Hello, my name is Mrs. Tipping and I am really looking forward to learning with you today all about the Vikings.

And we're going to explore the question, why did they come to the British Isles? So shall we get started? Let's go.

By the end of today's lesson, you will be able to describe the early Viking raids on the island of Lindisfarne.

Before we start, I would like to introduce you to some keywords.

We'll be using these keywords during the lesson, so it might be a good idea to write these words down.

The keywords will be using today are raid priory, longboat, manuscript, Monk.

I'm gonna say those again and I would like you to repeat them after me.

Raid, priory, longboat, manuscript, monk.

Good job.

Let's think in more detail about what these keywords mean.

Here are the definitions of our keywords.

A raid is a rapid surprise attack usually involving stealing something.

A priory is a building lived in by a community who follow religious vows.

A longboat is a long light and slender boat that the Vikings use to travel.

A manuscript is a book or document written by hand.

A monk is a member of a religious community of men.

Pause the video here to make a note of these keywords.

And when you are ready to continue, press play.

These are the learning cycles that we will be working through together in today's lesson.

How did the Vikings attack Lindisfarne priory? Why did the Vikings raid Lindisfarne priory? So in the first learning cycle, we will explore how the Vikings attacked Lindisfarne priory.

It's the year 793.

This year, dire fore warnings came over the land of the North-humbrians, and miserably terrified the people, and these were excessive whirlwinds and lightnings and fiery dragons were seen flying in the air.

A great famine soon followed these tokens, and a little after that, in the same year on the sixth before the Ides of January, the ravaging of heathen men lamentably destroyed God's church at Lindisfarne through rapine and slaughter.

What do you think this information is describing? Take a moment.

Some interesting words within that information, isn't there? and not particularly at the end of this information.

What do you think it's describing? Well, this is an excerpt from something called the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

That's a book of historical events that lots of different authors have written about.

And in this excerpt, it is describing an attack on a place called Lindisfarne.

The heathen men that it describes were part of a civilization of warriors, farmers, and craftsmen from Northern Europe and Scandinavia, and they're known as the Vikings.

Now, although it mentions in this information that fiery dragons were seen flying in the air, there weren't actual dragons there.

It is thought that those who wrote about this event use the fiery dragons as a metaphor to vividly describe the destruction that could be seen.

So it must have been quite a terrifying event.

The Vikings first invaded Britain in 793 CE.

The first major Viking raid in Britain was the attack on Lindisfarne priory.

A priory is a religious building where monks or nuns live.

Lindisfarne priory was built on a small island of the northeast coast of England.

You can see in the image there, the photo of the ruins of Lindisfarne priory that are there to be seen today.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

A building lived in by a community who follows religious vows is called a priory church or cathedral.

What do you think? Pause the video here.

And when you are ready to continue, press play.

What did you think? If you said a priory, you are absolutely right.

Well done.

When the people of Britain first saw the Viking Longboats, they came down to the shore to welcome them.

However, the Vikings fought the local people stealing from the churches and burning buildings to the ground.

Now, physical evidence for the raid at Lindisfarne is scarce, but a stone known as the Doomsday Stone or Viking Raider stone was uncovered at the priory on the island.

It is believed the stone shows the atrocities of the raid and is on display at the English Heritage Lindisfarne Priory Museum.

Take a look at that photo of the Doomsday stone there.

We can see depicts those Viking Raiders, doesn't it? With all their weapons would've been quite a terrifying event.

Let's take a moment to pause.

When did the Vikings raid Lindisfarne Priory? In 790 CE, 783 CE, or 793 CE? Have a quick discussion with your partner.

Pause the video here, and when you are ready to continue, press play.

What did you think? If you said 793 CE, you're absolutely right.

Well done.

Now, the Vikings were great travellers and sailed all over Europe and the Atlantic Ocean in longboats.

The boats usually carried around 30 warriors.

They were able to approach land attack and leave quickly from their longboats.

Longboats could sail in shallow water, which meant the Vikings could travel up rivers as well as across the sea.

The longboats were used in battle and were long light and slender so they could move around quickly.

They were built from shaped wooden planks, held together with iron rivets and wooden frames.

Any gaps were sealed with animal hair to make them waterproof.

The long longboats had a square sail and a mast, but also could be rode if there was no wind.

The longboat could have between 24 to 50 oars.

The prow at the front of the boat was often a dragon or a snake head.

As the Vikings hoped this would frighten evil spirits away.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

Can you describe to your partner why the design of Viking longboats made them effective for raids? Pause the video here and take some time to describe to your partner why the design of Viking Longboats made them effective for raids.

And restart the video when you are ready to continue.

How did that go? Shall we take a look at an example? You might have said something like this.

"The longboats were designed to sail in shallow water so they could travel across rivers and seas.

They were also made long, light, and slender, which meant they were quick.

This made longboats effective for raids." Well done if you were able to describe something similar.

We're now ready to have a go at our first learning task.

I would like you to write two or three sentences to describe how the Vikings raided Lindisfarne priory.

You may want to include 793 CE Longboat, coast, and fought.

So pause the video here, make sure you've got yourself a pen and some paper, and give yourself enough time to write two or three sentences to describe how the Vikings raided Lindisfarne priory.

Pause the video here and when you are ready to continue, press play.

How did that go? Shall we take a look at an example? So your description may have included, "In 793 CE, the Vikings travelled across the rivers and sea to the coast of Lindisfarne in a longboat.

The long light and slender design of the longboat meant the Vikings could raid Lindisfarne Priory quickly.

They fought local people, stole things, and burned buildings to the ground.

Well done for completing that learning task.

We're now gonna move on to the second part of this lesson.

We're gonna explore why the Vikings raided Lindisfarne Priory.

The first targets for the Vikings raids were all religious buildings like monasteries, priories and churches.

Hmm, I wonder why that was.

Well, they were convenient targets as the monasteries and priories which first fell to the Vikings were located near the coast.

Although the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle gives a January date for the raid on Lindisfarne, other sources make clear it was in June and it would make sense as the seas would've been calmer and easier to travel across.

It would've been pointless for the Raiders to go further inland when there were such easy targets close to the shore.

And Lindisfarne Priory was very wealthy and packed with treasures.

So you can see the coast of Lindisfarne there, how easy it would be for the Vikings to take their longboats onto the coast and to raid the prairie and then to leave quickly again.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

Is this statement true or false? Religious buildings were an easy target for the Vikings.

Is that true or false? What do you think? If you said that that is true, you're absolutely right.

So how do we justify our answer? Here are two statements.

They were near the coast.

They were in the villages.

So what helps to justify your answer? Which of these two statements? Have a quick discussion with your partner, pause the video here, and when you are ready to continue, press play.

What did you think? If you said they were near the coast, you're absolutely right, well done.

Priories like those in Lindisfarne, were centres of manuscript production and filled with valuable religious objects.

Manuscripts were beautifully illustrated.

Books handwritten by monks.

Lindisfarne was founded around 635 CE and became one of the most important places to visit in the area after reports of miracles linked with its Bishop St.

Cuthbert.

It is said that after St.

Cuthbert's death, when the monks opened his coffin, they found his body in a perfect state of preservation.

And this raised him to sainthood.

Following this event, people regularly came to Lindisfarne to pray to the Saint, hoping for answers to their prayers and St.

Cuthbert's protection for themselves and their communities.

Visitors gave the priory priory rich gifts as much as they could afford in return for the continued miracles and protection they hoped for.

Ah, so that's why there were so many valuable objects within the priory because of St.

Cuthbert's protection and miracles that people came and prayed for.

Now, during the raids, the Vikings murdered monks and stole those precious objects for trade and to increase their own wealth.

So it would've been quite terrifying to be involved in one of those raids.

Now, after the raid at Lindisfarne, the Vikings continued to raid other priories and monasteries across the British Isles.

In 794, CE Viking Longboats ransacked the monastery of Jarrow in Northumbria.

In 795 CE, the Vikings raided sites in Ireland in the same year and again in 802 CE, they struck the monastery of Iona in Scotland.

And in the Vikings third attack on Iona in 806 CE 68 monks were killed, and many of the others fled to safety in the monastery of Kell's County Meath Island.

Soon, no area of the British Isles was safe from the Viking raids.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

Why did the Vikings raid monasteries, priories and churches? To murder monks, to steal valuable objects, to write manuscripts.

Pause the video here.

Have a quick discussion with your partner.

What do you think? Why did the Vikings raid monasteries priories and churches? And when you're ready to continue, press play.

What did you think? If you said to steal valuable objects, you're absolutely right, well done.

This brings us to our final learning task.

The Vikings raided Lindisfarne and other monasteries, priories and churches because they wanted to murder the monks.

Using what you have learned, explain why this statement is incorrect.

Give two reasons why the Vikings raided Lindisfarne.

So pause the video here and give yourself enough time to explain why this statement is incorrect, and to give two reasons why the Vikings raided Lindisfarne.

When you are ready to continue, press play.

How did you get on? What did you think? Were you able to explain why this statement is incorrect? Let's take a look at an example.

So this statement is incorrect because the Vikings raided Lindisfarne for the valuable religious objects.

They also raided Lindisfarne because it was an easy target located on the coast.

So well done if you were able to explain and give those two reasons why the Vikings actually raided Lindisfarne priory.

Well done for completing that learning task.

Now, before we finish this lesson, let's summarise what we've learned about early Viking raids.

We've certainly learn a lot.

The attack on Lindisfarne Priory in 793 CE was the first major Viking raid on the British Isles.

The Vikings arrived in longboats, which could land attack and leave quickly.

Priories like the one on Lindisfarne made manuscripts and were filled with valuable religious objects, the Vikings murdered monks and stole these valuable objects for trade and their own wealth.

Thank you for joining me in the lesson today.

It was certainly interesting and I learned a lot.

I hope to see you in the next lesson.

See you next time.