Doleful, Begiloc scowled at the desolate landscape: lichen oozed water on rocks isolated between pools dank with moss and mould; rivers engorged by ceaseless rain flowed seawards creating marshland and swamps.
Frisians managed to live there, hardy – or foolhardy – folk. Wild reindeer and aurochs roamed undisturbed on the geest since lack of bushes and trees provided no hiding place to stalk them. How the people grew tall with little sustenance mystified him. The Frisians lived on terps – raised mounds proof against storms and surging seawater – where they cooked over fires fuelled by the dry dung of the few animals they possessed.
Begiloc and his men, Boniface, Eoban, deacons and monks, soaked and cheerless, squelched towards the coast from terp to terp.
"I can understand why Boniface w
