Historical Setting: The Great Skellig, 924 C.E.
Maybe the abbot had hoped to be rid of me when a boat comes with the winter supplies. But these winds signal an early winter and already the sea is too riled for a boat landing. On this day he has taken me aside to talk about things past, even though he forbids his own monks to nurture memories of their old lives.
“Back in your day, Laz, was lifetimes ago you realize. It was before my grandfather, and I’m only telling you the gossip of the grandfathers now. Surely you realize things have changed everywhere.”
“So, Vikings are no longer just plunderers and robbers of coastal lands?”
“In these times the Danes are settling in, making these isles their own homelands. I fear what has happened in the English isle will make over Éire” also.
His news of the changes to England now, astounds me. It would be nothing like the world was when Cloother and I sailed down the wilted Roman coast.
I ask, “So what of this king Ælfred of Wessex whose death you grieve?”
“Ælfred was the youngest of the five sons of Æthelwulf who came to the throne in the wake of the reigns of his older brothers, Æthelbald, Æthelberht and Æthelred (the unready). The other brother, the oldest, Æthelstan who famously beat the Vikings in a sea battle, though that was the end of him.”
“You mean the English fought the Vikings at sea?”
“The first sea battle ever, it is said.” [Footnote1]
“Maybe first ever for an English King, but the ancients, the Greeks and the Romans fought at sea all the time. I am just surprised at the temerity of taking on Vikings in English ships.”
“Æthelstan defeated the Vikings. I’m telling you, this line of kings were wondrous fighters. Just after that, Æthelwulf, their father, the next oldest son, Æthelbald defeated the Vikings again at the Battle of Aclea” [Footnote 2]
“In England I asked if Kings are born, or made on the battlefield.”
The abbot answers, “Kings? God knows they are born. But it takes spilled blood before people recognize a king. This grandfather’s history I’ve learned, is only remembered as he remembered it, and only speaks of Kings as earthly power. These kings had to conquer the Vikings, but also battle other English tribes of pillagers. They were winning the lands and Æthelwulf doled out the newly won territories to his sons making them Kings for all to see, little by little bringing the divided lands into one family.
[Footnote1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%86thelbald,_King_of_Wessex (Retreived 2-13-26)
[Footnote 2] Ibid.
(Continues, Tuesday, October 20)
