FORNǪLD · Track 11

Lindisfarne

Old Icelandic

Listen

Spotify Apple Music YouTube Amazon Music Deezer

Lyrics

Seven ninety three the sea gave birth to wolves Seven ninety three the holy island burned No wall could stop us no prayer could slow us The age of the North began at Lindisfarne Dögun við eyjuna helgu þokan faldi seglin Munkar sungu morgunsöng og heyrðu ekki árarnar Kirkjan full af gulli varin aðeins af bænum Við komum úr hafinu eins og dómur þeirra Seven ninety three the sea gave birth to wolves Seven ninety three the holy island burned No wall could stop us no prayer could slow us The age of the North began at Lindisfarne Gull heilags Cuthberts fyllti skipin okkar Bækur í gulli bundnar rifnar fyrir spennurnar Sumir munkar í hafið sumir í hlekki Og fréttin flaug hraðar en hrafnar fljúga Karlamagnús heyrði það í Frakklandi konungar skulfu í höllum sínum Því ef guð gat ekki varið sitt helgasta hús hvað gat þá varið nokkurn þeirra Seven ninety three the sea gave birth to wolves Seven ninety three the holy island burned No wall could stop us no prayer could slow us The age of the North began at Lindisfarne Seven ninety three the sea gave birth to wolves Seven ninety three the holy island burned No wall could stop us no prayer could slow us The age of the North began at Lindisfarne Lindisfarne þar sem öldin hófst where the age began

Seven ninety three the sea gave birth to wolves Seven ninety three the holy island burned No wall could stop us no prayer could slow us The age of the North began at Lindisfarne Dawn at the holy island fog hid the sails The monks sang morning prayer and did not hear the oars The church full of gold guarded only by prayers We came from the sea like their judgment Seven ninety three the sea gave birth to wolves Seven ninety three the holy island burned No wall could stop us no prayer could slow us The age of the North began at Lindisfarne The gold of St. Cuthbert filled our ships Books bound in gold torn apart for the clasps Some monks into the sea some into chains And the news flew faster than ravens fly Charlemagne heard it in France kings shook in their halls For if God could not protect his holiest house what could protect any of them Seven ninety three the sea gave birth to wolves Seven ninety three the holy island burned No wall could stop us no prayer could slow us The age of the North began at Lindisfarne Seven ninety three the sea gave birth to wolves Seven ninety three the holy island burned No wall could stop us no prayer could slow us The age of the North began at Lindisfarne Lindisfarne where the age began where the age began

Story Behind The Song

On June 8, 793, a Norse raid hit the monastery on Lindisfarne, a tidal island off the northeast coast of England. The monastery was one of the most important religious centers in the Anglo-Saxon world, founded by the Irish monk Aidan and associated with St. Cuthbert, whose relics were kept there. The Lindisfarne Gospels, an illuminated manuscript with a jeweled binding, had been made there within living memory of the raid. The attack was sudden. Alcuin of York, writing to the king of Northumbria shortly afterward, described the horror of it: pagans desecrating a holy place, monks killed, the church stripped of its treasures. Some monks were drowned in the sea, some taken captive. The news spread quickly. Charlemagne's court heard of it. The raid was disturbing not only because of what was taken but because of what it implied: a place protected only by its sanctity had offered no real protection at all. If God had not shielded his most venerated site in England, the logic was uncomfortable for anyone with gold in a monastery. The community at Lindisfarne survived and was raided again in subsequent years. In 875 they abandoned the island entirely and carried Cuthbert's remains with them, wandering for over a century before settling at Durham. The monastery at Lindisfarne was not permanently reoccupied until the Norman period. The 793 raid is conventionally taken as the start of the Viking Age.

More from FORNǪLD