Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron. Evil genius. He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it. That's like hiding at your own funeral. Yeah, it's a big, great gig. I'm Russell Kane. Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius. Becoming that rich, I'd say that at some level of genius. It also helps that it's a long time ago, right?

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North East England, where we are right now, has a unique and bloody claim to fame.

It was here, just a few miles up the road from Gateshead, that the curtain officially opened on the

Viking Age. And, as you might expect from the Vikings, it opened to reveal a stage soaked

with blood. In early Anglo-Saxon England, the island monastery of Lindisfarne was fabulously wealthy and powerful. To give you some

idea of their clout, it was here that the Lindisfan Gospels were created in around 700 AD. If you saw the

exhibition in Durham this summer, you'll know that the manuscript crawls with densely knotted interlaced patterns,

thickly textured with coloured in gold leaf. This was a serious status symbol, the medieval monastic

equivalent of a gold-plated Ferrari with bells, whistles and knobs on. Who was in control of North East England?

Well, when it came to religion,

the mighty monks of Lindisfarne were top of the tree.

But books and prayers were no defence

against axes and swords wielded by hairy heathens from across the North Sea.

In 793 AD, the Vikings fell upon Lindisfarne.

Their shocking, brutal attack is recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, where it's foreshadowed

by terrible omens in the Northumbrian sky.

We're told, in this year, it came dreadful portents over the land of the Northumbrians,

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