1. Godfred Vejdeking
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Ouverture - Lindisfarne
The monastery on the lindisfarne island, 8th june 793, when higbald is bishop of the monastery and beneficiary of the spiritual and worldly work of his diligent munks. The monastery on the holy island off the anglian* coast accommodates sct. cuthberth´s soulless body. *English
8. juni 793, Klostret på Lindisfarne, da Higbald var klostrets biskop og nød godt af sine flittige munkes åndelige og verdslige arbepå den anglia containsjde. fiveklostret anglo-saxon hellige ø udlies forwithin angliens* kingdoms, and lindisfarne kyst gemmer på skt. the northernmost, Northumberland, afsjælede which is reigned cuthberts by king Aethelred. legeme. He exchanges gifts with karl, the mighty frankish Anglien king. består The franks are doing anything to promote the christian faith in it´s roman-catholic entity, and to fight the heathens as well as deviating beliefs.
Anglo-saxon monasteries like Lindisfarne are providing missionaries to king charles, and the erudite munk alcuin holds great power within the frankish catholic church, as well as at court. while the sun is warming the lead covered roof of the monastery church, everything seems to be peaceful and idyllic, untill three bows are suddenly emerging out of the mist. they are raiding heathens from the north. by the time these wolf-warriors of the sea WILL BE CALLED BY A FAMOUS NAME, THAT ´LL FREEZE EVERY CHRISTIAN heart:
v i k i n g s !!!
THE DAUGHTER OF SIGURD RING,THE KING OF THE DANES, IS showing the way across the sea, and is called the vรถlve of viken.* *AT Oslo
the king has sent his younger brother Godfred as commander of the attack. Radulfs saxons wants to avenge the down-plunging of their holy column Irminsul.
the m u n k B y rh t f e rt h beholds the saxon radulf in the scriptorium of the unguarded monastery.
, rraubbnit. anbdisshaopy.
he little llo to t he
there are those, who will b e s acrificed t o t h or b y d r own i n g. th ere are those, who trow themselves wimpering into the dust, begging the vikings for mercy, and who are spared to go. there are those, who are thanking god for becoming martyrs in the name of sct. cuthberth.
Godfred takes the responsibility for the desecration of the lindisfarne monastery by his sword tyrblotr. So the misfortune shall strike down on him instead of his men, if this deed obtains discontendment by the gods.
LOOK AT HIM, GODFRED! HE IS A DECENT MORNING GiFT to YOUR BRIDE, RURIKS SISTER ÅSE. HE HAs good teeth and can be fed of with rough food without perishing.
the blood of martyrs was spilled in front of the altar! bishop higbald writes this later on in a letter about the attack to alciun in the frankish empire did you heAR THAT, SLAVE? THE WEDDING seals the pact between the king and harald hildetooth´s nephew rurik, who is my cousin, too. he has been a devious adversary, who has been hiding in sweon* for raiding sconeg.* he get´s silendi* and 30 horses for the bride.
*Sweden, scania, the region schleswig
the booty is an important contribution to the war against the franks in SaxoniA. iT COSTS MORE THAN THE 100 HORSES, WHICH ARE DELIVERED ANNUAlLLY FROM the SAXONS TO the DANES.
i´m a layman brother, and the meek will inherit the earth! what´´s the difference if i´m enslaved by a heathen princess or the church? i hope you´ll get a violent death, heathen, and go to hell, may it be yours or mine.
i´m one of the warriors, wh o have defeated my uncle harald hildetooth in bravalla. i´m longing for a violent death, so i´m able to drink mead with harald in valhall. the bards are still singing about this battle.
aided by the sweons,, my brother sigurd ring has recruited an army in småland to go against harald hildetooth, the old king of the danes.
the völve was unified with frigg following ancient rites, to help the army gaining victory. Frigg promised to intercede at her husband odin; the king of the ases and our wise god of the dead. Frigg herself is from the lineage of the vanes and was married off to odin as a sign of submission.
uncountable warriors were slain by my sword tyrblotr on the bravalla plain, but i´ve lost all my comrades from my entourage, each and one of them, by harald´s brave men. Harald hildetooth was sitting on his wagon and was positioning himself to lead the last attack.
both armies contained the pride of the nordic warriorhood.
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odin seized the body of the charioteer, and pushed harald hildetooth from the wAgon. this decided the battle, and my brother sigurd ring could be proclaimed as king of the danes the following spring.
by sct. patrick,now i´ve avenged that they´ve chased me off the yard like a mad dog. those who have ravaged my beautiful monastery lindisfarne, deserve to die.
these men, who only are christians by name and not by their deeds,are plotting to plunder your farmsteads to fill their own bellies. they would appreciate to take one out of every ten from all corn and cattle, without any thought of the fate of the elderly, wifemen and children. this is not what´´s been written in the holy gospel as something, we have to optain as fateful christians. it´s the deed of the frankish church.
their priests are hiding behind soldiers, but i have been here, when we still have been as free as the brotherhood of the iona monastery in Erin.*
the old, irish munk is ready to die for his faith in the monastery church.
*Ireland (latin)
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why do you hate them so much, that you are willing to sacrifice your life in order to take revenge? you still believe in the same god, him who we call the allfather.
at the beginning there was a solely theological discussion,seen from the surface.
B e d a e s t ablish ed t h e f ran ki s h m e t h od to calculate the easter date a t t h e s y n o d i n w h i t b y , but his sole purpose was the destruction of the c h u rch of albion* a n d all the things, it meant. he was succesfull.
*England´s (latin)
abbots an d village priests were replaced; these were men, who had to provide for wifemen and children!
we ´ve been a small group, and wanted to secure knowledge about our own church for better times. every sunday...
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...we ´ve met in a barn to celebrate service like in erin, because the roman lithurgy is godforsaken.
we sustained the connection with the iona monastery near the irish coast without the knowledge of bishop higbald. we wanted to serve a christendom, where everyone had a say. a church, that grows out of the mould of the community and not the bishop´s rod. we tried...
we were banned to do penitence at the missionary service in your home countries, to saxony and the north. we did know, that most of us never again would see albions green meadows. the franks traded a new bell for the monastery church in return for missionaries.
...to sustain the semblance, that we were following rome´s regulations, while we were guarding our own tradition, until bishop higbald accused us of heresy.
we live in miserable times, where men from both sides are committing sacrileges, so that there´s no hide nowhere from anything. the downplunging of the Irminsul is now avenged! let´s hope, that we now may worship all gods in peace.
enough is enough! you are counting the allfather among your gods, but disavow the son! behold the power of the cross by my example. Radulf, will you please chop off my old head from this gouty body, and my soul of this dirty world?
blood for bronce; that is soucery!
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we have our holy symbols, too. odin´s valhall and thor´s hammer mjö lnir. signs in the sun and the moon have predicted luck to us, if we had a voluntary atonement sacrifice. odin and thor are accepting your sacrifice. their socery is powerfull. just look! we are victorious.
the gates of the heavens will open up for me, who is ready to die for my faith. and you are going to hel.*
*hell
Northumberland´s coast consists of an endless dune landscape and a labyrinth of islands. only the munk could identify the location of lindisfarne; and only his sacrifice means, that the heathens dare to sail homewards, after they´ve desecrated this mighty sanctuary of the white christ, as they call jesus.
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ther eve e´s boo ryb ody ty for for ! the mona it´s tur n ster y of
Jarr
ow
nex t yea r
!
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Eric Knipper is Comic Creator and Cultural Communicator. He lives in Copenhagen, as he works on the huge and wellplanned Viking comic Berserker, which tells the tale of Saxn么t, who is consecrated as Berserker, a sort of holy warrior. The story is unfolded in the first volume. We hear about the deeds of the father and of the mighty frankish empire, which is reigned by Charlemagne. His antagonist is Godfred, the king of the danes, as it麓s written in the frankish annals, so that a showdown between the christian franks and heathen vikings is imminent.
Berserker ,Published: 1: Godfred Vejdeking Berserker, under preparation: 2: The campaign against the Abodrites