• General Notes

  [SUSANNA KEENE.FTW]
  
  Later sources identify this Hrolf with Rollo of Normandy, an
  extremely doubtful identification. It is unlikely that there
  was any close relationship between the early dukes of Normandy
  and the Orkney Jarls, and Rollo's parentage is unknown.
  
  Here are my notes on ROLLO, which I send in connection with a
  message sent
  by Stewart Baldwin in which he says he suspects I took my data
  from the
  "ridiculously unreliable Ancestral File" of the LDS.  As you
  can see, this
  isn't quite right.
  
  Gordon Fisher     gfisher@@shentel.net
  
  ---------------------------------------------------------------
  --
  
  
  27th ggf of Gordon Fisher
  
  Or:  HROLFR the GANGER (walker), GANGE-ROLV, ROLF, ROLLO OF
  NORMANDY;
  andlater in life, ROBERT; also HRO'LFR
  
  "The central fact of Norman history ... is ... the grant of
  Normandy and his
  northern followers in the year 911.  ...  For the actual
  occurences of that
  year, we have only the account of a romancing historian of a
  hundred years
  later, reenforced here and there by the exceedingly scanty
  records of the
  time.  The main fact is clear, namely that the Frankish king,
  Charles the
  Simple, granted Rollo as a fief a considerable part, the
  eastern part, of
  later Normandy.  Apparently Rollo did homage for his fied in
  feudal fashion
  by placing his hands between the hands of the king, something,
  we are told,
  which "neither his father, nor his grandfather, nor his
  great-grandfather
  before him had ever done for any man."  Legend goes on to
  relate, however,
  that Rollo refused to kneel and kiss the king's foot, crying
  out in his own
  speech, "No, by God!" and that the companion to whom he
  delegated the
  unwelcome obligation performed it so clumsily that he
  overturned the king,
  to the great merriment of the assembled Northmen.  ...  As to
  Rollo's
  personality, we have only the evidence of later Norman
  historians of
  doubtful authority and the Norse saga of HArold Fairhair.  If,
  as seems
  likely, their accounts relate to the same person, he was known
  in the north
  as Hrolf the Ganger, because he was so huge that no horse could
  carry him
  and he must needs gang afoot.  A pirate at home, he was driven
  into exile by
  the anger of King Harold, whereupon he followed his trade in
  the Western
  Isles and in Gaul, and rose to be a great Jarl among his
  people.  The saga
  makes him a Norwegian, but Danish scholars have sought to prove
  him a Dane,
  and more recently the cudgels have been taken up for his
  Swedish origin. To
  me the NOrwegian theory seems on the whole the most probable,
  being based on
  a trustworthy saga and corroborated by other incidental
  evidence.  ... The
  important fact is that Norway, Denmark, and even more distant
  Sweden, all
  contributed to the colonists who settled in Normandy under
  Rollo and his
  successors, and the achievements of the Normans thus become the
  common
  heritage of the Scandinavian race.  (P) The colonization of
  Normandy was, of
  course, only a small part of the work of this heroic age of
  Scandinavian
  expansion.  The great emigration from the North in the ninth
  and tenth
  centuries has been explained in part by the growth of
  centralized government
  and the consequent departure of the independent, the turbulent,
  and the
  untamed for new fields of adventure; but its chief cause was
  doubtless that
  which lies back of colonizing movements in all ages, the growth
  of
  population and the need of more room.  Five centuries earlier
  this
  land-hunger had pushed the Germanic tribes across the Rhine and
  Danube and
  produced the great wandering of the peoples which destroyed the
  Roman
  empire; and the Viking raids were simply a later aspect of this
  same
  *Vo"lkerwanderung*, retarded by the outlying position of the
  Scandinavian
  lands and by the greater difficulty of migration by sea. For,
  unlike the
  Goths who swept across the map of Europe in vast curves of
  marching men, or
  the Franks who moved forward by slow stages of gradual
  settlement in their
  occupation of Roman Gaul, the Scandinavian invaders were men of
  the sea and
  migrated in ships."
  --- Charles Homer Haskins, *The Normans in European
  History*, Boston &
  NY, 1915, p 26-30 passim.  From p 48 & 50:  "At this point the
  fundamental
  question forces itself upon us, how far was Normandy affected
  by
  Scandinavian influences?  What in race and language, in law and
  custom, was
  the contribution of the north to Normandy?  And the answer must
  be that in
  most respects the tangible contribution was slight.  Whatever
  may have been
  the state of affairs in the age of colonization and settlement,
  by the
  century which followed the Normans had become to a surprising
  degree
  absorbed by their environment.  .....  What, then, was the
  Scandinavian
  contribution to the making of Normandy if it was neither law
  nor speech nor
  race?  First and foremost, it was Normandy itself, created as a
  distinct
  entity by the Norman occupation and the grant to Rollo and his
  followers,
  without whom it would have remained an undifferentiated part of
  northern
  France. Next, a new element in the population, numerically
  small in
  proportion to the ass, but a leaven to the whole --- quick to
  absorb
  Frankish law and Christian culture but retaining its northern
  qualities of
  enterprise, of daring, and of leadership.  It is no accident
  that the names
  of the leaders in early Norman movements are largely Norse.
  And finally a
  race of princes, high-handed and masteful but with a talent for
  political
  organization, state-builders at home and abroad, who made
  Normandy the
  strongest and most centralized principality in France and
  joined to it a
  kingdom beyond the seas which became the strongest state in
  western Europe."
  
  "GANGER ROLF, "the Viking" (or ROLLO), banished from Norway to
  the Hebrides
  ca. 876, 890 participated in Viking attack on Bayeux, where
  Count Berenger
  of Bayeux was killed, and dau. Poppa captured and taken, 886,
  by Rollo (now
  called Count of Rouen) as his "Danish" wife.  Under Treaty of
  St. Claire,
  911, rec'd the Duchy of Normandy from CHARLES III, "the
  Simple"; d. ca. 927
  (Isenburg says 931), bur. Notre Dame, Rouen. ... Note: Isenburg
  inserts a
  Robert between Rollo and William I, and makes Robert the
  conqueror of
  Bayeux, husb. of Poppa, and 1st Duke.  Chronology favors the
  descent given
  by Moriarty and Onslow.  It seems probable that Robert was
  another name for
  Rollo.  If there really was a Robert as 1st Duke, then [ROBERT
  I] would be
  ROBERT II, which is not the case.  For additional data on
  William II of
  Normandy and I of England the reader may consult David C.
  Douglas, *William
  the Conqueror* (1964).  Besides a dau. Gerloc (or Adela) who m.
  935 WILLIAM
  I ... Count of Poitou, Ganger Rolf had [WILLIAM I,
  "Longsword"]."
  --- Weis & Sheppard, *Ancestral Roots ... *, 7th Edition,
  1992, p 110
  
  "Rollo (Rollon, Ranger Rolf [sic, instead of Ganger], 1st Duke
  of Normandy,
  Count of Rouen; conquered Normandy; b. c870, Maer, Norway, d.
  927-932; md
  (2) 891 Poppa de Bayeux, Duchess of Norway; b. c872, Bayeux,
  France; dau
  Berenger de Bayeux, Count of Bayeux; d. bef. 930; and N.N. of
  Rennes."
  --- Roderick W Stuart, *Royalty for Commoners*, 2nd edn,
  1992, p 123-124
  
  The definitive establishment of the Normans, to whom the
  country owes
  its name, took place in 911, when by the treaty of
  Saint-Clair-sur-Epte,
  concluded between King Charles the Simple of France and Rolf or
  Rollo, chief
  of the Normans, the territory comprising the town of Rouen and
  a few 'pagi'
  situated on the sea-coast was ceded to the latter; but the
  terms of the
  treaty are ill-defined, and it is consequently almost
  impossible to find out
  the exact extent of this territory or to know whether Brittany
  was at this
  time made a feudal dependency of Normandy.  But the chronicler
  Dudo of
  Saint-Quentin's statement that Rollo married Gisela, daughter
  of Charles the
  Simple, must be considered to be legendary work of Dudo of
  Saint-Quentin
  [who?] is practically our only authority.
  Rollo died in 927 and was succeeded by his son William ...
  --- (Source ???)
  
  "Charles [the Simple], the son-in-law of eEward, constrained
  thereto by
  Rollo, through a succession of calamities, conceded to him that
  part of Gaul
  which at present is called Normandy.  It would be tedious to
  relate for how
  many years, and with what audacity, the Normans disquieted
  every place from
  the British ocean, as I have said, to the Tuscan sea.  First
  Hasten, and
  then Rollo; who, born of noble lineage among the Norwegians,
  though obsolete
  from its extreme antiquity, was banished, by the king's
  command, from his
  own country, and brought over with multitudes, who were in
  danger, either
  from debt or consciousness of guilt, and whom he had allured by
  great
  expectations of advantage.  Betaking himself therefore to
  piracy, after his
  cruelty had raged on every side at pleasure, he experienced a
  check at
  Chartres.  For the townspeople, relying neither on arms nor
  fortifications,
  piously impoored the assistance of the blessed Virgin Mary.
  The shift too
  of the virgin, which Charles the Bald displayed to the winds on
  the
  samparts, thronged by the garrison, after the fashion of a
  banner.  The
  enemy on seeing it began to laught, and to direct their arrows
  at it.  This,
  however, was not done with impunity; for presently their eyes
  became dim,
  and they could neither retreat nor advance.  The townsmen, with
  joy
  perceiving this, indulged themselves in a plentiful slaughter
  of them, as
  far as fortune permitted.  Rollo, however, whom God reserved
  for the true
  faith, escaped, and soon after gained Rouen and the neighboring
  cities by
  force of arms, in the year of our Lord 876, and one year before
  the death of
  Charles the Bald, whose grandson Lewis, as is before mentioned,
  vanquished
  the Normans, but did not expel them; but Charles, the brother
  of that Lewis,
  grandson of Charles the Bald, by his son Lewis, as I have said
  aboce,
  repeatedly experiencing, from unsuccessful conflicts, that
  fortune gave him
  nothing which she took from others, resolved, after consulting
  his nobility,
  that it was advisable to make a show of royal munificence, when
  he was
  unable to repel injury; and, in a friendly manner, sent for
  Rollo.  He was
  at this time far advanced in years; and, consequently, easily
  inclined to
  pacific measures.  It was therefore determined by treaty, that
  he should be
  baptized, and hold that country of the king as his lord.  The
  inbred and
  untameable ferocity of the man may well be imagined, for, on
  receiving this
  gift, as the by standers suggested to him, that he ought to
  kiss the foot of
  his benefactor, disdaining to kneel down, he seized the king's
  foot and
  dragged it to his mouth as he stood erect.  The king falling on
  his back,
  the Normans began to laugh, and the Franks to be indignant; but
  Rollo
  apologized for his shameful conduct, by saying that it was the
  custom of his
  country.  Thus the affair being settled, Rollo returned to
  Rouen, and there
  died."
  --- William of Malmesbury, *Chronicle of the Kings of
  England*, c 1135,
  tr John Allen Giles, London (Henry G Bohn) 1847, p 125-126
  
  "It is not known when Rollo arrived in the Viking kingdom [in
  Normandy].
  Dudo says that he took Rouen in 877, but most historians are
  agreed that
  Rollo probably did not appear in Francia until the early tenth
  century.  The
  possibility exists however, that Dudo is preserving a belief
  that Vikings
  had been established in the Rouen area from about this time.
  Rollo is
  thought to have been Norwegian rather than Danish, and later
  Icelandic
  sources identify him with Hrolf the Ganger (walker), son of
  Ragnvald earl of
  Moer, who had a career as a Viking before settling in Francia.
  He married a
  Christian woman and his son William, according to the Lament of
  William
  Longsword, was born overseas.  (P) Nothing more in known about
  the 'Treaty
  of St Clair-sur-Epte' concluded in a personal interview between
  Charles the
  Simple and Rollo than Dudo tells us, and he has been accused of
  inventing
  the meeting.  That a cession of territory in the Seine,
  extending as far
  west as the mouth of the Seine on the coast and near the source
  of the Eure
  inland is affirmed by a charter of Charles the Simple dated 14
  March 918.
  ..... Flodoard adds the information that Rollo received baptism
  and the
  Frankish name Robert with the cession of this territory.  (P)
  Rollo seems to
  have been made a count in 911, with the traditional duties
  assigned to a
  Carolingian count, namely, protection and the administration of
  justice.  He
  was certainly subordinate to the Frankish king.  With the
  proliferation of
  titles accorded the leader of the Normandy Vikings in later
  sources, some
  historians hace suggested that Rollo was made a duke, but
  Werner has argued
  that there was no Norman *marchio* before 950-6, and no duke
  before
  987-1006, that is, after Hugh Capet had gained the throne of
  France. .....
  (P) Rollo appears to have received his territory on similar
  terms as the
  Bretons had received the Cotentin, except that the bishoprics
  were also
  ceded. ..... In exchange, Rollo was to defend the Seine from
  other Vikings,
  accept baptism and become the *fidelis* of the Frankish king.
  That there
  were other groups of Vikings in the region, particularly in the
  western part
  of Normandy, is clear.  The west stayed pagan longer; it was a
  century
  before a bishop was appointed to the Cotnetin.  .....  (P) The
  arrangement
  made in 911 proved successful ..... The area of Normandy by 933
  corresponded
  to the area of the archdiocese of Rouen, with the seven
  *civitates* of
  Rouen, Bayeux, Avranches, Evreux, See's, Lisieux and Coutances.
  The
  fortunes of the bishops of Rouen and of the (principes* of
  Normandy were in
  fact closely associated from the very beginning."
  --- Rosamond McKitterick, *The Frankish Kingdom under the
  Carolingians,
  751-987*, London & NY (Longman) 1983, p 237-238
  
  "A.D. 917. .....  Rollo, first duke of Normandy, died, and was
  succeeded by
  his son William."
  --- Florence of Worcester (died c 1117), *A History of the
  Kings of
  England* (OR: *The Chronicle of Florence of Worcester*), trans
  Joseph
  Stephenson, 1853 (reprinted by Llanerch Enterprises, Felinfach,
  Lampeter,
  Dyfed, Wales SA48 8PJ, 1980s (?)), p 76

Details of Rolf (Rollo) the Ganger Ragnvaldsson's family with Poppa de Valois de Normandy Dss of Normandy