The Vikings are Coming!

Create your own exciting story from early Irish history.

The year is AD 750 and you're a girl living in a small coastal community. It's no more than a townland: a collection of small houses, with barns and sheds for grain and livestock.

There's a church as well. It's small but has a striking feature: a round tower. You and the other villagers call it the "bell-tower", because that is what it is. It could be compared to the minaret attached to a mosque, except in this case it's the tolling of the bell that calls the people to prayer.

The round tower has a second purpose. It's used as a lookout post. These are dangerous times for the people who live on or near the northeastern coasts of Ireland. The Vikings can attack without warning.

Pirates of the Irish Sea

The word "Viking" probably began life as a verb meaning piracy – just as you'd tell your mates "I'm going hiking" you could probably say in those times "I'm going viking", meaning "I'm going off to plunder and pillage."

"Wik" or "vik" is an old Norse word with the same root as our "wicker". It likely meant a rough hut built of osiers or wickerwork. A Wikinger, or Viking, would have been somebody living in a camp consisting of that type of crude hut.

The Vikings were more than pirates, however. They were great traders, who journeyed as far south as the Mediterranean, and as far west as the coast of America. Eventually they would settle in Ireland and build cities such as Waterford, Dublin and Carlingford.

But in AD 750, the year in which your story is set, they were a menace, and a serious danger to those living on or near the coast.

The story from the Irish point of view

The protagonist – the heroine of your tale – is a girl of your own age. She lives in a small community on or near the coast of County Louth (although it wouldn't be called that in AD 750).

Shortly after dawn on a summer's morning she's alerted to the approach of a Viking ship: somebody calls out a warning from the round tower and rings the bell.

Your heroine must somehow elude the Vikings. If she's caught she risks being sold into slavery, as do the children. The men risk death. They arm themselves and prepare to engage the Norse marauders.

In this, the first part of your story, your heroine succeeds in escaping. But something happens to plunge her into danger. This is how your first part ends. The tension is nail-biting.

The story from the Viking point of view

This is your chance to do several things. First, you can describe the Irish coastline and village as seen by somebody arriving for the first time.

Next, show the landing from the point of view of one of the Vikings. He's a pirate and warrior but all the same is nervous. None of the ship's crew knows what's in store for them when they land. There may even be a huge force awaiting them. They can take nothing for granted in this strange, foreign country.

You Viking is a real person, with hopes and fears. Give him a real personality. Show how he interacts with his comrades. Perhaps they are fifty in number, perhaps fewer.

He will eventually meet you heroine. What's going to happen?