Viking Lindisfarne

LO: To investigate primary sources from Lindisfarne

Monday 6th December 2021

start

The viking attack on Lindisfarne

• The Vikings landed in Lindisfarne on 11th January 793 AD
• It is a small island off the northeastern coast of England
• They had sailed across the North Sea from Denmark
• They intended to steal all of their fortunes and killed many of the monks, the few they did not kill were taken with them as slaves
• The Monestary was built from wood with a thatch roof, meaning it was easy for the Vikings to set the buildings on fire
• It is also called the Holy Island because of it's importance in Celtic Christianity
• They attacked Lindisfarne because it was seen as an easy target
• The attacks made people fearful all over England and Europe due to brutality and unpredictability of the attacks
• The Christian community was also threatened as Lindisfarne was a centre of Christian belief and education

How do you think we know about the viking raids over 1300 years later?

Discuss in pairs:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/clips/zrpnvcw

This stone was found at Lindisfarne Priory. The stone is carved with armed men weilding Viking-style swords and battle axes.

'Viking Domesday Stone'

"This year came dreadful fore-warnings over the land of the Northumbrians, terrifying the people most woefully: these were immense sheets of light rushing through the air, and whirlwinds, and fiery dragons flying across the firmament. These tremendous tokens were soon followed by a great famine: and not long after, on the sixth day before the ides of January in the same year, the harrowing inroads of heathen men made lamentable havoc in the church of God in Holy-island, by rapine and slaughter."

Extract from Anglo Saxon Chronicle

“When I was with you, the closeness of your love would give me great joy. In contrast, now that I am away from you, the distress of your suffering fills me daily with deep grief, when heathens desecrated God's sanctuaries, and poured the blood of saints within the compass of the altar, destroyed the house of our hope, trampled the bodies of saints in God's temple like animal dung in the street…”

Letter from Alciun to Higbald

Step 1

Stick all 3 pictures into your book

Write next to the pictures

Step 2

Explain what the artifacts are

Step 3

Names:Extract from the Anglo Saxon Chronicle Domesday Stone Letter from Alcuin to Higbald, Bishop of Lindisfarne

Explain why they are important and how they show us what happened at Lindisfarne