The Most Notorious Viking Raid

Summary

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After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal

Episode: The Most Notorious Viking Raid
Date: December 18, 2025
Hosts: Maddie Pelling & Nancy
Guest: Dr. Eleanor Barraclough

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Main Theme

This episode dives deep into the infamous Viking raid on Lindisfarne in 793 CE—a moment often cited as the beginning of the Viking Age. The hosts and historian Dr. Eleanor Barraclough explore the facts and myths of Viking violence, the psychological and cultural impacts of these raids, how our understanding of the Norse is shaped by both contemporary and modern sources, and the lingering legends about berserkers, treasure, and “the raidiness” of Viking history.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Who Were the Vikings?

[04:07-06:47]

• The Old Norse word vikingr means "pirate" or "raider," directly tying Viking identity to violent exploits.
• Viking activity is defined by periods of seaborne raids, which evolved into occupation and settlement in the British Isles—eventually leading to cultural intermingling.
• The chronological boundaries of the "Viking Age" are blurred: though often cited as 793–1066 CE, Norse culture and its influences persisted in regions like Greenland into the 15th century and in dialects and place names even longer.

"We've just got to remember that word Viking. There is a version of it in Old Norse, Vikingr, and it means a pirate or a raider."
– Dr. Eleanor Barraclough [04:07]

2. The Importance of Lindisfarne

[08:03-10:12]

• Lindisfarne was a wealthy and influential Christian monastery; its sacking sent shockwaves through Britain and continental Europe.
• Its treasures, like the Lindisfarne Gospels, and high-status inhabitants made its vulnerability shocking and symbolically significant.
• Artifacts (such as the raider stone and reliquaries later found in Norse graves) evidence both the raid’s reality and its impact on contemporary consciousness.

“The reason Lindisfarne matters is not necessarily because it was the first time that blood was spilled... but it's a really big event that sends shockwaves through... even continental Europe.”
– Dr. Eleanor Barraclough [08:03]

3. Early Viking Raids: Methods and Motivations

[12:30-13:57; 25:08-27:47]

• Early raids were often hit-and-run by young, opportunistic warriors seeking wealth and reputation—not cultural domination.
• Motivations included status, economics, limited prospects at home, and occasionally the taking of hostages for ransom or servitude.

“...not just about nicking shiny treasure to take back to your girlfriend. It's also about nicking human chattel, essentially.”
– Dr. Eleanor Barraclough [12:30]

4. The Psychological Impact and Vulnerability

[13:57-15:42; 43:15-45:07]

• Island monasteries were spiritual strongholds yet exceptionally vulnerable to seaborne attack, heightening the emotional and psychological shock.
• The aftermath was experienced as an existential and spiritual crisis—seen as divine judgment in Christian communities.

“It's the event on one side with the seven figures and it's the psychological impact on the other side with this is the end of the world.”
– Dr. Eleanor Barraclough [43:33]

5. Defining the Viking Age—and Why Dates Matter

[15:42-19:19]

• The 793 Lindisfarne raid is a convenient marker but not a true “beginning;” earlier raids and Norse activity pre-date it.
• Historical periodization is necessary but artificial. True historical change is continuous and messy, not like a series of “canal locks.”

“We're taught history like it's a series of canal locks, and every lock moves us from one period of history to the next...Instead, history is this great churning waterway, you know, and it has tributaries that come in and out.”
– Dr. Eleanor Barraclough [16:29]

6. Whose Sources Are We Reading?

[21:41-24:21]

• Much of what we know comes from Anglo-Saxon and monastic chroniclers, who viewed Vikings as “the other” and imbued narratives with religious bias and trauma.
• Later sagas and Norse writings, meanwhile, re-frame Vikings as adventurers and legendary heroes.

“Certainly in the case of the British Isles and Ireland, [sources] come from religious establishments... it's not like the only way of describing someone of Scandinavian or Norse heritage is bad raiders, you know, it's not like that, it's more complicated.”
– Dr. Eleanor Barraclough [22:02]

7. Myths, Legends, and Cultural Afterlives

[32:16-37:33]

• Berserkers: The legend of frenzied, inhuman Norse warriors is primarily a product of later saga-writing, with little direct evidence in Viking Age raids.
• Popular imagery is shaped and sometimes distorted by centuries of retelling; Vikings have been co-opted by modern identity politics, including dangerous appropriations by Nazi ideology.

“You know, there is misuse of these histories or oversimplification of these histories that can be incredibly dangerous.”
– Dr. Eleanor Barraclough [37:33]

8. Material Culture & Archaeology

[41:27-42:04]

• Artefacts like reliquaries, the Raider Stone, and the Inchmarnock hostage stone offer glimpses into lived realities and cultural trauma.
• Material evidence balances or clarifies what’s missing or exaggerated in textual sources.

“Here is the material. Here is what people made with their hands... this is reality. This exists still...”
– Maddie [41:28]

9. The Evolving “Vulnerability” of Communities

[45:07-46:50]

• Innovations like Irish round towers, English defensive measures, and continental fortifications highlight the arms race between raiders and communities adapting to new threats.

“...you see that with Alfred in England, you see that on the continent... how do we deal with the fact that they are able to come in on these waterways and you have to learn to defend in a new way.”
– Dr. Eleanor Barraclough [45:44]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “The raidiness, that is a term of term.” – Maddie [04:21]
• Maddie reveals her tattoo of Lindisfarne:
  “I do have a tattoo of Lindisfarne on my wrist...” [07:53]
• “Have you seen the little penis on it?” (referring to her book’s cover illustration) – Dr. Eleanor Barraclough [03:50]
• Nancy’s recurring fascination with Irish round towers as defensive last resorts:
  “Just yoink up that ladder and then you’re fine.” [45:38]
• The Viking pursuit of “loot, reputation, and a girlfriend” as distilled motivation [07:16; 30:58]
• Using the saga of “Berserkers in the sauna”:
  “Can you please go and have a nice bath for your trouble?...he sort of stops up, bricks up the sauna, and essentially boils them to death in it.” [34:01-36:39]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [04:07] – Defining the word "Viking" and the scope of Viking activity
• [08:03] – The importance and symbolism of Lindisfarne
• [12:30] – The Inchmarnock Hostage Stone and raids beyond treasures
• [16:29] – Questioning historical periodization: the “churning waterway”
• [21:41] – Anglo-Saxon sources: reliability and biases
• [25:08] – Typical Viking raids: methods, motives, and evolving tactics
• [32:16] – Legends of the Berserkers: separating myth from history
• [37:33] – Myths, misuse, and the afterlife of Viking symbolism (inc. Nazi appropriation)
• [43:15] – Psychological impact of the raids on local communities
• [45:07] – Strategies for defense: round towers and community responses

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Conclusion

This episode deconstructs the legend and legacy of the Lindisfarne raid, challenging popular images of Viking ferocity with nuanced explorations of context, motivation, bias, and myth-making. The conversation highlights how our ideas about the Vikings are layered—the product of medieval chroniclers, saga-writers, popular culture, and modern reinterpretations.

For listeners new to Viking history, this episode offers a vivid, often witty, picture of how momentous violence, myth, and the messiness of history collide to shape what we think we know about the Norse raiders—and why so many stories about them live on.

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Transcript

[Russell]

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[Nancy]

June 793. On the Northumbrian island of Lindisfarne is the monastery at the very heart of English Christendom. All was calm for the monks inside as they worked, wrote and prayed. That is, until a group of boats appeared on the horizon. Swift, violent and merciless hordes of these mysterious men crashed onto the shoreline and unleashed hell, desecrating the undefended holy island, leaving nothing behind. A survivor wrote that the pagan attackers spattered with the blood of the priests of God. They trampled on the bodies of saints like dung in the streets. It was carnage. Word of this attack and assault on Christianity sent shockwaves across Europe. Who were these men who fought with no fear of death? And how could they be stopped?

[Maddie]

Hello everyone. Welcome to After Dark. I'm Maddie.

[Nancy]

And I'm Nancy.

[Maddie]

And today we are talking about a topic that I am so excited about. I'm having to just calm myself down. We've been in the Studio for a while with our guest today, and she's so great. I'm floating up here and it's. I need to just bring it down a little bit. We're talking about Vikings and in particular, Viking raids. This is something you will have seen on tv, on the big screen many, many times. And we're going to get to the bottom of some of those myths and find out what the realities are.

[Nancy]

Shield wall.

[Maddie]

Yes, continue.

[Nancy]

I'm sorry, what?

[Dr. Eleanor Barraclough]

It's fine, it's fine.

[Nancy]

I don't think it's real, but we can ask the guest in a minute.

[Maddie]

We can certainly do that. Let me introduce this guest. The guest today is a returning guest. We're very excited to have Dr. Eleanor Barraclough back on. She is the author of many, many things, including Embers of the Hands, Hidden History of the Viking Age, which. Eleanor, what a great book. I bloody loved that. What a good read. And such a good cover. Not that we should judge the book by.

[Nancy]

Of course you should.

[Dr. Eleanor Barraclough]

Have you seen the little penis on it? No. Yeah, yeah, there's a little picture.

[Maddie]

Okay, well, I'm going back to my copy later. Welcome to After Dark.

[Dr. Eleanor Barraclough]

Thank you very much.

[Maddie]

We are very excited to have you. We did this a little bit last episode, but let's just start with broad brushstrokes. Who were the Vikings? What do we know about them? When were they? Where were they?

[Dr. Eleanor Barraclough]

Yes. So we've just got to remember that word Viking. There is a version of it in Old Norse, Vikingr, and it means a pirate or a raider. So we are going to talk about that today and we are not going to talk about it in a way that basically erases the violence or the raidiness of the Vikings.

[Maddie]

The raidiness, that is a turn of term.

[Dr. Eleanor Barraclough]

Thank you very much. As we were saying last time, that classic raid on Lindisfarne 793 AD CE, is a good place to sort of anchor ourselves. But there are raids before and we know. I mean, even going back to the Romans, it's not like they're the only ones raiding around the North Sea. You know, the Romans have problems with the Saxon raiders, for example, you know, so it's like raidiness is a thing and now a historical term. Yeah. Thank you.

[Maddie]

We're all professionals here. Yes, exactly.

[Dr. Eleanor Barraclough]

I barely answer, but. But then we've got to think it's not just the whole of that period, which definitely goes into the 11th century, but then when it actually ends is like, you know, you can push it into. If you're looking at Greenland, you can push it into sort of the 15th century almost in terms of when that part of the Norse world actually comes to an end.

[Maddie]

This is a woman after my own heart. We're getting into what we call the long 18th century, which, you know, is as long as you want it to be in.

[Nancy]

Apparently Nobody mentioned the 18th century.

[Maddie]

Eleanor is happy to accept, extend the boundaries.

[Nancy]

She definitely didn't mention the 18th century.

[Maddie]

It's always relevant.

[Dr. Eleanor Barraclough]

Okay. So it is always relevant because in Orkney and Shetland in the Northern Isles, they are still speaking a form of Old Norse, which comes from the fact that they were settled from sort of the Norse up to the 18th century called Norn. So it is all about the long.

[Maddie]

English people still have Viking words in different dales in the Yorkshire Dales, don't they? As well as counting sheep and things like that.

[Dr. Eleanor Barraclough]

Exactly.

[Nancy]

Now, yeah.

[Dr. Eleanor Barraclough]

Well, there's still. And there's dialect words like Ben.

[Nancy]

Yeah.

[Maddie]

Like lake.

[Dr. Eleanor Barraclough]

Yep. They're all. So anyway, raids early on raiding is definitely a thing. It continues to be a thing, but it's also the Viking ages. Even if you're looking at the violence of the Viking age, that specific thing is defined by different types of activity. So you get into sort of the middle of the 9th century, for example, you start to see their overwintering in the British Isles and Ireland. But I can't remember. I think it's thanat first, maybe in 840, sort of around Kent, you're seeing them overwintering and then they're able to raid further inland. And then you have that arrival of the great, the heathen army, which basically is mobile war bands that are able to sort of go up and down the country. And there you start to see this sort of toppling of the Anglo Saxon kingdoms. And so there you're not talking about piratical hit and run raids by that point.

[Maddie]

That's a more strategic organization.

[Dr. Eleanor Barraclough]

Exactly. And eventually that leads to settlement. And there's that line in the Anglo Saxon chronicle where it says they proceeded to plow the land. It's like, oh, you're settling. This is now your farming, Basically.

[Maddie]

Yeah.

[Dr. Eleanor Barraclough]

So the raids are very much kind of a characteristic of early activity. Obviously, sort of textually speaking, you see it from the chronicles and the annals, but you've also got romantic element to this in that when we think, well, why are they raiding? What you often find is little bits and pieces of reliquaries or other sort of religious things from the Christian site end up in Viking female graves. And it's this Idea that it's like you're bringing a present back to your girlfriend.

[Maddie]

Yeah.

[Nancy]

You're just like, here, have this go box or something.

[Dr. Eleanor Barraclough]

Exactly. Well, there's one of them and it's a whole. Yeah. Box. It's a reliquary. It's got late from later on, but it's got a woman's name engraved. I think it's Ranveag in runes on the bottom. And it's basically like her jewelry box or something. So I love that.

[Maddie]

I love that. And I love how much the Christian Anglo Saxon monks would hate that that was going to a woman as well. They'd be like, this is not.

[Dr. Eleanor Barraclough]

They were like, no, this is not. Defile our beautiful relic.

[Nancy]

I'm going to ask you this next question exactly as it's written here and it says, what even is Linda Swan? But before you answer that, show the nice people.

[Maddie]

Oh, yeah, here are all my tattoos. I do have a tattoo of Lindisfarne on my wrist, which we did discuss last episode.

[Nancy]

But what even is it?

[Maddie]

Why is it on me?

[Dr. Eleanor Barraclough]

Why is it on you? Why is it there?

[Martha Stewart]

Right.

[Dr. Eleanor Barraclough]

So the important thing about Lindisfarne is they've got this fabulously wealthy monastery or sort of religious establishment that's there and that means a lot in the sort of Anglo Saxon Christian world and in Western European Christendom. It's a really important sites and it's things like home to the Lindisfarne Gospels that were made sort of around 700, so nearly a century before this big raid. The reason Lindisfarne matters is not necessarily because it was the first time that blood was spilled on the shores of Britain and Ireland by Scandinavian raiders. We have some evidence that this is happening a little bit earlier, but it's a really big event that sends shockwaves through certainly that region, but also then into continental Europe itself. And so it's this idea of never before has such a terror appeared on these shores as we have seen from a pagan race. Behold the church of Lindisfarne sort of despoiled and the blood of monks scattered on the stones. And that's sort of a slight reworking of a letter by Alcuin, who's like at the court of Charlemagne at that point, but from around York. So it matters because it's a shock and because what you're seeing is these pagans coming from across the North Sea and murdering monks and like high status monks and nicking their treasure. And that is a big deal. So that's why that matters. And then You've got this. I mean, you must have seen it when you were. I'm assuming when you got married that you stopped to go and look at the Raider Stone. Right.

[Maddie]

I go every year to the fun. Like, it's okay. I've seen every inch of the island. I know it well.

[Dr. Eleanor Barraclough]

So the raiders. I mean, it's amazing, isn't it, this stone? So it's probably a grave marker. It's probably from a few decades after that big raid. On one side, you have, I think it's seven little figures, and they're all holding in relief and they're all holding, weapons raised. It's clearly sort of they're attacking. Then on the other side, they actually.

[Maddie]

Look really cute as well. They're doing very fearsome, but sure.

[Dr. Eleanor Barraclough]

Oh, they're like, hooray, here we go.

[Maddie]

Yeah.

[Dr. Eleanor Barraclough]

But then on the other side.

[Nancy]

Is that how Vikings spoke?

[Dr. Eleanor Barraclough]

That is definitely how.

[Maddie]

That's a historical recall construction of their voices.

[Nancy]

Obviously you sounded like a leprechaun, but that's fine.

[Dr. Eleanor Barraclough]

But then on the other side, you've got. It's sort of. There's a big cross in the middle, and there's the sun and the moon in the sky. And then two little figures are kneeling, looking at the cross. And then you've got these big hands coming round, and it's this sense of Judgment Day. And so you've got to think, this does matter as an event. This is something that sort of echoes through the religious community, both locally, but also very much internationally. There's also. This is one that I look at in the book, because it's part of the country I know really well. There's the little hostage stone from Inchmarnock, which is so cute. So Inchmarnock is. So the best way of describing it is it's a really small island off the west coast of Scotland, near to another really small island that's near to Arran with the Jumpers. So everyone knows Arran. And then you go to Bute, which is the one I know because my dad was born there. Yep. So I spent my childhood looking out at the even smaller island, which was sort of explained to me as the drunks island in that historically, it is said that that's where they sent the drunks to dry off, because, you know, basically you need a rowing boat to get there, this tiny little island. But during the early medieval period, there was religious establishment there. And archaeologists found this. Oh, it's so cute, this slate that it's basically got quite big. It's like, you know, Bigger than one of your palms, you know, about that sort of size. It's got a doodle on it. And this doodle is what looks like. Obviously, we have to interpret it, and that's always tricky. But it looks like a little figure, a religious figure, like a novice monk. And he's got a chain around his waist and attached to it is what looks like a handbag. But it's probably one of these reliquaries for keeping sort of the remnants of saints or holy people. And then he's on a piece of rope, it looks like. And on the other end of the rope is what looks like a big hairy Viking. And he's got a couple of other big hairy Viking mates. And then there's a longship. And so it looks like they're taking this little novice off to be ransomed or enslaved. And that is very much part of this story as well. So it's not just about nicking shiny treasure to take back to your girlfriend. It's also about nicking human chattel, essentially.

[Maddie]

What you were saying, Eleanor, as well, about the sort of the shockwaves that pass through the early Christian world when this raid on Lindisfarne happens. And I think one of the things for anyone who has never been to Lindisfarne, or, you know, our U.S. listeners or whoever who's never made it there, me or you or Anthony. Yeah, it's an incredibly magical feeling place. It's a tidal island that's cut off at certain times of the day, like twice a day with the tides, and it's so exquisitely beautiful. And it has this amazing relationship to the mainland and to the Farne Islands, which are slightly further down the coast. And it just sits in this amazing landscape in this way that feels very sort of visceral and spiritual when you're there. And I suppose a lot of that is you go with the knowledge of the history, but, you know, even just the place itself, and I suppose for early Christians, islands in particular, thinking about the Scottish islands and certainly Lindisfarne, and obviously we get this around the island of Ireland as well, that islands are very important Christian sites in that they are removed, I suppose, put on the periphery of society, and that they become these sort of meaningful spiritual places. But also it means that they are completely vulnerable to attack. They're the first places the Vikings will stop. And it's that complete devastation and destruction of what Lindisfarne means in that moment. And actually it's revealed as being just this vulnerable little outpost full of men who aren't armed. And it's sort of a huge catastrophic mistake in a lot of ways.

[Dr. Eleanor Barraclough]

Yeah, exactly that. So it's that sense of attacking something that is both a high status, very elevated socially and spiritually. And sacred. And sacred, yeah. And so vulnerable. And you can see why this mattered. And of course, Lindisfarne's not the only example of exactly what you described. Iona gets hit several times, which is every bit as important, I think. The first ones, if you're going down sort of the coast of Ireland, it's this place, Wreckaroo, that people aren't. It's like somewhere near Dublin, but people aren't quite sure where that is. But again, you get that around the whole coast of Ireland, this sense of elevated vulnerability that becomes increasingly problematic, really. And so these hit and run raids, they go on. And you see that the interesting thing, that Inchman at Costage Stone, we don't know if a raid happened there be an absolute ideal place to raid, even if it wasn't one of the most high status religious establishments. Still, it's right by the seashore and it's very nice and sheltered and all the rest of it. We know they got to Bute, so we know they're in the area at some point. But again, the question is, when you look at this really, I say cute, but it is cute. Like this cartoon, it's really sweet. It's that thing. Is this a specific person and is it the novice? Is it a specific event that's being depicted there? Or is it that sense of that cultural memory that's being transmitted? Yeah, exactly. Or this sense of, well, you know, what happened up the coast. I always think that's a very powerful image because in a way it's almost like if you think of a, you know, iPad or something, you can expand that image and then look at the world around it, both geographically, but also in terms of the different sorts of historical players who are part of that story.

[Nancy]

So what would you say then to somebody who says, and they have said that Lindisfarne marks the beginning of what we now understand as the Viking Age, that this particular raid begins something that we see now as a time period, which is interesting in its own way.

[Dr. Eleanor Barraclough]

Yeah. So it's tricky because I think it's really important not to throw the baby out with the bathwater, as it were. So it's. Yeah, this is important, this is significant and we need dates to anchor ourselves. And if we just can say, oh, there's no date that matters. And it's all a big Mush. Then it's like you need terminological shorthands, you need chronological shorthands, because you need to be able to anchor yourself. And certain events are important. On the other hand, and this is what I try and do in embers, I sort of say, look, we're taught history like it's a series of canal locks, and every lock moves us from one period of history to the next.

[Maddie]

I never heard it described like that.

[Dr. Eleanor Barraclough]

Same lover, right? So this is actually. So my husband, who's a historian, this is exactly how he used to teach history when he was a lecturer. And he was like, let's develop that. You can have this. This to you. Yeah. I've never heard of a better way of describing it. And what it is instead is this. History is this great churning waterway, you know, and it has tributaries that come in and come out and, you know, it's almost like the people who are caught up in this river of history, you don't. It's the same of all of us here, you know, you don't know where it's taking. You don't quite know how people are going to look back at that time. So then what I try and do is I almost try and go back upstream, and certainly I come up with a series of beginnings that take us further and further back in time, back to when you see the first international trading sites in scandinavia. So around 700 or so, when you see the first signs of runic inscriptions. That's a big one. Or looking at belief and gods. The question is not whether Lindisfarne is significant, because I think it is, but whether there are other ways of conceptualizing what the Viking Age is, why it's important, why people are so drawn to it that don't necessarily only rely on the dates of major deaths, because, you know, as we said in the last episode, but as we said, it's also true of when we look at the end of The Viking Age, 1066, the death of Harald Hardrada, King of Norway, at Stamford Bridge. It is significant, but it's only significant within a specific context.

[Maddie]

And specific to him. Well, important to him.

[Dr. Eleanor Barraclough]

Very important to him and to Norway and to England, as it turns out.

[Maddie]

But then again, culture doesn't end in that moment.

[Dr. Eleanor Barraclough]

Exactly, exactly. And even if you go just a few hundred miles north into Scotland and they're like, hello, Battle of Largs, anyone? That's like 200 years later, you still have the King of Norway, Norway and the King of Scotland fighting out for the Western Isles, or, you know, we mentioned the long 18th century and how important that is to the Viking age, you know. But again, if we're looking at those ideas of cultural markers like language, well, you know, do you take that into the 18th century and look at where forms of Old Norse as a language survive? You know, it's, it just becomes so much. I really like it. I like how knotty it comes the closer you get. Because I remember being at university studying history and panicking because for me, dates and the, the names of important, let's not kid ourselves, mostly sort of rich, powerful men, you know, became the defining features of history. And I just, I just found that really hard to Get a grip.

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[Dr. Eleanor Barraclough]

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[Maddie]

One of the things that strikes me specifically when talking about this so called Viking age, is that a lot of it is chronicled by the Anglo Saxons, right? And of course they define it in terms of the first raid on Lindisfarne because that's important to them. Is it fair to say that the sources that we have for this era that is defined as such, come largely from the Anglo Saxons and therefore with a lot of baggage attached to them.

[Dr. Eleanor Barraclough]

So certainly in the case of the British, Charles and Ireland, they come from religious establishments where people are writing the annals, for example. Yeah, absolutely. And then later on there's different sorts of textual evidence that's also important within that specific set of kind of cultural and geographical contexts, poems, you know, as an example, which again, tell us about this. And usually, yeah, it's not necessarily in a good way. Having said that, that great old English epic, Perin Beowulf is set, set entirely in Scandinavia, you know, so academics always get a little bit tangled up in knots over that because it's like, well, why is this important in that now? There's lots of reasons and we won't go down there, but, you know, so, so it's, it's not like the only way of describing someone of Scandinavian or Norse heritage is bad raiders, you know, it's not like that, it's more complicated. But having said that, we come up to, what is it, 1002, the St. Brice's Day Massacre, where the king is like, right, go and kill the Scandinavian Incomers. It's a really tricky one because sometimes the textual sources reflect something that is shown to be more complicated on the ground through, for example, archaeological sources or say place name evidence or linguistic evidence. So that's within that context. But then of course, the Viking age, as we've said, you know, it's much bigger. The Norse diaspora is much broader than the British Isles in Ireland. And so what that means is you have to look for different sorts, sorts of textual evidence. Now some of that Byzantine Empire, for example. Yeah, it starts off once again, what they're reporting is raids, you know, absolutely, that's going on. But then later on, at the start of the 10th century, you get peace treaties where they say you can Come here if you're going to trade and be nice about it, and you can have some nice fruit and you can have as many baths as you want. Just saying. Although, having said that, very clean people. Big dust.

[Maddie]

And Anglo Saxon ladies liked about the Vikings.

[Dr. Eleanor Barraclough]

Exactly. And they changed the. Their socks. Thank you very much. Good hair. Yeah. You know, do we blame them? So there is that sense of when there are raids and there are shock waves that come from these raids. Yes, they're often recorded. And that's not just true of, say, Anglo Saxon textual culture, but it certainly reflects what we see elsewhere as well. But that's not the only source of source material we've got.

[Nancy]

It's interesting to know what we're working with when we talk about what's coming next. And by that I mean, I am a monk, which chances are, if I was alive in these days, it probably bloody would have been. But anyway, if I was a monk and I was at one of these places that monks are monasteries, if you will. And this raid is coming in, see, what's distracting me is, oh, I can keep thinking of this. Round towers, round towers, round towers. That's what's literally going through my head right now. What does that look like on the ground? Like, do you suddenly see a big man with a big beard and a big pointy Viking horned hat coming over a hill and you're like, ah, lads were fucked.

[Maddie]

I can hear the comments on the YouTube video.

[Nancy]

What is that? And how does it play out?

[Dr. Eleanor Barraclough]

Okay, well, horned helmets aside, obviously, and not everyone can grow a beard, you know, but having said that. No, this is where. So this specific type of activity, for the most part, it's young males coming across the North Sea and in these very stereotypical Viking ships, you know, with the Clinkerbilt style, where you've got the. These lovely planks and they have very shallow bottoms, which means they can get into these bays. And so it's not far off that it's like you're seeing, depending on the chronicles, when we're talking about these early raids, you might have two or three boats worth. You might just have one boat. It sounds like quite dark to say this. I'm not. But, you know, part of the issue is it's really hard to reconstruct what that would have looked like from the point of view of the victims, because for the most part, how are you going to.

[Nancy]

Nobody's left to tell you.

[Dr. Eleanor Barraclough]

No, exactly. And what you do see, you see people being kidnapped and then ransomed back to their communities. If they're important enough so occasionally those stories get through. The inchman at Costage Stone is a really good example. That raider grave marker from Lindisfarne, again, these are from the point of view of exactly the sort of victim culture, victim communities that are experiencing those very specific sorts of raids. But like I say, that's a specific activity that's happening in a specific context and the nature of what that looks like changes over time. And certainly when they're. Then there is sort of the Great Heathen army in the middle of the 9th century, and this is when you have sort of King Alfred of Wessex very much fighting back against them. As the other Anglo Saxon kingdoms topple, you've got something different there again, and different sorts of evidence for what's going on there. So then you start to see, for example, archaeological evidence for overwintering camps, you know, Repton, you know, particularly sort of in that Midlands, going up into Yorkshire area, where you see different sorts of people there. So you have those sort of male warriors. Absolutely. But you also have children, you have families, you have women in those. So. So what? That looks like changes. And then you've got to remember, because they settle sometimes. Yeah, absolutely. That could be culturally conflicting. But we're all speaking in English, which means we are all using words that have come down in English from those Norse settlers. You know, words like eg, window or knife, you know, they're all there. And culturally, when you have language evidence, you know, moving across, that is a very strong indicator that you have communities. You know, the raiders would not have brought their language with them, put them that way, because they're legging it out again. Yeah.

[Maddie]

In terms of the motivation for these early attacks, thinking about Lindisfarne specifically in 793, is the goal to turn up somewhere, hope that there's going to be loot to take back with you and that's it. Or is there a sense that part of what you want to do as a Viking raider is to terrorise the people there? Because I'm just looking at. I mean, I know this is, you know, historians hat on. This is one very biased account. But looking at Alcuin's account, when he says, never before has such terror appeared in Britain as we have now suffered from a pagan race. The heathens poured out the blood of saints around the altar and trampled on the bodies of saints in the temple of God. There's a sense that they understand enough of what they found on Linda's farm to know to trash it as part of what they're doing there, or is that just an Anglo Saxon reading of what is essentially just smash and grab and go home?

[Dr. Eleanor Barraclough]

It's a good question, because essentially we can't tell. Exactly. So Alcuin is not an eyewitness at all. He's getting this very many hands later as it's sort of. And sometimes we know that these sorts of stories grow in the telling. That's just the nature of how human stories develop, you know, so it's, I think, from the raider's point of view, the main thing they're trying to do. They're trying to get in, grab stuff, and both nice shiny things, but also humans and get out. But there is this question of mentality that has been discussed by experts in the Viking age, and that's linked to this idea of Ragnarok, you know, this mythological idea of the end of the world where sort of, you know, the gods all fall in battle against sort of the giants and the forces of chaos, and the sky grows dark and everything sort of goes to hell. But there, it's been suggested that that would explain. It's almost like apocalyptic thinking. It's like, well, whatever. We just get in with that.

[Maddie]

It's meaningless. We'll just do whatever.

[Dr. Eleanor Barraclough]

Yeah, but I don't know. It's not that I. It's not that. I don't think that's a possibility. And certainly it's very convincingly argued, but in a way, it's certainly in this earlier period, it's like, well, as far as they're concerned, they don't have any. Religiously speaking, they don't have any cultural attachment to this idea of what a monastery is. As far as they're concerned, it's like, ooh, rich, sparkly, undefended. Yum, yum, you know, and my feeling is that's. That's really what it's about. You know, there's a lot going on back home, sort of in Scandinavia. There's a lot of. Sort of social and kind of cultural. Not turbulence necessarily, but there's sort of been. It's been increasingly centralized, which means that you have a fewer. You have fewer people at the top of the pile controlling more of the resources. And so it's that sense that that might be a lot to do with why these raids are happening. It's basically young men who haven't quite made the cut in terms of what they'll be inheriting. Maybe they're not safe first sons. It's not quite like that, but you know what I mean? And basically, it's like, okay, we have to find other ways to earn reputation and earn enough sort of buying power to set up farmsteads and find someone willing to marry us and start a dynasty. You know, it's more.

[Maddie]

And I think that's so interesting that actually the mindset of the Viking, then is not necessarily centered on these places that are being raided, it's actually back home. And this is just a means to an end to go back to their centre of the world, which is completely different from Lindisfarne or Iona or wherever they're attacking.

[Dr. Eleanor Barraclough]

Yeah, I think there's a lot to be said for that. And it's also this fact that, again, you have to look for the stories coming from the Viking world itself. You have to look later for the sagas, which are sort of orally transmitted, but they're not written down until 13th century in Iceland. But there, that sense of what a Viking is, you know, a great Viking is someone who, in his youth, very much in your youth, if you're still doing it when you're a bit older, it's a bit embarrassing. It's like being the oldest one at the party. Yeah.

[Nancy]

It's like, oh, God, it's like skinny jeans.

[Dr. Eleanor Barraclough]

Yeah, yeah. You're the last one wearing the skinny jeans. Exactly. Oh, really? But so it's that sense of you go off, you get yourself a reputation, you get booty, you come back, you become a great leader, you become sort of someone with kind of a heroic reputation. And so it's within that cultural context, I think at that stage, we have to think about it. Rather than, hooray, we're going to go and terrorise a load of monks. I think they're like, well, if it means we get more loot and more people to take off, great. But let's not hang around to begin with. Yeah. Till later on. Yeah.

[Nancy]

You've spoken about one of these images already, which is the hands coming around and the sun and the moon. But I also have another one here which makes a Viking raid. Well, we think this is an image of a Viking raid. It's basically 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 people brandishing axes and swords in a very like, you know, cartoonish actually. And it does, to a certain extent, make them look a little silly. I'm like, could you do this a little bit more menacingly? But, you know, the weapons are there nonetheless. However, one of the things that I want to expand on in terms of that image and how it kind of contrasts with it is this idea of berserkers.

[Dr. Eleanor Barraclough]

Oh, yeah.

[Nancy]

And this idea of being in a, you know, that looks quite cartoony and a little bit silly, but these Berserkers are supposed to be in a trance, like, you know, absolute annihilation state, and they're bringing this idea of terror with them. Tell us a little bit about. I hadn't heard of this in terms of Viking ring.

[Dr. Eleanor Barraclough]

So if you want. Unfortunately, if you want cartoonish, silly image of a Berserker, you've got a really big one that you may well have seen, which is one of the Lewis chess pieces. So they're from later. From 1200. You've also got bishops on the board. So it's that very much idea of facing forwards into sort of medieval Christian Europe and facing backwards into this pagan Viking age. But you've got the really famous figure or several of them, and it's a warrior and it's got these sort of big bulging eyes and it's biting down on its shield and you can see its little teeth. It's so cute. It's also, if anyone's fearsome, I mean, terrible. But it's also. The Louis chess pieces were part of the. Artistically, the inspiration for Noggin the Nog. Peter Fuhrman back in the 70s. Oh, wow. So you see, it's like cartoon vibes. Look that at Noggin. The Nog is sort of the gentle king of the Northmen. And there's this, like, mournful oboe that introduces it.

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[Dr. Eleanor Barraclough]

It's a mournful oboe. It's very much not the kind of Vikings TV series, like Vard Rune.

[Maddie]

Yeah. You're not hearing, like, Immigrant Song in your head. That's what's happening.

[Dr. Eleanor Barraclough]

No, absolutely not. Yeah, exactly. And so this idea of the Berserker, now the issue is. Yeah. Source material once again. So for the most part, we are talking about sagas, and so we're talking 13th century, by which point, how many cultural layers have already been placed onto what the Berserker might have been? We don't know. But it's this idea that you bite down on your shield and you work yourself up into a Berserker fury. There's also suggestions that the Berserkers might have been the beloved warriors of Odin. So they're particularly not the ones that he has in sort of Valhalla, necessarily, but just it's that sacred connection between Odin as the God of war and fury and sort of, you know, and these Berserkers. There's the question of whether Berserkers might appear in older images, but those images particularly are from. To my memory, they're more from sort of the migration age, which is the period before the Viking age, where everyone's sort of like, moving around like this game of chess after the end of the Western Roman Empire. But again, you see them sometimes, these warrior figures who look, yeah, like they're working themselves up, and sometimes they're wearing bare skins and all the rest of it. The problem is, when they appear in the sagas, they've almost become a cartoon parody, really. So my favorite one, there's an example. There's two berserkers in Iceland. It's in one of the sagas, and they want to. So in the translation, I think it says marry, but I'm not sure how much marrying. They're actually. How noble their intentions are. But a local farmer's daughter. And so the farmer says, right, well, you could. Or a chieftain, you can have her, if you will. First build a road through the lava for me, because lava is notoriously hard to sort of cut through to my sauna, my bath in the middle of the lava field, which is the most Icelandic thing ever. So he then gets them to do this. He's like, thank you very much. And then, can you please go and have a nice bath for your trouble? So they then go into the sauna. He sort of stops up, bricks up the sauna, and essentially boils them to death in it, you know. So that's what the berserker is. It's this slightly larger than life. So then when we think of what we know about the historical raids, for example, it's like, well, how much do we actually know? And certainly these sorts of figures, we don't have any indication that they are there on the raids. It's more like a set battle idea. And it's very much something that edges into legend, we might say.

[Nancy]

I'm really intrigued by this idea of invented histories from what we're talking about here. And, you know, it sometimes feels like. I was thinking, as you were talking earlier, Eleanor, about going like, oh, this feels like the real history. Sometimes it feels like what we are doing is just, oh, we'll just read some letters, it's fine. But this feels like real history. But then at the same time, you get this thing of going, actually, we've inherited. Even if we've inherited from people in the 13th century, but we've inherited centuries of, again, layering that distorts. It sounds like we don't even know that this is just some kind of metaphorical representation of chaos that is in. That is enacted. And it's. You know, those things can skew history, particularly in a public realm, and how we understand these things. And actually, it's interesting how they can still be acting as propaganda tools passively centuries later.

[Dr. Eleanor Barraclough]

Yeah. For me, the really cool thing about this period of history is it's almost like, oh, I don't like a diamond. It's got these different facets, and sometimes you can't even even see what actually that facet is. Almost like, you know, you have to sort of move your head a little bit and try and work out what's going on and what that whole looks like. And so in the case of sort of like, what are these historical warriors? Sometimes we're looking at sort of late Roman sources, for example. We're looking at totally different sorts of material that you then have to. Yeah. Try and piece together. But the nature of that is always shifting. I mean, for me, I think it's a really cool thing. I find it absolutely fascinating. And you're having to use all sorts of things, different. Different types of source material in order to sort of really understand how many of these facets there are. But you're absolutely right that in, I don't want to say the wrong hands, although sometimes I think categorically is, you know, Nazis being a case in point. You know, there is misuse of these histories or oversimplification of these histories that can be incredibly dangerous. You know, there's an example at the moment in the Historical Museum in Oslo, there's a sword that's being exhibited. And the story behind this sword is. So it's earlier than the Viking age. I think it's from around 500. But when it was found in a burial, it was with cloth that had swastikas on it. Norway was invaded and occupied during the Second World War, and this sword became something that the Nazis really wanted to get hold of for specific purposes, they said. And the idea is, oh, maybe it was a gift. They wanted it as a gift to Himmler or something like that. But the point is, this was then hidden away in a vault and they managed to keep it out of Nazi hands. Yeah, I know. And it's the most incredible thing to look at. And you're just like, it has so many layers, but actually these layers are crucial to what this. The afterlife of this sword. You know, you think it was buried with this person sort of, what, one and a half millennia? And, you know, there it is with all these other lives to it. Some of these lives potentially, yeah, very dangerous or misleading or used to justify ends that are. Are like, abhorrent. But then other afterlives that are really like, quite uplifting and wonderful. You know, Tolkien had a very. He wrote, I think, to one of his sons and he said, I, that ruddy little ignoramus Adolf Hitler, I will always hate him for perverting and misusing the period of history that I love so much. And that's absolutely true of, you know, that whole period, not just the Viking age, although in some ways that is a particular problem. But. But certainly sort of what we tend to refer to as Anglo Saxon culture as well. The blunter the historical instrument, the more people can use it to bash other people and do all sorts of awful things. And so it's part of the reason it's so important to say all these facets are here and we don't know everything. I think that's really important to say because if you're just like, this is the historical truth. Well, it may be a historical truth or version or facet, but it's never going to be the whole thing.

[Nancy]

And that's not unique to the Viking Age. That is history. That is how we do this. And I think it's important for people to understand that because sometimes I don't think they do. You know, I've had in my own research going, oh, that interpretation is disappointing. I'm like, well, who are you disappointed by? Me or the source material?

[Maddie]

Because it's taken from the source.

[Nancy]

Yeah, this is what interpretation looks like. It doesn't have to.

[Maddie]

Absolutely.

[Nancy]

I really like and appreciate this idea of the messiness and the gnarliness and the lack of answers, actually, on the flip side, sometimes I find that layering, particularly in the earlier history. So I'm talking Greek, Roman, I'm talking sometimes in terms of Viking stuff, that layering can be obfuscating sometimes or confusing where I find it difficult and frustrating not to be able to get to the people. And that experience, because you have to wade through that was very much an undergrad experience for me, where I was like, eh, where are they?

[Dr. Eleanor Barraclough]

Where are the people?

[Nancy]

I can't get to them.

[Maddie]

And that is, I will say, not to sound like a total sycophant, but Ella, that's where. Where Embers, your book, really helped, actually, that it cut through so much of that and was like, here is the material. Here is what people made with their hands. This is. This is stuff that has been left behind and here's what we can do with it. This is reality. This exists still, you know, and that's. That's incredibly powerful. Foreign.

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[Russell]

Hey everyone, it's Russell and Christine. So I just found this mobile game everyone's talking about, Royal Match. Gorgeous graphics and super fun puzzles.

[Christine]

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[Russell]

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[Christine]

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[Russell]

Alright, show's over.

[Christine]

I'm gonna go play download Royal Match on the App Store or Google Play today.

[Maddie]

Before we go, just to circle to the Viking Raid as this cultural phenomenon in our imagination, but also as a moment, I suppose a historic moment, a historic period, if we're defining it that way. What was the psychological impact of the raids on the people who were their victims?

[Dr. Eleanor Barraclough]

I think huge. And I think that's why we come back to Lindisfarne, because in a way that raids encapsulates so much of that psychological impact and we see it on the Raider Stone with the figures on one side. But in a way, I think the more if we're looking at the psychological impact, the more important side of that is the other side with Doomsday on it. In a way, it's the event on one side with the seven figures and it's the psychological impact on the other side with this is the end of the world. This is, you know, Judgment Day is coming. You see. I think you see it very clearly in say, Alcuin's letters where he's writing back to that part of the country where it happened and saying, I mean really saying, what did you do to make this happen? You know, because it's this sense of it being God's judgment on you. And I think that's a very important. I think sometimes today that's quite hard for us to get at because we live in a culture that is more secularly inflected and that sense of things being the wrath of God or the judgment of God, that comes up again and again. It comes up again particularly as you're getting towards the year 1000 and there's a second wave wave of Viking attacks, as it were, and it's very much the end is nigh. They're God's tools, you know, that he is using them to punish people. And so I think that's a very important, that psychological impact. But I also think that's why that little inch marne at Costage Stone is. We don't quite know what story it's telling us, but it seems to be telling us a story about the psychology and the impact on the community around all those coastlines.

[Nancy]

Okay, sorry, I know we need to go, but before we go, there is one thing I do want to ask you because I live five minutes from one. Round towers. Round towers. We have this thing of. Do you have round towers here? Yes.

[Maddie]

No. It's an Irish thing, isn't it?

[Nancy]

Purely Irish. Oh, maybe I don't need to ask you then, do I? I'll ask you.

[Dr. Eleanor Barraclough]

I mean, I'm not going to be able to give you anything particularly profound.

[Nancy]

Well, all I really want to know is how useful we're.

[Dr. Eleanor Barraclough]

See, that's where my level of profundity, I'm like a bit useful because we.

[Nancy]

Have this thing that like, suddenly the Irish guys figured it out a little bit and we're just like, just yoink up that ladder and then you're fine.

[Dr. Eleanor Barraclough]

But there is that. And you see that in all sorts of different parts of, you know, different cultures and communities that are affected, that they have to get good at defending themselves in new ways. And you see that. Yeah, exactly. You see it in Ireland, you see that with Alfred in England, you see that on the continent with sort of Charlemagne's sons and grandsons and onwards, you see them basically saying, oh shit, we need to defend the water. And that's the coastline, but it's also the rivers coming in. So it's like the bridges. We've got to do something with it. We've got to sort this out. They often siege plate, like, Paris is famous, it's Seville, you know, so it's like, how do we deal with the fact that they are able to come in on these waterways and you have to learn to defend in a new way. And what you see is that the better different cultures and communities get at doing it, the more the Vikings are almost like stray cats. They're like, that looks a bit hard. We're just gonna hop over the water there because they haven't got their act together. And you see this sort of bouncing between. And it's partly to do with how strong the actual communities are in how they're able to defend. It's a really fudgy answer.

[Nancy]

I always feel like by association scared when I think about being in a round tower. When you're just like, oh my God, they're coming and you're running and you're running and you're running and then you're. And you'd climb up the thing and they're like looking back to see how close they are and you've got all your stuff under your arms and you're just like, they can't have these. And then you're up in the thing and then you're like, oh my God, pull it up, pull it up, pull it up. And then like Jorvik is coming.

[Maddie]

Disproportionately worried about this happening.

[Nancy]

Well, it's not gonna happen to me. I know, but. And then you're just up there and they're like banging on the ring.

[Dr. Eleanor Barraclough]

Come down the Irish, Egypt, former life as a monk. Clearly that's where you were in assessing your memories.

[Nancy]

Yeah, but I'm just like, can you imagine being up there going, oh my God. Oh my God, please go away. Go to the next one. They don't have a round tower yet. Okay, light. Thank you for watching and listening to because you know we're on YouTube now. If you didn't know and you're just listening to this on wherever you get podcasts, go over to YouTube. Just if you Google After Dark History hit on YouTube, you'll find us. Go and watch us on YouTube as well as listening to us wherever you get your podcasts as per usual and we shall see you again soon. Happy raiding.

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[Dr. Eleanor Barraclough]

The free birth society made millions selling a simple message to pregnant women. You don't need ultrasounds, doctors or midwives. You can free birth. But behind the scenes means terrible things were happening.

[Maddie]

I feel ashamed about this, but I.

[Dr. Eleanor Barraclough]

Didn'T think that the deaths were bad.

[Maddie]

Until a year after I left.

[Dr. Eleanor Barraclough]

Subscribe to the Guardian Investigates feed to get all the episodes of the Birth Keepers. Listen wherever you get your podcasts out now.