This luxury, hardcover, full-colour, glossy paper book was presented late 2025. It is by-lingual (Frisian and English) (“In reis troch myte, magy en religy / A journey through myth, magic and faith”) and contains a lot of photos.
Schoorstra is an author with a preference of ancient Frisia. He decided to make a book with pre- and early-Christian remains in Frisia. He concentrated on the North-Eastern part (the German and Dutch parts) with a few sidesteps to the province of Groningen, but disregarding “West-Frisia” on the Western side of the IJsselmeer.
The book starts with nice, short chapters about stone coffins, sun-stones and cup-marks. As the book continues, the chapters becomes longer and longer. Myths, remains of funeral paths, hunebeds, burial mounds, old remains of pagan sites, house-marks, offering stones, etc. etc. Because I only had to read half of the book, the 376 pages flew by.
The English translations (I did not even try to read the Frisian) are not always great, but the result is an interesting book that shows how much there is to discover in the rural North of the Netherlands. Schoorstra has gathered some nice information and presents some of his own insights and refers to his predecessors in the field.
2025 Het Nieuwe Kanaal, isbn 949245758X
