A Mass Mystery

Thirteen hundred and fifty years ago, in AD 653,. four priests were sent from the kingdom of Northumbria, England to a small town named Repton. Their mission was to convert the Mercian royal family from their paganism so that a royal wedding could take place. Repton, became the first location  where Christianity was first preached in the English Midlands.

Christianity soon spread and, before long, a double abbey had been established. This church of St. Wystan  achieved the status of a royal shrine and its crypt  became used for  royal burials.  Wigstan, was a prince of Mercia who was murdered by his guardian in 849. His remains were buried in the crypt at Repton and miracles were ascribed to them.

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All was quiet and peaceful . However, the tranquility of the Abbey and its religious life was shattered in the winter of 873-4 when the marauding Viking armies, having sailed up the rivers Humber and Trent, decided to land their boats at  their location, having found its dry riverside suitable for making their winter encampment. Residents who came to greet them were greeted by warriors who showed no mercy as they killed all who dared to challenge them.

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 These pagan vikings had no use for the religious building except to incorporate it as a strongpoint in their defensive fortifications. From it,  they dug two deep ditches, both curving round until they enclosed a D-shaped area of some 3.5 acres between the abbey and the river. The Vikings enclosed their camp with a bank and ditch and incorporated the stone church into their defenses.

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 One side of this enclosure was defended by the river Trent, the other sides were defended by earthworks. The tower of the Anglo-Saxon church was used as a gatehouse.Outside of the encampment, to the west, the Vikings had desecrated another Anglo-Saxon mausoleum. They leveled the existing two roomed structure and buried an important warrior in the center of one of the rooms. They placed the bones of at least 250 individuals around this grave and covered it with a mound. The remains were apparently gathered from various graves and heaped in one location.

Bones in disarray

 There were no traces of battle wounds on many, and these people probably died of disease. The bones were collected from their original graves to make this great Viking burial. There are little, if no, grave arrangements except for that of a collection of warrior artifacts surrounding the remains of a long skeleton possibly surrounded by his needs in the next world. The remains of 250 fellow-warriors bones seem to have been of soldiers who had died during the campaign, apparently exhumed and piled in the chamber to lie with the body of their leader.

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 The cause of many of these events is, of course, due to the constant raiding and battles for kingdoms, and plunder,  but one in particular stands out in history. In Norse legend at this Viking-raids period, none was more famous than Norwegian "Ragnar Lodbrok", or “Hairy-Breeches”.   He turned his viking army against Northumbria, England . According to a Scandinavian story, during one of these raids,  he was captured by King Ella of Northumbria, and was thrown into a snake-pit to die. When this news was heard in the Scandinavian area, his four sons vowed to return the favor. Their vicious attack avenged the death of their father by destroying the Northumbria area, and killing the reigning king in a typically gruesome manner. One of these sons was known to be called “Ivar the Boneless”, possibly the brother of “Healfdeane”, one of the leaders of the Viking force at Repton in 873-4. Ivar was noted as a man of exceptional cruelty and ferocity, and his nickname may indicate that he lacked legs, or may simply mean that he was long-legged or tall. It is possible that "Ivan", the avenging son may be the tall Viking skeleton surrounded by his men
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Women had accompanied their men and settled in camp with their families. Many were killed in battle, while others may have died due to  diseases. In time, the raids discontinued and Vikings integrated with the local people of Ireland and England, resulting in the establishment of several English-Scandinavian  cities of Cork, Dublin, Limerick and Waterford

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Women may have accompanied male Vikings in those early invasions of England. Rather than being ravaging rovers, later Viking raiders may have been arriving as marriage-minded colonists. The church of St. Wystan lives on, while the skeletal remains in the area remain unidentified and a mystery.