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From: Todd A. Farmerie< >
Subject: Re: ROLLO: IS HIS NORDIC PEDIGREE A BOGUS ONE?
Date: 2 Jul 1995 19:25:28 GMT


In a previous article, (Elias Halldor Agustsson) says:

>In <> (Stewart L Baldwin) writes:
>
>> Sigurd Ring never existed. The mythical king Sigurd Ring
>>who appeared in later legends is the result of a badly garbled
>>rewriting of events which occurred in Denmark in the year 812,
>>and were recorded in the contemporary Frankish annals. In that
>>year, the Danish king Hemmingus died, and the throne was fought
>>over by two claimants, Sigifridus "nepos" of Godefridus, and
>>Anulo "nepos" of Herioldus. (The Latin word "nepos" probably
>>means nephew in this context, but could mean grandson.)
>>Godefridus was the Danish king who had died in the year 810,
>>and Herioldus was probably one of his predecessors. As the
>>story was repeated, changes were inevitably made, and later
>>versions of the history gave the names of these two claimants
>>as Sigurd [a variation of Sigifridus] and Ring [a translation
>>of the word "anulus" (Latin for "ring"), which in turn was a
>>slight variation of "Anulo"]. A further corruption then
>>combined Sigurd and Ring into one person, resulting in a legend
>>which is very different from the historical event on which it
>>was ultimately based.
>
>This strikes me funny. Are you suggesting that the Norse names (none of
>which are spelled correctly here) are translations of Latin names?

I think he is saying that Sigurd Ring (spell it however you like)
originated in this way, and that the Ring is a mistranslation of a Latin
mistranscription of the Danish name of King Anulus, whatever that might
have been.

>And that Norse historians relied on Frankish annals?

Or at least on English sources which incorporated information from the
Frankish annals into the growing legend concerning Ragnar Lodbrok and his
family.

>I think that that it is
>absolutely certain that in those days, History was distorted more by
>passing over linguistic borders than it was by passing through the
>generations from the 9th century to the 12th, at least in Scandinavia.
>

Probably so, but history is distorted by being passed in any way, and I am
sure that the literate scandinavian historians of the 12th century used all
of the references available to them in producing their histories. Do we
have any 9th century reference to Sigurd Ring, either french or
scandinavian?

Todd

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