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and France for such commodities ; later on, captives
were sold in Ireland or carried east to Esthonia and
Russia. But in January 793 a cargo of English monks
could not have been taken so far with profit, and
there is no hint here or elsewhere that the Vikings
took prisoners with the definite intention of holding
them to ransom, except in a much later period when
all the circumstances had changed, as in the sack of
Canterbury, 1012. They carried off their captives to
sell in some distant port ; but where ?
Everything seems to indicate that this attack came
from the south. We have hints of previous plundering
on French and English coasts, and Roger de
Hoveden, a north-country writer, says that before the
attack on Lindisfarne there had been attempts on
the Northumbrian coast. The earlier Scandinavian
boat, long and shallow and with great, top-heavy sail
was not built for crossing the North Sea in winter.
Alcuin indeed wrote, "Nothing like their mode of
navigation has ever been heard of before," and the
adventure was in any case a remarkable achievement.
Still the coast route must have been the one followed
on this occasion ; and the sudden, decisive attack
upon the weakest point, the rich, undefended island,
showed previous knowledge and a well-laid plan of
action. We cannot help feeling that the "wolves"
were led by a fox whose earth lay somewhere nearer
than Norway or even Denmark ; and that as Christian
nations had set the example of raiding, so now a
"Christian" employer showed the way and profited
by the work—some one at least who lived in a country
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