God’s Friend
Marienhafe, Eastern Frisia
Winter, 1400-1401
The Sea Tiger is sailing fast, although the ship is full of plunder, for there is a following wind. In three weeks and four days they will be back home. Everybody is happy.
While they are sailing everybody can take something he wants to have. They will give the other things to the poor in Frisia or they will sell them and spend the money. Götz says that he doesn’t want to take anything, because he didn’t fight like the others. Everybody says that he has to take something. They are all “Likedeeler” (“equal sharers”), so everybody – and they mean everybody – must take something. In the end Götz takes a pair of shoes.
Two weeks later the ship arrives in the vicinity of Marienhafe. The sailors are happy. In a little while they will be back home. Only Götz is not happy. He doesn’t know what to do. He has no family and no friends in Frisia, only the “Likedeeler” are his friends. He has no home and no job.
Hm, what is a pirate when he is not a pirate? That’s what Götz asks himself. Does he have another job? Does he repair the ship? Does he have a family? I know that the Vikings used to be farmers when they didn’t go raiding. But what are pirates when they don’t go on naval raids?
Upon arriving at Marienhafe Götz learns what pirates are and do at home. They are fathers and brothers and sons and friends. They are farmers and workmen and assistants. They work and play and plan and drink. Götz helps when somebody needs to read or write something, and works with the others when they repair the ship.
The crew of the Sea Tiger often goes to the tavern of Marienhafe. There a table is reserved exclusively for the “Likedeeler”. After work the men sit at the table for a long time and drink and talk about their naval raids and everything that has happened in Marienhafe.
One evening Götz and other men are sitting in the tavern. The tall man with the fiery red beard comes into the tavern, and the others make room for him. They give him a big one-gallon mug. He lifts the mug and starts to drink. The men are beginning to shout rhythmically: “Leer den Becher! Leer den Becher! (Empty the mug!)” Götz is looking and listening. But when listening he doesn’t hear “Leer den Becher!” He hears: “Stör te Beker!” All of a sudden Götz understands: They are talking “Plattdeutsch” (Low German). “Stör te Beker” is about the same as saying “Empty the mug”. The captain’s name is Störtebeker because he can drink a lot!
At the end of the evening they all go home. Götz doesn’t have a family or a house in Marienhafe. He lives with the captain and his family. “The Red Devil” as he is called by the Hanseatic League, has a wife and a son he loves. He is a family man. The family lives in the tower of Saint Mary’s Church. From there Störtebeker has a clear view of the sea and the coast.
The captain is also a religious man. On Sundays the whole family goes to church, which isn’t very far away since they live in the church tower. Götz goes to church with them. The men from the ship also go to church. Everybody goes to church. The captain has got a necklace, but it is not an ordinary necklace. There is a relic of Saint Vincent, the patron saint of the Lisbon, hanging from his necklace. Störtebeker has had this necklace since a naval raid to Portugal many years ago. He was helping the Portuguese king against the Spanish and received the necklace. Now he always wears it, even when going on a naval raid. The captain is a very religious man.
But Götz doesn’t understand this. How can Störtebeker be a religious man and go on a naval raid? How can he steal and then go to church? How can he wear a relic and kill people?
Throughout the long and cold winter Götz keeps thinking about this question. How can you go on a naval raid and then come home and go to church? Götz doesn’t want to ask the captain. He will have to ask another sailor, but whom?
The old quartermaster Jan and the young Pitt live in a house at the end of the village. They were often together on board of the Sea Tiger. Pitt is Jan’s apprentice and is learning how to be a quartermaster. When they are not on board the ship they live together in a little house at the end of Marienhafe.
Götz goes to the house at the end of Marienhafe. He finds Pitt and asks him his questions. He wants to know how the “Likedeeler” see the world. He wants to hear how they can go on a naval raid and then go to church. He wants to understand how pirates can consider their lives to be “good”.
Pitt answers with a story.
Two men go to church and pray. One is a rich man of the Hanseatic League. The other is a Victual Brother. The rich man stands up in the church and says in a loud voice: “Lord, I thank you that I am not like this Victual Brother. I am a rich man and I give a lot of money to the church. You can see my coat of arms in the glass window of the church. The bishop is my friend. Yes, thank you, Lord, that I am not like this Victual Brother.” Then he leaves the church and beats his servant. He doesn’t help the poor. They are hungry, and he has herrings, but he doesn’t help them. He sells his herrings at high prices, and the poor don’t have money. They are hungry.
The Victual Brother doesn’t stand up, he kneels down. He doesn’t look to heaven but at the floor. He says: “Lord, I am evil. I steal, I board and seize ships, I kill. Yes, I am a very evil man. Please, Lord, forgive me.” Then he leaves the church. He goes to his ship and gets herrings. He gives his herrings to the poor because they are hungry but don’t have money to buy herrings.
One day there is a war. The rich man talks to the king. The king calls the Victual Brothers and gives them letters of marque. They are allowed to board and seize the ships of the enemy, they are allowed to take from these ships anything they want, they are allowed to kill sailors, they are allowed to bring the spoils of war to the Hansa towns and sell them. But they are allowed to do this only as long as there is war. They fight for the interests of the rich man.
After the war the enemy isn’t the enemy anymore. The Danes and the Hanseatic League were enemies. Now they are friends and partners. The Victual Brothers were friends. Now they are the enemy. Now they are no longer allowed to board and seize ships. Now they are no longer allowed to bring their spoils to the Hansa towns and sell them. They are no longer assistants and privateers but pirates. The Danes, the Hanseatic League and the Order of Teutonic Knights are fighting against the Victual Brothers, and they have to leave the Eastern Sea for the Western Sea.
But they have come to East Frisia. The East Frisian chiefs wanted their help, the Dutch, too. The East Frisians are fighting against the Hanseatic League. The Dutch are fighting against the Hanseatic League. The Victual Brothers are helping the East Frisians and the Dutch. They are now the “Likedeeler” and give their spoils to the East Frisians or the poor.
And now, Götz, who is God’s friend, the rich man or the Victual Brother?
©2012 Robert Harrell