評論
打印
For Bede and St Wilfred,it was crucial that the Roman, not the Irish Celtic church that won over Britain.
對比德與圣威爾弗雷德而言 羅馬戰勝愛爾蘭的凱爾特教會贏得不列顛 意義非凡
What they passionately desired was the reconnection of a converted country with its Roman mother.A true homecoming.
他們醉心與讓這個皈依它教的國家 再次回歸母國羅馬的懷抱 一次真正的回歸
The authority of the Roman Saxon church though didn't guarantee protection.
然而羅馬撒克遜教會卻從未保證 保護他們的安全
Bede himself had had forebodings before he died in 735.
比德在735年去世前 就曾有預言
Sure enough, half a century later, in 793,the Anglo-Saxon chronicle reports.
果真在半個世紀后的793年 盎格魯-撒克遜編年史中記載道
Dire portents appeared over Northumbria.
諾森布里亞彌漫著兇兆
Immense whirlwinds and flashes of lightning and fiery dragons were seen flying through the air.
狂風大作 雷電交加 人們看到火龍在空中飛躥
A great famine followed.
一次大饑荒隨之而來
And a little after that,on the 8th June, the ravages of heathen men miserably destroyed God's church at Lindisfarne.
不久后的六月八日 野蠻人來襲 摧毀了林迪斯法恩修道院
The heathen men were of course, the Vikings.
當然 這些野蠻人便是維京海盜
If you look long and hard enough at any culture you'll find something good about it.
如果你長時間用心研究任何一種文明 定會找到它的優點所在
Historians of the Vikings,understandably distressed at the rape and pillage stereotype,
因此不難理解 人們對海盜"燒殺擄掠"的偏見 會讓維京史學家多么苦惱
have asked us lately to think of things other than sail, land,burn and plunder to say about the Vikings.
他們近來呼吁我們將傳統的對維京人 航海-登陸-燒殺劫掠的印象拋開
They've said, Look at their metalwork,their ships, the great poetic sagas.
去關注他們的金屬工藝 船只和那些壯麗的史詩般英雄傳說
Now we know the Vikings did come bearing something other than a nasty attitude.
而如今我們知道維京人的船上裝載的 不光是卑劣狼籍的名聲
They came carrying amber, fur and walrus ivory.
還有琥珀 皮草以及海象牙
Somehow, though, this vision of the Vikings as rapid-transit, long-distance commercial travellers,
然而不知為何 維京人作為 快捷的遠洋旅行商
singing their sagas as they sail to a new market opening,I don't think that would have cut much ice with the priests
一路高歌著英雄傳奇前往新市場的形象 我想 并未影響到牧師對他們的印象
here at the cathedral of Bradwell-on-Sea,just a crab scuttle away from the area where I grew up, on the Essex shore.
在我長大的埃塞克斯郡的海濱 海濱布拉德韋爾 這一形象只是曇花一現
