Nightshift – Kurzgesagt after Dark
Nightshift – Kurzgesagt after Dark
Vikings vs. Nuns SOURCES
THEY'ER COMING! THEY'RE COMING!!
INTRO
Dark clouds descend upon your abbey as thunder makes the ground quake. A fellow nun cries out:
The Vikings are coming!
Their torches burn like dragonfire, ready to scorch the place to the ground. Those who try to run will either get their throats cut or be taken away in chains.
#Mathew Lyons, Vikings attack Lindisfarne, History Today 71 Issue 6 (2021, June).
https://www.historytoday.com/archive/months-past/vikings-attack-lindisfarne
#Mary Beth Rose (Ed.), Women in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, Literary and Historical perspectives (Syracuse University Press, 1986), pp. 47-48. https://archive.org/details/womeninmiddleage0000unse/page/n5/mode/2up?q=Ebba
Your father, King Alfred of Wessex, thought you'd be safe here. But now all you can do is pray:
“Dear God, please send the mightiest Viking hunter our way.”
#Simon Keynes & Michael Lapidge (trans. & Eds.), Alfred the Great: Asser's life of King Alfred and other contemporary sources (Penguin Books, 1983), pg. 36. https://archive.org/details/alfredgreatasser0000asse/page/n5/mode/2up?q=Shaftesbury
2 SURROUNDED
It’s the late 9th century, a terrible time to live on the British coast, especially in a convent. For decades, the Vikings have come here to loot, and chapels full of golden crosses are a welcome bounty.
#Julian Richards, Viking age England (Tempus, 2004), pp. 27, 178-179.
https://archive.org/details/vikingageengland0000rich/page/8/mode/2up
Some nuns try to fight back by going full barbarian. In one nunnery, sisters cut off their noses and upper lips to scare the Vikings off, but they keep coming back.
#Mary Beth Rose (Ed.), Women in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance: Literary and Historical perspectives (Syracuse University Press, 1986), pp. 47-48. https://archive.org/details/womeninmiddleage0000unse/page/n5/mode/2up?q=Ebba
King Alfred has spent years fighting the Vikings. Since taking the throne in 871, he has watched them conquer kingdom after kingdom until nearly half of England lies under their control. He won’t be able to keep his young nun daughter, Aethelgifu, safe from the Vikings for long. His older daughter, Aethelflaed, now has to team up with the neighboring kingdom of Mercia by marrying its lord and join the battle.
#Dorothy Whitelock, Encyclopedia Britannica article on Alfred King of Wessex (2026).
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alfred-king-of-Wessex
#Julian Richards, Viking age England (Tempus, 2004), pg. 35.
https://archive.org/details/vikingageengland0000rich/page/8/mode/2up
#Britannica Editors, Encyclopedia Britannica article on Vikings (2026).
The princess may not have been raised to fight Vikings, but she’s about to become their worst nightmare.
#Kim Klimek, Aethelflaed: History and legend, Quidditas: 34, Article 2 (2013), pp. 11-28.
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1086&context=rmmra
3 VIKING HUNTING
At first, Aethelflaed’s husband leads the fight. But when he falls ill around 902, Mercia suddenly finds itself ruled by a woman. A lady leading a kingdom is unusual, but with her land and her younger sister still living in the shadow of Viking raids, she is determined to strike back by bringing out the heavy artillery.
#Kim Klimek, Aethelflaed: History and legend, Quidditas, 34, Article 2 (2013), pp. 11-28.
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1086&context=rmmra
When the Vikings gather around the city of Chester in 907, Aethelflaed’s soldiers greet them by pouring boiling water over them to burn their flesh and bones. As the invaders scream and stumble back, legend has it that Mercia’s soldiers hurl beehives at them to secure the kill.
#Kim Klimek, Aethelflaed: History and legend, Quidditas, 34, Article 2 (2013), pp. 11-28.
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1086&context=rmmra
#E.E.C. Gomme (trans.) The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (Chiswick Press, 1909), pg. 77.
https://avalon.law.yale.edu/medieval/ang10.asp
#Joan Radner (trans.), Fragmentary Annals of Ireland, Electronic ed. version 2 (University College Cork, CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts, 2008), pg. 173.
While Aethelflaed crushes the raiders in the North, her brother Edward, now king of Wessex, is clearing the South. They are the ultimate Viking-hunting team, so when their enemies start creeping closer to their sister’s abbey, they know exactly what to do.
#Frank Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England (Clarendon Press, 1971), pg. 323.
https://archive.org/details/anglosaxonenglan0000sten/page/322/mode/2up?q=tettenhall
4 NUN SHALL PASS
Years of poor health have left Aethelgifu in no condition to run. So her siblings decide to send their forces to meet the Vikings.
#Simon Keynes & Michael Lapidge (trans. & Eds.), Alfred the Great: Asser's life of King Alfred and other contemporary sources. (Penguin Books, 1983), pg. 256. https://archive.org/details/alfredgreatasser0000asse/page/n5/mode/2up?q=Shaftesbury
Their armies catch up with them near Tettenhall, where the Viking-hunter siblings split their formation to enclose the Norsemen, cutting off any hope of escape.
All the raiders can do is form a shield wall, but Aethelflaed’s troops are relentless. They keep on pounding their exposed heads until their skulls crack. Even the Nordic Kings riding with the horde aren’t spared from the massacre. By the end of the battle, one of the strongest Viking armies in England is gone.
#Frank Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England (Clarendon Press, 1971).
https://archive.org/details/anglosaxonenglan0000sten/page/322/mode/2up?q=tettenhall
#William Welsh, Laying waste to everything: Viking Tactics in West Francia, Medieval Warfare, 7 (2017), pp. 16–19.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/48578076
#Stephan Pollington, The English warrior: From earliest times to 1066 (Anglo-Saxon Books, 2006), pp. 123-124.
Not long after the battle, Aethelflaed’s husband, the Lord of Mercia, dies. But that’s okay. By now, everyone knows who is really leading the fight.
Britannica Editors, Enclycopedia Britannica Article on Aethelflaed (2026).
5 RING OF FIRE
To stop the invaders from pushing farther south and reaching her sister’s abbey, Aethelflaed builds fortified towns at strategic locations, drawing a ring around Mercia that no raider can break.
#Britannica Editors, Encyclopedia Article on Aethelflaed (2026).
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Aethelflaed
#Matt Lewis, Æthelflæd, lady of the Mercians, Gone Medieval Podcast (July 13, 2021).
https://shows.acast.com/gone-medieval/episodes/aethelflaed-lady-of-the-mercians
For the next seven years, Aethelflaed rules with an iron fist. When she’s not commanding soldiers or fortresses, she’s securing alliances with the Irish and Welsh to finish off her enemies.
#Kim Klimek, Aethelflaed: History and legend, Quidditas 34, Article 2 (2013), pp. 11-28.
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1086&context=rmmra
By 918, the Vikings know it's time to jump ship. Some raiders who have occupied York for nearly half a century swear allegiance to her, even willing to fight against her last enemies and form part of her government.
#E.E.C. Gomme (trans.), The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. (Chiswick Press, 1909), pg. 81.
But before she can finish the conquest, her heart of steel finally gives out.
Her daughter is chosen as the next Lady of Mercia. But Aethelflaed’s brother is done sharing his power and takes away his niece’s crown. Some say she then spent the rest of her days as a nun.
#E.E.C. Gomme (trans.), The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (Chiswick Press, 1909), pg. 81.
The king may be trying to erase Aethelflaed’s legacy, but monasteries see her as a martyr and immortalize her story in the Mercian register. The mighty Viking hunter who consecrated her life to keep bloodthirsty raiders away from their chapels.
#Kim Klimek, Aethelflaed: History and legend, Quidditas 34, Article 2 (2013), pp. 11-28.
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1086&context=rmmra
Here we’d like to give you a little more information about Aethelflaed:
She played a crucial role in unifying England:
Because Aethelflaed had extended her influence into Wales and Northumbria, Edward was able to assert his authority over these regions as well. Thus, almost all of England came under his control.
Source: Britannica Editors, Encyclopedia Article on (2026, June 8). Aethelflaed (2026).
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Aethelflaed
Her story was intentionally erased:
The few Anglo-Saxon mentions of Aethelflaed outlined the basics of her place in history as a small part in the unification of England from Alfred to Aethelstan.
Historian Christine Fell notes the West Saxon bias of much of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and considers that suppression of women’s achievements could be more about their place of birth than their sex (Wessex wanted to prove its superiority over the the rest of the Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Danish kingdoms, so that could be part of the reason why her story was erased).
Source: Kim Klimek, Aethelflaed: History and legend," Quidditas 34, Article 2 (2013).
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1086&context=rmmra
She left behind important infrastructure to defend England:
The burghal system of Wessex “became a tool for conquest and territorial consolidation. . . by Edward the Elder, Ealdorman Aethelred and the Lady Aethelflaed. . . .” (...) While Aethelflaed concentrated on building burhs in the northwest portion of Mercia, Edward built fortifications in the east, only moving north after his sister’s death.
Source: Kim Klimek, Aethelflaed: History and legend," Quidditas 34, Article 2 (2013).
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1086&context=rmmra