Historical Setting: 793 C.E. Lindisfarne Monastery
Brother Ealdwin and I take the donkey cart to the shore to collect the bodies there for burial.
The one accidental kindness left by the attackers was to trade the slave who I was, for a brother, who I am now, to be with this man through his shock and grief. Dear God, help me be the creek bed of your love, pouring over a needy land.
The tide is out. Brother Ealdwin leads me to the edge of the island where a wide expanse of sandy sea bottom stretches all the way to the mainland. Just for this moment Lindisfarne Island seems to belong to a wider empty earth. He shows me the sandy bank that only a few hours ago was covered with the sea. Here are the fresh wounds in the earth where boats were dragged from the embankment for a quick escape.
“Some of those who aren’t here now must be safe on the other shore.”
Brother Ealdwin is kneeling over the bodies of the two men we have come for – a pale blue monk, and a tall man with darker skin.
“Brother Althar was drowned, and it appears Brother Jabari was slain trying to rescue him.”
As the sandy plain dampens in the returning tide we realize another drown man, still fully clothed as a monk is lying on the sand bed.
“We have to move quickly” Brother Ealdwin knows the nature of these tides. “And the sand is already too soft for the donkey cart.”
So, he and I go out onto the sand as quickly as we can. Our robes are a burden, so we leave them on the shore. Unclothed, we are able to reach this monk’s body still in his water laden robe. It is something of a struggle to drag him to the shore in the wind and the relentless sea. The pathway, a tidal land bridge, Brother Ealdwin tells me is the path of the pilgrims as they come to the shrine of St. Cuthbert and then on to this other far-traveled place, Lindisfarne.
“Some must have escaped in boats, and maybe others successfully by swimming.”
“One can’t swim fully robed and we found no other robes on the shore where we laid our own.”
But I know the Vikings trade in fabrics. If clothing was on the shore, it would have been collected by them. So, we can only guess at how many made it safely and how many died in the raid. “Dear God have mercy.”
“Christ have mercy,” Brother Ealdwin answers in trained response.
(Continues Tuesday, July 8, 2025)
Lazarus Ink 