Liberty Lighthouse Journal: HISTORICAL FOOTNOTES: VIKING AGE

Travis Fimmel as Ragnar Lothbrok

Many historians claim the “Viking Age” began with the Raid on Lindisfarne in 793. This raid has been portrayed in the acclaimed historical drama series “Vikings” (Norse), portrayed as the first raid of Ragnar Lothbrok (Travis Fimmel).

The raid was not the first attack upon the British Isles, but it such a significant event it changed the way Norsemen were perceived by those living in Britannia and throughout Europe. While the British kept records, especially of important events, the Norse (“Vikings”) did not keep written records despite having a form of writing of “rune” on “runestones”. Thus the Norse relied upon historical events were passed on orally until the Icelandic sagas were written centuries later.

We have written records concerning Lindisfarne thanks to the Northumbrians for whom the raid had such impact. One source comes from excerpts from an Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and the other from a letter written by the monk Alcuin to the Bishop Higbald.

Six years before the infamous attack upon coastal monastery Lindisfarne in Northumbria a kingdom of Angles in the year 787, three Norse ships arrived on its shores. Northumbria is now northern England and southeast Scotland. A guardsman of by the name of Reve, rode to meet the strangers with intent to bring them to meet King Ælfwald I, but when he met the Norsemen they killed him.

As the TV series depicted the monastery kept the Holy relics of St. Cuthbert who was appointed bishop of Lindisfarne in 685 and it has become a place of pilgrimage. After the death of Cuthbert, the Healer, miracles were reported to have occurred at his shrine. Gifts from royalty and in the year of the raid, Lindisfarne considered a “Holy Island” retained many valuable “liturgical” objects. It was described by the monk Alcuin as “a place more sacred than any in Britain.”

The major reason the Lindisfarne raid has been considered the beginning of the Viking Age is the impact it had upon the Christian populace of Britain that extended beyond into Europe. As depicted in the film, the Norse raiders who conducted their “Viking” raid had been thought they had come from what is Denmark today. But as Alcuin wrote in his letter, it was “a voyage not thought possible” - depicted in the first season of “VIKINGS” series. But the Danish Norse had already been to the British Isles, so those that arrived upon the shores of Lindisfarne must have been travelers from farther away.

In the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles version of the raid in 793 - “the people were frightened because there were flashes of lightning and dragons seen flying in the air which was a prelude of a famine as well the raid by the heathens who devastated the Church of God on the Lindisfarne island, looting and slaughtering the monks residing in the monastery.”

Slaughter of the Monks at Lindisfarne Holy Island

In the film and historical records, the Viking longships arrived during stormy weather. While an approaching longship could be sighted from the monastery at Lindisfarne providing enough time to take action against danger by fleeing. But those at the monastery was taken by surprise. The result was that the church was destroyed, goods were stolen and much slaughter ensued. Alcuin wrote of the event that it was an “unprecedented calamity” and the church was “spattered with the blood of the priests of God, despoiled of all its ornaments.” And he continued: “trampled on the bodies of the saints in the temple of God, like dung in the street.”

Lindisfarne Priory ruins on "Holy Island"

Over the centuries this event has been kept in memory because of the horrifying impact upon the people of Britain. The Holy Island remains as a place of pilgrimage to this day, also popular with tourists especially after the VIKINGS TV series brought it to the attention of the public. The ruins of the Lindisfarne Priory and the 16th-century castle that was built to defend the island from attacks by Norsemen as well as Scots.

NOTE:

“vikingr”, pronounced ‘Wiking’ whose meaning in Old Norse is ‘raid’ or ‘piracy’ an adventurous journey upon the sea.
The aristocracy of English and Danes intermarried before and during the Viking Age. Indeed, on the Scottish portion of the British Isle, Norsemen took Scottish women for wives.
In the 7th century, the Isle of Man(n) came under control of the Anglo-Saxon by King Edwin of Northumbria who began a series of raids into Ireland. Vikings arrived at the end of the 8th century and established Tynwald, where the Norse had settled, In 1266 King Magnus VI of Norway gave control of the islands of Scotland in the Treaty of Perth, although Scotland’s rule of the Isle of Man(n) did not become established until 1275. It remained in English control until 1313 when Robert Bruce took it after a siege upon Castle Rushen that lasted five weeks. It was held by the Scots until 1333 and some years later the control would pass back and forth between the English and Scots until 1346. In 1866, the Isle of Mann (“Man”) had limited home rule having elections to the House of Keys, but the Legislative Council was still appointed by the English Crown.
In 2020, a rare playing piece of a Norse board game was discovered in a ditch on the island.