Lindisfarne Monastery
The Men of the North
The Dark Ages: Age of Light
Lindisfarne Monastery
So far, on this artistic journey through the Dark Ages, we have been hugging the Mediterranean and following the sun. But the Dark Ages wouldn’t be as significant as they were in the story of art if they had stayed in the south. To be properly influential, they needed also to venture north.
This is Lindisfarne, high up on the north coast of Britain. Holy Island they call it. This monastery you see there was founded early in the seventh
century by an Irish monk called Aidan.
What a place to build a monastery, eh? Cut off from the mainland, beaten up by the sea. It’s so out of the way and impractical and that’s
precisely why it was chosen.
The Irish monks who founded Lindisfarne weren’t looking for an easy life, they were looking for difficulties to conquer. These were hard-core Northern Christians who had isolated themselves up here on purpose, who worked their fingers to the bone and created something out of nothing.
As they saw it, Jesus had sacrificed his life for them so the least they could do was sacrifice their comfort.
The hard-core determination of the Lindisfarne monks shows not only in the miraculous building of the great monastery but also in the stunning book art they made up here.
So intricate, so detailed, so difficult. And that’s the thing about the North’s contribution to the art of the Dark Ages. What it achieved, is achieved by going the extra mile, working the extra hour, adding the extra detail. Nothing was given to it on a plate.
