Editing Rollo (section)

==Origins and historiography==
[[File:Statue of Rollo in Ålesund, Norway.jpg|thumb|A statue of Rollo in Ålesund, Norway]]
Rollo was born in the mid-9th century, as his tomb states he was in his eighties when he died in 933; he was almost certainly born in [[Scandinavia]], either in Denmark or Norway. In part, this uncertainty may result from the unspecific contemporary usage of terms such as "Vikings", "Northmen", "Norse", "Swedes", "Danes", and "Norwegians" ({{lang|la|Dani vel Nortmanni}} in medieval Latin).

The earliest well-attested historical event associated with Rollo is his part in leading the Vikings who [[Siege of Paris (885–86)|besieged Paris in 885–886]] but were fended off by [[Odo of France]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Little |first=Charles Eugene |url=https://archive.org/details/cyclopediaofclas00litt |title=Cyclopedia of Classified Dates: With an Exhaustive Index, by Charles E. Little; for the Use of Students of History, and for All Persons who Desire Speedy Access to the Facts and Events, which Relate to the Histories of the Various Countries of the World, from the Earliest Recorded Dates |date=1900 |publisher=Funk & Wagnalls Company |page=[https://archive.org/details/cyclopediaofclas00litt/page/666 666] |oclc=367478758 |quote=rollo paris 885–886.}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Mark |first=Joshua J. |date=27 November 2018 |title=Odo of West Francia |url=https://www.worldhistory.org/Odo_of_West_Francia/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210416200224/https://www.worldhistory.org/Odo_of_West_Francia/ |archive-date=16 April 2021 |access-date=23 April 2021 |website=[[World History Encyclopedia]]}}</ref>

Sources do not make clear the year of Rollo's birth, but from his activity, marriage, children, and death, the mid-9th century may be inferred.

Among biographical remarks about Rollo written by the cleric [[Dudo of Saint-Quentin]] in the late 10th century, he claimed that Rollo "the Dane" was from {{ill|Dacia (Denmark)|de|Dacia (Dänemark)|lt=Dacia}} (a [[Blend word|blend]] of the Latin for Denmark ({{lang|la|Dania}}) and Sweden ({{lang|la|Suecia}})), and had moved from there to the island of Scandza. One of Rollo's great-grandsons and a contemporary of Dudo was known as [[Robert II (archbishop of Rouen)|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.<ref>{{harvnb|Dudo|1998|loc=Chapter 5}}</ref>

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 their father, Gurim was killed and Rollo was forced to leave Denmark.<ref>{{harvnb|Dudo|1998|loc=Chapter 5}}. Dudo uses the terminology of the day, ''Scandia'' for the southern part of the Scandinavian peninsula and ''Dacia'' for Denmark (also the name of a Roman province near the Black Sea).</ref> 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.{{sfn|Ferguson|2009|p=177}}

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."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Malaterra |first=Geoffrey |url=https://fliphtml5.com/lysh/vtfl/ |title=The Deeds of Count Roger of Calabria & Sicily & of Duke Robert Guiscard his brother, Geoffrey Malaterra |date=2005 |page=3 |translator-last=Loud |translator-first=Graham A. |access-date=3 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200303044348/https://fliphtml5.com/lysh/vtfl/ |archive-date=3 March 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref> Likewise, the 12th-century English historian [[William of Malmesbury]] stated that Rollo was "born of noble lineage among the Norwegians".<ref>{{Cite book |last=William of Malmesbury |title=The Kings Before the Norman Conquest |date=1989 |publisher=Llanerch |editor-last=Stephenson |editor-first=John |volume=II, 127 |location=Seeleys, London |page=110 |translator-last=Sharpe |translator-first=John |orig-year=1854}}</ref>

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 [[Sykkylven Municipality|Sykkylven]] (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 {{lang|se|Skåne}}). Benoît says elsewhere in the ''Chronique'' that Rollo is Danish.<ref name="Fr. Michel">Rollo and his followers are referred to as {{lang|fro|Daneis}} throughout the ''Chronique''. For example, {{lang|fro|Iriez fu Rous en son curage}} [...] {{lang|fro|Ne lui nuire n’à ses Daneis}} ([[Francisque Michel]] edition, p. 173, available online via [https://archive.org/details/chroniquedesducs01beno/page/172 Internet Archive]).</ref>

[[Snorri Sturluson]] identified Rollo with Hrólfr the Walker (Norse {{lang|non|Göngu-Hrólfr}}; Danish {{lang|da|Ganger-Hrólf}}) from the 13th-century [[Iceland]]ic [[saga]]s, ''[[Heimskringla]]'' and ''[[Orkneyinga Saga]]''. Hrólf the Walker was so named because he "was so big that no horse could carry him".<ref>{{Cite book |title=Orkneyinga Saga |pages=26–27 |chapter=4 – To Shetland and Orkney}}</ref> The Icelandic sources claim that Hrólfr was from [[Møre og Romsdal|Møre]]<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sturluson |first=Snorri |title=King Harald's Saga: Harald Hardradi of Norway |date=1966 |publisher=Penguin |isbn=978-0-14-044183-3 |translator-last=Magnusson |translator-first=Magnus |translator-last2=Pálsson |translator-first2=Hermann |translator-link=Magnus Magnusson |translator-link2=Hermann Pálsson}}</ref> in 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. Both Irish and Icelandic sources suggest that Rollo, as a young man, visited or lived in northern Scotland, where he had a daughter named Cadlinar ({{lang|non|Kaðlín}} Kathleen).<ref name="NBL1">{{Cite book |title=[[Norsk biografisk leksikon]] |date=1929 |publisher=Aschehoug |editor-last=Bull |editor-first=Edvard |volume=4 |location=Oslo |pages=351–353 |language=no |editor-last2=Krogvig |editor-first2=Anders |editor-last3=Gran |editor-first3=Gerhard}}</ref><ref name="la fay">{{Cite book |last=La Fay |first=Howard |url=https://archive.org/details/vikings00lafa |title=The Vikings |date=1972 |publisher=National Geographic Society |isbn=978-0-87044-108-0 |series=Special Publications |location=Washington DC |page=[https://archive.org/details/vikings00lafa/page/146 146], 147, 164–165 |url-access=registration}}</ref> Icelandic sources name Ketill Flatnose's father as Björn Grímsson,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Jennings |first=Andrew |last2=Kruse |first2=Arne |date=2009 |title=From Dál Riata to the Gall-Ghàidheil |url=https://www.pure.ed.ac.uk/ws/files/15134418/From_D_l_Riata_to_the_Gall_Gaidheil.pdf |url-status=live |journal=Viking and Medieval Scandinavia |volume=5 |page=129 |doi=10.1484/J.VMS.1.100676 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.pure.ed.ac.uk/ws/files/15134418/From_D_l_Riata_to_the_Gall_Gaidheil.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |hdl-access=free |hdl=20.500.11820/762e78fe-2a9c-43cf-8173-8300892b31cb}}</ref> which would imply that the name of Ketill Flatnose's paternal grandfather was {{lang|is|Grim}}. That would be limited, [[onomastic]] evidence for a connection to Rollo, whose father (according to Richer) was named Ketill, while Rollo also (according to Dudo) had a brother named Gurim – a name likely cognate with {{lang|non|Grim}}. In addition, Icelandic sources report that Rollo's ancestral home was [[Møre og Romsdal|Møre]], where Ketill Flatnose's ancestors were also said to have originated. However, there 
are no surviving sources explicitly claiming a connection; {{lang|non|Ketill}} was a common name in Norse societies,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Woolf |first=Alex |url=https://archive.org/details/frompictlandtoal00wool |title=From Pictland to Alba, 789–1070 |date=2007 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |isbn=978-0-7486-2821-6 |page=[https://archive.org/details/frompictlandtoal00wool/page/n312 296] |url-access=limited}}</ref> as were names like Gurim/{{lang|is|Grim}}.