At some point I somehow got the idea that Linde(n)/Linda in the name Over de Linden, Overlende, Ovira-linda, Oera linda referred to the stream or small river Linde or Lende in the south of the province of Friesland in the Netherlands and that the name Oera Linda would thus mean accross / on the other side of the Linde. Just like OVERA SKELDA and OERA SKELDA mean ANDA ÔRA SÍDE THÉRE SKELDA (the SKELDA indeed being a water: the Scheldt).
This was a mistake. Oera Linda was short for over the Linden Wards (OVIR THA LINDA.WRDA, with OVIR THA → OVIRA/OVERA → OERA).
Nowhere in the texts a stream or river named Lind- is mentioned.
There were so many things to do and to research for me, that this could turn into a blind spot, but when I finally took the time to have a better look, it finally became clear.
The first who got permission to use this name was Adelheart, the youngest son of Adela and Apol, brother of Apollania (90.01):
*he will have been reeve over the Linden Wards (new translation; this used to be Linde regions)My brother was elected reeve* when he was fifty. He was the sixth from my mother’s side, but from my father’s side the third. Thus, according to the law, his descendants could not use Overa Linda as their surname, but everyone wanted to make an exception, to honor my mother.
His oldest brother Adelbrost had been reeve over the Linden Wards until he was murdered, two months after his mother (87.19).
Their father, who died shortly after, had been reeve over East Fleeland and over the Linden Wards (5.08).
Adelheart’s apparent descendant Frethorik, also surnamed Oera Linda, which means ‘over the Linden’, was magistrate (or: asega) in Liudwardia, a new settlement within the ring dyke of the burg Liudgarda (113.23).
The burg Liudgarda was enclosed by the great linden wood (106.10). Burg and wood were both destroyed by water and ice in Frethorik’s time (115.10):
The Netherlands was once covered with vast linden woods, the so-called Atlantic linden wood. (...) the linden leaves provide an excellent litter package on the forest floor. Much better than that of the common oak and beech. (translated from source)The forests of the Linden Wards were mostly gone. Where the Liudgarda had been was the sea — its waves lashing the ring dyke.
There must have once been vast linden woods. However, these were all cut down, because the linden indicated where the most fertile soil was for use as arable land. (translated from source)
So the Linden wards were places, villages, areas that had once been linden wood and became cultural landscape, hidden between the (then still) remaining linden woods, accessible only from coast or inlands through secret pathways.
My thesis is that what is now called the Frisian Woods (Friese Wouden, although there’s hardly any forest to be found, however, indeed many place names with -woude/-wâlden/-wood) used to (roughly) be the Linden Wards: on the map below, Oostergo (with capital Leeuwarden, once Liudgarda → Liudwerd) and Zevenwouden. And East Fleeland (with Stavia/Staveren) will roughly have been what is now the Kleistreek (Clay region): Westergo on the map.
One questions remains: Where was Lindaheim (LINDAHÉM), the burg where Minno died? My wild guess for now is that it may have been Kuinre.
Note: the name of the house Lindenoord in Wolvega in the municipality Weststellingwerf, near the stream Linde, is the only other memory of the Lindenoorden (Linden Wards) I found thus far.
