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From: Stewart L Baldwin< >
Subject: Re: SO! Just who WERE Rollo's parents?. . . etc.
Date: Sun, 2 Jul 1995 18:55:38 GMT


Elias Halldor Agustsson () wrote:

> Why don't you all just read Heimskringla before engaging in all this idle
> speculation?

This speculation involving Rollo's ancestry is idle
only if you accept the account of Heimskringla and the other
Norse sources as being reliable on this point. However,
there are some good reasons to doubt Heimskringla's account
on the subject of Rollo's ancestry.

1. One of the basic principles of historical and
genealogical research is that CONTEMPORARY sources generally
have higher authority than noncontemporary ones (with due
allowance made for knowledge and bias of the author, motives
for lying, etc.). Even if you assume that the account of
Rollo's parentage in Heimskringla came from Ari (which is
likely), the Norse version fails to be contemporary by wide
margin. If Ari's informant (whoever he was) was mistaken,
then the mistake could have easily made its way through the
other Norse sources. The early Norman sources, such as Dudo,
have been rightly questioned as to their reliability, but at
least these sources (written during the time of Rollo's
grandson) are close to being contemporary. It is difficult
to believe that twelfth century Icelandic writers would be
better informed about Rollo than tenth century Norman
writers. None of the tenth century sources mention (or even
hint at) any kind of connection between Rollo and the Orkney
rulers.

2. The Norse sources didn't even get Rollo's name
right. That the name of the first duke of Normandy was
Rollo is confirmed by reliable contemporary Frankish sources
as well as the Norman sources. The Norse equivalent of the
name Rollo is probably Hrollaugr, and certainly not Hrolfr,
as Heimskringla has it. If the name of the first duke of
Normandy had been Hrolfr, then we would expect the Latin
translation in the annals to give the name as something
similar to Rudolfus, Ruodolfus, or Rodulfus, the spellings
used by by the Frankish annals for a Viking of that name who
died in 873. (In fact, Heimskringla does give Rognvaldr a
son named Hrollaugr, but he was an Icelandic settler, and
therefore could not have been the same person as Rollo.)
The fact that the Norse writers did not know the correct
name of Normandy's first duke means that Heimskringla's
statements about the foundation of Normandy should be viewed
with caution.

So, to answer the question "Who was Rollo's father?",
how about "unknown." I know that this will not be a popular
answer with some of you out there, but if you wish to
maintain accuracy, you sometimes just have to admit that
the surviving sources provide insufficient evidence to decide
the question.

Stewart Baldwin

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