If I Could Time Travel: Lindesfarne

If I could time travel, I would go to Lindisfarne on June 8, 793 AD, to witness the moment when two completely different worlds collided with devastating force. 

I want to see the faces of the monks when the Vikings arrived, the complete incomprehension of men whose entire universe was about to be shattered by something they had no framework to understand.

Picture the scene: monks going about their daily routines on Holy Island, copying manuscripts, tending gardens, preparing for morning prayers. Their world is one of contemplation, scholarship, and peaceful devotion. 

The most dangerous thing they've encountered is probably a theological debate or a particularly difficult Latin translation. 

Violence, when it exists at all in their experience, is an abstraction, something that happens to other people in distant places.

Then longships appear on the horizon.

I want to be there when the first monk spots those distinctive dragon-headed vessels cutting through the North Sea mist. 

The confusion on his face as he tries to process what he's seeing. 

These aren't the familiar trading vessels or fishing boats they occasionally see. 

These are something else entirely, sleek, predatory shapes that seem designed for purposes the monks cannot even imagine.

I want to witness the moment when the Vikings beach their ships and pour onto the shore. 

The monks have lived their entire lives in a world where disputes are settled through prayer, negotiation, and ecclesiastical hierarchy. Suddenly they're confronted by men who settle disputes with axes and swords, who view their peaceful monastery as nothing more than a treasury waiting to be opened.

The collision between these worldviews must have been absolute. 

The monks see sacred reliquaries, illuminated gospels, and holy vessels blessed by centuries of prayer. 

The Vikings see silver, gold, and portable wealth defended by men who have taken vows of non-violence. 

It's the meeting of two completely incompatible ways of understanding reality.

I want to see the monks trying to comprehend the incomprehensible. They might initially assume these strange warriors are some kind of divine test, or perhaps demons sent to challenge their faith. 

The idea that these are simply men from across the sea who view their monastery as a business opportunity would be almost impossible for them to grasp. 

Their world doesn't contain categories for such people.

The Vikings, meanwhile, must have been equally amazed by what they found. 

Here are grown men who have voluntarily chosen to live without weapons, without women, without the pursuit of wealth or glory, dedicating their lives to copying books and singing prayers. 

From the Viking perspective, the monks might as well be from another planet.

I want to witness the exact moment when both sides realize they're looking at something their worldview cannot accommodate. 

The monks discovering that their assumption of universal Christian brotherhood is catastrophically wrong. 

The Vikings realizing they've stumbled upon the most defenseless treasure hoard in existence.

This is about the collision of incompatible realities. 

The monks had built their entire civilization on the assumption that reason, faith, and divine protection would shield them from worldly harm. 

The Vikings operated on the assumption that strength, boldness, and the willingness to take what you want are the fundamental principles of existence.

Both worldviews were about to be proven partially wrong. 

The monks would learn that prayer and learning offer no protection against men who don't share their values. 

The Vikings would discover that their raid on Lindisfarne had consequences they never anticipated, it would make them the most feared people in Europe and set in motion centuries of conflict.

I want to be there for the moment when medieval Europe's age of innocence ended, when the assumption that monasteries were inviolable sanctuaries crumbled forever. 

The moment when the monks realized that the world contained forces their peaceful philosophy had never prepared them to face, and the Vikings realized they had just announced their presence to a continent that would spend the next three centuries learning to fight back.

It was the day when two incompatible ways of life met head-on, and neither would ever be the same again.