Editor’s Note: Is it a coincidence that during these troubling times for our people, is it possible that now–at this turbulent time in history–the past is sending us a “strong” spiritual signal?
Judging from the opulence of his tomb, he was a revered Viking warrior destined to take his place in Valhalla among the honoured dead.
Laid to rest in a 17ft boat with his sword, axe and bronze drinking horn, the powerful Norseman’s burial site has been discovered by archaeologists in a remote part of the Scottish Highlands.
The grave, unearthed in Ardnamurchan, is the first of its kind to be found intact on the British mainland and is thought to date from 1,000AD – the height of the ‘Second Viking Age’.
For almost 200 years, from the end of the eighth century until the reign of Alfred the Great, Danish and Norwegian pirates had harassed and looted the British coast at will, and towards the end of that period moved further inland in a war of conquest.
But in the 870s, Alfred – and later his descendants – united England against the Viking invaders, driving them out of their English strongholds and back to Scandinavia.
They did not return for more than a century, and when they did, peace was shattered.