Beginnings英国起源(34)

Sure enough, half a century later, in 793, the Anglo-Saxon chronicle reports: Dire portents appeared over Northumbria. Immense whirlwinds and flashes of lightning and fiery dragons were seen flying through the air. A great famine followed. And a little after that, on the June 8th, the ravages of heathen men miserably destroyed God's church at Lindisfarne. The heathen men were, of course, the Vikings. If you look long enough and hard enough at almost any culture, you're going to find something good to say about it. And historians of the Vikings, understandably distressed at the rape and pillage stereotype, have asked us lately to think of things other than sail, land, burn and plunder to say about the Vikings. They've said, "Look at their metalwork, look at their ships, look at the great poetic sagas."

果真在半个世纪后的793年，盎格鲁-撒克逊编年史中记载道：诺森布里亚弥漫着凶兆，狂风大作，雷电交加，人们看到火龙在空中飞蹿，一次大饥荒随之而来。不久后的六月八日，野蛮人来袭，摧毁了林迪斯法恩（林迪斯法恩:又称"圣岛"现位于纽卡斯尔与爱丁堡之间）修道院。当然，这些野蛮人便是维京海盗。如果你长时间用心研究任何一种文明，定会找到它的优点所在。因此不难理解，人们对海盗"烧杀掳掠"的偏见，会让维京史学家多么苦恼。他们近来呼吁我们将传统的对维京人，"航海-登陆-烧杀劫掠"的印象抛开，去关注他们的金属工艺，船只和那些壮丽的史诗般英雄传说。