Historical Setting: 793 C.E. Mooring at The North Sea
The instructions are repeated, “Always, quick and quiet, invisible under the shroud of dark,” The orders devolve into our instructor’s own longing for the journey, “As silently as an evening lap of sea water tongues the tender thigh of shore, your oars will caress the waters — ever so tenderly as all the ships in unison will move together and touch the sands of landing like shadows of the tide itself, until each keel finds its rest.”
We are dismissed into the night, “Quick and quiet and invisible in the silence of night.”
I stare into the clouds on this strange darkness watching these signs and omens — so many lights and wonders dancing among the clouds — sending strange winds and bolts of lightning down onto the waters. The winds set currents and backwash. Such whirlpools in the tide-wash would befoul our ships if we should land on another shore in these times. May these signs also warn the gentle Christians in their monasteries across the sea that dangers for them are looming. [footnote]
Thank you, God, for these uneasy warnings. What else is there? Amen.
As I ponder the notion that Thor notices each man, I also consider the notions of God that I keep in my Christian heart alongside the memories of my own dearest friend from forever. The frail human imagination, echoes of Creator, longs to manage a human-figured god who will, like any pagan god, take sides in a battle. Christians pray for it all the time. The battle flags of Christian kings bear the emblem of cross or the Chi Rho as though they are lucky charms used to manage the Christian God amid the warriors of other gods. All of us who are children of Abraham in these times say we only acknowledge one God, the God who is God, among the many human notions of gods. And yet, in times of battle and pillage God’s “side” is hardly discernible in the heavens from “Thor’s side.”
The clouds finally let loose of the rains overnight and it pours down on our tarps, soaking even the sand beneath us, so we are all awake early, shivering and damp. In the foggy morning there is no way to dry our clothing and find respite from the soggy cold. The fires are out and the gathered wood is wet. The oats are soaked and softened for the morning meal, so oats won’t be served hot today.
[footnote] The record of this history was written by the Christians who were the target of these Viking attacks. Historic records in this era are rare, yet the one often quoted description of this event is found as 793 in The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles here translated and collated by Anne Savage (New York: Crescent Books, 1995) “In this year fierce, foreboding omens came over the land of Northumbria, and wretchedly terrified the people. There were excessive whirlwinds, lightning storms, and fiery dragons were seen flying in the sky…”
(Continues tomorrow)
Lazarus Ink 