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Rolf is seen as being the founder of the Norman duchy. He is said to have been born in Nord Trondelag, Norway possibly in 854 the son of Rodnald Eysteinsson the Jarl of More and his equally colourfully named wife Hildir Hrofsdotter.
They may have lived as Norse nobility based in Orkney which may have been used as a base to mount raids, they did not make themselves particularly popular neighbours. The viking incursions were first recorded in the Anglo-saxon chronicles of 789 and these attacks gradually increased in scope culminating in the capture of York in 865 and bloody death of the Northumbrian king, according to later Norse tales by the blood eagle ritual whereby his ribcage was opened up and his lungs spread out to form the shape of an eagle’s wings. The East Anglian King Edmund was killed the following year in a possible similar fashion.
Events echoed the Angle, Jute and Saxon expeditions into Britain four centuries previously with parallels between the two periods seen in terms of political vacuums due to the Romans leaving Britain in 410 and the break up of the Carolingian empire into 3 kingdoms following the death of Charlemagne’s son Louis the Pious in 840.
The raids carried on simply because they were often successful at them and prompted by population pressures on the scarce land at home. The Viking longboats were suitable for sailing far up rivers, after establishing a base at the river mouth, such as Noirmoutier in front of the Loire, and attacking into the heart of the enemy’s territory. But things did not always go their way.
Rollo’s family may have been part of the 5,000 vikings which landed in Fulham as part of a second wave of support for Guthrum’s campaign against Alfred the Great in 876-8. The failure to gain more land following their defeat at Edlington meant they had little option but to look elsewhere and launched a campaign through the rivers of Flanders. This eventually also ended in defeat by forces led by Count Balwin ii and in the 892 they recrossed the channel to land in Kent under Haesten but after four years of continuous defeats up and down the Danelaw border by Alfred they again turned their attentions to attacking the Franks up the Seine.
Ironically it was a Norse defeat at Chartres in 911 which was to see the establishment of what was to eventually become the duchy of Normandy. It is not known if Rollo was involved in this battle but the Frankish King Charles the Simple appointed him responsible for the land around Rouen possibly up to the Risle valley in the west and the river Epte to the east. It may be seen as a short term measure to prevent further Norse incursions up the Seine either by keeping him placated or as recognition that he led a group of Norsemen who could be trusted. The Franks had made similar arrangements in the past but could not have realised it would take another 300 years before they could regain control of the area.
A lack of historical sources regarding Rolf meant that as the power of Normandy grew so legends were thought up regarding the founding father. Dudo of St Quentin’s Gesta Normannorum latinised his name to Rollo. He was said to be so large that the small ponies that were ridden in those days could not carry him so he was known by the name Rolf the Ganger, a term for a walker.
It was said that to show fealty to the Frankish King Charles the Simple on his appointment as Princep to the Rouen region he was required to kiss the King’s foot. His pride would not let him lower himself in such a fashion and told an aide to do this but unfortunately he lifted the king’s foot to his mouth causing Charles to fall on his back.
Part of the deal was that he would become a Christian, give up his pagan wife Poppa and marry the King’s daughter Giselle. The archbishop of Rouen is seen to complain to Herveus the bishop of Reims later that the pagans had gone back to their bad old ways this may have been a reference to Rollo leaving Giselle to go back to Poppa who was mother to his heir William Longsword.
The fractured state of Frankish politics led to civil war between the three Frankish kingdoms with all the counts in the area getting themselves involved, which initially strengthened Rollo’s position. As the West Frankish monarchy was not in a position to keep the whole region stable Rollo was allowed the chance to put more land under his control firstly to the Orne and then in 924 to the Bessin, around Bayeux. The local Franks did not take well to this arrangement however and revolted in the following year.
Although Charles Simplex had been overthrown in 923 and was to spend the last six years of his life in imprisonment Rollo was to show loyalty to the agreement they had come to and show that the trust put in him had not been misplaced. The area was regarded as very lawful with the tale that Rollo put two gold bracelets in the branches of a tree to return much later to find them still there. The Clameur de Haro is said to relate to him with this early form of injunction still in practice to this day.