The True Story of the First Viking Attack on England

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  • Опубліковано 12 січ 2023
  • This is the true story of the first recorded Viking raid on English soil, at the priory of Lindisfarne in Northumbria in June 793. The devastating Viking attack on the church of St Cuthbert sent a shockwave through Christian Europe, and it marked the beginning of what is now called the Viking Age.
    Join medieval historian Matt Lewis as he retraces the steps of those early Viking raiders on Holy Island and separates fact from fiction. The raid on Lindisfarne was dramatised in the hit TV series 'Vikings', but the real attack wasn't led by the semi-legendary Ragnar Lothbrok. Matt looks in detail at what the Anglo-Saxon written sources really tell us about that day.
    As well as the Viking attack itself, Matt also explores how the English reacted to the event. From the letters of churchmen like Alcuin of York, some of the advice for avoiding future Viking incursions might surprise you! The arrival of the Great Heathen Army less than a century later proves that it probably didn't work.
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    #historyhit #vikings #anglosaxon

КОМЕНТАРІ • 457

  • @HistoryHit
    @HistoryHit  Рік тому +130

    After the attack on Lindisfarne, Alcuin of York advised the English to stop getting trendy haircuts as a way to appease God, and prevent future Viking raids. Is this the worst piece of advice in history? 🤔

    • @Eyes_Open
      @Eyes_Open Рік тому +24

      But I have always had short hair and I have never (yet) been attacked by viking hordes.

    • @welshman8954
      @welshman8954 Рік тому +10

      Definitely in the top ten but if it wasn't for the lessons taught by the vikings and the romans then we wouldn't of become what we were the largest most powerful country on the good earth with an empire that stretches from Canada to New Zealand not bad for a little wind swept island on the edge of the Atlantic not bad atall

    • @seximexi5820
      @seximexi5820 Рік тому +5

      Just so you know Ragnar isn't "Semi" legendary. He's literally the most famous Viking to ever live.

    • @josephmunning4890
      @josephmunning4890 Рік тому +8

      No. I’ve never had a trendy haircut and I’ve never been attacked by a Viking.

    • @knunk5476
      @knunk5476 Рік тому +2

      @@seximexi5820 semi-legendary means there is not conclusive evidence he truly existed, as all the accounts of his existence were recorded hundreds of years after his death in highly fantasized oral mythologies that are sometimes based on real fact.

  • @localbod
    @localbod Рік тому +61

    If you visit Lindisfarne, keep in mind that it is a real village on the island and it's not like Port Merrion. My folks lived there and the amount of tourists who would just wander into people's gardens and back yards was staggering. It was always a relief for them when the tide would come in and all the visiting tour coaches and cars would leave.
    (edit: typo)

    • @eddiebear34
      @eddiebear34 Рік тому +13

      I was there a couple years ago. I can't imagine why anyone would think those houses gardens were free to walk in to.

    • @localbod
      @localbod Рік тому +7

      @@eddiebear34 I know. As they say; there's nothing stranger than people.

    • @eddiebear34
      @eddiebear34 Рік тому +7

      @local bod we stayed in a hotel on the mainland. We thought that hotels always got rid of used towels and put out new ones. So we took the ones we had home. Then we got an email saying we were blacklisted from the whole area for stealing towels haha. The vikings are allowed back these days. But I'm not.
      We sent them back down to them anyway.

    • @silgen
      @silgen Рік тому +3

      I spent a few summers staying at the St Vincent de Paul camp site in the 60's. Great holidays, I loved being there. It never would have occurred to me to trespass in people's gardens, though.

    • @dianeshelton9592
      @dianeshelton9592 Рік тому +6

      @@eddiebear34hotels don’t get rid of used towels . You flat out stole those towels
      Even a Hilton rewashes towels !

  • @leanie5234
    @leanie5234 Рік тому +107

    Re: the advice on avoiding future Viking attacks....perhaps "cut your hair" was a useless idea, but "stop hoarding so much wealth" was a GREAT plan. The Vikings wanted "stuff", and knew that the churchmen were greedy accumulators of other people's stuff. If they'd actually espoused in truth, the monasteries would have been safe(r).

    • @jseipp
      @jseipp Рік тому +2

      Oooh, this is true!

    • @margaretlumley1648
      @margaretlumley1648 Рік тому +3

      I find the attribution details fascinating. Vikings embodied God's wrath! Who knew?

    • @JackovdaBoro
      @JackovdaBoro Рік тому

      Monasteries and churches were used by people to keep their valuables in a time before banks. The monks weren’t necessarily greedy, but I get it most people are anti Christian these days. To a point were people look more fondly of murderous pagan raiders than peaceful monks.

    • @flouisbailey
      @flouisbailey Рік тому +1

      The plundering could only happen if the had mega things of value.

    • @Ericsaidful
      @Ericsaidful 3 місяці тому +1

      @@margaretlumley1648The Christian God’s wrath and Odin’s happiness.
      I find it odd, the number of people who discount potential Viking heritage, and remove themselves, because the Vikings were PAGAN (THE HORROR, pagans).
      Let us not pretend that Pagan, Christian, Islamic, Jewish, the torture of human beings is something of human nature. All religions are guilty of this.

  • @runswithcows
    @runswithcows Рік тому +125

    I bet a pound to a penny that monks wrote those predictions long after the event.

  • @JP-st9hn
    @JP-st9hn Рік тому +50

    Season 1 of that show was amazing. It kind of went off the rails, but I liked the concept of telling the whole Viking age through the lives of a few characters.

    • @UkrainianPaulie
      @UkrainianPaulie Рік тому +12

      It could have used real costumes and armor. Vikings looked nothing like historical raiders.

    • @JP-st9hn
      @JP-st9hn Рік тому +5

      @@UkrainianPaulie Ya… it was the history channel so, obviously it had to be ridiculous.
      They didn’t even give Ragnar his magic pants!

    • @stephenquinn4826
      @stephenquinn4826 Рік тому +1

      The end scene was brilliant thpugh, with Floki and Uber sitting on the shore.

    • @JP-st9hn
      @JP-st9hn Рік тому +1

      @@stephenquinn4826 Ya… That was definitely a feel good moment, which was rare for that show.

    • @gollese
      @gollese Рік тому +4

      Re watched the entire series and it ended today, it's so damn good. Don't dare to say it went off rails. You wont find any better series about Vikings than Vikings. Appreciate they made that show instead of overthinking and get salty about things.

  • @nicolaischartauandersen8796
    @nicolaischartauandersen8796 Рік тому +89

    There were raids all the time, also internal raids in Scandinavia - Frisians raided the Danish West Coast, The Venti raided Aarhus in Denmark way before Viking times - vice versa. Basically, for people who lived along a coastline and could sail in ancient times, raiding was always an option. The real story of Lindisfarne is why people - even at the time - made such a fuss about it. It speaks to a clash between a solidifying Christian, medieval culture, where slavery was slowly being abolished and the Church had established a safe position, and the Scandinavian raiders, who just hadn't gotten the memo yet on the new rules.
    Oh, and the 'Vikings' episode is great drama, but also reinforced the old false trope that people from these cultures didn't know each other. The Scandinavians who traded and travelled would have seen plenty of monks. And they knew where Lindisfarne were, how to get there and what to expect - why the hell else risk going over the North Atlantic? They might easily have visited before as traders and staked out the place. Or gotten word from relatives who has settled (peacefully, largely) on the British mainland nearby. The idea that these people were like aliens from space to each other is just ridiculous.

    • @lewiscliffe434
      @lewiscliffe434 Рік тому +1

      Make sense when you think about it considering how far the Romans and Alexander got from Rome/Greece. To think that Scandinavians and the people of the British isles didn't know of each other is ridiculous.

    • @BamberdittoPingpong
      @BamberdittoPingpong Рік тому +4

      Norwegian settlers in the today’s Scottish Islands would also often raid mainland Norway in the summer. It got so bad that after Harald Fairhair consolidated south, west and north-west of Today’s Norway he conquered the islands to subjugate the pirates

    • @OutnBacker
      @OutnBacker Рік тому +2

      The same is true of the first anglo settlers in North America in 1605 ( Jamestown) and again in 1620 (the Pilgrims). The myth is that the natives didn't know what they were, when the truth is that Portugese fishing ships had been harvesting in those waters for a hundred years before the English landed. There was a lot of shore landings to refgesh supplies and to trade with the locals. The natives be-friended the Pilgrims because they understood that an alliance with people who possessed guns would be a benefit. Some even spoke english and portugese.

    • @pranc236
      @pranc236 Рік тому

      Slavery being slowly abolished? Yeah it took over 1000 more years for that to happen.

    • @OutnBacker
      @OutnBacker Рік тому

      @@pranc236 Yes. Slowly abolished. You have a problem with that?

  • @chascoleman6689
    @chascoleman6689 Рік тому +21

    Often there are several meanings in the writings of this time and others. The previous centuries in this area have documented interactions of these same itinerant 'Norsemen' traveling from the Nordic countries and Baltic area in the summers on trading expeditions that were very regular and seasonal. These mercantile trips show the Vikings were armed, but primarily for defense of themselves and their trading stocks on board their vessels.
    Traders also knew the local peninsulas and islands near the shore that were isolated enough to fortify temporarily as they beached their vessels and set up camp. Trading was done in a indirect way (due to language differences and mutual distrust) The Viking traders would set out lots of trade goods they'd brought, 'piles' of a set value, then retreat off shore to observe the locals. Then the locals would walk around the trade goods and appraise their value to them. If a purchase/trade was desired, the locals would set their own 'pile' of trade goods, often leather, pottery, woven goods, furniture or metal goods -- next to the pile of Viking goods, as an 'offer' to trade, this for that. Then the locals retreated to observe the Vikings who returned to assess the offered 'swaps', taking the goods offered, if the value was sufficient, and leaving their goods in return.
    This sort of trading was commonplace in both Scotland, and along both coasts of Great Britain, especially in the Irish sea between Ireland and England. Trading ships sailed out of the Nordic lands in the summer, down between England and Ireland (to avoid stormy waters and to trade with two areas simultaneously). The Norsemen would sail down to Northern Spain and the Southern coast of France, known for its wine and other finished goods. Then, as summer waned, these Norsemen would sail back home, again trading along the way with the people of England and Ireland (as well as offering a sort of 'bus service', documented in a book I read from 500 AD, a note from a monk who recorded taking the 'returning ship' from Spain back to England).
    So the Vikings were well known and traders, not often raiders as they became in time for a variety of reasons.
    As for the incident the contemporary writer said incited the Vikings to attack and loot Lindisfarne, it more logically came from discontent or outright aggression during the regular trading trips each summer. Trust had built up and perhaps the local people chose a single Viking ship with a small crew to loot and maim or murder. Just as the exposed Lindisfarne monastery, located, by choice, on an isolated promontory, was 'easy pickin's' for the Vikings, so too would have a Norse trading vessel have been easy to attack and overcome by an organized mass of locals.
    A proud people and outstanding sailors and raiders, a cry for revenge (and loot) would have raced through the Viking lands, turning their normal summer trade fleets into a large, angry fleet (at first), which their devastating attack on Lindisfarne demonstrated.
    Something triggered this major change that became the norm, ending the peaceful trading of centuries, by the Norsemen and the people of Scotland, England and Ireland (and further out).
    It is a story yet to be researched properly and told.

  • @Toldale15
    @Toldale15 Рік тому +3

    Another brilliant video from History Hit. Thankyou.

  • @davidcreager1945
    @davidcreager1945 Рік тому +4

    Excellent video 👍 ! Thanks for sharing this ! First time hearing about cutting your hair as a defense against the Vikings ! If only it was that easy !

  • @rajr1032
    @rajr1032 Рік тому +1

    Great history! Thanks.

  • @Ghost-vi8qm
    @Ghost-vi8qm Рік тому +4

    Those Vikings that attacked Lindisfarne were without shields. That's how certain they were of meeting no resistance.

  • @katherinecollins4685
    @katherinecollins4685 Рік тому +1

    Well presented

  • @waynevaughan9325
    @waynevaughan9325 Рік тому

    Great vid. Make more.

  • @annamosier1950
    @annamosier1950 Рік тому

    Very good work

  • @davehooper5115
    @davehooper5115 Рік тому

    Awesome story, loved It

  • @JourneyDude
    @JourneyDude Рік тому +1

    lovely video i have been filming there :) people love that place

  • @fleadoggreen9062
    @fleadoggreen9062 Рік тому +7

    Ragnar and vikings make me feel so lazy , just laying on the couch under blankets in January

    • @sand2935
      @sand2935 Рік тому +2

      I mean they only killed the defenseless so you’re not that much lazier than them.

    • @fleadoggreen9062
      @fleadoggreen9062 Рік тому +3

      @@sand2935 lol nah they took over england

  • @jmconnelly
    @jmconnelly Рік тому +3

    Aaahhhh.... The good ol' days

  • @wanderer3004
    @wanderer3004 Рік тому +7

    The courage it took to kill a bunch of defenseless monks and priests. So brave of them.

    • @oddstuffyt8161
      @oddstuffyt8161 10 місяців тому

      Money is money

    • @oddstuffyt8161
      @oddstuffyt8161 10 місяців тому

      U must know back then fighting is a daily thing lol

    • @oddstuffyt8161
      @oddstuffyt8161 10 місяців тому

      Countries do the same shit today and its justified apparently

    • @xrsuperduper7660
      @xrsuperduper7660 8 місяців тому

      The munks where armed. Dont bellive everything writen down by the munks. People not converting to Christianity was killed these times.

  • @sheboyganshovel5920
    @sheboyganshovel5920 Рік тому +1

    This interests me. I read about the raid on Lindisfarne decades ago in a fantasy novel.

  • @greenjack1959l
    @greenjack1959l Рік тому +28

    The earliest raid was actually on Portland in Dorset around 790 in the reign of Beortrhic of Wessex.

    • @Leadfoot_P71
      @Leadfoot_P71 Рік тому

      789 according to the video and wikipedia

    • @monkeytennis8861
      @monkeytennis8861 Рік тому

      @@Leadfoot_P71 Ken obviously knows better

    • @GudieveNing
      @GudieveNing Рік тому +1

      How do we know what is fact and what is fiction?

    • @Relic.form-info
      @Relic.form-info Рік тому

      @@GudieveNing google

    • @parisite99
      @parisite99 Рік тому

      @@Relic.form-info I really hope this is sarcasm. If not, it’s not wonder so many are grossly misinformed. Google and Wiki are tools, not necessary facts. If fact, they are usually completely wrong.

  • @Trecesolotienesdos
    @Trecesolotienesdos Рік тому +2

    The Anglo Saxon chronicle for 793 AD was written in Alfred the greats time. It wasn’t contemporary at all.

  • @lyndaoneill7813
    @lyndaoneill7813 Рік тому +2

    That must have been a day of complete horror.So many defencless men slaughtered Not good days.🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿👎

  • @ryanbell797
    @ryanbell797 Рік тому

    Love seeing Bamburgh in the back

  • @crookedpaths6612
    @crookedpaths6612 Рік тому +20

    You don’t just sail across a vast sea on a whim. The raiders must have had prior knowledge of the treasures within. It makes me wonder if they had not visited the site before, perhaps as peaceful traders and may have been invited inside at one point either to meet Christ or to deliver their wares.

    • @dylmassey9395
      @dylmassey9395 Рік тому

      Isn’t that kinda what the vikings did tho? And if we’re talking accuracy England wasn’t officially formed until like 150 years after this event

    • @AleisterCrowley.
      @AleisterCrowley. Рік тому

      @@dylmassey9395 It's "brought" not "bought" if we're talking accuracy 2:45. Shocking lol.

    • @kaizen5023
      @kaizen5023 Рік тому +1

      Yes these churches must have been famous for their wealth, the vikings definitely knew their targets and had scouted or had inside information before they hit. You can imagine a viking spy feigning interest in The Lord and Savior, while taking note of the value of all the objects within the church.

  • @DidMyGrandfatherMakeThis
    @DidMyGrandfatherMakeThis Рік тому

    Early start

  • @mikerusby
    @mikerusby 6 місяців тому

    I think 'Run for Home' was their best song :)

  • @margaretlumley1648
    @margaretlumley1648 Рік тому

    Yay! Vikings! ❤️❤️‍🔥❤️❤️‍🔥❤️❤️‍🔥❤️❤️‍🔥❤️

  • @crookedpaths6612
    @crookedpaths6612 Рік тому +2

    Alcuin of York is not entirely wrong. Ostentatious showing of great wealth without security generally leads to trouble.

  • @Fisherjobi
    @Fisherjobi Рік тому +5

    It seems the Christian people of Britain at that time had lived in relative peace with little strife from serious invaders, and so were holy unprepared. I would be interested to hear what the kings of Britain said after hearing of this and whether they simply doubled down on the religious sentiment.

  • @Emiko0807
    @Emiko0807 Рік тому

    Somehow when listening to the story, I came to think of the part in Startrek Enterprise where the Andorians raid the Vulcan monastry.

  • @Renard380
    @Renard380 Рік тому +16

    Someone had indeed deserved that: the church and its habit of amassing gold and precious stones attracted the vikings

  • @northumberlandjo1666
    @northumberlandjo1666 Рік тому +18

    I am born & bred in Northumberland! So pretty sure, I’ll have Viking blood in me! Even today you can see the impact of those times in our local words. Child= bairn, home= hyem!

    • @williamparker7823
      @williamparker7823 Рік тому +3

      Born in the US, 23 and me says I'm 3% Scandinavian and 68% British and the rest is continental Europe.

    • @MrScumwhisperer
      @MrScumwhisperer Рік тому +1

      hadaway n shite

    • @ML-bw4yt
      @ML-bw4yt Рік тому +4

      What’s this hype of having Viking ancestry

    • @steveforster9764
      @steveforster9764 Рік тому +3

      Northumberland born and bred now living in Canada couldn't agree more.

    • @northumberlandjo1666
      @northumberlandjo1666 Рік тому +2

      @M L why not!? It's great to know your ancestry past!

  • @johnnyplatis
    @johnnyplatis 11 днів тому

    I can confirm that whenever I cut my hair, I suffer a Viking attack right after that.

  • @britpackdog4545
    @britpackdog4545 Рік тому +1

    Was up there last year its nice

  • @molecatcher3383
    @molecatcher3383 4 місяці тому

    Did the Vikings really sail all the way from Scandinavia to Lindisfarne ? or did they sail down the east coast from their bases in Orkney ?

  • @hondakubo9399
    @hondakubo9399 Рік тому +1

    I can imagine the panic…. Of the people

  • @Modellers-Workbench
    @Modellers-Workbench Рік тому +2

    My Grandfather was born there at the Snook. (Maybe someone would figure out who I am from that...) Anyway it is about 15 years since I was there but I did grow up hearing all of the stories and legends. Still always interesting to see another take on it. Although I think it always makes more sense in the context of why it was so important in not just English or British history but as a pivotal point and place in Western History. Along with Iona and Jarrow (World's oldest Bible, Bede etc.). That little corner of Northumberland is where the light of learning flickered when the western world went dark.

    • @epluribusunum1460
      @epluribusunum1460 6 місяців тому

      You might like to read a book by Thomas Cahill, “How the Irish Saved Civilization”, exactly to your point. 🙏

  • @Fatherofheroesandheroines
    @Fatherofheroesandheroines Рік тому +3

    There has been some new findings that prove the raiding or going " Viking" was already going on. It just seems there is not so much scholarship on them.

  • @mnilsson2704
    @mnilsson2704 Рік тому

    Been there, a magical place in northern england

  • @OwenM476
    @OwenM476 Рік тому +1

    The priory he was walking around in the video wasn't there in 793, that building was built in the twelfth century.

    • @romz1
      @romz1 Рік тому +12

      Which he literally says in the video 5:32

    • @oilersridersbluejays
      @oilersridersbluejays Рік тому

      Yeah, I watched the video too.

  • @mifunetoshiro5924
    @mifunetoshiro5924 Рік тому +8

    Godt gået, vikinger.

  • @fionnmcnessa
    @fionnmcnessa 7 місяців тому +1

    How did they ever think they could live in peace on a coast

  • @lelleeriks8241
    @lelleeriks8241 Рік тому +5

    The first known account of a Viking raid in Anglo-Saxon England comes from 789, when three ships from Hordaland (in modern Norway) landed in the Isle of Portland on the southern coast of Wessex.

    • @sickbugz
      @sickbugz Рік тому +1

      Yea it was in the video.. even had a nice lil graphic!

    • @lelleeriks8241
      @lelleeriks8241 Рік тому

      @@sickbugz Yes but was the video “The True Story of the First Viking Attack on England” about the Portland raid?

    • @HankyPanky44
      @HankyPanky44 6 місяців тому

      @@lelleeriks8241 Partly yes, they cover it in detailed description. Did you not watch this?

  • @user-gu4iw1qw6g
    @user-gu4iw1qw6g 2 дні тому

    I have never understood why middle-ages churches had so much treasure: gold, silver and jewel studded items?

  • @CremeF
    @CremeF Рік тому +1

    0:16 Viking indeed...

  • @StamfordBridge
    @StamfordBridge Рік тому +3

    Pfft! I’ve cut my hair many times and it hasn’t protected me against Viking attacks at all.

  • @thementalmonkey17
    @thementalmonkey17 Рік тому

    some of the video (when matt lewis is on screen) is very stuttery. noticed it on some other videos on history hit too

  • @jasonbored8319
    @jasonbored8319 Рік тому

    Wow! Those Chainsaws they are holding looked huge

  • @pjmoseley243
    @pjmoseley243 Рік тому

    how do they know

  • @TheDkeeler
    @TheDkeeler Рік тому +5

    Mankind is still prone to blaming the victim for their misfortune than blaming the perpetrator. We will never learn.

    • @Heuhegeygeygeheu
      @Heuhegeygeygeheu Рік тому

      It was an attempt to stop it from happening again. If you can point out ways that it's the victims fault then those things can be rectified. There's no use in just crying about the perpetrator. It's a very useful way of looking at things and is the only way we ever *will* learn.

    • @bakerboat4572
      @bakerboat4572 11 днів тому

      @@Heuhegeygeygeheu "There's no use in just crying about the perpetrator."
      I don't disagree, but we (in our modern perspective) should be recognizing the relative amorality of everyone involved. Still, though, talking about events like Lindisfarne sometimes gets weird because of people incorrectly asserting that all Viking/Norsemen were peaceful (despite evidence to the contrary) and neo-pagan fascination which holds up Viking/Norse culture as an apparent model for humanity.

  • @ibonarzua2811
    @ibonarzua2811 Рік тому +1

    I saw a doggie, so now this is my favourite history hit videos.

  • @madsmller4030
    @madsmller4030 Рік тому

    Did it hurt?..but now we have many good thoughts on ya!!

  • @haeleth7218
    @haeleth7218 Рік тому +5

    Great video however "England" was referred to a number of times. What is now England was a number of different kingdoms in 793. A unified "England" came later under Ælfred The Great.

    • @robertperrotto870
      @robertperrotto870 Рік тому +1

      this is factually untrue. Alfred died long before his great grandson unified the 4 kingdoms of Wessex, Mercia, East Aglia, and Northumbria. Scotland and Wales took centuries for the Anglo Saxons to pacify, and they gained Northumbria through marriage. All of this was rendered null when Knut the Great (the ONLY Monarch of a unified England to earn that moniker, and was a Dane) and a Vikingr. Alfreds line died out before the Norman Invasions, either through war, assasinations, or plain fate. The war between Knuts sons paved the way for the Norman invasion.

    • @gisha6791
      @gisha6791 Рік тому

      @@robertperrotto870 it is very strange to say that the line died out when, for example, Queen Elisabeth 2 was a descendant of Alfred the Great

    • @bakerboat4572
      @bakerboat4572 11 днів тому

      It's for simplicity. Unless they're British, most people won't know what "Wessex" or "East Anglia" is, much less where they are.

  • @kevinnorwood8782
    @kevinnorwood8782 Рік тому +7

    This event is so damn central to the history of the Vikings. You pretty much CAN'T do a documentary on them and NOT mention Lindisfarne.

    • @pearldivan6969
      @pearldivan6969 Рік тому +2

      It has a central position in viking history if you are british. It is not the central event when the history of the vikings is writen by historians in Denmark.

  • @uppsatskanalen4456
    @uppsatskanalen4456 Рік тому +5

    Ive always kept my hair tidy and have never been attacked by any vikings so... Just an observation from an academic.

    • @Heuhegeygeygeheu
      @Heuhegeygeygeheu Рік тому

      I, on the other hand, have very untidy hair and have been raided at least 7 times by vikings. Really makes you think🤔

    • @uppsatskanalen4456
      @uppsatskanalen4456 Рік тому

      @@Heuhegeygeygeheu An eye opener...

  • @lesserson2182
    @lesserson2182 8 місяців тому

    God: *sees dope haircut*
    God: Send the Vikings!

  • @sicko_the_ew
    @sicko_the_ew Рік тому

    I've read somewhere that St Cuthbert's Folk were "marrying monks and nuns", not celibates, such as the orders established by Pope Gregory. The image of them as something like Franciscans of a later time might be a bit inaccurate. The story I heard ends with them wandering for years with the remains of St Cuthbert, and finally coming to rest at Huby, in Yorkshire, if I remember correctly.
    You might find that the imputation of sin to them was due to a clash between Southern (with Roman origins) Christians, and Northern ones - with roots going back to the hermitages in the Irish Sea, and Iona, in Scotland. I think Lindisfarne was within the Northern tradition, rather than the Southern one. (Again, this is digging around inside the place I send facts to be forgotten, for information I came across many years ago.) As I had it, the monks and nuns of Iona's churches were only celibate by personal choice, if they were so, and would often marry, and have children, too. Celibacy was quite a new fangled thing in the early 800's.

    • @sicko_the_ew
      @sicko_the_ew Рік тому

      Update: Looks like celibacy wasn't so newfangled in the 800's after all. Pope Gregory lived in around 590. I do still recall that the Northern churches had their own ways, including married clergy.

    • @Modellers-Workbench
      @Modellers-Workbench Рік тому

      Celibacy was only introduced in the 1200's from memory. And it was only brought in so that the Church could inherit the assets compared to them being left to a wife/family. It was never about sin etc.

    • @sicko_the_ew
      @sicko_the_ew Рік тому

      @@Modellers-Workbench Thanks. I went and checked a bit Gregory VII (in the 11th century) was the one who made celibacy of all priests mandatory, and then Gregory 1 (around 600 AD) was the founder of some monasteries - probably celibate ones.
      So I think the 11th century rule was a final step in a long process (involving a confusing number of Gregories). Before that, I suppose you might've found a married parish priest, but only celibate monks in any celibate monastery - but with monasteries going back to the times _before_ Gregory I having their own "celibacy policies".
      In the Dark Ages, the Irish church was independent of the church of Rome (and it's from the Irish church that the monasteries that led to the one at Holy Isle arise).
      At the time of the Vikings the South of England had become "Roman", but the North was still "Irish", roughly speaking.

  • @54mgtf22
    @54mgtf22 Рік тому

    👍

  • @Caligulashorse1453
    @Caligulashorse1453 Рік тому +1

    Poor monks 😢

  • @kohlenklau399
    @kohlenklau399 16 днів тому

    Why are you walking around in the ruins from the monastery from around 1100, pointing and talking about the viking attack? The monastery at the time was a Long house.

  • @machinehead6564
    @machinehead6564 Рік тому +1

    Why did we not attack the danes later

  • @keithbainbridge8866
    @keithbainbridge8866 Рік тому

    It still is Northumbria

  • @kevinhayes3184
    @kevinhayes3184 Рік тому

    Do we have the vikings point of view of this event?

    • @mrdarren1045
      @mrdarren1045 Рік тому

      Who's to blame if they couldn't write and record events?

  • @seansabhaois
    @seansabhaois Рік тому

    Spent many pleasant day trips to 'Holy Island,' over the years.
    It's really nice to catch it on a day, when not rammed with touristi.
    Certainly check those tides and times thereof.
    The more I hear and read about this attack on St Cuthbert's Priory, the more it smells like and 'inside job.'
    All those works of art, gold & silver just ready to be plundered, guarded over by a few pious & effete monks?
    What happens to 'God helps them, who help themselves?'
    Those Vikings were just on a speculative raid, as they passed by?
    Although in the modern context, based on the way certain folk have behaved during recent shortages of toilet paper & pasta ect, not hard to imagine, how this raid kicked off.
    "Oooh look Olaf, those monks have just unpacked a few pallets of Prime Energy drink."
    Are you ready? 🙂👍

    • @the_real_littlepinkhousefly
      @the_real_littlepinkhousefly Рік тому

      More likely the Vikings had heard about their hoard, or had seen it for themselves on some kind of trading expedition. Or just knew that monasteries were great places to find gold, etc., and knew there was one there (maybe knew it was of extreme importance).
      I find the "effete" comment insulting to any male in holy orders. Ridiculous stereotype.
      Also, "God helps those who help themselves" is NOT in the Bible. It's a man-made saying that is contrary to the Bible.

    • @mrdarren1045
      @mrdarren1045 Рік тому

      Tourists like yourself you mean? Yeah wouldn't want to bump into any of them.

  • @BLzBob.7268
    @BLzBob.7268 10 місяців тому

    Shock and oar.

  • @markmcallan973
    @markmcallan973 Рік тому +1

    Basically it was an olden day smash and grab!

  • @GlobalRage
    @GlobalRage 3 місяці тому

    The Angles were Suebi and most likely Arians. Two Roman emperors, Constantius II and Valens, became Arians or Semi-Arians, as did prominent Gothic, Vandal, and Lombard warlords both before and after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The Catholics were squatters and got shown the door.

  • @TheDkeeler
    @TheDkeeler Рік тому +1

    "They seemed nice".🤔

  • @drzoidbergmd3200
    @drzoidbergmd3200 Рік тому +9

    First recorded raid was chesil beach on Portland in Dorset a few years before. They killed the local royal official.

    • @Renard380
      @Renard380 Рік тому +7

      ...as said in the video ;)

    • @lovelightjoy1868
      @lovelightjoy1868 Рік тому +2

      True, the first recorded raid was at Portland. The first monastery raid was at Lindisfarne. Probably that is one of the reason it became more well known, also because the Anglo - Saxon Chronicle and the Norse Sagas often back up each other historical facts of the raids and interactions , so there's much more to tell.

    • @drzoidbergmd3200
      @drzoidbergmd3200 Рік тому

      @@Renard380 Indeed it does

  • @jamesnoonan7450
    @jamesnoonan7450 Рік тому +2

    Odin, Thor, and Freyr tried to warn the monks they didn't listen 🤣

  • @wadefite
    @wadefite Рік тому

    I don't understand why they did not attack Scotland where it is easier to reach. Possibly they were too scared.

  • @paulmartin3676
    @paulmartin3676 Рік тому +7

    I think more research needs to be done on the build up to Lindisfarne. Charlemagne was trying to Christianise Saxony and had destroyed sacred artifacts and most importantly used Anglo-Saxon missionaries as translators. I dare say Lindisfarne was a response to this and the desecration of the monastry was revenge. I think it's possible that the Viking wars were a religious/cultural war more akin to the antagonisms between Christendom and the Muslim world...

    • @JohnFlower-NZ
      @JohnFlower-NZ Рік тому

      This holy war between the Norse and the Christians was mentioned in the TV series Vikings

    • @Orphen42O
      @Orphen42O Рік тому

      It is probable that the wealth of the Lindisfarne that attracted the Vikings. The attack was probably not a reaction to Christian attacks on pagans. Are there any accounts of Vikings attacking those parts of Great Britain that were still pagan?

  • @andrewwhelan7311
    @andrewwhelan7311 Рік тому

    They managed a brief occupancy in tiny areas of North Wales, but were sent packing, so not really that much Viking history in the land of the native indigenous Briton's. When the Norman conquest swept away the Saxon's in a blink of an eye, it took another 250 years, and the most extensive and expensive castle building programs ever seen in Western Europe... And all this to subdue a tiny nation of sheep shaggin hill tribes. This perspective of indigenous native history is strangely ignored, given the Welsh have been in a perpetual state of foreign aggressive oppression since Roman times.

  • @greenjack1959l
    @greenjack1959l Рік тому +2

    The Anglo-Saxons were raiding Britain in Longships during the 4thC while it was still under Roman rule. They were being Vikings before it was fashionable.

  • @cavemanmeat8321
    @cavemanmeat8321 Рік тому

    Maye the monks should not have been sitting on all of that gold.

  • @iplanes1
    @iplanes1 Рік тому +7

    This can hardly be regarded as a valid telling of history. As the man says "What do we really know about that day?"I it should also be said that by his own admission Mat Lewis is not by any stretch a trained historian. Simply reading the account as presented by the Anglo Saxon Chronicle gives as much an objective view as would Jimmy Saville talking about his charity work.
    There is repeated reference to "pagans" and "heathens" as opposed to the "saintly" monks. This is illogical judgement on the basis of emotive words.
    The main source of monks was sons of families that had no inheritance to pass on once the eldest son had been seen to. Chastity did not become a qualification for the job of being a monk for another few hundred years so many would have had female (or male) companions. The Vikings may have come to pinch the bling off the altar but where did the monks get it from in the first place? Much of the wealth of the church came from local kings and chiefs trying to buy their way into heaven after having thought about the bad stuff (like rape and pillage) that they had done.
    A genuine attempt at a "true" story would give the story from the Viking side as well. Do we know where the raiding party actually came from? There must have been communication before hand for the Vikings to know where to find the stuff. Did they have inside information? Actually stealing the stuff is pointless unless they have a market. Do we know where the treasures finished up afterwards?
    I think it highly unlikely that the story is as simple and one dimensional as the presenter makes out.

    • @johnDukemaster
      @johnDukemaster Рік тому

      Well said.

    • @softlylolalunar1192
      @softlylolalunar1192 Рік тому

      I also don’t understand why the presenters pronounce fairly common words wrong; for example ‘celts’ or the name ‘Cillian’ with a soft c? Takes you out of it and makes you feel less trusting of the content.

    • @iplanes1
      @iplanes1 Рік тому +2

      @@softlylolalunar1192 I totally agree. I am a teacher of physics (retired) and regularly had to deal with students who said "AH yes but I have seen a youtube video that says you are wrong". I am not sure what the answer is but the way that youtube is becoming the reference library for so many is worrying especially when it is so easy to put out "learning" that is biased, not reviewed and even malicious with little in the way of checks on the content.

    • @rhysnichols8608
      @rhysnichols8608 Рік тому +1

      I agree with 90% of your comment, however you don’t have to be a ‘trained historian’ to be well versed and knowledgeable on a subject. I have no degree or piece of paper that says I’m an historian but that didn’t stop from sharing the same viewpoint as you that this was very one sided. If anything, trained historians are the ones who are the most dogmatic and politically correct, as they are taught that trusting ‘experts’ and regurgitating certain view points is the way to be a good researcher. Stop fetishising qualifications

  • @jonesfamily4326
    @jonesfamily4326 Рік тому

    "00 years too early for England.

  • @thomasmain5986
    @thomasmain5986 Рік тому

    Yeah when is Norway going to pay to get that Priory rebuilt.

  • @albrecqgerald
    @albrecqgerald Рік тому

    like the slaughtery of Verdun by the francs 10 years earlier

  • @BelgorathTheSorcerer
    @BelgorathTheSorcerer Рік тому +1

    I've seen a couple things that depict female Viking warriors, forcing monks to um... be unchaste with them. That's complete fiction, right? I only ask because it's becoming such a common trope.
    I did hear someone saying there are graves of Viking women found with weapons and armor, although there's still a lot of debate as to whether they are actually female warriors, or just got buried with their husband's stuff. I didn't find that person's argument in favor of them being warriors all that strong, but I couldn't completely dismiss it either.
    So, were there female Viking warriors and did they rape some of the monks, or is it just Hollywood catering to the modern audience's wanting equality of the sexes?

    • @TheFatController.
      @TheFatController. Рік тому

      Yeah, that's bollox. Feminist propaganda. It doesn't take much research to find out the truth. Women are weak and small, why would they be "warriors"?

  • @johnord684
    @johnord684 Рік тому

    Not far from my house

  • @williamrobinson7435
    @williamrobinson7435 Рік тому

    I have no wish to appear as an apologist for the nasty Vikings, but we all know how unpopular they made themselves amongst the fraternity of the particular monotheistic institution they ransacked, but it is entirely possible that the people of The Huldra Plain (legendary poets and musicians who the Norsemen may have seen as 'Children of Braggi', musical brother of the naughty Loki) may have been cheering from the rafters as the nice monks who were obviously SO nice to them were carried away.. Bear historical witness to the integration of The Norse into the indigenous population.. Nice film, some cracking footage of Lindisfarne here. 🌟👍

  • @SNP-1999
    @SNP-1999 Рік тому +3

    Writing after the event, a churchman blamed the monks on Lindesfarne for not being holy enough, therefore being at fault for the attack. Like so often today, even in those days the victims were being blamed for the crimes they suffered. Nothing changes, does it ?

  • @kaarebanan13
    @kaarebanan13 Рік тому +5

    A wrong picture of it.
    Yes, they could be brutal. but not as close to the ones they told you about.
    They were masters of trade. They are buiding ships, not to mention the all of the counting of trading. many people dont get this

    • @skepticalbadger
      @skepticalbadger Рік тому

      How is it wrong? Are you denying that they attacked Lindisfarne?

    • @stc3145
      @stc3145 Рік тому +3

      @@skepticalbadger This raid dosent represent the entire Norse population. Could also mention the Angles and Saxons invaded Britain as well. And Charlemagne murdered thousands of non Christians in Central Europe

    • @kaarebanan13
      @kaarebanan13 Рік тому

      @@stc3145 Exactly. Yes, they were brutal, but so were basically all of the people around them. Look up some sources in Bysatines. If all, they were great at cooperation and trading. You could not survive in Norway and Scandinavia without working along with the ones beside you.

    • @mijanhoque1740
      @mijanhoque1740 Рік тому +4

      @@stc3145 For real, it’s like people forget things like the crusades which shows how brutal and barbaric Christians can be. Especially in the 4th crusades where Catholics destroyed, burned, pillaged, raped (especially nuns of all things) and looted their Orthodox Christian brothers and sisters in Constantinople. The Vikings really do get a bad rep but mainly by their Anglo-Saxon historical writers.

    • @kevinbailey9981
      @kevinbailey9981 19 днів тому

      That's not what the video is about, it's about the raid on Lindisfarne so it talks about the people inhabiting lindesfarn and trying to find a clearer picture of what there.

  • @davidmoore1102
    @davidmoore1102 Рік тому

    People in the past we're really stupid

  • @plurplursen7172
    @plurplursen7172 Рік тому

    not true, I was there

  • @vladriot510
    @vladriot510 4 місяці тому

    Lindisfarne was not the first viking raid in England

  • @Dadecorban
    @Dadecorban Рік тому +2

    So you aren't going to treat the A.Saxon Chronicle skeptically and in context, but actually read it as if the omens of doom weren't added in hindsight. This bodes poorly.

  • @John-qs2xr
    @John-qs2xr Рік тому +3

    records don't mention vikings or Norsemen-they say pagans came from the North which could be the direction they approached Lindisfarne. Charlemagne was campaigning against the Saxons and Frisians and destroying their temples. Lindisfarne was a sacred site to the Christian missionaries who had destroyed the sacred sites in Frisia and of the Saxons and therefore a target, it could have been payback.

    • @John-qs2xr
      @John-qs2xr Рік тому

      @@elessartelcontar9415 I"m referring to the Lindisfarne raid -in 793 called pagans in the original text or from the North (the direction they attacked as much as their origin). The Frisians fought back against the Franks and seized their ships. The Northumbrian missionaries were very violent in destroying the shrines of the Frisians-Btw can you source your quote-it's apocryphal.

  • @svenstefansson4022
    @svenstefansson4022 Рік тому +1

    Vast army. Probably 40 men.

  • @eddiejohnson5183
    @eddiejohnson5183 Рік тому

    Perhaps we should demand reparations from Norway.

  • @tygerjohnston7019
    @tygerjohnston7019 Рік тому

    I can't lie these videos really don't need all the slow motion shots of you walking on the beach... That's not what we're here for😂😒

  • @simonwest903
    @simonwest903 Рік тому +1

    This wasn’t the first attack, but listed as the second or third (can’t quite remember). Oops this was detailed! Lindisfarne had good press in this attack, over imagined the sacking and result. It was good press in the long-term and the Vikings would have had no feeling about a Christian site, why would they? Remember, who was telling the story and probably why. Slavery was common throughout the world, as it has been at all times including today.

  • @ArTaLaPr11
    @ArTaLaPr11 Рік тому +4

    These history channels are most often copying the christian storytellers, without mentioning a version some historians have, that the raid on Lindisfarne was a direct result of Lindisfarne's close relations with Charlemagne, a french king who attacked the northmen first? I certainly do not know the facts, but I am wondering. Would be nice if someone qualified could give more info.

    • @rhysnichols8608
      @rhysnichols8608 Рік тому

      It is true the franks were pushing east and north and converting pagans by the sword, and Verden 4000 Saxons were massacred for refusing to convert. This, and the lack of space for farming and population growth led to the Norse raiding and eventually invading surrounding kingdoms. So the raid could be said to be partly a response to the church pushing more and more, and a way to squire wealth and power etc. I’m not sure if Lindesfarne monastery itself was directly linked to charlemange or if the Viking’s were targeting the church in general.

  • @alasdairgeddes
    @alasdairgeddes Рік тому

    Well if they weren't living to excess and didn't have anything to steal then the Vikings wouldn't have come back so there is some sort of logic there.

  • @heikkijhautanen4576
    @heikkijhautanen4576 7 місяців тому

    forefathers of those nordic black metal artists that burned churches in the 90s

  • @UkrainianPaulie
    @UkrainianPaulie Рік тому +4

    Viking is an adjective. It means pirate or raider. They never called themselves " Vikings". So tired of the historical ignorance of people. Before you flame me. I'm Ukrainian, therefore my ancestors were of Kievan Rus stock. You know those early Northmen that came down the Dniepro.

    • @johnDukemaster
      @johnDukemaster Рік тому +2

      Actually from todays Sweden. In the beginning of the 9th century people from todays Scandinavia, mostly Sweden, came and had activities around the rivers. They were called Rhos. Their base were around the area of Novgorod. Later in abouth the year 900 they moved it to Kyiv.
      Very interesting history!

  • @kingofspades1785
    @kingofspades1785 Рік тому +2

    One of the best days in history.

    • @Outside85
      @Outside85 Рік тому

      The day the Catholic Church walked into the wrong bar.

    • @SandileNgwenya-gv7nx
      @SandileNgwenya-gv7nx 11 місяців тому +1

      Yeah very brave of them attack defenceless priests

    • @kingofspades1785
      @kingofspades1785 11 місяців тому

      @@SandileNgwenya-gv7nx yessir

  • @nor-wayking6757
    @nor-wayking6757 Рік тому

    I had nothig to do with it.