September 24 - Talk Like A Pirate

This September 19th is an annual celebration of the golden age of piracy known as "Talk Like A Pirate Day" and while reading up on some incredible life stories of pirates, I was amazed to learn about an infamous pirate who literally required that his allies Talk Like A Pirate or suffer his wrath!  

In the late 1400s, in the land known at the time as Frisia, currently in the Netherlands, a simple farmer tends to his craft.  Hundreds of miles away, wealthy aristocrats are plotting to thwart each other by seizing power of large tracts of land including Frisia to increase their personal wealth and influence.  These ambitious men of power callously send troops to trample over the "little people" in order to exert their control.  During this in-fighting, the farmer returns one evening to his homestead to find it and his entire village pillaged and burned.  In a rage, he turns to his fellow friends and villagers and declares war on these ambitious aristocrats and their armies. They form a militia known forever as the Arumer Zwarte Hoop (The Black Gang of Arum) and spend the next 4 years exacting a terrible vengeance. 

Pier Gerlofs Donia, "Big Pier" to his friends, may be a simple farmer, but he's also a giant... literally, and in the prime of his life.  At a time in history where a tall man in his land might reach 5 and a half foot tall, he was reported to be almost 8 foot tall and twice the weight of an normal man.  He brandished a sword 7 feet in length (weighing almost 15 pounds) with two hands and was an unstoppable force in battle.   Despite being a farmer, he's a natural strategist and quickly takes to the sea to lead daring raids against his enemies.  He quickly leads his men by small signal ships to overtake and destroy the enemy's naval forces.  In the first 2 years of fighting, he destroys 132 enemy ships (28 in just a single day) and seizes dozens more to carry his men into new battles, earning the nickname "The Cross of the Dutchmen" by his enemies.  In the following two years, he attacks the city of Medemblik (the stronghold of the men who destroyed his village), and burns it to the ground before continuing on to attack and destroy two enemy castles and the town of Asperen.  His enemies seek retaliation and send a massive fleet to destroy him by cannon fire, but he instead captures 11 of their ships and drives the remainders far out to sea in retreat.  

In each battle he would lay a challenge before his enemies... to Talk Like a Pirate by repeating the phrase "Bûter, brea en griene tsiis: wa’t dat net sizze kin, is gjin oprjochte Fries." which translates to "Butter, bread, and green cheese: if you can’t say that, you’re not a real Frisian." The Dutch and German aggressors who were sacking his land apparently had great difficulty pronouncing the phrase correctly and were quickly uncovered as enemy fighters.

After years of battles and his thirst for vengeance slated, Big Pier calls it quits.  He returns home to his village to rebuild and once again becomes a farmer.  He dies peacefully asleep in his bed on the 28th of October in 1520.  He is laid to rest at the Martinikerk and his great sword, Biedenhänder, lies in the Fries Museum in Leeuwarden to this day.  

 This month's Talk Like a Pirate Day, we remember an incredible pirate story of man who was a giant both literally and figuratively, who fought with passion for his land and in the end set down his weapons to return to his craft.  Few pirates can claim to have accomplished so much and lived to tell the tale. Would that we could all leave such incredible stories behind!