#70.4, Tuesday, July 8, 2025

Historical Setting: 793 C.E. Lindisfarne Monastery          On this terrible day Brother Ealdwin and I have been burying the dead left in the wake of the Viking raid. There are more empty cells where monks lived, than are the number of bodies we buried. Apparently, more monks than just Brother Ealdwin escaped death, but theyContinue reading “#70.4, Tuesday, July 8, 2025”

#69.6, Thursday, June 12, 2025

Historical Setting: 793 C.E. Lindisfarne Monastery          Some of the marauders are returning to the boats with blood on their swords and laden with the booty they’ve stolen. No one from the monastery is chasing them.          Gunnar knows my Christian nature and he chooses me to help in opening what might be Christianity’s greatestContinue reading “#69.6, Thursday, June 12, 2025”

#69.4, Tuesday, June 10, 2025

Historical Setting: 793 C.E. Lindisfarne Island  The red shirts have the longships pulled onto the sand facing the sea waiting for the signal. We talk among ourselves.          “I was once a Christian.”          “I am still a Christian.” I answer.          “How can you be a Christian when we belong to the pagans andContinue reading “#69.4, Tuesday, June 10, 2025”

#68.11, Tuesday, May 27, 2025

Historical Setting: 793 C.E. Mooring at The North Sea           We are given the slave orders for the journey. But really the only thing slaves need to know is obedience. “Slaves are assigned two to a longship, one with the bow rowers, and the other at the stern taking orders from the coxswain.”          TheContinue reading “#68.11, Tuesday, May 27, 2025”

#68.8, Tuesday, May 20, 2025

Historical Setting: 793 C.E. Mooring at The North Sea [Art note: painted by this blogger copying a photo by Carol Ann Munro taken on an early morning on the SW side of Lake Michigan] Is the source of heaven only in the human imagination? Is it a pondering we all share as humankind of aContinue reading “#68.8, Tuesday, May 20, 2025”

#67.9, Thursday April 17, 2025

Historical Setting: 793 C.E. Skåne          My rowing mate shows me his collection of chism and he’s telling me a perception of Christianity I’ve been critical of from time to time, but in my own constant devotion to the simple Jesus love, I’ve never considered the collection of wealth as the very nature of Christianity.Continue reading “#67.9, Thursday April 17, 2025”

#66.5, Wednesday, March 12, 2025

Historical Setting: 793 C.E. Skåne          I was asking a history question. “What was the tragedy that made these Norsemen brutal?” The answer the seiðr offers is to take me to a rocky shore with a ruin of a house and tell me I don’t know human nature.          “In the far north, where theContinue reading “#66.5, Wednesday, March 12, 2025”

#66.2, Wednesday, March 5, 2025

Historical Setting: 793 C.E. Jutland          Maybe it was after a snooze, or another day and night altogether when I awoke to hear the seiðr bargaining with the sailors to give us passage for the journey to sail across the sea. And so, we are sailing now. We two passengers are just riding along whenContinue reading “#66.2, Wednesday, March 5, 2025”

#65.12, Thursday, February 27, 2025

Historical Setting: 793 C.E. Jutland           I still have questions. Why are these people, already empowered by the magnificent nature of being human — already rich with power — setting their hearts on taking the riches of others? There must have been a disaster that skewed the human values. Love, in all its varieties seemsContinue reading “#65.12, Thursday, February 27, 2025”

#63.3, Thurs., Dec. 5, 2024

Historical Setting: An unknown time in a cold land          This woman in shackles speaks in the comfortable language of Frankish Gaul. She tells me men are most often killed when they are captured and the women are taken as slaves. So, she says, I should be fortunate they only wrapped me in heavy chains.Continue reading “#63.3, Thurs., Dec. 5, 2024”