According the legends, the ship was built on the large peninsula called Jutland, the mainland region of Denmark that separates the North and Baltic seas. She was so long that her bow was at Skagen and her stern laid at Holms.

All the forests of Norway were cut and used to construct the vessel and yet more had to be taken from Poland to make the masts and Keelson.

It took more than thirty years to dig the iron for her hull, and many enormous forges, blown by arctic tempests to fabricate her plates and frames in Sweden and England. Eighty Frisian fluyts of 500 ton load each brought this necessary iron to Denmark.

The nails of her hull are a pivot for the moon. The moon was worshipped.

The joint weavers from Denmark and Prussia worked on the sails for a year and a half. One hundred sailmakers were sewing on one top sail at the same time and were delivered by the Frisian fluyts as well.

The captain’s cabin was a true paradise. In one corner is a large patch of ground planted with trees and greensward, and elephants, lions, rhinos, giraffes and other huge beasts, abound in it. A lot of decoration in gold and silver and beautiful woodcarving could be seen all around.

Young boys that were going aloft came down again as old men with long gray beards. That is why all mast tops along the way were richly supplied with provisions, stores and even an inn, as you could understand.

She had a thousand beds, each of which would hold a thousand men.

Her ropes and lines matched the circumference of the St. Peter’s Basilica and would extend around the globe.

At the mizzenmast platform there was a farm filled with ox, in the mainmast’s top there was a pasture for fifty cows and in the foremast‘s top another one for thirty. There were four lodgings on the large mainsail yard, two on the foresail yard, and there was a pub in each topsail sheet block. In the stun sail halyard blocks were sentry boxes for the soldiers and in each of the other blocks there was a tavern.

Aboard her were fields of wheat, vines, fruit trees of every kind and vegetable, all in sufficient quantity to nourish her crew through many a century. Her fields were tilled by many animals and game-birds.

Her mizzen-Royal was larger than the whole of Europe, twenty-five thousand men could manoeuvre on her main-cap, and the rainbow served as a streamer.

Sailors were looking for oystercatcher eggs on the Jibboom and they found shelduck eggs in rabbit holes at the mast tops.

The people of Dover even spoke about a horse that was stationed at each mast, Pony Express-like [A], so the messenger could change horses along the way because no one horse could make the distance. It took her seven years just to come about [2].

At the stern a huge ensign was flown, so big it could cover almost the whole of England. The finial atop of the flagpole had a red-colouured Turkish tent and at each topgallant mast there was a dome.

The ship’s ensign was once hooked at tip of the light house near the monastery of Cabo de São Vicente, Portugal. It is said that they still keep a part of this banner in the monastery.

The rudder stock was connected with flat belts in order to create a mechanical transmission to the factories located under the Poop deck.

The ship was so long that there was a time difference between one end and the other. As you can see, the ‘’Mannigfual’’ wasn’t just any ship, she was more like a whole floating city.

Many people wonder how many crew she actually had, this remains an unanswered question but it is believed to have been thousands. The crew were mainly Frisian sailors, tall & strong men, but also sailors from all around Europe; both the dead and the living. Giants actually exist, not tall Frisians but real giants as known in the Edda. They worked with Nikkers and other Merfolk aboard. Some Klabautermann, water kobolds assisted the sailors during their voyages.

A little boy named Jobken from Elburg was a witness of this great ship and his story has been immortalized through time.

Jobken had run away from his mother because once again they were eating pea soup, something he didn’t like so much. Although he was only eight years old he considered himself to old enough to make his own decisions and he wanted to go sailing. The skipper of the kofschip where he signed on did not look so closely at the toddler when he claimed to be ten years old.

And he didn’t ask for the mother’s permission for his decision, something that would soon come back to haunt him, because in the middle of the North Sea a big wave dragged the vessel into the depths and sank it almost imminently afterwards.

Jobken had actually no idea what happened to him. He was struggling in the sea water until he got caught by his pants with a boat hook and was lifted out of the water.

Still dripping, he found himself standing on a strange deck. At least so it seemed to be. There were wooden planks under his feet, very long boards that actually made him wonder…Is this really a ship? As he looked around it seemed to be as big as the world.

A large crew of sailors, the size of an army were swamping the decks and the ship’s mast was as thick as a church tower. In the shrouds, so many men could be seen, like starling into a starling’s tree.

A black eight-legged horse approached. The captain went about on horseback giving his orders to the crew. He had a black beard and white teeth. ‘’What is that sprat doing here?’’ He roared. “I am not a sprat, I am Jobken,” he said insulted. “I can actually do rowing.” Which was true, as he did so in the ditch behind his mother’s house. ‘’Well, then you will row!” said the captain, “I will not take any passengers.”

He took Jobken on his horse and rode him to the galley. There he saw a huge pan on the fire. Through a rope ladder, the cook climbed up together with Jobken. Reaching the edge, the young assistant looked down right into a lake of green simmering pea soup! A small rowing boat was made ready.

“Get in,” the cook said, “and start rowing”.

While Jobken was rowing in the boat the cook stirred an immense pot ladle for hours in the pea soup. The cook shared a funny memory from the last time he was preparing the soup:

‘’We ended up into a great and mighty storm. From the farm located at the mizzenmast platform, an ox fell all the way down, through the funnel right into the pan. I had been looking hours for it and as I could not find it, I thought I might mistake it for a flea. After lunch break, the pan was empty and we finally found the ox; it was stuck by its leg on a rivet!’’ he laughed.

It was a really good pea soup, with lots of sausage and chews inside.

“You can cook pea soup much better than my mother”, Jobken told his new boss.

“That is the intention,” replied the cook, “No one board should desire the soup from home.”

‘Why not?’ Jobken asked.

“Because nobody ever returns home, of course.” he answered.

This was quite a shock for Jobken as he had not known about that.

“Drowned sailors are on board here for eternity,” the cook explained.

“It is a good ship, the captain is strict but fair, the food is excellent, the ship’s rusk is always fresh, and there’s always a sip of rum to be had.

The ‘’Mannigfual’’ is the best ship any sailor can get on. ‘’Why would you want to go home?” the cook asked.

But for Jobken, the taste of the soup vanished. He did not like rum and he distasted the ship’s rusk. And now he had gotten to the point where he longed for his mother. But he said nothing.

Jobken was only eight years old but he certainly wasn’t stupid. Sometimes it is better to keep your thoughts to yourself.

Every hour he was free of duty he hung around the railing.

From there he also climbed up a long ladder and from above he looked out over the wide sea; there was no land to see, and there were no other ships in sight either. An empty horizon.

After a long while, just a moment or an eternity, a heavy Northwest storm raised up. Totally unexpected. They sailed through the Wadden Sea.

The Captain decided to take a little nap and before he was aware, the ship passed Enkhuyzen and entered the Zuiderzee. He had to be quick and change course quickly in order to avoid running over the city of Amsterdam as between the islands of Marken and Urk it became a mighty narrow waterway. Such a colossus of a ship does not stop easily, as you can imagine!

The people of Urk were generally fishermen, but make no mistake, the Urkers always have been excellent and very clever sailors, and at that time they didn’t turn their backs on trying piracy either. They were tough but mad.

They say this gigantic ship from a distance and where impressed and wished to assault the ‘’stranger’’. Imagine what valued cargo it would carry?

At the moment when the ship passed Urk, such an enormous shadow fell over the island that the local population fled into their homes in a panic.

As big as she was, any lighthouse crew would mistake her incoming appearance as a dark cloud and surrounding ships would lose sight of the light. Of course this was not done on purpose as she couldn’t really spot the light house of Urk and the Mannigfual was simply too big as well.

The people at Marken which were generally fishermen like the Urkers wondered why someone would dare to enter such a narrow area with such a great ship, especially as pirates were all over. Is this captain stupid?

The Captain wasn’t stupid at all as they imagined and had dealt with pirates before many times. It was a state of emergency. All hands on deck! He roared. He skillfully navigated from port to starboard, stroked and hoisted the sails, sailed forwards and backwards, in short he played with his colossus as if it were a nutshell.

Various attempts were made to ram and board the vessel but without any success. In their small boats they tried to board the gigantic ship and they were continuously crossing in front of the bow on purpose to hinder the vessel.

The cook ran out of the galley with a set of boiling pea soup that he toppled over the heads of the Urkers to drive them away. The Soldiers would use musket fire and other crew members would throw stones and wood to back them off.

The Urkers were astonished from the surprises this captain had for them and then became furious. The possible loot and capturing the vessel was no longer important, no, it was all about honour now! They persisted with determination, they continued to approach the Mannigfual, narrowed him down, and eventually they managed to get him close to the shore, although not near their island, but near the mainland. The ship was almost boarded. Another desperate turn was made and this made them fail but during this turn, the bowsprit still swept far across the country side and with consequences too.. They hit the tower of Muiderberg. The spire of the church was cut off.

The captain had to navigate into safe water whilst keeping the Urkers at a distance.

The Mannigfual continued its way to Amsterdam and would have been stuck there in the shallows near Pampus if the Amsterdam merchants had not sent an escort to warn the captain. They boarded the ship with help of the soldiers aboard.

When the course was changed to avoid the sandbanks, the ship’s bowsprit still swept far across the country once again and cut off the spire of the Ransdorp church. Impressed by the violence, the Urker pirates fled in panic.

During the emergency manoeuvres, nobody had thought about the young cook assistant, who was laying on his belly over the railing, gazing the storm, rain and to the small boats in the depths.

The boy’s eyes were sharp: Urkerbroeken he saw. Was this just a glimpse of their island? He wondered. It was late, with dusk already upon them. In that grayness everything looked the same, the land and the sea could barely be distinguished from each other. All of a sudden he saw green, a green plain, a meadow, and cows! Oh, there are the Red Holstein Frisians from farmer Derks. Jobke didn’t realized he liked cows so much. He also didn’t know that he was about to be involved into a second shipwrecking. He actually didn’t catch any moment of all the panic and fights.

Usually, when the Captain prepared to manoeuvre the vessel by means of tacking, four horsemen were sent to inform all crew of the Captain’s commands, 14 days in advance. Once it happened two fell down a couple of decks and disappeared.

At the end of the turn, Jobke was thrown away by the forces and ended up between the cows of farmer Derks. He was unharmed and landed on the soft grass. Unfortunately, during this last turn another church was hit, this time the spire of Elburg was cut off. But finally the ship anchored safely at the Amsterdam roadstead.

The spires of the churches Ransdorp, Muiderberg and Elburg were all cut off.

Roughly, fifteen minutes later, Jobken lifted the latch of his mother’s back door and entered. He was soaked and with broken pants. ‘From where did you come from?! Mother asked.

Wrapped in a blanket, next to the simmering pan of pea soup in his own kitchen, Jobken told his mother about the Mannigfual, the gigantic vessel.

It became a very detailed story. Anyway, his mother was so happy to see him and that he came back to her that she blindly believed everything he said, even about the tear in his pants that was caused by the boat hook.

The next morning the whole village was talking about Jobken’s adventures. Many people wondered if it was true. The people of Urk, who had very unpleasant experiences that night, didn’t share a single word. If you don’t believe it, then go and look at the spire of the church in Elburg!

A bosun and fellow sailors confirmed his story, as their ship, the Dutch schoonerbrig ”Nimmerweest” once sailed into her hawsehole and was tossed for three days by the waves in her soup coppers until they were skimmed one day and the brig cast into the ship with the scum of the soup.

A lot of people from the Danish isles would likely to be totally unaware but they are living a top on remains that were once part of the ship, cargo or garbage.

Once, the ship ran aground in the shallow Baltic Sea, the captain had all the ballast and the furnace ash thrown overboard. This is how Bornholm came to be, and the small islands of Christiansö, Frederiksø, Græsholm and Tat emerged from the firebricks of the galley stove.

The people of Urk might not have realised it during their encounter with the Mannigfual, but all their children are in fact taken from a glacial erratic that lays about 70 meters from the Urker coast which is actually a remain of Bornholm Island. It’s called Ommelebommelestién and is worshipped as a sign of fertility.

Their fathers had to row in a small boat towards the Ommelebommelestién to take his child(ren) as payments. Boys were twice as expensive as girls were.

At glimpses of time, the rock can be seen with its slippery but yet with seaweed converted back. Water passes around the rock wildly as if it is confused. A blowhole sprays foam high in the air and smashes down on its granite. Outsiders often claimed they saw a large mysterious whale near the coast.

The Mannigfual and all its influences to the world gave life to the people of Urk.

Doggerland is not entirely gone, some remains became the well-known dangerous Dogger Bank areas that are located north of the Netherlands, but nobody that can live there, except for fish.

On one wind-quiet day, Mannigfual was trying to proceed forward with a convoy of thirty other ships when suddenly they saw something approaching them at speed. It looked like a large tidal wave and before they could understand what had happened, the world around them became as dark as the night. All the ships decided to drop anchor and they remained where they were for another 3 days.

Finally they realised they were slowed by a huge fish. Exactly the fish was encountered by St. Brendan the Navigator on his way to the New World in ancient times. With boat hooks, swords and spears they desperately tried to get out. The fish got terribly annoyed by the sailors and ships and finally vomit all of them out of her stomach, although the Mannigfual got stuck in his troth.

During her many voyages she had multiple encounters with the mighty kraken, Jǫrmungandr and other species of great whales and fish. Who knows, perhaps once she even passed Moby dick?

The huge fish was often considered the metaphor of the vessel as plenty of Dutch and Danish stories reported the claim on the Mannigfual both as a gigantic vessel and a huge fish. The huge fish was actually a gigantic Northern Pike. However, the vessel eventually sank along with the death of her metaphorical fish. The ship broke and her cargo of millions of tons of salt was drained into the sea. People living all along the Dutch coastlines will still tell you that on that day the North Sea became salty.

Do you believe she is gone? She is certainly not sailing the world seas anymore, but some say she is still out there. Her Captain Weda, who was actually god, went to heaven with his crew of lost and drowned sailors to their final resting place. Moments after the ship sank to the depths, the ship raised once again and sailed right into the sky with full sails in a flying storm. During a thunderstorm, she sails across the sky and the lightning rays are the sparks from the captain’s pipe.

The Mannigfual become a sacred sky ship at that point. She wanders all realms and stands as a symbol for all those who were lost at sea. Those who sailed in order to maintain their families, those who seek for freedom and those who died in battle for their home nations. Respect those who were your forefathers.

Never confuse the ship with the legend of the Flying Dutchman, that would be a serious insult. That diabolical ghost ship can never make port and is doomed to sail the oceans forever as a curse. In ocean lore, the sight of this phantom ship is a portent of doom.

In case you didn’t know, the Flying Dutchman is product of very jealous English sailors who simply couldn’t be as fast as the Dutch ships and so it’s said they made a pact with the devil.

With the time… as the Industrial Revolution took its position in our daily lives, the story evaluated to more modern perspectives and yet once you would believe the story lost all its credibility a Great ship made her maiden voyage in 1859. A ship so huge, something impossible, something unreal, yet this confirmed the story of the Great Ship, that somehow there was truth in it…

The ship is gone, but what about the Zuyderzee? Why is it not on the maps anymore? As we suffered many times from great floods (plenty references in the ‘Thet Oera Linda Bok’ as well), we decided to close the inner sea as a large dyke. The Afsluitdijk was engineered by Cornelis Lely and opened in 1933. The inner lake that we call the former Zuyderzee is known today as IJssel meer & Markermeer.

After the sea was closed off, we started reclamation of land, we created lands and some existing islands were taken into it, Urk is one among them. The 12th Province of the Netherlands, Flevoland was born and with as capital Lelystad named after the engineer of the Afsluitdijk.

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