Mediaeval Lore From Bartholomew Anglicus

The men of Germany call men of this land Frisons, and between them and the Germans is great difference in clothing and in manner. For wellnigh all men be shorn round; and the more noble they be, the more worship they account to be shorn the more high. And the men be high of body, strong of virtue, stern and fierce of heart, and swift and quiver of body. And they use iron spears instead of arrows.... The men be free, and not subject to lordship of other nations, and put them in peril of death by cause of freedom. And they had liefer die than be under the yoke of thraldom.