Vi-king: (n.) a sea-roving bandit; pirate
Topic: The Story
My first introduction to the world of the Vikings came from Hagar the Horrible (at the same time that Beetle Bailey was introducing me to the army and Redeye was introducing me to Indians). Then came the Minnesota football team. And then somewhere along the way I dipped into Viking story books. Only the ones with cool pictures, mind you.
But eventually — if one keeps pursuing these kinds of interests long enough — one finds that reality is so much more interesting than Hagar, Beetle, or Redeye ever let on. Consider the background of how the Vikings took up the Christian faith.
In 793 AD, after the Vikings raided a monastery, the scholar Alcuin of York wrote: “Never before has such terror appeared in Britain as we have now suffered from a pagan race. Behold, the church of Saint Cuthbert, splattered with the blood of the priests of God, despoiled of all its ornaments; a place more venerable than all in Britain is given as a prey to pagan peoples.”
The Viking attacks on Christian churches and monasteries became so frequent that one monk wrote: “Everywhere the Christians are victims of massacres, burnings and plunderings. The Vikings conquer all in their path, and no one resists them. Oh God deliver us, deliver us from the fury of the Northmen!!” And soon all of Europe was praying this prayer with him.
Yet, it was through these very raids that God began a centuries–long process of introducing the Vikings to Christ.