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OERA LINDA BOOK

The Oera Linda Book, an ancient magical grimoire, is the foundation of the
magical training programme of the OAM. It is also rather long, containing
as it does nearly 40,000 words. For this reason we have broken it up into
its six constituent "books". However, it should be noted that The Book of
Adela’s Followers is still quite large, as it comprises approximately half
of the entire Oera Linda Book. The following links will take you to each
of the "books":

The Letters

The Book of Adela’s Followers
The Writings of Adelbrost and Apollonia
The Writings of Frethorik and Wiliow
The Writings of Konered
The Writings of Beden

The translation of the Oera Linda Book presented on this website is a
fully revised version of William Sandbach’s first English rendering of
1876. As part of this revision, close attention has been paid to the
original manuscript. All of Sandbach’s inaccuracies have been corrected,
and his lapses of style ironed out. Sandbach laboured under two major
limitations – firstly, his version is simply a retranslation of the Dutch
translation of 1871, without reference to the original manuscript, and
secondly, like most of his contemporaries, Sandbach suffered from a
blatant Christian bias.

Yet despite these shortcomings, his translation contains many beautiful
passages, striking in their profound simplicity. Much of Sandbach’s work
is therefore retained here, and revision has only occurred where his
version slips into inaccuracy.

The Oera Linda Book as we have it today comprises six "books", though
strictly speaking only one of these six is actually a book. Four are
classed as "writings", and one is a compilation of two letters written
centuries apart. It is also certain that the title "Oera Linda Book" was
not applied to the manuscript until the nineteenth century. There may not
originally have been any title for this disparate compilation, though the
single word ADELA appears at the beginning of the manuscript as a sort of
dedication. The earliest portions of the Oera Linda Book, namely Frya’s
Tex, were first composed in 2194 BC, whereas the most recent part, the
Letter of Hidde Oera Linda, dates to AD 1256, an extraordinary span of
well over three thousand years. The six "books" of the

Oera Linda Book are as follows:

The Letters (Lett.)2 chapters10 verses
The Book of Adela’s Followers (Ad.)33 chapters433 verses
The Writings of Adelbrost and Apollonia (A&A)7 chapters126 verses
The Writings of Frethorik and Wiliow (F&W)5 chapters129 verses
The Writings of Konered (Kon.)6 chapters82 verses
The Writings of Beden (Bed.)3 chapters70 verses

The total number of verses in the Oera Linda Book is 850, which, together
with the 56 chapter headings (all of which are in the original manuscript)
makes a total of 906 units.

The Book of Adela’s Followers comprises almost half of the entire Oera
Linda Book, and was the original book around which the rest grew. It was
compiled in the sixth century BC from a mixture of contemporary writings
and ancient inscriptions. It has come down to us complete, which is
fortunate as none of its source material has survived. Unfortunately, the
last two writings of the Oera Linda Book, those of Konered and Beden,
contain a number of lacunae, which are indicated in this translation by
three full stops in a row inside square brackets. Indeed, the last verse
of the Oera Linda Book (Bed. III:56) breaks off in mid sentence. At this
point it is worth noting that the versification of the Oera Linda Book
given in this translation is modern, though some of the laws and
regulations in the earlier sections were indeed numbered. This has simply
been expanded to the whole book.

The Oera Linda Book itself mentions five other books which have not
survived at all, namely The Law Book, The Book of Songs, The Book of
Narratives, The Hellenia Book, and The Book of Friendship. It is a
terrible tragedy that these works are lost to us. Having said this, it is
possible that The Hellenia Book is simply another name for The Book of
Adela’s Followers (Hellenia was Adela’s maiden surname). Furthermore, The
Law Book and The Book of Narratives could, conceivably, be names for
sections of the same work. What seems certain, however, is that The Book
of Songs and The Book of Friendship were genuine books in their own right.

It has often been said that the Oera Linda Book is a nineteenth century
forgery, fabricated by Cornelius Oera Linda with or without help from
others. This current translation assumes this to not be the case. But even
if it is a nineteenth century work, it is undoubtedly a compilation of a
number of genuine earlier traditions. Further, it has had a profound
effect on the waterway communities of Eastern England and the northern
part of the Netherlands since its publication in the 1870s, who took it to
be genuine.

The Oera Linda Book itself claims to have been in the possession of the
Oera Linda family since the sixth century BC, though the current copy is
said to date only from the thirteenth century AD. After the final conquest
of Fryasland (Friesland) by the Franks in the ninth century AD, the Oera
Linda family became the secret focus of anti-Christian resistance on the
mainland, a status enhanced by their custodianship of the book which now
bears their name. Much of the subsequent history of this family is lost in
the mists of time. By the beginning of the nineteenth century the head of
the family was one Andreas Oera Linda, a master shipwright in the employ
of the Dutch navy.

Andreas Oera Linda died at his home in Enkhuizen on 15th April 1820, aged
sixty-one. Because his grandson Cornelius, his chosen heir, was barely ten
years old at the time, possession of the Oera Linda Book passed to
Andreas’s daughter Aafje Meylhoff (nee Oera Linda). For reasons about
which we can only speculate, she refused to hand over the book when
Cornelius reached adulthood, only doing so in August 1848. Having been
denied his rightful inheritance for nearly twenty years, Cornelius Oera
Linda seems to have grown disdainful of the traditions of his people.

In 1867 Cornelius created consternation among his colleagues by handing
the sacred chronicles of his ancestors over to Dr Eelco Verwijs of
Leeuwarden (Ljouwert) Provincial Library for translation and publication.
The Dutch version appeared in print in 1871, and an English version
appeared five years later, having been translated from the Dutch by
William Sandbach. Sandbach’s translation made available certain ancient
teachings to a wider audience than ever before, and may have helped launch
the magical revival of the 1890s. But it must be stressed that his
translation is flawed and inaccurate. He did not go to the original
Frisian, but merely translated the Dutch version of Dr Verwijs. He also
infused the whole work with his own Christian monotheistic sentiments.

The Oera Linda Book plays a central role in the magical training programme
of the OAM, though the magical secrets contained in it are heavily
disguised, needing special knowledge to decode them.

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