What was the Lindisfarne Viking raid?
The northmen's unexpected, vicious attack on the monastery at Lindisfarne in 793 is widely regarded as the beginning of the Viking Age. Here is the fascinating story of the Lindisfarne Viking raid.
What happened on Lindisfarne in 793?
Historical context In England, the Viking attack of 8 June 793 that destroyed the abbey on Lindisfarne, a centre of learning on an island off the northeast coast of England in Northumberland, is regarded as the beginning of the Viking Age.
When did the Vikings invade England?
In England, the Viking attack of 8 June 793 that destroyed the abbey on Lindisfarne, a centre of learning on an island off the northeast coast of England in Northumberland, is regarded as the beginning of the Viking Age.
What happened at the Lindisfarne monastery?
The monastery at Lindisfarne was the preeminent centre of Christianity in the kingdom of Northumbria. The event sent tremors throughout English Christendom and marked the beginning of the Viking Age in Europe. Viking ships arriving in Britain as depicted in an English illuminated manuscript, c. 1130.
Did the Vikings really attack Lindisfarne?
In A.D. 793, the Vikings attacked Lindisfarne, looting the monastery and killing or enslaving many of the monks. It was the first time the Vikings had attacked a monastic site in Britain, and the attack came as a major shock for medieval Christians.
Where did the Vikings that attacked Lindisfarne come from?
The northern diaspora we call the age of the Vikings is testament to the mobility of early medieval Europe. So, too, is the fact that the best contemporary account we have of the Viking raid on Lindisfarne, off the Northumbrian coast, on 8 June 793 comes from the court of Charlemagne in distant Aachen.
How did the Vikings raid Lindisfarne?
They came to the church of Lindisfarne, laid everything waste with grievous plundering, trampled the holy places with polluted steps, dug up the altars and seized all the treasures of the holy church.
Who owns Holy Island?
Trinity HouseHoly Island has a recorded history from the 6th century AD; it was an important centre of Celtic Christianity under Saints Aidan of Lindisfarne, Cuthbert, Eadfrith of Lindisfarne and Eadberht of Lindisfarne....Lighthouses.TowerPower sourcesolar powerOperatorTrinity HouseLightFocal height24 m (79 ft)10 more rows
Did Ragnar Lothbrok go to Lindisfarne?
With twenty warriors, Ragnar and his fellow raiders arrived at Lindisfarne in 793 AD.
Who killed all the Vikings?
Here's What Happened. In Vikings: Valhalla Episode 1, King Aethelred (played by Bosco Hogan) orders the killing of Danes in a settlement near London as they celebrate St. Brice's Day on November 13.
Who killed the Vikings?
King AlfredKing Alfred and the Danes King Alfred ruled from 871-899 and after many trials and tribulations (including the famous story of the burning of the cakes!) he defeated the Vikings at the Battle of Edington in 878.
Why is it called Holy Island?
It is called "Holy" because of the high concentration of standing stones, burial chambers, and other religious sites on the small island. The alternative English name of the island is Holyhead Island. According to the 2011 UK Census, the population was 13,659, of which 11,431 (84%) lived in the largest town, Holyhead.
What did the Vikings steal from Lindisfarne?
The Vikings robbed the monastery of all the valuables they could get their hands on, but there were two important treasures they overlooked – the beautiful, handwritten and illuminated bible “The Lindisfarne Gospels”, and the exquisite carved oak coffin containing the relics of St. Cuthbert.
Where did the Vikings first land in UK?
Viking raids and invasions Viking raids began in England in the late 8th century, primarily on monasteries. The first monastery to be raided was in 793 at Lindisfarne, off the northeast coast, and the first recorded raid being at Portland, Dorset in 789; the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle described the Vikings as heathen men.
What was the first place in Britain to be attacked by the Vikings?
In A.D. 793, an attack on the Lindisfarne monastery off the coast of Northumberland in northeastern England marked the beginning of the Viking Age.
Where did Vikings raid before England?
The first Viking raids began between 790 and 800 along the coasts of western France. They were carried out primarily in the summer, as the Vikings wintered in Scandinavia. Several coastal areas were lost to Francia during the reign of Louis the Pious (814–840).
What was the first Viking raid?
However, the attack on Lindisfarne in 793 was the first recorded Viking raid in England and in Europe more broadly, and its importance is signaled by the strange incidents that accompany it in the historical record. The events of the year are described thus in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle:
Why was Lindisfarne important to Christians?
It was Lindisfarne’s importance for Christians that made the raid such a crisis. For Alcuin, that a pagan people successfully destroyed such a place—one that should have had the protection of a saint—demanded some kind of explanation.
What was the Viking monastery?
The monastery at Lindisfarne was the preeminent centre of Christianity in the kingdom of Northumbria. The event sent tremors throughout English Christendom and marked the beginning of the Viking Age in Europe. Viking; Lindisfarne Raid. Viking ships arriving in Britain as depicted in an English illuminated manuscript, c. 1130.
What happened on the sixth day before the ides of January?
A great famine soon followed these signs, and shortly after in the same year, on the sixth day before the ides of January, the woeful inroads of heathen men destroyed God’s church in Lindisfarne island by fierce robbery and slaughter.
What was the beginning of the Viking Age?
The raid of Lindisfarne’s monastery is often cited as the beginning of the Viking Age in Europe. The Vikings attacked a number of other monasteries in the British Isles in the years immediately following, including the monastery at Jarrow (also in Northumbria) and the famous monastery at Iona in the Hebrides.
Why was the raid of the Holy Place so terrifying?
In Alcuin’s letters and the Historia Regum, the raid is above all depicted as a desecration, an assault that defiled a holy place.
What was Lindisfarne's importance?
As the monastery grew in importance, it also grew in power and wealth, receiving gifts from royal figures and grants of land. By the time of the raid, it held a great number of precious liturgical objects. It was Lindisfarne’s importance for Christians that made the raid such a crisis.
Where did the Lindisfarne monks take St. Cuthbert's body?
After the raid, the Lindisfarne monks took St Cuthbert’s body on a 200-year-long peregrination around the north before finding a home at Durham. His shrine remained a major site of pilgrimage until Henry VIII’s men destroyed it; like the Vikings before them, they could see only the worth of its gold. Vikings.
When were the monks taken by surprise?
The monks at the church of St Cuthbert were taken by surprise on 8 June 793.
Did the Vikings take the monks?
Yet it seems clear that the Vikings took the monks by surprise. No one thought, Alcuin said, such an attack could be made from the sea. The raiders dug up the altar and stole the church’s treasures, a later source tells us. They killed some of the monks and stripped others naked. Many were drowned in the sea.
Who founded Lindisfarne?
Founded around 635 by the Irish monk Áedán from the community on Iona, Lindisfarne was at the heart of the north’s Christian regeneration. The house’s reputation for austerity and devotion was embodied by one of Áedán’s successors, Cuthbert, perhaps the most beloved of Anglo-Saxon saints.
Who wrote the letter to Higbald?
Alcuin, a Northumbrian monk and scholar in the service of Charlemagne, wrote several letters and a verse lament on the subject. Shock courses through all of them. ‘The distress of your suffering fills me daily with deep grief’, he wrote to Higbald, the Bishop of Lindisfarne.
The Motives?
Monasteries were particular targets for the Viking raiders, as they were well stocked with portable wealth and supplies and were a relatively easy target for the aggressive Norsemen. As one of the most remote and wealthiest of monasteries, Lindisfarne was an attractive target for the Vikings, and one they would return to time and time again.
After the Invasion
The Vikings continued this policy of aggression against Britain for the next century, and by AD870 the Viking conquest of northern and eastern England had fully begun.
Where did the Lindisfarne Vikings come from?
Wait, didn't the Chronicle reference Danish people? As told by a Viking researcher on the Life in Norway Show, Danes or Danish was a catch-call term and not necessarily used to refer to people from what we now know as Denmark.
What was the Viking raid on Lindisfarne?
The Viking Raid on Lindisfarne. The northmen's unexpected, vicious attack on the monastery at Lindisfarne in 793 is widely regarded as the beginning of the Viking Age. Here is the fascinating story of the Lindisfarne Viking raid. I was in primary school when I first learned about the Lindisfarne Viking raid.
Why was the Lindisfarne raid considered the start of the Viking Age?
One of the reasons the Lindisfarne raid is considered the start of the Viking Age is the major impact it had upon the Christian world in Britain ...
What are some historical sources for Lindisfarne?
Two leading historical sources include excerpts from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and a letter from the monk Alcuin to Bishop Higbald.
What happened in 793?
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle notes: “793. Here terrible portents came about over the land of Northumbria, and miserably frightened the people: these were period flashes of lightning, and fiery dragons were seen flying in the air. A great famine immediately followed these signs, and a little after that in the same year on 8 January the raiding of heathen men miserably devastated God’s church in Lindisfarne island by looting and slaughter.”
What did Alcuin write in his letter to Higbald?
That's because in Alcuin’s letter to Higbald, he writes that the raid was a product of, “a voyage not thought possible.”. We know that people from Denmark had already been to the British Isles, so the implication is that the Lindisfarne crews travelled from much farther away.
What castle was built to defend the island against attack from the Scots and Norsemen?
The evocative ruins of Lindisfarne Priory along with the 16th-century castle built to defend the island against attack from the Scots and Norsemen are popular draws. Early in 2020, a rare playing piece from a Viking board game was discovered in a ditch on the island.
Why did the Vikings attack Lindisfarne?
Not only was it stuffed with riches used in the religious ceremonies, but it was almost completely undefended and far enough off the coast to ensure that it would be easy prey for seaborne attackers before any help could arrive.
What year was the Vikings?
Laura Mackenzie. The year 793 is normally seen by scholars as the dawn of the “Viking Age” in Europe, a time of wide-ranging pillaging, conquest and empire building by the fierce warriors of the north. The turning point came on 8 June of that year when the Vikings launched an attack on the wealthy and unprotected monastery-island of Lindisfarne.
What did the Vikings do to gain a permanent edge?
Despite their reputation as primitive and savage raiders, the Vikings enjoyed superior naval technology to anyone else at the time, giving them a permanent edge at sea and an ability to strike wherever they liked without warning.
What is Lindisfarne Island?
In 793, however, none of this was known to the inhabitants of Lindisfarne Island, where a priory founded by the Irish Saint Aiden had existed peacefully since 634. By the time of the raid, it was the centre of Christianity in Northumbria, and a rich and widely-visited site.
Who was the king of Northumbria at the time of the Viking attack?
The king of Northumbria at that time, Aethelred I , had just returned from exile to forcibly retake the throne and, after the Viking attack, Charlemagne’s favourite scholar and theologian – Alcuin of York – wrote a stern letter to Aethelred blaming him and the depravities of his court for this divine punishment from the north.
What were the factors that led to the Vikings' sudden emergence from obscurity?
Several factors have been suggested for the Vikings’ sudden emergence from obscurity in the late 8th century, including overpopulation on the barren Danish mainland, growing horizons as the new and international Islamic world expanded and took trade to the farthest corners of the earth, and new technology that allowed them to cross large bodies of water safely.
When did York cease to exist?
The latter ceased to exist in 866 when it fell to an army of Danes, and many place names along the north-east coast of England (such as York and Skegness) still show the marked effect of their rule, which lasted in York until 957.
What type of ship did the Vikings use?
The Vikings were equipped with the technologically superior longships; for purposes of conducting trade however, another type of ship, the knarr, wider and deeper in draft, were customarily used. The Vikings were competent sailors, adept in land warfare as well as at sea, and they often struck at accessible and poorly defended targets, usually with near impunity. The effectiveness of these tactics earned Vikings a formidable reputation as raiders and pirates.
What happened in 844?
In 844, many dozens of drakkars appeared in the "Mar da Palha" ("the Sea of Straw", mouth of the Tagus river). After a siege, the Vikings conquered Lisbon ( at the time, the city was under Muslim rule and known as Lashbuna ). They left after 13 days, following a resistance led by Alah Ibn Hazm and the city's inhabitants. Another raid was attempted in 966, without success.
What is the name of the area in Scandinavia called?
Kvenland, known as Cwenland, Kænland, and similar terms in medieval sources, is an ancient name for an area in Scandinavia and Fennoscandia. A contemporary reference to Kvenland is provided in an Old English account written in the 9th century. It used the information provided by the Norwegian adventurer and traveller named Ohthere. Kvenland, in that or close to that spelling, is also known from Nordic sources, primarily Icelandic, but also one that was possibly written in the modern-day area of Norway.
What is the Vikings?
^ Mawer, Allen (1913). The Vikings. Cambridge University Press. p. 1. ISBN 095173394X. The term 'Viking' is derived from the Old Norse vík, a bay, and means 'one who haunts a bay, creek or fjord'. In the 9th and 10th centuries it came to be used more especially of those warriors who left their homes in Scandinavia and made raids on the chief European countries. This is the narrow, and technically the only correct use of the term 'Viking,' but in such expressions as 'Viking civilisation,' 'the Viking Age,' 'the Viking movement,' 'Viking influence,' the word has come to have a wider significance and is used as a concise and convenient term for describing the whole of the civilisation, activity and influence of the Scandinavian peoples, at a particular period in their history…
What are the two main components of the political model?
The first of two main components to the political model is the external "Pull" factor, which suggests that the weak political bodies of Britain and Western Europe made for an attractive target for Viking raiders. The reasons for these weaknesses vary, but generally can be simplified into decentralized polities, or religious sites. As a result, Viking raiders found it easy to sack and then retreat from these areas which were thus frequently raided. The second case is the internal "Push" factor, which coincides with a period just before the Viking Age in which Scandinavia was undergoing a mass centralization of power in the modern-day countries of Denmark, Sweden, and especially Norway. This centralization of power forced hundreds of chieftains from their lands, which were slowly being eaten up by the kings and dynasties that began to emerge. As a result, many of these chiefs sought refuge elsewhere, and began harrying the coasts of the British Isles and Western Europe.
What was the Viking attack on Lindisfarne?
In England, the Viking attack of 8 June 793 that destroyed the abbey on Lindisfarne , a centre of learning on an island off the northeast coast of England in Northumberland, is regarded as the beginning of the Viking Age. Monks were killed in the abbey, thrown into the sea to drown, or carried away as slaves along with the church treasures, giving rise to the traditional (but unattested) prayer— A furore Normannorum libera nos, Domine, "Free us from the fury of the Northmen, Lord." Three Viking ships had beached in Weymouth Bay four years earlier (although due to a scribal error the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle dates this event to 787 rather than 789), but that incursion may have been a trading expedition that went wrong rather than a piratical raid. Lindisfarne was different. The Viking devastation of Northumbria 's Holy Island was reported by the Northumbrian scholar Alcuin of York, who wrote: "Never before in Britain has such a terror appeared". Vikings were portrayed as wholly violent and bloodthirsty by their enemies. In medieval English chronicles, they are described as "wolves among sheep".
How much does an Anglo-Saxon coin weigh?
Anglo-Saxon-Viking coin weight, used for trading bullion and hacksilver: Material is lead and weighs around 36 g (1.3 oz). It is embedded with an Anglo-Saxon sceat (Series K type 32a) dating to 720–750 and minted in Kent. It is edged in a dotted triangle pattern. Origin is the Danelaw region and dates to 870–930.
