The North Frisians and the Wadden Sea

North, East and West Frisia are all bordered by the Wadden Sea, that unique and peculiar region at the edge of the North Sea which, at the height of medieval Frisian trading (i.e., in Carolingian times), was sometimes called the Frisian Sea (Mare Frisicum). All Frisians have a special relationship to the Wadden Sea. This article gives an overview of the essence of the relation between the North Frisians and the Wadden Sea, from five different angles: landscape, literary imagination, traces of material culture, economics and the vicissitudes of conservation. A brief glance at North Frisia’s topography clarifies the special