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Birth:          ABT  865 Maer, Norway
Death:           925 Rouen, France

Notes
conquered Normandy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rollo
Rollo (Norman: Rou; Old Norse: Hrólfr; French: Rollon; c. 846 – c. 930 AD) was a 
Viking who became the first ruler of Normandy, a region of France. He is sometimes 
called the 1st Duke of Normandy. Rollo emerged as the outstanding personality among 
the Norsemen who had secured a permanent foothold on Frankish soil in the valley of 
the lower Seine. Charles the Simple, the king of West Francia, ceded them lands 
between the mouth of the Seine and what is now the city of Rouen in exchange for 
Rollo agreeing to end his brigandage, and provide the Franks with protection against 
future Viking raids.[1]

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. 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), 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 
historical developments of Europe and the Near East.[2]
Name[edit]

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.[3]

Rollo is generally identified with one Viking in particular – a man of high social status 
mentioned in Icelandic sagas, which refer to him by the Old Norse name Göngu-Hrólfr, 
meaning "Hrólfr the Walker". (Göngu-Hrólfr is also widely known by an Old Danish 
variant, Ganger-Hrolf.) The byname "Walker" is usually understood to suggest that 
Rollo was so physically imposing that he could not be carried by a horse and was 
obliged to travel on foot. Norman and other French sources do not use the name Hrólfr 
and the identification of Rollo with Göngu-Hrólfr is based upon similarities between 
circumstances and actions ascribed to both figures.[citation needed]

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

Origins & historiography[edit]

Rollo was born in the latter half of the 9th century; his place of birth is unknown.

The earliest well-attested historical event associated with Rollo is his leadership of 
Vikings who besieged Paris in 885–886.

Perhaps the earliest known source to mention Rollo's early life is the French chronicler 
Richer of Reims, who claims (in the 10th Century) that Rollo was the son of a Viking 
named Ketill.[4] In terms of onomastics, it is interesting that Richer also names – 
without explicitly linking him to Rollo – a man named Ketill as being the leader of 
subsequent Viking raids (in 888), against areas on the coast of West Francia, between 
the Seine and the Loire.

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", 
"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. 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 Rollo and Gurim's father, Gurim was killed and Rollo was forced 
to leave Denmark.[5] 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.[6]

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."[7] Likewise, the 
12th-century English historian William of Malmesbury stated that Rollo was "born of 
noble lineage among the Norwegians".[8]

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.

The claim that Rollo was the brother of a King of Norway, Harald Finehair was made 
by an anonymous 12th-century Welsh author, in The Life of Gruffudd ap Cynan.[9]

Rollo was first explicitly identified with Hrólf the Walker (Norse Göngu-Hrólfr; Danish 
Ganger-Hrólf) by 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".[10] The Icelandic sources claim that Hrólfr was born in Møre, 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,[11] 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).[12][13] Moreover, 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,[14] as 
were names like Gurim and Grim. It is also possible that the later sources were 
attempting to suggest an otherwise undocumented link between the historical figures 
of Rollo and Ketill Flatnose, by way of little-known, possibly apocryphal figures like 
Grim, Gurim and the Ketill said to be Rollo's father.[citation needed]
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.[15]

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.[16]

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.[17]
There are few contemporary mentions of Rollo. 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." 
[18] 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. 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.[19] 
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.[20] It has therefore been 
speculated that she could have been an illegitimate daughter.[21] However a 
diplomatic child betrothal need not be doubted.[22]

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.[23]

Charles was overthrown by a revolt in 923, and his successor, Robert of Neustria, was 
killed by the Vikings in 923. His successor, Ralph, conceded the Bessin and Maine to 
Rollo shortly afterwards, the chronicler Flodoard tells us.[24]

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.[25]

Descendants[edit]
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.
[26] The descendants of Rollo and his men assimilated with their maternal Frankish-
Catholic culture and became known as the Normans, lending their name to the region 
of Normandy.

Rollo is the great-great-great-grandfather of William the Conqueror, or William I of 
England. Through William, he is one of the ancestors of the present-day British royal 
family, as well as an ancestor of all current European monarchs and a great many 
claimants to abolished European thrones.

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.[27]

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,[28][29] 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.[30] On February 29, 2016, 
Norwegian researchers opened Richard the Good's tomb and found his lower jaw with 
eight teeth in it.[31] Unfortunately, the skeletal remains in both graves turned out to 
significantly predate Rollo and therefore are not related to him.[32]

Depictions in fiction[edit]

Rollo is the subject of the seventeenth-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 before 
the real Rollo was born, played by Clive Standen, is Ragnar Lothbrok's brother in the 
History Channel television series Vikings.[33]

Parents
EYESTEINSSON Rognvald "the Wise" (ABT  830 -  890)
HROLFSDOTTIR Rognild ( 848 - )

Siblings
RAGNVALDSSON Rolf (Rollo) (Rollon) (Granger Rolf) "the Viking" (ABT  865 -  925)
ROGNVALDSSON Thori ("the Silent") (ABT  872 - )

Marriage To DE BAYEUX (OF RENNES) Poppa ( 872 - BEF  930)
    m.  891 

Notes

Parents
DE BAYEUX Berenguer (ABT  845 - )
----- ----- ()

Children by DE BAYEUX (OF RENNES) Poppa  872 - BEF  930
____ William I "Longsword" (ABT  893 - 17 Dec  942)
OF NORMANDY Adele (Gerloc) (ABT  920 - 14 Oct  962)

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