The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reported the year 793 began with visions of frightening omens, lightening storms, high winds, famine and flying dragons. In June, from across the sea, three Viking ships left Scandinavia and arrived on the shore of England. A high ranking official had been sent to greet them but he was killed on the spot. 
The Vikings approached the monastery. They did not come to pray with the monks. They slaughtered them then grabbed everything of value: gold and silver chalices, silk vestments and altar cloths.
"And they came to the church of Lindisfarne, laid everything waste with grievous plundering, trampled the holy places with polluted feet, dug up the altars and seized all the treasures of the holy church. They killed some of the brothers; some they took away with them in fetters; many they drove out, naked and loaded with insults; and some they drowned in the sea."
This tragedy is the first clearly dated event in the saga of the Vikings. But it wasn't the last. The years 795, 802 and 805 saw raids on the island of Iona off of Scotland. The British Isles costs were dotted with monasteries, rich and ripe to attract Viking raiders.
By 820, the Irish Annals of Ulster recorded: "The sea spewed forth floods of foreigners over Erin, so that no haven, no landing-place, no stronghold, no fort, no castle might be found, but it was submerged by waves of Vikings and pirates."
From 830 to 860, Vikings attacked almost every single year. An Irish King, Aed Finnliath, fought back with his troops destroying the Viking settlements in the north. The Vikings moved south and ravaged monasteries and sanctuaries, destroying and stealing books and reliquaries are they went. In 867, a monastery in Scotland was raided. News reached the Mother Superior who gathered her nuns around urging them to disfigure themselves in hopes to prevent being violated. She cut off her nose and upper lip and the nuns proceeded to do the same. The Vikings were repelled and burned the entire building to the ground with the nuns inside.
Even monasteries set on inland rivers were thought to be secure. They fell victim to the Vikings. Their graceful, narrow, lightweight and virile looking longships could row upstream. These boats were fast and could be navigated in waters barely over three feet deep. They could quickly dock and were light enough carry over ground. They traveled from Ireland to Russia, Iceland to Greenland and even as far west as Newfoundland.
The Vikings did not destroy, demolish and devastate because they could. They organized and strategized to colonize these lands. The vigor, vitality and restlessness that the Vikings showed in their raids spilled over to their art. The metal work, stone and wood carvings leave behind a characteristic quite opposite of that of the merciless and brutal barbarian. Their style had gracefully curving and intertwining lines. It was expressive and dynamic. Contorted and distorted. Deftly carved, very controlled and creates a memorizing rhythm.
Only a small number of Viking objects survive.
I've always had a thing for the Vikings. When I first learned about them in my budding pre-pubescent years in history class, I had a crush on Leif Ericsson as my other classmates were pining over David Cassidy.
I didn’t know about the nuns. They didn’t tell us about that in the fifth grade.
These manliest of men who weathered extreme and harsh freezing conditions, also kept themselves quite well groomed. The Irish said they had the strangest habits -- upon rising they washed their faces and trimmed their beards. Even their nose hairs. There is archaeological evidence of ear scoops.
They fastened their capes or fur-lined cloaks with intricate and ornate broaches.
Women fastened house keys to their broach as a sign of authority and rank. Keys were a symbol of female power while the sword was the sign for the man.
A Viking woman had rights in those days. Although she had no say who she could marry and her expected vocation was to run a household, she could divorce her husband if he mistreated her or her children. She could divorce him if he was lazy, a good-for-nothing provider or if insulted her family. The process of divorce was quite simple. All she had to do was call a witness and proclaim she was divorced from her husband at the front door and at their bed. Save on lawyer's fees. Everything a woman brought into a marriage was hers. It did not become the property of her husband. This must have saved quite a bit of time and energy from fighting over things when splitting up. Women even kept their last name upon marrying.
Not much furniture survived. Some beds were made to be quickly broken down and set up again on ships. Some had ornately carved and painted head-posts.
These stylized animals are fascinating. They cannot be identified in the natural world. Many designs of these animals were called Gripping Beast taking on a dragon like appearance. As time went on, the animal forms became thinner, more sinuous and began to arch sharply.
I don't know why people are attracted to various applied arts from different cultures. Some objects can strike a deep chord within us in just a moment, while other objects leave us tepid. But when it strikes it never seems to leave us, despite horrific stories about the people who made them.