Divine retribution
'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 Alcuin to Higbald, Bishop of Lindisfarne
Alcuin saw the Viking onslaught as divine retribution for the slack standards of the Northumbrian people, much as he might have interpreted an epidemic of disease as punishment for human sin. Worse was to come for his homeland, however, and Alcuin might have had difficulty in explaining the Viking activities of the ninth and tenth centuries in terms of God's punishment for bad behaviour.
'What security is there for the churches of Britain if St Cuthbert with so great a throng of saints will not defend his own? Either this is the beginning of greater grief or the sins of those who live there have brought it upon themselves.' Letter from Alcuin to Higbald, Bishop of Lindisfarne
One of Alcuin's poems celebrates York and its library, where he spent so many happy years as a young man, and he lists many of the authors whose works were on its shelves. These included classical Latin writers such as Virgil, Cicero and Lucan.
The cathedral library at York became even more famous throughout Europe after Alcuin's time - only to be destroyed utterly by Danish Vikings in an attack in 866. Fortunately Alcuin's writings have not been lost to us and they remain a key source - giving historians a unique insight into one of the most traumatic periods of English history.
About the author
Dr Anna Ritchie is an archaeologist and a Viking specialist. She has excavated numerous sites, notably Buckquoy, in Orkney. She is author of Viking Scotland, as well as many other books on Scottish archaeology.
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Published: 2004-11-08
