THE GREAT HEATHEN ARMY

Ivar the Boneless invades England
AD 865–873

Never before has such a terror appeared in Britain as we have now suffered from a pagan race, nor was it thought that such an inroad from the sea could be made. Behold, the church of Saint Cuthbert spattered with the blood of the priests of God, despoiled of all its ornaments; a place more venerable than all in Britain is given as prey to pagan peoples.

—Alcuin, Anglo-Saxon monk

SINCE THE FIRST BLOODTHIRSTY OUTLAW biker gang of Vikings blitzed into town and helped themselves to the treasures of the monastery at Lindisfarne, things had somehow gotten worse and worse for the poor folks unlucky enough to live in the coastal fishing villages of England. Relentless Viking attacks hammered the shores of the British Isles all the way through the first half of the ninth century, and pretty much every single summer between 798 and 865 saw England dealing with some new group of Viking jerks who would blow into town out of nowhere, kick a puppy or two, wreck everything, and then sail off before the cops or the army showed up.

In the year 865, that snatch-and-grab tradition changed into something far more sinister when a new threat arrived on the shores of England: a fleet of warships unlike anything the Anglo-Saxons had ever seen—black-hulled vessels lined with shields of red and gold, each packed to the brim with big, sweaty Viking warriors intent on bloodshed and the screaming glory of battle.

This was more than a minor Viking raid aimed at snatching a few purses and making off into the sunset.

This was an invasion.