Rollo

Rollo (Norman: Rou; Old Norse: Hrólfr; French: Rollon; c. 860 – c. 930 AD) was a Viking who became the first ruler of Normandy, a region in northern France. He emerged as the outstanding warrior among the Norsemen who had secured a permanent foothold on Frankish soil in the valley of the lower Seine. After the Siege of Chartres in 911, Charles the Simple, the king of West Francia, ceded them lands between the mouth of the Seine and what is now Rouen in exchange for Rollo agreeing to end his brigandage, and provide the Franks with protection against future Viking raids.[4][5]

For other uses, see Rollo (disambiguation).

Rollo
Count of Rouen
Reign	911–928
Successor	William Longsword
Born	c. 846/860[1][2][3] Scandinavia
Died	c.930 (aged 69–70) Normandy
Burial	Rouen Cathedral
Spouse	Poppa of Bayeux Gisela of France (possibly)
Issue more	William Longsword Gerloc
House	Normandy (founder)
Religion	Norse Paganism later Roman Catholicism

Rollo is first recorded as the leader of these Viking settlers in a charter of 918, and he continued to reign over the region of Normandy until at least 928. He was succeeded by his son William Longsword in the Duchy of Normandy that he had founded.[6] The offspring of Rollo and his followers became known as the Normans. After the Norman conquest of England and their conquest of southern Italy and Sicily over the following two centuries, their descendants came to rule Norman England (the House of Normandy), much of the island of Ireland, the Kingdom of Sicily (the Kings of Sicily) as well as the Principality of Antioch from the 10th to 12th century, leaving behind an enduring legacy in the histories of Europe and the Near East.[7]

Name

The name Rollo is generally presumed to be a latinisation of the Old Norse name Hrólfr – a theory that is supported by the rendition of Hrólfr as Roluo in the Gesta Danorum. It is also sometimes suggested that Rollo may be a Latinised version of another Norse name, Hrollaugr.[8]

The 10th-century French historian Dudo records that Rollo took the baptismal name Robert.[9] A variant spelling, Rou, is used in the 12th-century Norman French verse chronicle Roman de Rou, which was compiled by Wace and commissioned by King Henry II of England, a descendant of Rollo.[10][11]

Origins and historiography

Statue of Rollo in Ålesund, Norway

Rollo was born in the mid-9th century; his place of birth is almost definitely located in the region of Scandinavia, although it is uncertain whether he is Danish or Norwegian. The earliest well-attested historical event associated with Rollo is his part in leading the Vikings who besieged Paris in 885–886 but were fended off by Odo of France.[12][13][14]

Medieval sources contradict each other regarding whether Rollo's family was Norwegian or Danish in origin. In part, this disparity may result from the indifferent and interchangeable usage in Europe, at the time, of terms such as "Vikings", "Northmen", "Swedes", "Danes", "Norwegians" and so on (in the Medieval Latin texts Dani vel Nortmanni means 'Danes or Northmen').

A biography of Rollo, written by the cleric Dudo of Saint-Quentin in the late 10th century, claimed that Rollo was from Denmark (« Dacia »). One of Rollo's great-grandsons and a contemporary of Dudo was known as Robert the Dane. However, Dudo's Historia Normannorum (or Libri III de moribus et actis primorum Normanniae ducum) was commissioned by Rollo's grandson, Richard I of Normandy and – while Dudo likely had access to family members and/or other people with a living memory of Rollo – this fact must be weighed against the text's potential biases, as an official biography. According to Dudo, an unnamed king of Denmark was antagonistic to Rollo's family, including his father – an unnamed Danish nobleman – and Rollo's brother Gurim. Following the death of their father, Gurim was killed and Rollo was forced to leave Denmark.[15] Dudo appears to have been the main source for William of Jumièges (after 1066) and Orderic Vitalis (early 12th century), although both include additional details.[16]

A Norwegian background for Rollo was first explicitly claimed by Goffredo Malaterra (Geoffrey Malaterra), an 11th-century Benedictine monk and historian, who wrote: "Rollo sailed boldly from Norway with his fleet to the Christian coast."[17] Likewise, the 12th-century English historian William of Malmesbury stated that Rollo was "born of noble lineage among the Norwegians".[18]

A chronicler named Benoît (probably Benoît de Sainte-More) wrote in the mid-12th-century Chronique des ducs de Normandie that Rollo had been born in a town named "Fasge". This has since been variously interpreted as referring to Faxe, in Sjælland (Denmark), Fauske, in Hålogaland (Norway), or perhaps a more obscure settlement that has since been abandoned or renamed. Benoît also repeated the claim that Rollo had been persecuted by a local ruler and had fled from there to "Scanza island", by which Benoît probably means Scania (Swedish Skåne). While Faxe was physically much closer to Scania, the mountainous scenery of "Fasge", described by Benoît, would seem to be more like Fauske. Benoît says elsewhere in the Chronique that Rollo is Danish.[19]

Other historians have identified Rollo with Hrólf the Walker (Norse Göngu-Hrólfr; Danish Ganger-Hrólf) from the 13th-century Icelandic sagas, Heimskringla and Orkneyinga Saga. Hrólf the Walker was so named because he "was so big that no horse could carry him".[20] The Icelandic sources claim that Hrólfr was born in Trondhjem (now known as Trondheim)[21] in western Norway, in the late 9th century and that his parents were the Norwegian jarl Rognvald Eysteinsson ('Rognvald the Wise') and a noblewoman from Møre named Hildr Hrólfsdóttir. However, these claims were made three centuries after the history commissioned by Rollo's own grandson.

There may be circumstantial evidence for kinship between Rollo and his historical contemporary Ketill Flatnose, King of the Isles – a Norse realm centred on the Western Isles of Scotland. If, as Richer suggested, Rollo's father was also named Ketill and as Dudo suggested, Rollo had a brother named Gurim, such names are onomastic evidence for a family connection: Icelandic sources name Ketill Flatnose's father as Björn Grímsson,[22] and Grim – the implied name of Ketill Flatnose's paternal grandfather – was likely cognate with Gurim. In addition, both Irish and Icelandic sources suggest that Rollo, as a young man, visited or lived in Scotland, where he had a daughter named Cadlinar (Kaðlín, 'Kathleen').[23][24] Ketill Flatnose's ancestors were said to have come from Møre – Rollo's ancestral home in the Icelandic sources. However, Ketill was a common name in Norse societies,[25] as were names like Gurim and Grim.

Biography

Dudo tells us that Rollo seized Rouen in 876. He is supported by the contemporary chronicler Flodoard, who records that Robert of the Breton March waged a campaign against the Vikings, who nearly levelled Rouen and other settlements; eventually, he conceded "certain coastal provinces" to them.[26]

According to Dudo, Rollo struck up a friendship in England with a king that Dudo calls Alstem. This has puzzled many historians, but recently the puzzle has been resolved by recognition that this refers to Guthrum, the Danish leader whom Alfred the Great baptised with the baptismal name Athelstan, and then recognised as king of the East Angles in 880.[27][28]

Dudo records that when Rollo took Bayeux by force, he carried off with him the beautiful Popa or Poppa, a daughter of Berenger, Count of Rennes, took her in marriage and with her had their son and Rollo's heir, William Longsword.[29]

Rollo's grave at the Cathedral of Rouen

There are few contemporary mentions of Rollo. In 911, Robert I of France, brother of Odo, again defeated another band of Viking warriors in Chartres with his well-trained horsemen. This victory paved the way for Rollo's baptism and settlement in Normandy. As was the custom, Rollo took the baptismal name Robert, after his godfather Robert I.[30] The earliest record is from 918, in a charter of Charles III to an abbey, which referred to an earlier grant to "the Normans of the Seine", namely "Rollo and his associates" for "the protection of the kingdom."[31] Dudo retrospectively stated that this pact took place in 911 at Saint-Clair-sur-Epte. In return for formal recognition of the lands he possessed, Rollo agreed to be baptised and assist the king in the defence of the realm. Rollo took the baptismal name Robert, as it was custom to take the name of godfather. The seal of agreement was to be marriage between Rollo and Gisla, daughter of Charles. Dudo claims that Gisla was a legitimate daughter of Charles.[32] Since Charles first married in 907, that would mean that Gisla was at most 5 years old at the time of the treaty of 911 which offered her in marriage.[33] It has therefore been speculated that she could have been an illegitimate daughter.[34] However a diplomatic child betrothal need not be doubted.[33]

After pledging his fealty to Charles III as part of the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte, Rollo divided the lands between the rivers Epte and Risle among his chieftains, and settled with a de facto capital in Rouen.[35]

When Rollo had been given Rouen and its hinterland in return for his alliance with the Franks, it was agreed upon that it was both in his and his Frankish allies’ interest to extend his authority over Viking settlers.[36] This would appear to be the motive for later concessions to the Vikings of the Seine, which are mentioned in other records of the time. When Charles III abdicated the throne to Rudolph of France, Rollo felt that his pledge and oaths to the kings of France null and void, and began raiding in the west to expand his territory, putting pressure on other rulers to propose another compromise. The need for an agreement was particularly urgent when Robert I, successor of Charles III, was killed in 923.[36] Rudolph is recorded as sponsoring a new agreement by which a group of Northmen were conceded the provinces of the Bessin and Maine. These Northmen were presumed to be Rollo and his associates, moving their authority westward from the Seine valley.[36] It is still unclear as to whether Rollo was being given lordship over the Vikings already settled in the region in order to domesticate and restrain them, or was given lordship over the Franks around Bayeux in order to protect them from other Viking leaders settled in eastern Brittany and the Cotentin peninsula.[37]

Rollo died sometime between a final mention of him by Flodoard in 928, and 933, the year in which a third grant of land, usually identified as being the Cotentin and Avranchin areas, was made to his son and successor William.[38]

Descendants

A genealogical chart of the Norman dynasty

Rollo's son and heir, William Longsword, and grandchild, Richard the Fearless, forged the Duchy of Normandy into West Francia's most cohesive and formidable principality.[39] The descendants of Rollo and his men assimilated with their maternal French-Catholic culture and became known as the Normans, lending their name to the region of Normandy.[40]

Rollo, through his descendent William I of England, the seventh Duke of Normandy, is the 32nd great-grandfather of Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.

One daughter of Rollo, Gerloc (also known as Adele), who married William III, Duke of Aquitaine, was mentioned by Dudo. According to William of Jumièges, writing in the latter half of the 11th century, Gerloc's mother was named Poppa.[41][42]

According to the medieval Irish text An Banshenchas and Icelandic sources, another daughter, Cadlinar (Kaðlín; Kathleen) was born in Scotland (probably to a Scots mother) and married an Irish prince named Beollán mac Ciarmaic, later King of South Brega (Lagore). A daughter of Cadlinar and Beollán named Nithbeorg was abducted by an Icelandic Viking named Helgi Ottarsson,[23][24] and became the mother of the poet Einarr Helgason and grandmother of Guðrún Ósvífrsdóttir (protagonist of the Laxdœla saga).

A genetic investigation into the remains of Rollo's grandson Richard the Fearless, and his great-grandson Richard the Good, was announced in 2011 with the intention of discerning the origins of the historic Viking leader.[43] On 29 February 2016 Norwegian researchers opened Richard the Good's tomb and found a lower jaw with eight teeth in it.[44] However, the skeletal remains in both graves turned out to significantly predate Rollo and therefore are not related to him.[45]

Legacy

After Rollo's death, his male-line descendants continued to rule Normandy until 1204, when it was lost by John Lackland to the French King Philip Augustus.[46] Rollo's dynasty was able to survive through a combination of ruthless military actions and infighting among the Frankish aristocracy, which left them severely weakened and unable to combat the Rouen Vikings' growing determination to stay put.[46]

Depictions in fiction

Statue of Rollo in Falaise, France

Rollo is the subject of the 17th-century play Rollo Duke of Normandy, written by John Fletcher, Philip Massinger, Ben Jonson, and George Chapman.

A character, broadly inspired by the historical Rollo but including many events from before the real Rollo was born, played by Clive Standen, is Ragnar Lothbrok's brother in the History Channel television series Vikings.[47]

References

Citations

1. Bradbury, Jim (2004). The Routledge Companion to Medieval Warfare. Routledge. p. 83. ISBN 978-0-415-41395-4.
2. Bouet, Pierre (2016). Rollon : Le chef viking qui fonda la Normandie (in French). Tallander. p. 76.
3. Hjardar, Kim; Vike, Vegard (2016). Vikings at War. Casemate Publishers & Book Distributors, LLC. p. 329. ISBN 979-1021017467.
4. Bates 1982, pp. 8–10.
5. Flodoard of Reims (2011). Fanning, Steven; Bachrach, Bernard S. (eds.). The Annals of Flodoard of Reims: 919-966. University of Toronto Press. pp. xx–xxi, 14, 16–17. ISBN 978-1-44260-001-0.
6. "Rollo". Encyclopedia Britannica. 28 August 2008. Retrieved 10 November 2017.
7. Neveux, François; Curtis, Howard (2008). A Brief History of the Normans: The Conquests that Changed the Face of Europe. Robinson. ISBN 978-1-84529-523-3.
8. Ferguson 2009, p. 180.
9. Crouch 2006.
10. Harper-Bill, Christopher; Vincent, Nicholas, eds. (2007). Henry II: New Interpretations. Boydell Press. p. 77. ISBN 978-1-84383-340-6.
11. Wace (2004). Burgess, Glyn S. (ed.). The History of the Norman People: Wace's Roman de Rou. Boydell Press. p. 11. ISBN 978-1-84383-007-8.
12. Little, Charles Eugene (1900). Cyclopedia of Classified Dates: With an Exhaustive Index, by Charles E. Little ... for the Use of Students of History, and for All Persons who Desire Speedy Access to the Facts and Events, which Relate to the Histories of the Various Countries of the World, from the Earliest Recorded Dates. Funk & Wagnalls Company. p. 666. OCLC 367478758. rollo paris 885–886.
13. "Globetrotting Vikings: To the Gates of Paris". History.com. History Channel. 4 September 2018. Retrieved 2 March 2020.
14. Mark, Joshua J. (27 November 2018). "Odo of West Francia". Ancient History Encyclopaedia.
15. Dudo 1998, Chapter 5. Dudo uses terminology of the day, Scandia for the southern part of Scandinavian peninsula and Dacia for Denmark (also the name of a Roman province near the Black Sea).
16. Ferguson 2009, p. 177.
17. Malaterra, Geoffrey (2005). "The Deeds of Count Roger of Calabria & Sicily & of Duke Robert Guiscard his brother, Geoffery Malaterra". Translated by Loud, Graham A. p. 3.
18. William of Malmesbury (1989) [1854]. Stephenson, John (ed.). The Kings Before the Norman Conquest. Volume II, 127. Translated by Sharpe, John. Seeleys, London: Llanerch. p. 110.
19. Rollo and his followers are referred to as Daneis throughout the Chronique. For example, Iriez fu Rous en son curage [...] Ne lui nuire n’à ses Daneis (Francisque Michel edition, page 173, available online via Internet Archive).
20. "4 – To Shetland and Orkney". Orkneyinga Saga. pp. 26–27.
21. Sturluson, Snorri (1966). King Harald's Saga: Harald Hardradi of Norway. Translated by Magnusson, Magnus; Pálsson, Hermann. Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14-044183-3.
22. Jennings, Andrew; Kruse, Arne (2009). "From Dál Riata to the Gall-Ghàidheil". Viking and Medieval Scandinavia. 5: 129.
23. Bull, Edvard; Krogvig, Anders; Gran, Gerhard, eds. (1929). Norsk biografisk leksikon (in Norwegian). Volume 4. Oslo: Aschehoug. pp. 351–353.
24. La Fay, Howard (1972). The Vikings. Special Publications. Washington DC: National Geographic Society. p. 146, 147, 164–165. ISBN 978-0-87044-108-0.
25. Woolf, Alex (2007). From Pictland to Alba, 789–1070. Edinburgh University Press. p. 296. ISBN 978-0-7486-2821-6.
26. Van Houts 2000, p. 43.
27. Dudo 1998, p. xiv.
28. Ferguson 2009, pp. 177–182.
29. Dudo 1998, pp. 38–39.
30. "Robert I of France". Britannica Encyclopaedia.
31. Van Houts 2000, p. 25.
32. Dudo 1998, pp. 46–47.
33. Ferguson 2009, p. 187.
34. Bauduin, Pierre (2005). "Chefs normands et élites franques, fin IX^e–début X^e siècle". In Bauduin, Pierre (ed.). Les Fondations scandinaves en Occident et les débuts du duché de Normandie (in French). CRAHM. p. 182.
35. Bates 1982, pp. 20–21.
36. Crouch 2006, p. 6.
37. Crouch 2006, p. 8.
38. Ferguson 2009, p. 183.
39. Searle, Eleanor (1988). Predatory Kinship and the Creation of Norman Power, 840–1066. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 89. ISBN 978-0-520-06276-4.
40. Brown, R. Allen (1984). The Normans. Boydell & Brewer. p. 19. ISBN 0312577761.
41. Dudo 1998, pp. 69–70, 201.
42. William of Jumièges; Orderic Vitalis; Robert of Torigni (1992). Van Houts, Elisabeth M. C. (ed.). The Gesta Normannorum Ducum of William of Jumièges, Orderic Vitalis, and Robert of Torigni. Volume 1. pp. 68–69. ISBN 978-0-19-822271-2.
43. "Viking is 'forefather to British Royals'". Views and News from Norway. 15 June 2011. Retrieved 15 June 2011.
44. "Was Viking Ruler Rollo Danish or Norwegian?". The Local. 2 March 2016. Retrieved 6 October 2016.
45. "Skeletal shock for Norwegian researchers at Viking hunting". Norway Today. 23 November 2016. Retrieved 28 March 2017.
46. Van Houts 2000, p. 15.
47. Turnbow, Tina (18 March 2013). "Reflections of a Viking by Clive Standen". Huffington Post. Retrieved 19 March 2013.

Sources

• Bates, David (1982). Normandy Before 1066. Longman. ISBN 978-0-582-48492-4.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Crouch, David (2006). The Normans: The History of a Dynasty. A & C Black. ISBN 978-1-85285-595-6.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Dudo of Saint-Quentin (1998). Christiansen, Eric (ed.). Dudo of St Quentin: History of the Normans. Woodbridge. ISBN 978-0-85115-552-4.
• Ferguson, Robert (2009). The Hammer and the Cross: A New History of the Vikings. London: Allen Lane, an imprint of Penguin Group. ISBN 978-0-670-02079-9.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Van Houts, Elizabeth (2000). The Normans in Europe. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-0-7190-4751-0.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

Further reading

Primary texts

• Dudo of St. Quentin (1998). Eric Christiansen (ed.). History of the Normans. Translated by Eric Christiansen. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell Press.
• Elizabeth van Houts, ed. (1992). The Gesta Normannorum Ducum of William of Jumièges, Orderic Vitalis and Robert of Torigni.
• Elizabeth van Houts, ed. (2000). The Normans in Europe. Translated by Elizabeth van Houts. Manchester and New York: Manchester University.
• Orkneyinga Saga: The History of the Earls of Orkney. Translated by Pálsson, Hermann; Edwards, Paul. London: Hogarth Press. 1978. ISBN 0-7012-0431-1.. Republished 1981, Harmondsworth: Penguin. ISBN 0-14-044383-5.

Secondary texts

• Crouch, David (2002). The Normans: the History of a Dynasty. London: Hambledon and London. ISBN 1-85285-387-5.
• Christiansen, Eric (2002). The Norsemen in the Viking Age. Blackwell Publishers Ltd.
• Fitzhugh, William W.; Ward, Elizabeth (2000). Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga. Smithsonian Institution Press.
• Konstam, Agnus (2002). Historical Atlas of the Viking World. Checkmark Books.

French nobility
New title	Count of Rouen 911–927	Succeeded by William I