The Truth About the Viking Raid of Lindisfarne (the Holy Island) in England, the First Viking Raid?
Channel: Celtic History Decoded
Date: 2022-10-16

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Chapters:
0:00 The Viking Raid of the Lindisfarne
1:02 The Holy Island 
1:31 The First Viking Raid?
2:44 Travelling to the Holy Island 
3:37 Premeditated Psychological Warfare? 
5:07 Lindisfarne Today 
5:56 Support 

The VIKINGS are Coming! The Viking Raid of the Lindisfarne (the Holy Island), the First Viking Raid?

“These were amazing sheets of lightning and whirlwinds, and fiery dragons were seen flying in the sky.” This is how the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles described the mood of impending doom in early 793 AD. Things only got worse from there. Famine soon followed, and then, one of the most famous events in English history transpired. 

Sent from hell, as the Christian monks must have thought, Viking boats landed on the Holy Island of Lindisfarne just off the coast of Northumberland today. Driven in part by the gold sparkle of riches, the Vikings laid siege to the bastion of Christianity in Northumbria, where the church of St Cuthbert stood. They sacked the monastery at Lindisfarne in brutal fashion, though to have been on 8th of June, 793. 

As the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles state: “The woeful inroads of heathen men destroyed God’s church in Lindisfarne island by fierce robbery and slaughter.” This was truly a class of civilizations, with the pagan Vikings striking terror through the lands of Northumbria and beyond.  They “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.” Those pious souls of the monastery were dragged away and drowned in the sea. 

Yet was this the first Viking raid on the lands we call England today? Around six years earlier, in 787, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reports the arrival of “three ships of Northmen” on the coast of Wessex. This band of foreign warriors killed the local official sent to bring them to the King. In 792, the Kingdom of Mercia also had to take defensive measures “pagan seamen.” 

The raid on Lindisfarne was different however, as it inequivalently marked the arrival of the Vikings on the shores of the land we call England today. It was also an attack on a religious centre of Christianity. The monstarety at Lindisfarne had been established in the middle of the 7th century by the Irish monk Aiden, by the orders of King Oswald of Northumbria, to revitalise the Christian mission in the region. From this base, Aidan would travel to the mainland to spread the Christian word. 

Given this, it is interesting to wonder if the Vikings were aware of the religious significance of Lindisfarne? From a psychological warfare perspective, attacking such as religious fulcrum was an effective Machiavellian strategy. Did the Vikings have intelligence to understand what they were attacking, or was it simply chance that they attacked such a symbolic religious centre, please let me know your thoughts below?

Sources:

Britannica, Lindisfarne raid https://www.britannica.com/event/Lindisfarne-Raid 

26. The Vikings, Lindisfarne, Northumberland. Neil Oliver's Love Letter to the British Isles & the World https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/26-the-vikings-lindisfarne-northumberland/id1513737418?i=1000498907133 

#vikings #history #holyisland