Year after year, Christian churchmen and members of their flocks alike recited the Latin words A furore Normannorum libra nos, Domine! which in English means "From the fury of the Northmen deliver us, O Lord!"21 This or similar anxious phrases echoed across western Europe throughout the initial period of Viking incursions— from the 790s to early 830s.
Hundreds of raids occurred in these years. Among the more infamous were those on the Colmcille monastery on the Scottish island of Iona and the church on Lambey Island, in eastern Ireland, both in 795. These attacks were ruthless and brutal, to be sure. In a later raid on Iona, Viking warriors slaughtered eighty-six monks without mercy on the beach adjoining the monastery. (The nearby waters are still called the Bay of the Martyrs in honor of the fallen churchmen.)
Yet despite such horrors, what seemed a small saving grace for many of the victims was that the vast majority of the assaults were brief. The raiders typically struck, gathered their loot, and then departed, leaving the local survivors to regroup and rebuild. Sometimes the Vikings came back and hit the same target again, as in the case of Iona, which suffered at least four raids in that period (in 795, 802, 806, and 825). Still, the pirates could at least be counted on to return each winter to their homelands, which lay far away to the east.
World History
