Opinion

The island of Lindisfarne is located just off the eastern coast of England, close to the border with Scotland. In the 7th century, a monastery was founded there. On June 8, 793, according to documented eyewitness accounts, “heathen men came and miserably destroyed God’s church on Lindisfarne, with plunder and slaughter.” This date is widely accepted among historians as the start of the Viking Age. It’s also the foundational storyline for the History Channel’s series from a few years ago, Vikings, which I’ve recently started to watch from the beginning (I caught a few episodes while recuperating from knee replacement surgery back in 2014). Besides the beautiful cinematography and historical drama, I find the competing theologies of Christianity and the Nordic gods of this time period just fascinating!