Aidan of Lindisfarne was an Irish monk and missionary credited with converting the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity in Northumbria. He founded a monastic cathedral on the island of Lindisfarne, known as Lindisfarne Priory, served as its first bishop, and travelled ceaselessly throughout the countryside, spreading the gospel to both the Anglo-Saxon nobility and the socially disenfranchised.
Stained glass at Holy Cross Monastery
Ceiling fresco in St. Oswald Church, Bad Schussenried, Germany: King Oswald of Northumbria translates the sermon of Aidan into the Anglo-Saxon language, by Andreas Meinrad von Ow, 1778.
The tomb of St Aidan, St Aidan's Church, Bamburgh
Modern statue of St. Aidan beside the ruins of the medieval priory on Lindisfarne
The Anglo-Saxons were a cultural group that inhabited much of what is now England in the Early Middle Ages, and spoke Old English. They traced their origins to Germanic settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. Although the details are not clear, their cultural identity developed out of the interaction of these settlers with the pre-existing Romano-British culture. Over time, most of the people of what is now southern, central, northern and eastern England came to identify as Anglo-Saxon and speak Old English. Danish and Norman invasions later changed the situation significantly, but their language and political structures are the direct predecessors of the medieval Kingdom of England, and the Middle English language. Although the modern English language owes somewhat less than 26% of its words to Old English, this includes the vast majority of words used in everyday speech.
Page with Chi Rho monogram from the Gospel of Matthew in the Lindisfarne Gospels c. 700, possibly created by Eadfrith of Lindisfarne in memory of Cuthbert
King Æthelstan presenting a gospel book to (the long-dead) St Cuthbert (934); Corpus Christi College, Cambridge MS 183, fol. 1v
The Oseberg ship prow, Viking Ship Museum, Oslo, Norway.
Anglo-Saxon-Viking coin weight. Material is lead and weighs approx 36 g. Embedded with a sceat dating to 720–750 AD and minted in Kent. It is edged with a dotted triangle pattern. Origin is the northern Danelaw region, and it dates from the late 8th to 9th century.