Havoc on Holy Island

In placid halls beside the tide

The tiresome scrape of quill on hide

Passes every plodding hour

In the care of a hollow power

Lying alone, treasures abound

Spells sent forth throughout the lands

But stubborn hearts are not beguiled

Beyond the waves a wrath is riled

Longships break the waters

Dragonfire paints the sky

Anger rends the silence

Harried by a wild warcry

Relics through ravaged altars

White Christ servants flee

Havoc on Holy Island

Punishment from the sea

A lonesome life they embrace

Walled within this hallowed space

Toiling for a higher cause

Loyal slaves to heavenly laws

Macabre rites with rag and bone

Praise to corporal idols shown

But empty words cannot resist

Whirlwinds wreck the fragile bliss

Solo: Wulfstan

So he bade them go, carry forth

To the daunting halls of the north

Promise of salvation they brought

Pilgrims in a distant domain

Wily words spreading like a plague

So was a land led astray

'Her wæron reðe forebecna cumene ofer Norðhymbra land,...ormete þodenas and ligrescas, and fyrenne dracan wæron gesewene on þam lifte fleogende. Þam tacnum sona fyligde mycel hunger,...[and] earmlice hæþenra manna hergunc adilegode Godes cyrican in Lindisfarnaee...' - AS Chronicle 793

(Here came dreadful forewarnings over the land of the Northumbrians: huge whirlwinds and flashes of light, and firey dragons flying in the sky. After these tokens soon followed much hunger, and the harrying of wretched heathen men destroyed God's church on Lindisfarne.)

Longships break the waters

Dragonfire paints the sky

Anger rends the silence

Harried by a wild warcry

Relics through ravaged altars

White Christ servants flee

Havoc on Holy Island

Punishment from the sea