In this post we will discuss the Viking attack at Lindisfarne using the scant primary sources we have for this event. This event was cataclysmic and set the Vikings on a course for decades of attacks on the British Isles. When describing the Viking attack at Lindsiafarne, we are presetned with an image of vulnerability. This was unprecedented and unexpected.
The Vikings Arrive
793 – This year came dreadful fore-warnings over the land of the Northumbrians, terrifying the people most woefully: these were immense sheets of light rushing through the air, and whirlwinds, and fiery, dragons flying across the firmament. These tremendous tokens were soon followed by a great famine: and not long after, on the sixth day before the ides of January in the same year, the harrowing inroads of heathen men made lamentable havoc in the church of God in Holy-island, by rapine and slaughter.
The Anglo Saxon Chronicle
The Anglo Saxon Chronicle, a contemporary account which is more like an annal and one of few sources for this period includes this chilling entry for the year 793. It is believed the year 793 was the first time the Vikings visited the shores of England. The visit was not a friendly one. This was a raid and a particualrly violent and bloody one at that.
Moreover, the attack was seemingly unexpected. We get the sense from contemporary sources that this attack came out of nowhere. The victims, and Britian on the whole was totally taken by surprise:
never before has such terror appeared in Britain as we have now suffered from a pagan race, nor was it thought that such an inroad from the sea could be made.
Alcuin’s Letter to King Aethelred of Northumbria, 793
The Vikings landed at the island of Lindisfarne, a tidal island that lies off the coast of Northumbria. On this island was built a monastery where St Cuthbert had spent much of his life. Alcuin, a cleric and scholar from York resided at the court of Charlemagne at the time of the attack and wrote to the Northumbrian King, Aethelred of the atrocities:
Behold, the church of St. Cuthbert spattered with the blood of the priests of God, despoiled of all its ornaments; a place more venerable than all in Britain is given as a prey to pagan peoples.
Alcuin’s Letter to King Aethelred of Northumbria, 793
News of the calamity had spread quickly, for Alcuin, residing on the Continent, appears to have a detailed account of events very soon after they occurred. His horrified tone continues throughout the letter in which he laments the fate of his beloved home, Northumbria:
there misery and calamity have begun. Who does not fear this? Who does not lament this as if his country were captured? Foxes pillage the chosen vine, the heritage of the Lord has been given to a people not his own; and where there was the praise of God, are now the games of the Gentiles; the holy festivity has been turned to mourning.
Alcuin’s Letter to King Aethelred of Northumbria, 793
Alcuin wrote a second letter, this time to the Bishop of Lindisfarne, Higbald in which he again bemoaned the fate of the island:
when the pagans desecrated the sanctuaries of God, and poured out the blood of saints around the altar, laid waste the house of our hope, trampled on the bodies of saints in the temple of God, like dung in the street.
Alcuin’s Letter to Higbald, Bishop of Lindisfarne
Who was to Blame?
In trying to make sense of the attack, Alcuin asks the king and the people of Northumbria to look to themselves for a possible explanation.
Consider carefully, brothers, and examine diligently, lest perchance this unaccustomed and unheard-of evil was merited by some unheard-of evil practice. I do not say that formerly there were no sins of fornication among the people. But from the days of King Ælfwold fornications, adulteries and incest have poured over the land, so that these sins have been committed without any shame and even against the handmaids dedicated to God. What may I say about avarice, robbery, violent judgments?
Alcuin’s Letter to King Aethelred of Northumbria, 793
When trying to make sense of the world and in seeking an explanation for calamities and disasters, people turned to God for an explanation in the early medieval period. Our scant sources are written mostly by clerics, any layman who could write would have been of an aristocratic backgorund. Therefore we have no sources to tell us how ordinary people made sense of these events. Certainly the educated, most of whome were clerics, turned to God for answers.
Significantly, Alcuin appears to suggest the Northumbrians have brought this disaster upon themselves. Had they been better behaved, God would not have had reason to punish them in this way. The purpose of Alcuin’s letter to Aethelred then is not just a show of support to the inhabitiants of his native land, but also to chide the king and his people.
But Alcuin had some advice for the King:
Consider the dress, the way of wearing the hair, the luxurious habits of the princes and people. Look at your trimming of beard and hair, in which you have wished to resemble the pagans. Are you not menaced by terror of them whose fashion you wished to follow?
Alcuin’s Letter to King Aethelred of Northumbria, 793
Alcuin points to the fashion of Aethelred and his people who appear to have followed fashions set by the Vikings. This is an indication that the people of Scandinavia had had close contact with the people of Anglo-Saxon Britain prior to the Viking raid at Lindisfarne.
Alcuin’s criticism of behaviour extended to ecclesiasts also.
Do not in drunkenness blot out the words of your prayers. Do not go out after luxuries of the flesh and worldly avarice, but continue steadfastly in the service of God and in the discipline of the regular life
Alcuin’s Letter to Higbald, Bishop of Lindisfarne
As Simon Coates has argued, it appears as though drunkeness was a particualr problem amongst the monks at Lindisfarne and thus the Viking attack was God punishing the inhabitants of the monastery for their sins.1 S. Coates, ‘The Bishop as Benefactor and Civic Patron: Alcuin, York, and Episcopal Authority in Anglo-Saxon England‘, Speculum, Vol. 71, No. 3 (Jul., 1996), pp. 539-540.
Interestingly, Alcuin blames the Viking attack at Lindisfarne on the people of Northumbria, the attack was brought about because of their sins – drunkeness, adultery, fornication, the trimming of one’s beard and the attempts to emulate the fashions of the Vikings. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is silent with regard to blame for this atrocity. The various authors of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle were familiar with the concept of divine punishment and often placed the blame for cataclysmic events on the people of Britain and their sinful behaviour. For example, when recording the events at the Battle of Hastings, one author wrote:
and the Frenchmen gained the field of battle, as God granted them for the sins of the nation
The Anglo Saxon Chronicle
However, the events of 793 appear to be different in nature. There is a sense from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle that this attack was swift and unjustified. The author who penned the 793 entry of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle resided not in the palace of Charlemagne on the far-off continent but in Worcester. One can imagine a sense of panic running through the British Isles. A looming threat had arrived on the shores of the island and any kingdom within the land could be next.
The image below is known as the Viking Doomsday Stone. It was found on the island of Lindisfarne and historians and archaeologists cannot be sure what it depicts. However, it was made sometime in the 9th century. Likey it commemorates the first Viking attack at Lindisfarne and was a reminder that these pirates would return.
I hope you enjoyed this post on the Viking attack at Lindisfarne. If you would like to read something similar, see my post: The King at Sutton Hoo.
Bibliography
Alcuin’s Letter to Higbald, Bishop of Lindisfarne, 793. Found at: https://danmarkshistorien.dk/vis/materiale/alcuins-brev-til-higbald-biskop-af-lindisfarne-793
Alcuin’s Letter to King Aethelred of Northumbria, 793. Found at: https://danmarkshistorien.dk/vis/materiale/alcuins-brev-til-aethelred-konge-af-northumbria-793
S. Coates, ‘The Bishop as Benefactor and Civic Patron: Alcuin, York, and Episcopal Authority in Anglo-Saxon England’, Speculum, Vol. 71, No. 3 (Jul., 1996), pp. 529-558.
I love it
great post