Terror from the sea
In 789, three Viking ships arrived on the Wessex shore. The local reeve had been sent to greet them but he was killed on the spot. This event was recorded in a short entry in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. But worse was to come. Four years later, Lindisfarne, one of Britain's most sacred sites, was sacked. Word of the Viking threat spread throughout Europe.
'Lo, it is nearly 350 years that we and our fathers have inhabited this most lovely land, and 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. 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...'. Letter from Alcuin to Ethelred, king of Northumbria
The first Viking raids were hit-and-run affairs. There was no co-ordination and no long-term plan behind them. Raids were not even a new hazard in a society well-used to warfare on any scale from local skirmishes to great battles. The Vikings' sin was to attack and pillage the holy monasteries, the sacred places of the Christian world. And the leaders of that world were quick to condemn them. One of those leaders whose words have come down to us was Alcuin of York.
Published: 2002-07-01
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