DESCENDANTS OF RAGNAR

INTRODUCTION

Descendants of Ragnar is an extract from my essay on the history of the

Stanhope family, which will attempt to show that such chieftains in Normandy as
Hrolf Turstain and Bernard the Dane were descendants of Ragnar Lodbrok, alias
Reginheri, the leader of the Viking attack on Paris in 845, who may have been
the prototype for the semi-legendary Ragnar Lodbrok. They are proposed
grandsons of Ragnar Lodbrok by his son, Ivar, nicknamed 'beinlauss', wrongly
interpreted as 'boneless', reflecting a misunderstanding of the written source
of exosus [cruel], which was abbreviated to exos [boneless], hence stories
invented to explain this strange epithet. Exosus accords well with Adam of
Bremen’s description of Ivarr as crudelissimusis [J. de Vries, ‘Die
westnordische Tradition der Sage von Ragnar Lodbrok, Zeitschrift für deutsche
Philologie 53, 257-302, 1928]. Ivar is taken to be Imhar, the Viking king of
Dublin, who, according to the Annals of Ulster, died in 873.

These proposed associations do not arise from pre-conceived notions, nor are
they presented as facts: There is scant evidence from this epoch about which
genealogies can be adduced with any certainty, and those presented as fact are
anything but that; constructions usually reflecting the constructor's
preference of ancestors.

This account commences with Eystein Halfdansson, who is claimed to have been
Jarl of Vestfold, Ringerike, Hadeland, and the Opplands in Norway, who married
Hild Ericsdottir, daughter of Eric Agnarsson, Jarl of the Vend district of
Vestfold; such information being from Norse sagas, as collected by Snorri
Sturluson [Heimskringla, or The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway, c. 1225,
English translation by Samuel Laing, 1844].

One point of view is that the sagas are not accurate accounts of history, and
contain their fair share of exaggeration. An alternative view is that the sagas
accurately portray historical events, being passed from generation to
generation in verse before being later committed to parchment without any
alteration. [Knut Liestol, Origin of the Icelandic Family Sagas, 1930]. I would
expect the truth to lay between thes two extremes, perhaps on the side of their
accuracy, for one of the most remarkable features of these sagas is that they
offer a consistent account of the families and events associated with them.
They can be best viewed as historical novels - embellished, especially when
speeches are assigned to leading characters, but not without some historical
substance.

THE HALF-DANES

I. Eystein Halfdansson and Hild had issue: 1. Siegfried Eysteinsson, who,

according to the Dano-Norwegian theories of Professor P. A. Munch, may be
identified with the Sigfridi regis Danorum mentioned in the Annales Fuldenses,
782. Professor Munch postulated that early Norwegian chieftains conquered lands
in Denmark [Det Norske Folks Hist., German trans., pt. iv. pp. 134-154, 1857].
The case of Siegfried Eysteinsson's grandfather is quoted by adherents to this
theory. He is identified in the Norse Sagas as the Norwegian jarl Halfdane
Olafsson, whose very name suggests a partly Danish ancestry, and whose name
does not fit into the stylistic pattern characteristic of Norwegian kings, a
point made by Kendrick: 'His ancestry is quite dubious, for his name
constitutes a break in the alliterative series of names in the Yngling
[Norwegian] royal stem - Egil, Ottar, Adils, Eystein, Yngvar, Anund, Ingjald,
Olav, Halfdane' [Thomas D. Kendrick, A History of the Vikings, p. 106, 2004].
2. Halfdane Eysteinsson, as his father, claimed to be Jarl of Vestfold,
Ringerike, Hadeland, and the Opplands. He was apparently born in Vestfold at a
place called Holtar, the present Holtan in Borre, and is buried under a mound
there. He married Hlif Dagsdottir, whose name derived from the Old Norse
Hilfar, meaning shield. 3. Harald Eysteinsson, assumed by Schwennicke to have
succeeded his brother as King of Hedeby in 798, and killed in a battle in the
Irish Sea in 804. The same source has him married to Imhild Von Engern,
daughter of Warnechin Graf von Engern and Kunhilde von Rügen, and having issue:
Halfdane Haraldsson, killed in battle in 810. Harald Haraldsson, who was
murdered in 804. Holger Haraldsson, killed in battle in 807. [Detlev
Schwennicke, The Europäische Stammtafeln: Stammtafeln zur Geschichte der
Europäischen Staaten, 1978].

II. It can be noted that the concept of distinct nation states, which led some
to either strongly endorse or vehemently deny Munch's hypothesis, is relatively
modern, and those under discussion were more bound by ties of kinship than
notions of national sovereignty. There were certainly marriages between Danish
and Norwegian elites by the end of the ninth-century, symbolic of peace
treaties, and it is difficult to dismiss the imperative for them at earlier
times, and that they did not result in gains of land as dowry, albeit not to
any the degree suggested by Munch.

III. Halfdan and Hlif had issue: I. Gudrod The Magnificent Halfdansson, who,
according to Munch, was synonomous with Godefrid Halfdannson, who succeeded his
uncle as Godefrid, King of the Danes, that is, as ruler in Hedeby, a modern
spelling of the runic Heiðabý(r), which was an important trading settlement in
the Danish-German borderland, located towards the southern end of the Jutland
Peninsula. 2. Sigurd Halfdenesson, killed in battle in 810. King Godefrid's
brother is assumed to be Sigurd by Schwennicke. 3. Eystein Halfdansson, see
below. 4. Ivar Halfdansson, Jarl of the Opplands. He married Solveig
Eysteinsdottir, daughter of Eystein Hognasson, Jarl of Trondheim. Their son was
Eystein Ivarsson, who married Aseda Ragnvaldsdottir. They had issue: Ragnvald
Eysteinsson, the falsely supposed father of Rollo of Normandy.

IV. Concerning Halfdane Haraldsson, an extract from Henry H. Howorth's treatise

- published in Transactions of the Royal Historical Society [New Series],
Volume I., Issue 01, March 1883, pp 18-61 - may be helpful, though, throughout,
the use of the word doubtless is doubtlessly contestable; it is better to
consider the following as reasonable supposition: 'There is a passage in one of
the Frankish annals which has not received the attention which it deserves, and
which I believe throws a great deal of light on the history of the Danish
revolutions of the early part of the ninth century. Written in verse by a Low
Saxon monk some time during the reign of Arnulph, who died in 899. Under the
year 807 we read that a Norman chief named Alfdeni, accompanied by a great
following, submitted to Charlemagne, and made a perpetual pact with him [Pertz,
I, 263]. He was in all probability escaping from the dominant chief of Denmark
at this time, namely, Godfred.

V. In my former paper I argued that Godfred was the Gudrod the Magnificent of
Snorri, and that he was a stranger and a conqueror in Denmark. He first appears
as king there in 804. What more probable, therefore, than that Halfdene was the
King of Denmark, or rather, perhaps, of Jutland, who was dispossessed by
Godfred? This view also explains some very crooked parts of the history of this
period. Halfdane was doubtless the same Halfdane who was sent to the Emperor as
an envoy with Osmund by the Danish king Sigfred in the year 782. It is not
improbable, as I shall show presently, that on submitting to the Emperor in 807
he received the grant of an appanage, was allowed to settle in Friesland, and
Godfred's campaign in Friesland in 810 was perhaps decided against him.

VI. Under the year 808 we read that in a fight with the Obotriti there fell
Reginold, the nephew of Godfred, " who was the first after him in the kingdom"
(Einhardt, Pertz, I, 195; Chron. Moiss. id. 2, 258). Godfred, as we know, left
a number of sons behind him; how then was his nephew called the next after him
in the kingdom, unless the succession among the Norsemen was the same as in
many Eastern nations, where brother succeeded brother until those of the same
generation were extinct, when the succession went back to the descendants of
the eldest? This I believe was the case, and Reginold was perhaps the son of
Godfred's brother Eystein, who is mentioned by Snorri. [As an alternative to
this theory of succession, it may be worth considering the concept of
Righdomhua - ones eligible for election as leader - applied by the Dublin
Vikings, that is, succession may pass from father to son on condition of the
son's proven suitability to rule, and if he attracted the support of his most
powerful peers within his kinship network - M.S].

VII. On the death of Godfred his sons fled as I have mentioned; one of them
apparently succeeded to his father's dominions in Vestfold, namely Olaf [an
interesting mention of Danish holdings in Norway - M.S]. In Jutland, however,
he was succeeded by his brother's son Hemming [Einhardt, Pertz, I, 197, 198;
Kruse, 54]. He was doubtless a brother of the Reginold just named.

IX. The new king came to terms with the empire, and in a treaty made between
them in 811 the Eyder was accepted as the frontier between the two kingdoms
[Helmold Kruse, 58], and thus the border district occupied by the
Transalbingian Saxons, and the Obotriti of Wagrien, over which Godfred had
enacted a kind of suzerainty, was surrendered to the Franks.

X. It is remarkable that no mention is made here of Godfred's sons [in the

treaty - M.S], although Hemming's brothers are named; showing his hostile title
[Hist, des Car. 2, 210]. Hemming died in the early part of the year 812. The
very suspicious narrative of Saxo makes him be buried at Lethra. The Frankish
chronicles introduce us on his death to a fierce struggle for the vacant
throne, and we are told that this struggle took place between Sigfried, the
nephew of Godfred, and Anulo, "the nephew or grandson of Harald who was
formerly king." This Sigfred, or Sigurd, was doubtless a brother of Reginold
and Hemming already named, who succeeded them naturally.

XI. Saxo's conversion of Anulo into Ringo is probably only one of his
ingeniously perverse blunders, for the word is not Anulus in the nominative,
but Anulo, and is conjugated Anulo, Anulonis. It is probably a form of some
Norse name [see Hilda Roderick Ellis Davidson's comment, para. xvii.] and has
nothing to do with [the semi-legendary] Sigurd Ring.

XII. A great deal of difficulty is created in these inquiries by trying to make

the semi-fabulous early Sagas fit into the pages of genuine history by forced
explanations, and if any good is ever to come from a comparison of them with
more reliable documents, we must construct our story at first entirely apart
from them. [It could be suggested that Mr. Howorth is open to the same charge;
yet I suspect he would have made a distinction between what he would have
identified as reasonable supposition and supposition that was ingeniously
perverse - M.S].

XIII. Who then was Anulo? He was clearly a pretender to the throne, and fought
on more than equal terms with Sigfred, Godfred's nephew. Now, I have argued
that there was at this very time a rival family to Godfred's, namely, that of
Halfdene. It is possible then that Anulo was a son of Halfdene. This is my
view, and I believe it reconciles much difficulty, and is supported by other
evidence. As we read the story then, on the death of Hemming a struggle for the
throne took place between his brother Sigfred or Sigurd and Anulo of the rival
family of Halfdene.

XIV. In this battle both Sigurd and Anulo we are told were killed; but the side
of the latter won the day, and his brothers Harald and Reginfred made
themselves kings. According to Einhardt, 10,940 men perished in the struggle
[Pertz, i, 199, see also Annals of Fulda. id. I, 355].

XV. The battle which gained them the throne was fought in 812, and we are told
that in the same year they sent envoys to make a pact with the Emperor, and to
ask him to send them back or to release their brother Hemming [Einhardt Pertz
i, 199; Kruse 66] the same person, I believe, who died in Walcheren, as I shall
show presently, many years later, and is then distintcly called the son of
Halfdaene. [An 837 entry in the Annales Fuldensis calls Hemming a son of
Halfdene. This is the only mention of their father in a primary source. The
identification relies on the assumption that the Hemming mentioned in 837 was
the same Hemming mentioned in chronicle entries from two decades before. We are
told that the same year, i.e. in 813, Godfred's sons returned from exile, and
were apparently welcomed by a large number of their father's folk, and fought
against the two kings, and drove them and their brother Hemming ou, or that
such marriages did not bring about changes in land ownership.' (Einhardt, Pertz
I, 200; Chron. Moiss., id. 1,311, 2,259; Kruse 69, 71].

[XVI. Halfdan Haraldsson's children were: Hemming Halfdansson, who was killed
in the Battle of Walcheren, 837. Harald Halfdansson, nicknamed Klak, meaning
complainer, who was was killed in the Battle of Walcheren, 844. He was also
known by the appelations of Hericus, Heriold, and Heriolt. Reginfred
Halfdannson, who briefly shared joint regency of Denmark with his brother,
Harald. He was killed in battle in 814. Anulo Halfdansson, killed in battle in
812 ["Anulo nepos Herioldi" - Royal Frankish Annals]. Nepos can be translated
as both "nephew" or "grandson", making Anulo and his siblings nephews or
grandsons of Harald Eysteinsson, with the former status being favoured by
Howorth's political analysis. Rorik Halfdansson. He was granted Dorstad by
Emperor Lothar in 850, having previously been expelled from this fief. He
undertook to protect this part of Frisia from further Viking attack, but lacked
the military power to fulfill this obligation. In 857, three years after the
accession of Horik II., he gained land around Hedeby, and held most of Northern
Frisia. It is often claimed that he was the founder of the Russian State [N. T.
Belaiew, Saga-book of Viking Society, x., pt. ii., p. 267, 1925-7]. According
to the Annales Bertiniani, Roric was a 'nephew' of Harald].

XVII. As said, a great deal of difficulty is created in these inquiries by

trying to make the semi-fabulous early Sagas fit into the pages of genuine
history by forced explanations. This should be considered when speculating over
the parentage of Regner, alias Reginheri, the leader of the Viking attack on
Paris in 845, possible prototype for Ragnar loðbrók, and moreso considered when
assessing arguments concerning his possible decendants. As the celebrated
academic, Hilda Roderick Ellis Davidson wrote in her commentary on Saxo: 'In
Icelandic sources Regner is the son of Sigurd Hringr [thus attempts to equate
Anulo with this name], yet Saxo evidently thinks of his Regner as the son of
Sigfried [as above] mentioned by Adam of Bremen [1. 15]. His cousin, Anulo,
said by Adam to contend with Sigfried for the rule of Denmark may have been
Ali, but Saxo takes the name as equivalent to Anulus' [Hilda Roderick Ellis
Davidson, Peter Fisher, trans., The history of the Danes, books I-IX, by Saxo,
p. 150, 1998]. I would suggest that this was by way of trying to make history
fit too improbably into the pages of the Sagas. More recent ingeniously
perverse attempts to achieve the same ends include supposing that Sigfried and
Anulo to be the same person, the latter being a nickname of the former.

SONS OF RAGNER

XVIII. The following extracts are taken from Professor McTurk's paper, Kings
and kingship in Viking Northumbria. He discusses the above mentioned Ragnar,
and the possibility that a number of sons can be assigned to him. Of particular
importance to this account is the identification of one of these as Ivar, and
of his possible identification with Ireland:

XIX. 'The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records the death in Devon in 878 of ‘the
brother of Inwære and Healfdene’. This shows clearly that Inwære [whose name
corresponds to Ivar] and Healfdene were brothers, and there are good reasons
for thinking that the unnamed third brother was Hubba, who appears in the late
tenth-century Passio Sancti Eadmundi by Abbo of Fleury as a close associate of
Hinguar [= Inwære], and as his brother in the Annals of St Neots and in the
accounts of Gaimar and Geoffrey of Wells, all from the twelfth century. There
are also good reasons for doubting the accuracy of Æthelweard’s late tenth-
century account of the events in Devon in 878, which appears to contradict that
of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle with regard to the identity of the brother who
died in that year; and also for dismissing Æthelweard’s information that Iuuar
(= Inwære, Ívarr) died in 869, shortly after the slaying of King Edmund of East
Anglia; if this information can indeed be dismissed, then Inwære/Ívarr may
safely be identified with Imhar, the Viking king of Dublin, who according to
the Annals of Ulster died in 873, rex Nordmannorum totius Hiberniae et
Britanniae.

XX. The Healfdene mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle seems to be identical

with one Albann, who according to the Annals of Ulster died in Ireland at
Strangford Lough in 877; and the twelfth-century Irish Cogadh Gaedhel re
Gallaibh appears to speak of this Albann, ‘king of the dark heathens’, as the
son of Ragnall,* a name which corresponds, albeit loosely, to Ragnarr. If the
identification of this Ragnall with Ragnarr can be accepted, then it may argued
that Inwære/Ívarr/Imhar [Inguar] and Healfdene, and perhaps Hubba also, had a
father named Ragnarr.

XXI. It may further be noted that Adam of Bremen, writing in c. 1076, speaks of
what appears to be this same Inwære/Ívarr/Imhar as Inguar filius Lodparchi,
clearly seeing him as the son of someone with a name corresponding loosely to
loðbrók; and that William of Jumièges, writing c. 1070, refers to a certain
Bier Costae ferreae [‘Ironside’] as Lotbroci regis filio, as the son, that is,
of a king whose name corresponds to loðbrók very closely. This Bier, whose
name, nickname and parentage clearly link him with Björn járnsíða [‘Ironside’],
who appears in Ragnars saga as a son of Ragnarr loðbrók, seems to have shared
with that Björn a historical prototype in the Viking leader Berno, who,
according to the contemporary and near-contemporary Annales Bertiniani and
Chronicon Fontanellense respectively, was active on the Seine in the eight-
fifties.

XXII. The Albann/Healfdene of the Annals of Ulster and the Anglo-Saxon

Chronicle, mentioned above, may also be identified with an Halbdeni mentioned
in the Annales Fuldenses for 873 as the brother of the Danish king Sigifridus
and as active on the European continent [in Metz] in that year. The case for
the identification is strengthened by the fact that 873 is one of the years in
which the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle does not indicate that Healfdene was active in
England. If this identification can be established, then Sigifridus, the
brother of this Halbdeni (= Healfdene = Albann), son of Ragnall/Ragnarr, may be
regarded as historically a brother of Inwære/Ívarr/Imhar (= Inguar, filius
Lodparchi), and perhaps also of Hubba, as well as of Berno, Lotbroci regis
filius. This same Sigifridus may then reasonably be taken as the historical
prototype of Sigurðr ormr-í-auga (‘Snake-in-eye’), who appears in Ragnars saga
as a son of Ragnarr loðbrók.

XXIII. There is thus a case for saying that Inwære, Healfdene, Hubba, Berno and
Sigifridus, all of them active in the second half of the ninth century, the
first two and the fifth of them as kings, if the relevant identifications can
be accepted), were brothers. Of the five, Healfdene is the only one not to
appear as a son of Ragnarr loðbrók in Scandinavian tradition; the others appear
to have been the historical prototypes of, respectively, his sons Ívarr, Ubbo,
Björn and Sigurðr, of whom Ubbo [who appears, like the other three, as a son of
Regnerus Lothbrog in Book IX of Saxo’s Gesta Danorum] seems to be the only one
who was known exclusively to East Norse tradition. It may be noted that, in the
contemporary and as nearly as possible contemporary sources adduced above, only
one, the twelfth-century Irish Cogadh Gaedhel re Gallaibh, provides any
evidence for these brothers having had a father named Ragnarr, and that only
Adam of Bremen and William of Jumièges, both from the second half of the
eleventh century, provide evidence for their having been sons of someone named
Loðbrók. None of these sources gives any indication of an awareness of the two
names Ragnarr and Loðbrók being used in combination for the same person. The
first recorded instance of the names being so used is Ari Þorgilsson’s
reference to Ívarr Ragnarssonr loðbrókar in his Íslendingabók, written between
1120 and 1133 [McTurk, 1991a, Studies in Ragnars saga loðbrókar and its major
Scandinavian analogues (Medium Ævum monographs, new series, 15). Oxford: The
Society for the Study of Mediæval Languages and Literature].

XXIV. In writing earlier on this topic I have, I now suspect, exaggerated the
difficulties in the way of identifying Reginheri, the leader of the Viking
attack on Paris in 845, as the father of the brothers Halbdeni and Sigifridus.
These difficulties have to do with the question of whether or not Reginheri was
a member of the family of the Danish king Godofridus I. (d. 810), all members
of which, with the exception of one boy, Horicus II, appear to have been wiped
out in a battle in 854, to judge from the account given in the Annales
Fuldenses for that year. If this is to be believed, and if Reginheri, who died
in all probability in 845 [ ], was indeed a member of that family, then
Halbdeni and Sigifridus and any brothers they may have had cannot have been his
sons, since the only surviving members of the family after 854 would have been
Horicus II and his progeny. I would now acknowledge, however, more emphatically
than I did in 1976 [McTurk, R.W. ‘Ragnarr loðbrók in the Irish annals?’ In Bo
Almqvist and David Greene (eds) Proceedings of the Seventh Viking Congress,
Dublin 15-21 August 1973. Dublin: Royal Irish Academy, 93-123], the possibility
that the Fulda annalist has here presented the succeeding survivor of this
royal family as its sole survivor, and that other members of the family may in
fact have survived. At the same time I would emphasise that in seeking, as I am
now doing, to establish the parentage of the five brothers under discussion, it
is by no means essential to regard Reginheri as having been a member of the
house of Godofridus I.

XXV. On the admittedly bold assumption that we are dealing here with full
brothers rather than half-brothers, I would suggest that the father of Inwære,
Healfdene, Hubba, Berno and Sigifridus was Reginheri, the leader of the Viking
attack on Paris in 845'.

XXVI. The 'historicity' of Ragnar is not a new topic: " His real name was
Ragenfrid or Regnier [Reginheri], who became a sea-king on being expelled from
his dominions in the time of Harald Klak" [Andrew Crichton, Henry Wheaton
Scandinavia, Ancient and Modern iii., 1841]. This theme was developesd by
Professor Steenstrup [Normannerne, 1876-1882], who also equated Ragnar with
Reginheri. Neither is the controvery of Ivar of Dublin being equated with the
Ivar who commanded the Great Heathen Army in England in 869 new; yet 'the
reputation of Iomhar [Ivar] of Dublin as a ruler with aspirations to rule over
a wide area was certainly recognised by contemporaries. When the Annals of
Ulster recorded his death in 873, it was claimed that Iomhar was King of all
the Norse of all Ireland and Britain [Pauline Stafford, Companion to the Middle
Ages, p. 202, 2009]. Such a wide-spread sphere of influence might suggest
Iomhar and Ivar to be synonomous.

XXVII. In an Irish context, Iomhar held sway over both "dark heathens" [Danes]
and the "fair heathens" [Norwegians], divisions of Norse invaders given in the
Irish annals for uncertain reasons [Thomas Bartlett, Keith Jeffrey, A Military
History of Ireland, p. 47, 1997]. One suggested reason might be that the "dark
heathens" had intermarried with the Saxon nobility situated on their
borderlands, a theme that will be discussed anon, and they contained numbers of
"dark-haired heathens." However this may be, it seems certain that some Norse
war-bands that attacked Ireland were of mixed Dano-Norwegian composition,
paralleling those that were to later establish themselves in Normandy;
mercenaries for the most part, led by a closely related hierarchy.

THE IRISH CONNECTION

XXVIII. What follows is based on Irish texts such as Cogadh Gaedhel re

Gallaibh, written in the reign of Muirchertach Ó Briain [1086-1119], with some
later additions, which offer genealogical information which is distinct from
that given by later medieval re-interpretations, as found in the history of
Gruufud ap Cynan. This chronicle tends to agree with Irish annals up c. 917-
927, then faithfully copies the medieval pseudo- history found in the Sagas.

XIX. Traditionally, Ivar has been assigned two sons, viz. Sitric [Sigtryggr];
and Godfrey [so called in Cod. Clarendon, tom. 47], alias Guthfrith or Guthred.
Sitric is not known to have left any descendants; thus Godfrey is assumed to
have had had four sons, Anlaf, Godfrey, also alias Guthfrith or Guthred; Ragnal
alias Ragenold [Old Norse Rögnvaldr], and Sitric II. I would consider it more
reasonable that, as a son was rarely named after his father in this period,
Sitric I. was the father of Godfrey II., and Godfrey I. was father of Sitric
II.; a view partly supported by Adam of Bremen, who identifies only Ragnal and
Sitric as the sons of Godfrey, on the authority of a work not now known to
exist, intitled Gesta Anglorum. Godfrey I. ascended to the lordship of Dublin
in 883. I would suggest that Ivar was also the possible father of Guthrum,
Osketil, and Geirmund alias Gerlo - of these, more later.

XXXI. The original war-band that Sitric and Godfrey represented seems to have
been expelled from Ireland, yet in 910 a fresh band of "Gentiles" arrived,
establishing themselves in Waterford, which they fortified the following year,
having been reinforced by a large body of their countrymen. In 915, the two
brothers, Sitric II. and Ragnall, alias Ragenold, the sons of Godfrey, and
grandsons of Ivar, landed, one in Kildare, the other in "Waterford, and assumed
a joint command. Dublin was not recovered till 918, when it passed into the
possession of Godfrey II. ["the most cruel of the Northmen"]; cousin of Sitric
II. and Ragnal. According to the contemporary Annals of Ulster, this latter
Godfrey is described as "Lord of the Gentiles" and his cousin, Ragnall, on his
death in 921, as "king of the fair foreigners and the dark foreigners"; thus
Ragnall was given the same title as his grandfather. Godfrey II. assisted his
cousin, Sitric II., in his fight in 927 against his brother-in-law, Athelstan
of England. Both Sitric II. [925] and Ragnall [923] had briefly ruled in
Northumberland, as Godfrey, and were given the ua Imhar patronymic [Benjamin T.
Hudson, Prophecy of Berchán, Irish and Scottish high-kings of the early Middle
Ages, p. 144, 1996]. It can be noted that the historian E. A. Freeman lamented
the absence of Sitric II. in Norman accounts of their history, thus, he
suggested, casting doubts on its accuracy.

XXXII. In the Irish annals, this entire grouping are specifically referred to
as ua Imair [descendants of Ivar], or Clann Imair [kindred of Ivar]; referring,
I believe, to both sons and grandsons of Ivar.

THE INFLUENCE OF BJORN JARNSIDA.

XXXIII. Ivar may not have been the only son of Ragnar represented in Ireland,
as his brother, Björn járnsíða [‘Ironside’], is assumed to have links there - a
descendant of his son, Asleik, is named as a chieftain in Cogadh Gaedhel re
Gallaibh [Louis Lemoine, Abrégé de l'histoire de Suède, p. 60, 1844]. Other
sons of Björn were Refil and Erik, the latter taking over his father's realms
in Sweden. Bjorn's son Eric may be of some interest. His nephew was Styrbjorn
[Bjorn the Strong], who married Thyra, daughter of King Harald Gormsson. It is
said [Knýtlinga saga] that Styrbjorn was Harald's overlord. His son was
Thorgils, father of Gytha, who married Earl Godwin; they were the parents of
King Harald Godwinson and Edith, married to Edward the Confessor. It was
through this lineage that the Saxon Kings of England traced their ancestry to
Gorm the Old, through his grandaughter, Thyra, and to 'Biœrn à la Côte-de-Fer,
through his grandson, Styrbjorn. Such dynastic links gave legitimacy to rule.
William the Conqueror was merely stating his right to rule England as a fellow
descendant of this dynastic conglomerate, not because of the marriage of a
female relative to a Saxon king; that was the result shared ancestry, not the
cause of it. [Edward the Confessor married Edith to secure a link to the ruling
Danish dynasty. Dynastic links were extremely interwoven: Gytha's brother was
Ulf; he married Astrith, sister of Cnut the Great, son of Svein Haraldsson, son
of Harald Gormsson, son of Gorm the Old].
XXXIV. Björn járnsíða's role in the establishment of Viking defenses in France
prior to the establishment of Normandy is little known: 'It is certain that
that warrior, scouring the coasts of La Manche in 845, in his way to Bretagne,
visited and laid waste Valognes, Bruchamp, Port-Paillart, and various other
places in the environs of Barneville and Briquebec [Daru, Hist, de Bret. i. p.
204]. He is thought to have afterwards fortified himself along the whole line
of the Hague-Dyke, extending from Osmonville to Port-Paillart, situated over
against Portbail and Carteret, which borders immediately upon Barneville; and
the traces of this fortified encampment yet remain' [Seguin, Mil. Hist, des
Bocains, 1816]. When occupying Normandy, between 918 and 930, Björn's kinsmen
built a series of mottes circulaires, circular wooden forts that again
strengthened the Hague-Dyke. These were places of original abode, held before
families moved to other estates. Some of these mottes circulaires were at
Barneville-la-Bertran, held by the Briquebec family of Hrolf Turstain;
Varenquebec, from where originated the early Harcourt, Evreux, and Rivers
families, who held under Hrolf Turstain, baron of Varenquebec [Francis Turner
Palgrave, The History of Normandy, p. 652, 1854]; and Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte;
the home of the related Cavalcamp and Saint-Saveur families. Björn járnsíða's
involvement in France would seem to suggest that younger members of his family,
such as the sons of Ivar, were "following in his footsteps" when being involved
in the foundind of Normandy.

DESCENDANTS OF HELGI ALIAS HULC.

XXXV. The person shortly to be identified as Helgi or Hulc [commonly known to

us as Malahulc or Malahule] married Maude de St. Pol; of whom, as I have argued
elsewhere, chronologies suggest her to be the probable daughter of Hernequin de
Boulogne et St. Pol and Bertha de Ponthieu. Helgi and Maude were the parents of
1. Richard de St. Saveur, ob. 933, who took his name from one of the family
fiefs in Normandy. Another family fief was that of Perci, near Villedieu.
Richard de St. Saveur's son was 2. Neil 1 de St Saveur, who married Sporte La
Danoise, not Espriota de Senlis; a fabricated attempt to enhance genealogy.
Neil 1 de St Saveur and Sporte La Danoise had a son named 3. Roger de St.
Saveur, who married a daughter of ....... de Porte. [Portes is 5 miles from
Conches, the effective caput of the Tosni family.] Their sons were 4a. Neil II.
de St. Saveur, and 4b. a younger son, name unknown, who lived in the fief of
Perci, though it was owned by his brother. This younger son was the father of
5b. Baron William de Percy, ancestor of the Percy family in England. This
genealogy is recorded in the cartulary of the Abbaye Saint-Martin de Mondaye,
of which the family of St. Saveur were benafactors [L. Delisle, Histoire du
château et des sires de Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte, 1867].

XXXVI. Another son of Helgi was Hugh de Cavalcamp: Hugh de Calvacamp was the
father of - 1. Hugh, Archbishop of Rouen from 942 to 989, appointed to that see
by William I., surnamed Longsword, the son of Rollo; and of, 2. Randolph, on
whom his brother, the Archbishop, bestowed the fief of Todiniacum, or Toeni,
alienating it from the patrimony of the see. [Ada Arcliiepp. Rothomag., by a
monk of St. Ouen, temp. Pap. Greg. VIL, ap. Mabillon, Vett. Analecta, p. 223.]
Randolph was the father of Randolph, Sire de Tosny [Charter of Rich. 11.],
father of Roger de Toeni, surnamed the Spaniard [Charter of Foundation of the
Abbey of Conches, ap. Gallia Christiana, torn. xi., Instrumenta, col. 128.; and
Gui. Gemet., lib. v. cap. 10., ap. Duchcsne, Script. Norm., p. 253.], who
rebelled on the accession of William the Bastard, Duke of Normandy [Gui.
Gemet., lib. vii. cap. 3., ap. Duchesne, p. 268.]; and of whose sons- Randolph,
the eldest survivor, acquired large property in England at the Conquest, and
became ancestor of the Lords de Tosni. It may be added that Roger de Tosni,
'the Spaniard', is described by William of Jumieges as 'de stirpe Malahulcii,
qul Rollonis patruus fuerat, et cuni eo Francos atterens, Normanniarn fortiter
acquisierat,' i. e. he was of the stock of Malahule, by female descent.

XXXVII. The Saint-Saveurs were claimed to be the premier Barons of Normandy.

Their lineage "merged into the Tessons" [Palgrave, ibid.] - one assumes by
marriage alliance. Tesson signifies " badger," and it is said that the family
acquired this name from always burrowing their way under ground so cleverly and
cunningly that they acquired one-third of Normandy. The Harcourt family of
Bernard the Dane held Thurry Harcourt, which passed to the Tessons in 1047,
with some French antiquaries taking this to mean the Tessons were in some way
related to the Harcourts. However this may be, one of the divisions of the
Harcourt family in Normandy was that of Heriz or Hericé; the two names
representing a further division; that of the Heriz of Notts., and the Hericé or
Hericy of Normandy. The Norman Hericy arms - az. three hedgehogs gu. -
contained the same rare charge as those of their English couterparts. Richard
de Hericy, fl. 1110-1160, would have been closely related to Robert I. de Heriz
of Notts. He was a contemporary of Raoul or Radulphus de Hericy; their exact
degree of relationship is not known [Bib. Nat., MS. 3676, sec. Cherin]. What is
known is that they were vassals of the Tesson family, and also in some way
related, as they were witnesses to Tesson charters concerning the Tesson
foundation of Fontenay Abbey, a privilege almost exclusively conferred on
relatives of the founder.

SONS OF IVAR.

XXXVIII. In 869, Ivar was leader of the Great Army in East Anglia; his brother
Healfdene taking command in 871. Healfdene and his brother Sigifridus [Sigurðr
ormr-í-auga] were 'kings' in Denmark in 873. In this year, Hedeby, and thus the
fortress of Hochburg, was controlled by Sigifridus, who negotiated its trade
with King Ludwig of Germany [Angelo Forte, Richard D. Oram, Frederik Pedersen,
Viking Empires, p. 46, 2005]. According to the testimony of Svein II.
Estridsen, Sigfrid was succeeded as a king in Denmark by Helgi, probably after
the battle on the Dyle in 891 [Gwyn Jones, A History of the Vikings, p. 111,
2001].

XXXIX. Two commanders of Sigifridus and Healfdene were Hals and Vurm, called
Helgi and Gorm in the Ragnarssona pattr, and mentioned in the Annales Fuldenses
for 882. Hals is a similar name to Hulci in its genitive form, so it is
reasonable to equate Hals with Hulci and Helgi. Vurm is [cas. obl.] Vurmon, or
Gormond, which equates with the Anglo-Saxon name Guthrum, 'the name of a prince
who was of Sigfrid's family.' He certainly received a part of the tax levied on
Emperor Charles - 'Sigifridio etiam Vermoni illorumque complicibus' [Hincmar].
This "prince" may well have been Guthrum Aethelstan: As will be shown, the
mythos of Rollo's early career is largely built around the exploits of the
Danish chieftain Guthred, whose name, as said, equates with both Guthfrith and
Godfrey. This Guthred had a brother [vide Hincmar] called Vurm [Guthrum]; and
Dudo makes Rollo an associate of Guthrum Aethelstan [Lappenberg, A History of
England, p. 8, 1857]. For Rollo read Guthred - see paragraphs - thus, Guthred
becomes an associate of Guthrum Aethelstan; his brother?, who was: 'The
fabulous Gormo of Saxo Grammat. lib. ix. and " Gorm hin Enske" (Gorm
Engelaender), who is baptized in England, in the " Chronic. Erici Regis ap.
Langebek Scriptt. Rer. Danic." I. p. 158, Gurmund in Will. Malmesb. II. 121,
and Alberic, and Guaramund in the "Chron. Rich." is, without doubt, one and the
same person. The Anglo-Saxon form of the name is Guthrum, but I have adopted,
as Kemble has done, the pure northern form: Gutorm, that is, battleworm'
[Reinhold Pauli, The life of king Alfred, p. 188. 1852].

XXXX. From these associations I would tentatively suggest that Helgi was a son
of Sigifridus [Sigurðr ormr-í-auga], who succeeded his father as ruler of
Hedeby. I would further suggest that Helgi was the father of Gorm the Old [Gorm
den Gamle], who is mentioned in the work called Cogadh Gall fri Gaedh-alaibh
under the name of Tamar Mac Elgi. In the copy of that work preserved in the
Library of Trinity College, Dublin, H. 2, 17, p. 359, he is said to have come
with a royal great fleet, some time after the death of the monarch Niall Glun-
dubh, who was slain in the year 915, and to have put in at Inis Sibtond, at
Limerick. This is evidently the Tamar mac Elgi of H. 2, 17, the "earl of the
strangers in Limerick." "Tomar = Gormo Gamle, called by the Irish Tomar" [Great
Britain. Public Record Office Rerum Britannicarum Medii Ævi Scriptores: Or,
Chronicles and Memorials of Great Britain and Ireland During the Middle Ages,
p. 264, 1965].

XXXXI. Thus, by these calculations, Gorm hin Enske and Gorm the Old were second
cousins; their relationship often being the subject of conjecture. I would
suggest that the name Helgi may have been a cognomen, stemming from Old Norse
heilagr meaning holy, and may have pertained to someone who was a
chieftain/priest of his clan. His real name may have been Hardegon, as in
Ragnarssona þáttr, son of Sigifridus [Sigurðr ormr-í-auga]. Although this
apparently contradicts Adam of Bremen's account of Gorm being the grandson of
someone called Svend, this is not the case. Adam mentions two people who are
called Hardegon, Hardegon Urm, with Urm being from the Old Norse Ormr, as in
Sigurðr ormr-í-auga, and Hardegon son of Svend. He does not state that they are
the same person; a much copied assumption, as is equating the name Hardegon
with Hardeknud. Early texts do not mention any variation of Hardegon, and
neither does it equate with Hardeknut; the somewhat strained explanation given
by those who support the Hardegon/Hardeknud thesis is that Adam must have
misheard what he was told.

XXXXII. I would further suggest that it was Sigifridus [Sigurðr ormr-í-auga]

and Guthred who led the attack on Paris in 885 [called Sigifridus in a poem by
Abbo of St. Germain, written between 888-9]. On the assumption that Guthred was
one and the same as Godfrey alias Guthfrith, a case can be made for Ivar being
the father of both Guthred and Guthrum [brothers par Hincmar], with Guthred
assisting his uncle in the siege of Paris. Another commander at this siege was
Osketil [Depping, tom. ii. pp. 23]. Osketil was a commander of the Great Army
in England in 874. Notably perhaps, after Healfdene's defeat at Edington, he
came with Guthrum with reinforcements from the Continent. That Guthred and
Osketil were also close companions, and probably not sons of Healfdene, is
shown by the fact that when Healfdene's army divided into two sections in 874,
one half was commanded by Guthred and Osketil - a joint command, suggesting
parity of status. Viking armies were composed of "sodalitates" - "bands of
companions" or "brotherhoods" - distinct groupings whose leaders usually shared
close familial ties. That Osketil was of the "brotherhood" of both Guthrum and
Guthred is shown in him being of their "sodalitas" - I would suggest he was
brother to both; and that, after Healfdene's death s. a. 878, both he and
Guthred [Godfrey] fought with their " brotherhood" under the command of their
uncle, Sigifridus.

XXXXIII. Of Osketil [a compound name comprising of the elements os* and ketil];
if he can be the same Ketil that was said by Richer of Reims [Historia, i, 28
(vol. 1, p. 62] to be the father of Rollo ['filio Catilli'], then Rollo is
closely related to the Dano-Hibernian family of the Ui Imair. This
identification of Rollo's father is supported by David Crouch [The Normans: the
history of a dynasty, pp. 297-300, 2002]. Professor Crouch also suggests that
Rollo's uncle was probably someone called Malahulc, identified by Orderic
Vitalis c. 1113 [GND, ii., 94-5, Musset, 1977, 48-9], but not known from any
other source, whom I would equate with the above mentioned Helgi alias Hulci.

XXXXIV. I would further suggest that Guthred alias Guthfrith is one and the
same as the Godfrey, the Danish Viking leader who had probably been with the
Great Army [led by Sigifridus, 882-6], which descended on the Continent. He
became a vassal of the Emperor Charles III., after that ruler sued for peace,
giving Godfrey most of Frisia to rule. Charles also gave him Gisela [865-908],
illegitimate daughter of King Lothair II. [839-869], as his wife.

XXXXV. In 885, he was summoned to Lobith for a meeting after being accused of
complicity with Hugh, Duke of Alsace [855-895], illegitimate son of Lothair II,
in an insurrection. In an act of treachery, he was killed by a group of Frisian
and Saxon nobles at the connivance of Henry Duke of Franconia and Count of
Saxony. The local count Gerulff III, one of the conspirators, took over the
West Frisian coastline from the Danes after the murder. Hugh was blinded,
spendind the rest of his life in the Monastery of St. Boniface [Eduard
Hlawitschka, Lotharingien und das Reich, pp. 17-19, 1968].
XXXXVI. By this analysis, the Great Army had a very dynamic leadership, with
its commanders constantly moving from one front to another - we have the
example of Osketil arriving from the Continent to assist the defeated Healfdene
in England. The leadership did not settle in the lands they acquired, often
leaving them to be controlled by subordinates, as they constantly sought new
gains, whilst having to be ready to defend old ones. It was not a case of
numerous chieftains holding sway over various lands, but rather that a small
number, who were 'replicated' by variations of their name, controlled these
lands through the process of delegation.

XXXXVII. That Guthfrith of the ua Himair was Guthred alias Godfrey, the
associate of Sigifridus and Osketil, is not precluded by evidence from the
Irish Annals, for they are inconsistent in their accounts of him; he is either
killed by or kills his brother in 888 - a mistake based on a later entry of
917, casting doubts as to their overall accuracy. Godfrey's murder in June of
885 may also have been an act that spurred Sigifridus to attack Paris in
November of that year.

XXXXIII. Godfrey and Gisela had issue: Reginhilde de Friesland, alias

Rheinghildin de Frise, wife of Count Theoderic of Ringelheim, alias
Dietrich/Dietricus of Ringelheim, a direct descendant of Duke Wittikind. Their
issue were: Frederune of Ringelheim, who married King Charles III. of France.
Mathilda of Ringelheim, wife of Henry the Fowler, 876-2/7/936, alias Henry I.,
King of Germany. Almalrad of Ringelheim, who married Everard, Count of
Hameland, a domain of Wickman de Hameland. Sigfrid, Count of Ringelheim: 'Henry
the Fowler bestowed the government [of Brandenburg] on Sigfrid, Count of
Ringelheim'[Robert Beatson, A Political index to the histories of Great Britain
and Northern Ireland, p. 494, 1806]. It was this Sigfrid who was to become
known as Sigfrid de Guines, who held Brandenburg simultaneously [J. Dhondt,
Recherches sur l'histoire Boulonnais, ix., x., in Memoires de l'Academie
d'Arras, 4th. series, pp. 1-35, 1941/42].

XXXXVIII. I will later propose that Godfrey was, by an earlier wife, the father
of both Sitric II. and a Danish chieftain named Heriolfr, whom I will equate
with Hrolf Turstain of Normandy. This Hrolf's grandson, Crispin de Bec,
married, by this analysis, his second-cousin, Heloise de Guines, daughter of
the above mentioned Sigfrid de Guines. I suggest that this may be significant
in identifying Godfrey as the father of Heriolfr, and Heriolfr as being
synonomous with Hrolf, for at this time marriages and tenurial relationships
were almost invariably the result of previous family connections. This process
kept wealth within a network of closely interconnected families, making
marriages between various degrees of cousins commonplace, and the subject of
church epistles against them. Another reason for such marriages was to give
each family an insurance policy against ducal or monarchial authority, for, if
you fell out of favour, powerful family connections might be the means of
preserving land and life. They were also the conduit through which individuals
advanced in life, with extended family members being expected to assist their
kinsfolk to gain important positions or grants of land. In this way, it is best
to view these families as members of a kinship group.

XXXXIX. At the risk of labouring this point, I will comment further on the
issue of endogamous marriages, as it is sometimes said, I believe naievly so,
that such marriages would have been agaist ecclesiastical law, and therefore
prohibited. Several points can be made: During the early years of Normandy, the
elite were mainly of Scandinavian origin, originating from remote settlements,
inbreeding was unavoidable, and marriages between first cousins were
commonplace - they still were in sixteenth-century Iceland, despite church
condemnation. The view that the Viking settlers of Normandy rapidly embraced
church doctrine and assimilated into Frankish society en masse is a palpable
myth, written by church historians seeking to proclaim the convertional power
of their faith; it is ignorant of such fact as the young Duke Richard being
educated in Bayeux so as to give him a sense of his family's Scandinavian
language and customs, which certainly included the custom of chieftains having
any number of concubines.

L. Noble families were primarily interested in preserving property within their

family rather than seeing it dispersed to outsiders, and many scholars now
accept that there were two seperate "models" of marriage that developed in the
late tenth and eleventh centuries - the ecclesiastical and the noble; the
nobles preferring endogamous unions which preserved property. It can also be
noted that most leadind clergy were brothers and cousins of nobles, and were
inclined toward their interests. There were, of course, nobles whose antipathy
to close consanguinity was based on church teachings, just as there nobles who
objected to such marriages that did not serve their interest, and who
expediently involved the church in their disputes; yet it is equally clear that
such unions continued. To claim they did not on the basis of well-documented
cases involving the contesting of unions between those of 6th. or 7th. degree
of consangunity is to be ignorant of charter evidence; it is to repeat the
propaganda of church historians who would have us believe that their that their
tenets were rigorously adhered to. Marriages between two sets of siblings were
also commom enough. Church strictures against what they considered to be far
worse forms of sexual deviance were also flagrantly flouted during this period.
People no more conformed to theoretical codes of conduct than is the case today.

A DANISH CONTEXT.

LI. In order to show that the exploits of Rollo were based on those of his
uncle Godfrey [Guthred], I will borrow again from Mr. Howorth, whose essay 'A
Criticism of the Life of Rollo, as told by Dudo de St. Quentin,' appeared in
the 'Archaelogia', vol. xlv., 1880: 'The story of Rollo depends mainly upon the
testimony of the biographer and panegyrist of his grandson Richard the First,
Dudo of St. Quentin, who had access to the sons of those who were Rollo's
actual contemporaries and companions, yet he given us such a false and
unsubstantial account. Where the annals say Guthfred or Sigfred, he retains the
exploit, but assigns it boldly to his hero. On leaving England Rollo, according
to Dudo, sailed to the country of the Walgri, i. e., Walcheren. Here he is made
to enter into a sustained struggle with Ragner Longi Collis, count of Hainault,
and Radbod, Duke of the Frisians. The name of Hagner Longi Collis, which is
well known in the annals of this period, has been found in a document dated as
early as 877, and a Radbod "comes in Lake et Ysella," occurs in the year 875.
This, pro tanto, supports Dudo's account; yet it is strange that the
chroniclers of the period, Hincmar, Heginon, and Frodoard, who describe in some
detail the ravages of the pirates on the Frisian coast, should not have a word
about Hollo's exploits there. When we say that Hincmar, Heginon, and the rest
do not name Hollo in Frisia, we do not mean that they do not mention the
ravages of the pirates there. They mention them frequently, and in detail, but
they were Danes, and their leaders were Sigfred and Guthred.

LII. Hincmar's annals close in 885, so that we are here on ground quite
familiar to him, yet he breathes not the name of Rollo. Nor is he mentioned in
any contemporary annals of this period so far as I know, the well-known
passages in " Asser's Life of Alfred " having been shown to be interpolations.
(Vide Mon. Hist. Britt. 479 note, and M. le Prevost " Notes pour servir a
1'Histoirc de Normandie," 1st part, in the Annuaire de Normandie, i. 40, note
2.

LIII. Dudo makes Rollo advance upon Rouen and there have an interview with its
bishop, Franco; but, as has long been pointed out, Franco was not made bishop
until the year 909, and it is clear that if the incidents of the story are
reliable, the date 876 is utterly inadmissible.

LIV. The aforementioned Siege of Paris: There Dudo gives the leadership to
Rollo, were, in fact, the leaders of it were Sigfried and Guthred. None of the
annalists of the time say a word about Rollo. The whole account is distorted,
and is another instance of the way in which Dudo has converted to the honour of
Rollo deeds with which he had nothing to do.
LV. We have now arrived at the end of the ninth century. The history of France
during the ten years from 900 to 910 is hid in almost impenetrable mists. There
is a huge gap in the Annals they all fail us here the reason being no doubt the
terribly disturbed state of Gaul and Germany and the ravages of the Danes. As
these Annals fail, so does Dudo most consistently. Having no material to
transform, he creates none. He has not handed us even a tradition, but makes a
clean jump over the chaotic interval; and when we emerge from the blank it is
generally supposed that we come upon undoubted, independent evidence of the
existence of Rollo; that the Frodoard Annals mention the treaty he made with
Charles the Simple at St. Clair-sur-Epte in 911; and that this date is the
first one at which we have independent evidence of the presence of Rollo in
France. That Rollo married Gisela, daughter of Charles the Simple, as one of
the terms of the treaty of St. Clair-sur-Epte, has been accepted by historians
with, I believe, almost unvarying credulity.

LVI. Let me collect the evidence. Charles the Simple was born in the year 879,
and on the feast of St. Lambert (i.e. the 17th of September), as he tells us in
one of his charters (Recueil des Historiens de France, ix. 531, "quoted by
Licquet 82). The treaty of St. Clair sur Epte was made, according to Dudo and
his copyists, at the end of the year 911, and put in force at the beginning of
912, so that Charles must then have been 32 or at most 33 years of age

LVII. The two wives of Charles the Simple of whom we know something were,
Frederune, the sister of Boso, Bishop of Chalons, whom he married in 907
(Mabillon, de Re Diplomatica, 558). She died about ten years after, and was
buried in the church of St. Remi. His second wife was Edgifa, or, as the French
write it, Ogiva, daughter of Edward the Elder, and sister of Athelstane. It is
clearly impossible that he could have had a marriageable daughter by either of
these wives at the date of the treaty

LVIII. These facts make it very nearly certain that Charles the Simple could
not have had a daughter of marriageable age in 911 ; and is the story then
wholly false? By no means. Here, again, and this only makes the contention the
stronger, he has merely robbed Guthred of another incident in his life.
Reginon, Abbot of Prune, whose chronicle closes in the year 906, has sub ann.
882 the following notice : "Novissime rex Godfridus Normannorum ea conditione
christianum se fieri pollicetur, si ei, munere regis, Frisia provincia
concedcretur, et Gisela filia Lotharii in uxorem daretur."

LIX. As M. Licquet says : Here we have a Charles (the emperor Charles the Fat)
giving away a province (Frisia) with a Gisla or Gisela to a Norman chief, on
condition of his being baptized. We have in fact the very circumstances
assigned to Rollo in one of the clauses of the treaty of St. Clair-sur-Epte.
The parallelism of the stories is so complete that we are driven to the
conclusion that one has been borrowed. Now, Reginon, who was a contemporary of
the events he relates, and who with his own hands cut off the hair of Hugh, the
brother of Gisela, when he entered a monastery a few years later, and knew the
family intimately, is not likely to have been mistaken We are forced to one
conclusion only, namely, that, as before, Dudo has transferred from the annals
an adventure of Guthred and assigned it to Rollo.'

LX. Mr. Howorth clearly gives Rollo an identity based on the recorded exploits
a Danish chieftain, not one based on the pseudo-history of Norwegian sagas. He
also places Rollo [I believe correctly] in a later generation than is assumed
by these sagas: 'Dudo dates the treaty of St. Clair-sur-Epte in 911 and 912. I
believe it to be utterly wrong. In the passage from his History of Rheims,
Flodoard says that Rouen, with certain other districts attached to it, were
made over to the Norsemen after the war which Robert fought against the
Carnutenses. This clearly refers to the treaty with Rollo. Now, this extract is
a portion of the chapter in which Frodoard describes the good acts of Heriveus,
the arch-bishop of Rheims, how he laboured to relieve the awful ravages of the
Normans, &c. Heriveus did not become archbishop until 920. On turning to
Richer's Annals ....... next to Frodoard ....... the most reliable authority
for this period of any of the chroniclers ....... we find under the year 921
the following sentence " Dum haec gerebantur Rotbertus Celticae Galliae dux
piratas acriter impetebat. Irruperant enim duce Rollone filio Catilli intra
Neustria repentini jamque Ligerim classe transmiserat ac finibus illius
indemnes potiebantur." This is absolutely the first mention of Rollo in any
chronicle, so far as I know. [Rollo might have been named as Rollon in a
charter of Charles III., 14/3/918, which referred to him and his followers as
Northmen of the Seine [Charter of Charles the Simple, ap. Bouquet, ix., p. 536
- M.S]. I believe most firmly that this is the year in which Rollo really
settled on the Seine. To me it seems incredible that the annals should bristle
with the names of Norse leaders, Sigfred, Gurm, Ingo, Hunedeus, Hasting,
Ragnald, Godfred, &c., &c., and yet that they should keep a rigid silence in
regard to one of the most famous of them, Rollo, the grantee of the Seine
valley, so near to St. Vedast and to Rheims ; so near too to Paris. The only
explanation of their not mentioning him that satisfies a reasonable criticism
is, that he was not there.

LXI. Dudo makes his hero, overwhelmed by age and infirmity, lay down his power
and resign it to his son William. And here again Dudo stands alone, and is
virtually contradicted by the Annals ; but in this case the Annals are not
quite consistent. Richer tells us that Rollo was killed at the capture and sack
of Eu in 925. I am disposed to think that Richer was mistaken. The Frodoard
Annals do not mention Rollo's being there. Two years later, that is in 927, we
find according to all authorities that William son of Rollo did homage to the
French king for his possessions. In Frodoard's History of Rheims it is thus
described: "Herebertus Karolum de custodia in qua eum detincbat ejecit et ad
Sanctum Quintinum deduxit indeque cum eodem Karolo Nordmannorum colloquium
expetiit. Ubi se Willelmus filius Rollonis principis Nordmannorum Karolo
commendavit et amicitiam cum Hereberto confirmavit." There is no mention here
or elsewhere in the Annals of any resignation by Rollo and of his surviving for
five years. The name of Rollo disappears entirely from their pages.'

HARALD OF BAYEUX.

LXII. Returning to the Ui Imair: Sitric II. was the father of Anlaf and Harald;
'Aralt [great] grandson of Ivar and son of Sitric lord of the foreigners of
Limerick' [Four M.]. Harald was also known as Harald ua Imair, proposed as
synonomous with Harald of Bayeux, noted ally of Rollo's family, who came to
hold land between Bayeux and Coutances, possibly connected to the family of the
Duchess Gunnor, and the person called on for assistance by Bernard the Dane
when the Scandinavian colonists came under attack by Frankish forces [Hudson,
Viking Pirates, p. 65, 2005]. Dudo refers to duke Richard I as being related to
a "king of Dacia" named Haigrold [Dudo iv, 84-88 (pp. 114-20 passim)], who must
have been the Viking raider of France of that name [Flodoard's Annals, s.a.
945: MGH SS 3, 392, van Houts (2000), 51], and not king Harald "Bluetooth" of
Denmark].

HERIOLFR.

LXIII. Anlaf was the father of Dubhgall, 'grandson of Sitric II., commander of
the Danes of Dublin' [Four M.]. Dubhgall was one of a few princes of the
foreigners being noted as dying in battle in the Gaedhel re Gallaibh. He died
alongside Dunchadh ua-Herulf, the grandson of Heriolfr [Hrolf].

LXIV. Thus, this Heriolfr is placed in the same generation as Sitric II., being
born circa 885, and is specifically mentioned in the same context as Sitric
II.; their grandchildren were companions and Righdomhua - ones eligible for
election as leader - suggesting that Heriolfr and Sitric II. were members of
the same ruling family.

A HIBERNO-SCANDINAVIAN CONTEXT.

LXV. Both Ragnall and his cousin Guthfrith II. campaigned in Scotland [Pictish
Annals], and Guthfrith's son, Olaf, married a daughter of King Constantine of
the Scots [David W. Rollason, Northumbria, 500-1100, p. 263, 2003].
[Constantine mac Aeda, king of Scots, 900-43]. Thus, this family are placed in
the same Hiberno-Scandinavian mode which 'Rollo' is assigned to: 'While in
Scotland he [Rollo] married a Christian woman and by her he had a daughter
named Kathleen' [Caðlín, daughter of Gongu-Hrólfr who became the wife of Beolan
- OI. 1: 66-7]. 'Rollo probably joined raids on Scotland, Ireland and England'
[Bradbury, Medieval Warfare, p. 83, 2004]. Writing a generation after Rollo,
Flodoard describes Rollo's son, William Longsword, slain 17/12/942, as having a
mother who was "concubina Brittana" - the contemporary frankish eulogy, "Lament
for William" seems to suggest Brittana equates to Britain, rather than
Brittany, and that William and Caðlín were of the same mother. "Landnamabok"
states that Caðlín's husband was Beollan, son of the Ciarmac, King of Meath.
Beollan's Norse connections are shown in the Annals of Inisfallen, in which he
is given the Old Norse nickname of litil; little. Beollan's daughters by
Caðlín, Deichter and Nithbeorg are recorded in the Banshenchas, in which their
father is called the "king of south Meath, of the treacherous Vikings." Thus,
Rollo's family had strong ties to the Irish sea region.

ROLLO RELATED TO RAGNALL.

LXVI. What of Ragnall alias Ragenold, son of Godfrey. The annalist Flodoard
mentioned a Viking named Ragenold, like Rollo, called princeps Nortmannorum,
leader of the Loire Vikings, who were regarded as a menace, especially to
Brittany. He is noted as being a man of Rollo, who attended the coronation of
Rollo's son, William Longsword, in 931, and was probably of Rollo's family [A.
Hugo, France Historique, p. 416, 1837]. 'In 924 Ragenold, although he had
accepted a grant of lands within the borders of France, laid waste the country
of Duke Hugh' [Reginald Lane Poole, The English Historical Review, p. 16,
1911]. Later that year, Ragenold was party to a treaty with Hugues le Grand, in
which he relinquished lands he had siezed in Maine [Bulletin de la Société
d'agriculture, sciences et arts de la Sarthe, xiii., 1858]. Although Ragenold
was not Rollo, with whom he has been confounded, he places Rollo within the
Hiberno-Norse kinship network as the ui Imhair.

HROLF AND BERNARD.

LXVII. I would now like to offer some thoughts on the possible ancestry of
those sometimes called Hrolf Turstain and Bernard the Dane, who, according to
La Roque, was ancestor of the family of Harcourt. Harcourt is the latinised
form of a fief that was originally named after a Danish chieftain called
Heriolfr or Heriulfr, of which Hrolf is a contraction: 'Les autres croient ce
nom personnel, et l'expliquent par plusieurs racines Scandinaves, dont la
principale, Har ou Her, se traduit par éminent fort ou guerrier. — Les
chroniqueurs du moyen âge le latinisaient en Harulfi Corte, ce qui fournirait
d'autres inductions' [La Rocque, Histre. de la M. d'Harc., p. xiii. , etc.,
cit. MSAN, 1837; Larchey, Recherche Etymologique, p. cxxxii, 1880].

LXIII. Harcourt was not the only domain of this chieftain: Herufivilla ou
'Hérouville, désigné habituellement sous le nom d'Hérouville-Saint-Clair,
Herulfivilla, Herolvilla, est situé sur les bords le l'ancien lit de l'Orne, à
4 kil. N. de Caen' ....... 'Celle de Saint-Clair qui était également fort
ancienne' [ADC., 1837]. The family of Mondeville held the vil here of
Amundevilla, Mondevilla.

LXIX. In that land owned by Hrolf Turstain devolved to Torf le Riche, proposed
son of Bernard the Dane, after his marriage to Hrolf's grandaughter, Ertemberge
de Briquebec, it is reasonable to suggest that Hrolf was the Heriolfr who held
Harulfi Corte, and this Heriolfr was the contemporary of Sitric II., as noted
above. It can also be noted that Torf le Riche was not of Pont-Audemer, as
such, for Pont-Audemer is a more recent name for Trigge[villa]. Although the
name of the chieftain whose vil this was is not obvious, it is reasonable to
suggest he was an important man, who controlled a strategic location, and would
have had some connection to the ruling dynasty, and, as such, the suggestion of
him being Sigtryggr [Sitric II.] deserves consideration.

LXX. Thus, a possible ancestry of Bernard the Dane would place him as a brother
of Heriolfr and Sigtryggr, whose son, Torf le Riche, inherited fiefs in
Triggevilla and Harulfi Corte, which devolved from his two uncles; a conjecture
which is as reasonable, I submit, as the ones offered by Professor Munch, Mr.
Howorth, and Professor McTurk, yet no more than that. For, we are discussing
shadowy figures about whom there is little or no substantial fact, subjects for
reasonable conjecture only.

LXXI. The following text points to some of the possessions of Torf the Rich in
Normandy: 'Torf, surnomme le Riche, souche commune des illustres maisons de
Beaumont et de Harcourt, qui donna son nom à quantité' de Seigneuries qu'il
posse'dait en Normandie, et qu'on reconnaît encore aujourd'hui; telles que
celles de Torchi, Torci, Tourni, Tourville, Tourli, Ponteau-Torf, ou Ponteau-
Torf, etc. Enfin Torf est regardé comme fils de Bernard le Danois, descendu de
la maison de Saxe-Danemarck, lequel accompagna le duc Rou' [L'art de vérifier,
François Dantine et al. p. 150, 1818].

LXXII. This gives clues as to families descended from him. The principal
tenants of Count Robert de Meulan in Normandy were the families of Tourville
and Thibouville. They also became, along with the Harcourts, his principal
tenants in Leicestershire. The connections are obvious, especially if we take a
closer look at the family of Thibouville. The clue is Tourni. Torf came to hold
land in the hamlet of Tournai in the commune of Harcourt et Thibouville, near
Bec, on land owned by the Crispin family. In this instance, Torf is closely
associated with someone called Thibaut, who must have had Crispin connections.
It can be recalled that Herolfr Turstain married Gerlotte de Blois, whose
father was Thibaud de Blois. Thus, the descendant of Bernard, Robert de Meulan,
placed much emphasis on the Blois link established by Heriolfr.

LXXIII. Thibaut was to marry the widow of Duke William, Luitgarde, the daughter
of Herbert II. Count of Vermandois, the sister of whom married Heriolfr's son,
Guillaume Crispin. Thibaut's marriage represented an attempt to become leader
of the Norman Vikings, but the ruling elite chose William's son, Richard, to
succeed him. Thibaut and Luitgarde had issue: Odo [Eudes] de Blois, who married
Bertha de Bourgoyne, daughter of Mathilde de France, who was daughter of
Gerberge and Louis IV d'Outre-Mer, Roi de France, son of Charles III, Roi de
France [the Simple] and Eadgifu, daughter of Eadweard I, King of Wessex.
Gerberge was the daughter of Henry the Fowler [Heinrich I von Sachsen, Holy
Roman Emperor] and Mathilde de Ringelheim. As shown, Mathilde was the daughter
of Reginhilde de Friesland and Count Theoderic of Ringelheim [who were also the
parents of Sigfrid de Guines, whose daughter married Guillaume Crispin's son];
Reginhilde being the daughter of the above mentioned Godfrey and Gisela [Jirí
Louda and Michael MacLagan, Lines of Succession: Heraldry of the Royal Families
of Europe, 2nd edition, 1999, p. 223, 1999; John Morby, Dynasties of the World:
a chronological and genealogical handbook, p. 122, 1989].

LXXIV. [Robert-le-Fort, duc de France et de Bourgogne, comte de Paris,

d'Orléans, de Poitiers, de Chartres et de Blois, etc. épousé Béatrix, fille de
Pépin I, comte de Vermandois. Il eut d'elle:

i° Hugues-le-Grand.

2° Emme, mariée à Raoul, duc de Bourgogne, ensuite roi de France.

3° Hildebrande , épouse d'Herbert II, comte de Vermandois].

LXXV. Clearly, Count Robert de Meulan favoured the Thibouville family as if

they were of his own close blood. Their holdings under him in Normandy were
second to none. In England, they were hardly less so, including those of the
Harcourts. I would suggest that Torf was a nephew of Heriolfr Turstain and
Gerlotte de Blois, and this close relationship was reflected in the very
considerable estates that he received as a result of marrying his second-
cousin, more considerable, perhaps, than would have been the case if he were
not of this family.

LXXVI. I would also propose that the association between Heriolfr and Bernard
and the family of Blois is much closer than is generally assumed. Gerlo, the
"near relation" of Rollo, is described [par Richer] as a son of Ingo. This name
is a form of Ingor or Ingar and is related to the Normano-Russian Inguar or
Ingwar, that is, to someone who might also be known as Ivar. Gerlo is [par
Gautries] a form of Geiri, its root being geirr = Old Norse spear, and is
represented in Normandy by the name Gerville. A common form of this name was
Geirmund, the second element pertaining to a hill, and it is perhaps
interesting that the name is represented in the Parisian village of Montgero
[near Boissey]. I suggest that Gerlo was also a son of Ivar, and a cousin
["near relation"] of Rollo, and uncle to Heriolfr and Bernard, who were, thus,
cousins of Thibaut, with Heriolfr marrying his second cousin, a practice, as
said, wholly common to these times. It is my opinion that Robert de Meulan was
also acknowledging these deeper links.

LXXVII. To conclude: Most things genealogical of the time under discussion can
only be based on assumptions that are reasonable, not so forced as to be
incredulous. I would not place the views of Professor Munch in the incredulous
category. Although not accepting any large scale invasion and colonisation of
Norway by Danes, I think it feasible that there was an assimilation between
elites, with, very possibly, one ruler being known by different names -
representing both Danish and Norwegian tradition - who had a large degree of
authority over the region. I also believe that Mr. Howorth and Professor McTurk
offer quite reasonable insights as to what might have been the case, and I
would hope that my assumptions as to the relationships between people fit into
this category.

GENEALOGICAL SUMMARY

1. Sigfrid - alias Sigurd, the nephew of Godefrid, King of the Danes, or,
perhaps more accurately, as ruler in Hedeby, a modern spelling of the runic
Heiðabý(r), which was an important trading settlement in the Danish-German
borderland, located towards the southern end of the Jutland Peninsula. Sigfrid
was the brother of Reginold and Hemming. Hemming died in the early part of the
year 812. The Frankish chronicles introduce us on his death to a fierce
struggle for the vacant throne, and we are told that this struggle took place
between Sigfrid and Anulo, "the nephew or grandson of Harald who was formerly
king." "This Sigfred, or Sigurd, was doubtless a brother of Reginold and
Hemming already named, who succeeded them naturally" [Henry H. Howorth's
treatise - published in Transactions of the Royal Historical Society [New
Series], Volume I., Issue 01, March, pp. 18-61, 1883].

1.1. Reginheri - alias Ragnar Lodbrok, the leader of the Viking attack on Paris
in 845. The first recorded instance of the names being so used [Ragnar +
Lodbrok] is Ari Þorgilsson’s reference to Ívarr Ragnarssonr loðbrókar in his
Íslendingabók, written between 1120 and 1133 [McTurk, 1991a, Studies in Ragnars
saga loðbrókar and its major Scandinavian analogues (Medium Ævum monographs,
new series, 15). Oxford: The Society for the Study of Mediæval Languages and
Literature].

1.1.1. Ivar - alias Ivarr Ragnarssonr loðbrókar, with many variations,

including Inguar/Hinguar/Ingar, which seem to be variants of the Norse name
Ingharr, literally meaning the chieftain's army, from the adjective element
ing, meaning the first one/ahead of all others. His nickname, 'beinlauss', is
wrongly interpreted as 'boneless', reflecting a misunderstanding of the written
source of exosus [cruel], which was abbreviated to exos [boneless], hence
stories invented to explain this strange epithet. Exosus accords well with Adam
of Bremen’s description of Ivarr as crudelissimusis [J. de Vries, ‘Die
westnordische Tradition der Sage von Ragnar Lodbrok’. Zeitschrift für deutsche
Philologie 53, 257-302, 1928].

1.1.1.1. Guthrum - alias "Gorm hin Enske" [Gorm Engelaender]. "Their general
[of the Danes of Carlingford - M.S] Horm, Gorm, or Gonno, may have been
possibly the same who was surnamed Enske or Anglicus, because he was horn in
England. This Gormo was ultimately converted to Christianity, which renders it
the more probable that he may have suggested on this occasion the invocation of
St. Patrick" [James Henthorn Todd, Cogadh Gaedhel re Gallaibh: The war of the
Gaedhil with The Gaill, or, The invasions of Ireland by the Danes and other
Norsemen, P. 64, 1867]. Also - 'The fabulous Gormo of Saxo Grammat. lib. ix.
and " Gorm hin Enske" (Gorm Engelaender), who is baptized in England, in the "
Chronic. Erici Regis ap. Langebek Scriptt. Rer. Danic." I. p. 158, Gurmund in
Will. Malmesb. II. 121, and Alberic, and Guaramund in the "Chron. Rich." is,
without doubt, one and the same person. The Anglo-Saxon form of the name is
Guthrum, but I have adopted, as Kemble has done, the pure northern form:
Gutorm, that is, battleworm' [Reinhold Pauli, The life of king Alfred, p. 188.
1852].

1.1.1.2. Godfrey Ivarsson - alias Guthfrith or Guthred, "Duke of Frisia" and

ruler in Dublin [883]. The Danish Viking leader who had probably been with the
Great Heathen Army [led by Sigifridus, 882-6], which descended on the
Continent. He became a vassal of the Emperor Charles III., after that ruler
sued for peace, giving Godfrey most of Frisia to rule. Charles also gave him
Gisela [865-908], illegitimate daughter of King Lothair II. [839-869], as his
wife.

1.1.1.2.1. Reginhilde de Frise, wife of Count Theoderic of Ringelheim, a direct

descendant of Duke Wittikind* [ principal progenitor of the Dukes of Saxony]
and Geva Eysteinsdottir, sister of [1.] Sigfrid - alias Sigurd, the nephew of
Godefrid, King of the Danes. Their daughter was Hasala von Wettin, who married
Duke Bruno II. of Saxony. Their son was Duke Bruno III. of Saxony, who married
Susanna de Montfort-sur-Risle. They had issue: Count Ludolf I. of East Saxony,
who married Oda of Thuringia. Their daughter was Luitgarde of Saxony, who
married King Louis II. of France, 846-879 - son of King Charles II. of France,
823-877, and Ermentrude de Orléans, 823-869 - their son being King Charles III.
of France, 879-929. Through these connections, it is possible to summise that
[1.1.1.2.3.] Bernard the Dane was termed "Bernard of the blood-royal of Saxony"
[Patronymica Britannica, Mark Antony Lower, p. 147, 1860], in that his father
may have firstly married a Saxon princess of Theoderic of Ringelheim's family,
thus establishing the links for Reginhilde's marriage into the blood-royal of
Saxony. Certainly [par La Roque] Bernard had a daughter named Mathildis de
Pont-Audemer; her name being common to the descendants of Wittikind. [She
married Jean d' Ache, their son being Richard d'Ache, who married Perrette de
Ferrières. Their son was Robert d'Ache, who married Havoise de l' Aigle. Their
son was Dreux, seigneur de Boves [Somme], father of Enguerrand, seigneur de
Boves, Coucy, la Fève-en-Tardenois, et Marle. Endgerrand became "sieur de
Coucy" and Count of Amiens by marriage to Adele de Coucy, daughter of Alberic
de Coucy and Adele d'Amiens; daughter of Count Dreux of the Vexin and Princess
Goda of England. Goda was the daughter of Ethelred the Unready and Emma of
Normandy; daughter of [1.1.1.3.1.1.1.] 'Duke' Richard and Gunnor de Crepon,
whose sister, Duvelina, married [1.1.1.2.3.1.1.] Turold de Pont-Audemer, eldest
son of [1.1.1.2.3.1.] Torf the Rich, and nephew of Mathildis. Frankish charters
mention a ruling elite in Normandy called Marchmen, who came from the Shleswig-
Jutland borderlands. This suggests continued intermarriage between Danish and
Saxon elites. The script they used was certainly of this region. Following the
lead of Sir Fancis Palgrave, various historians have suggested the term applied
to both a place of origin and to a linked [dark] physical appearance.
Certainly, descendants of [1.1.1.2.2.] Heriolfr Turstain carried the appelation
"le Goz" [Goth] - reflected in a name of one of their fiefs - which seemingly
pertained to their "dark" appearance. The Irish term for the Norman invaders of
their country was "dark haired Normans." The prevalence of dark colour among
the members of the most genuine old Germanic nobility is well noted [Alfred A.
Knopf, The Racial Basis of Civilization: A critique of the Nordic doctrine,
1931]. * Witikind = Witbert [+ Bruno] = Wolpert = Reginhart = Theoderic, whose
mother was called Mathildis.

1.1.1.2.1.1. Sigfrid de Guines - alias Sigfrid, Count of Ringelheim - brother

of Frederune of Ringelheim, who married King Charles III. of France. Mathilda
of Ringelheim, wife of Henry the Fowler, 876-2/7/936, alias Henry I., King of
Germany. Almalrad of Ringelheim, who married Everard, Count of Hameland, a
domain of Wickman de Hameland.

1.1.1.2.1.1.1. Heloise de Guines, married [1.1.1.2.2.2.1.] Crispin de Bec. She

was the daughter of Sigfrid, Count of Guines, and Elstrude de Flandre, g.g.
grandaughter of King Alfred, and daughter of Arnulf the elder [Count of
Flanders] and Adele de Vermandois. [W. H. Turton, The Plantagenet Ancestry,
1928]. Elstrude's sister, Luitgarde, married Wicman de Gand, and, thus, Heloise
was cousin to Theoderic de Gand, count of West Friesland and Ghent.

1.1.1.2.2. Heriolfr Turstain - Lord of Varenquebec, original abode of the

Harcourts - placed in the same generation as Sitric II., being born circa 885,
and is specifically mentioned in the same context as [1.1.1.2.5.] Sitric II.;
their grandchildren were companions and Righdomhua - ones eligible for election
as leader - suggesting that Heriolfr and Sitric II. were members of the same
ruling family.

1.1.1.2.2.1. Anslech de Briquebec - alias Oslac de Briquebec, a powerful baron,

associated with [1.1.1.2.3] in the administration of Normandy - tutor to 'Duke'
Richard of Normandy. He married Gillette de Beaumont -unknown pedigree. In the
rebellion of Richard de St. Saveur, son of [1.1.3.1.] Helgi against
[1.1.1.3.1.1.] 'Duke' William Longsword, in 933, Anslech is mentioned by Wace
as one of the three Barons who alone remained faithful to the Duke, his second
cousin, by rendering him military service at the seige of Rouen.

1.1.1.2.2.1.1. Ertemburge de Briquebec, married her second-cousin

[1.1.1.2.3.1.] Torf the Rich - conveyed Crispin lands to him as maritagium.

1.1.1.2.2.2. Guillaume Crispin - great-grandfather of William Crispin, alias de

Colleville - 'of outstanding manners, the best known of all; with military fame
he rose above almost all his contemporaries. His famous prowess made many
envious. William, duke of the Normans, called William Crispin to the castle of
Neaufles and gave him, and his son after him, the castle and the vicomte of the
Vexin. There William established his home to ward off French invasions. He
revisited, however, the land he held elsewhwere in Normandy in the district of
Lisieux.' [Milo Crispin]. The Stanhope family descend diretly from this lineage.

1.1.1.2.2.2.1. Crispin de Bec [Ansgothus], also an important administrator of

Normandy, married[1.1.1.2.1.1.1.] Heloise de Guines.

1.1.1.2.3. Bernard the Dane - claimed to be the ancestor of the Harcourts by

Gilles-André de La Roque [Histoire généalogique de la maison de Harcourt,
1663]. Little is known of him: His early career in the 930s was concerned with
supressing revolts by factions opposed to the ruling hierarchy in the emerging
state of Normandy. After the assassination of William Longsword, Bernard became
a regent of the 'duchy' of Normandy in December 942, charged with the
protection of the the young 'Duke' Richard, together with, among others,
[1.1.1.2.2.1.] Anslech de Briquebec.

1.1.1.2.3.1. Torf the Rich - lord of Tournai in the commune of Harcourt et

Thibouville, near Bec, on land owned by the Crispin family. In this instance,
Torf is closely associated with someone called Thibaut, who must have had
Crispin connections. It can be recalled that [1.1.1.2.2.] Herolfr Turstain
married Gerlotte de Blois, whose father was Thibaud de Blois. Torf also held
land in Triggevilla [Pont-Audemer] and Harulfi Corte [Harcourt] through his
marriage to his second-cousin [1.1.1.2.2.1.1.] Ertemburge de Biquebec.
Triggevilla was the possible fief of Ertemburge's great-uncle [1.1.1.2.5.]
Sitric II. - Harulfi Corte [Harcourt] was the fief of her grandfather
[1.1.1.2.2.] Heriolfr Turstain.

1.1.1.2.3.1.1. Turold of Pont-Audemer. According to Robert of Torigny [GND,

viii. c. 37], Torf and Ertemberga were the parents of Turold alias Turulf, and
Turchetil [see also OV ii. 12]; the latter being Seigneur de Turqueville et de
Tanqueraye, who married Anceline de Bertrande, daughter of Ansfrid the Dane and
Helloe de Beulac. Ansfrid was another son of [1.1.1.2.2.] Heriolfr Turstain. It
is wrongly assumed that this Turchetil was a forefather of the Harcourts; he
died childless, passing his estate to his great-nephew [cart. Preaux, fol. 97v;
CP xi. Instr., col. 201 a. d., Du Monstier, Neustria Pia, p. 522, 1663]. Turold
married Duvelina de Crepon, sister of Gunnor, the wife of [1.1.1.3.1.1.1.]
'Duke' Richard; they were ancestors of the Beaumont family of Pont-Audemer,
and, according to Auguste le Prevost, of the Harcourts, with Turold and
Duvelina being the parents of both [1.1.1.2.3.1.1.2.] Onfroi de Vieilles [GND
vii. 1. 3.], and [1.1.1.2.3.1.2.] Turchetil de Neufmarche [Ordericus, ed.
Prevost, vol. i., p. 180; ii. pp. 14, 369, 370; iii. pp. 42, 229].

1.1.1.2.3.1.1.1 Radulphus de Beaumont, administrator of Bernay Abbey, titled de

Beaumont before his family came to possess the fief of Beaumont near Pont-
Audemer, leading to speculation that he was synonomous with Radulphus de
Beaumont of Maine. Supporting this notion, members of the Normandy and Maine
Beaumont families jointly witnessed charters.

1.1.1.2.3.1.1.2. Onfroi de Vieilles - alias Vetulis or Vaux, lord of Vieilles,

a small commune in the canton of Beaumont, arrondissement of Bernay; a centre
of Crispin family influence, and of Vaux-sur-Seine, canton Meulan. Onfroi
married Auberée de la Haye, obit. 28/12/1045.

1.1.1.2.3.1.1.2.1. Roger de Beaumont - alias Belomonte, Baron de Beaumesnil,

who married Adeline, sister of Huges II., Comte de Meulan. Waleran, the first
recorded Comte de Meulan, was believed to be a decendant of 1.1.1.2.3. [La
Roque]. Roger became a monk at St. Pierre de Préaux, which was founded by his
father on his own domains, which became known as Beaumont-le-Roger. This abbey
was in the diocese of Lisieux, caput of the Crispin family.

1.1.1.2.3.1.1.2.2. Josseline of Pont-Audemer. She married Hugh de Montgomery,

of Mont Gomeri, near Lisieux, around which the Crispin family held vast tracts
of land; suggesting the Montgomery family to be closely connected to the
Crispins. Their son was Roger de Montgomery, Earl of Shrewsbury, Arundel, and
Chichester, who held Orbec in Normandy [L. C. Loyd, Origins of some Anglo-
Norman Families, pp. 68-9, 1975].

1.1.1.2.3.1.1.2.3. Emma de Vieilles. She married Rudolf de Varennes, who held

considerable lands on the Seine above Rouen, and in the Pays de Caux, who took
is name from Varenne, a hamlet on the River Varenne, near Dieppe. Emma de
Harcourt and Rudolf de Varennes were the parents of Rudolf II. de Varennes, and
William de Varennes, a.k.a. William de Warren, Earl of Surrey, who first came
to prominence in the Battle of Mortemer, 1054, after which he received the
castle so named from Duke William, forfeited by his kinsman, Roger de Mortimer.
He also received Bellencombre, caput of the Warenne family in Normandy [John Le
Patourel, Feudal Empires: Norman and Plantagenet, p. 9, 1984].

1.1.1.2.3.1.2. Turchetil de Neufmarche. To quote from Orderic: 'It is now my

intention to give some account of the origin of the lords of Aufay .......
Gilbert, surnamed the Advocate of St. Valeri, married a daughter [Papia] of
Duke Richard [as above], by whom he had Bernard, father of Walter de St.
Valery, and Richard de Heugleville' [Thomas Forester, transl. p. 226, 1854].
This Richard had married Ada, the widow of Herluin de Heugleville, and their
daughter, Ada, married Geoffrey, the son of Turchetil de Neufmarche. Gilbert
was the son of Bernard, Count of Guines, and lord of Gamaches, near Rouen; the
son of William de Ponthieu and Alice, sister of Hugh Capet. William was the son
of Count Herluin of Ponthieu [Montreuil], who 'épouse en 910 Agnès, héritière
de Ponthieu, et de cette union sortent les maisons d'Eu, de St.-Valery et de
Gamaches' [Bulletins de la Société des antiquaires de Picardie, p. 300, 1859].

1.1.1.2.3.1.2.1. Ansketil de Harcourt. He is mentioned as 'filius Turchetil' in

the cartulary of Bernay [Faroux, nos. 35. 128], and the continuing relationship
between the Beaumonts [as overlords] and the Harcourts can be explained by this
shared ancestry. Anchetil de Harcourt was assumed to have married Eve de
Boessy-le-Chastel; an assumption based on later Harcourts holding Boessy-le-
Chastel. Eve was more correctly known as Eve de Tillly, whose family were the
seigneurie de Boessy-le-Chastel. This Tilly family were the lords of St.
Germain, descendants of [1.1.1.2.2.2.1.] Heriolfr Turstain.

1.1.1.2.3.1.2.1.1. Robert the Strong de Harcourt - ancestor of the Norman

branch of the Harcourts.

1.1.1.2.3.1.2.1.2. John de Harcourt - brother of the above, par Yeatman, a

Derbyshire tenant of the Ferrers family of Ferrieres-St-Hilaire, near Bernay,
Normandy, who, through this holding can be assumed to have close connections to
the family of Gilbert Crispin I., son of [1.1.1.2.2.2.1.] Crespin Ansgothus,
whose influence was centred in Bernay. This close association was confirmed by
Gilbert Crispin II. and Henry de Ferrers jointly leading a charge of the
English forces at Senlac. Henry de Ferrers married Bertha de L'Aigle; their
son, Robert de Ferrers, 1st. Earl Derbys., married Margaret Peverel, daughter
of William Peverel I. of Nottingham, par Dugdale.

1.1.1.2.4. Ragnall - like [1.1.1.3.1.] Rollo, called princeps Nortmannorum,

leader of the Loire Vikings - noted as being a man of Rollo - attended the
coronation of Rollo's son, William Longsword, in 931, and was probably of
Rollo's family [A. Hugo, France Historique, p. 416, 1837]. I would determine
him to be Rollo's second-cousin. Both Ragnall and his cousin Guthfrith II.
campaigned in Scotland [Pictish Annals], amd Guthfrith's son, Olaf, married a
daughter of King Constantine of the Scots [David W. Rollason, Northumbria, 500-
1100, p. 263, 2003]. [Constantine mac Aeda, king of Scots, 900-43]. Thus, this
family are placed in the same Hiberno-Scandinavian mode which 'Rollo' is
assigned to. 'While in Scotland he [Rollo] married a Christian woman and by her
he had a daughter named Kathleen' [Caðlín, daughter of Gongu-Hrólfr who became
the wife of Beolan - OI. 1: 66-7]. 'Rollo probably joined raids on Scotland,
Ireland and England' [Bradbury, Medieval Warfare, p. 83, 2004]. Writing a
generation after Rollo, Flodoard describes Rollo's son, William Longsword,
slain 17/12/942, as having a mother who was "concubina Brittana" - the
contemporary Frankish eulogy, "Lament for William" seems to suggest Brittana
equates to Britain, rather than Brittany, and that William and Caðlín were of
the same mother. "Landnamabok" states that Caðlín's husband was Beollan, son of
the Ciarmac, King of Meath. Beollan's Norse connections are shown in the Annals
of Inisfallen, in which he is given the Old Norse nickname of litil; little.
Beollan's daughters by Caðlín, Deichter and Nithbeorg are recorded in the
Banshenchas, in which their father is called the "king of south Meath, of the
treacherous Vikings." Thus, Rollo's family had strong ties to the Irish sea
region.

1.1.1.2.5. Sitric II. - father of Anlaf and Harald; 'Aralt [great] grandson of
Ivar and son of Sitric lord of the foreigners of Limerick' [Four M.]. Harald
was also known as Harald ua Imair, proposed as synonomous with Harald of
Bayeux, noted ally of Rollo's family, who came to hold land between Bayeux and
Coutances, possibly connected to the family of the Duchess Gunnor, and the
person called on for assistance by [1.1.1.2.3.] Bernard the Dane when the
Scandinavian colonists came under attack by Frankish forces [Hudson, Viking
Pirates, p. 65, 2005].

1.1.2. Healfdene - The Albann/Healfdene of the Annals of Ulster and the Anglo-
Saxon Chronicle, mentioned above, may also be identified with an Halbdeni
mentioned in the Annales Fuldenses for 873 as the brother of the Danish king
Sigifridus and as active on the European continent [in Metz] in that year.

1.1.1.3. Osketil - if he can be the same Ketil that was said by Richer of Reims
[Historia, i, 28 (vol. 1, p. 62] to be the father of Rollo ['filio Catilli'],
then [1.1.2.1.1.] Rollo is closely related to the Dano-Hibernian family of the
Ui Imair. This identification of Rollo's father is supported by David Crouch
[The Normans: the history of a dynasty, pp. 297-300, 2002]. Professor Crouch
also suggests that Rollo's uncle was probably someone called Malahulc,
identified by Orderic Vitalis c. 1113 [GND, ii., 94-5, Musset, 1977, 48-9], but
not known from any other source, whom I would equate with [1.1.3.1.] Helgi,
alias Hulci.

1.1.1.3.1. Rollo - one Scandinavian leader among several who vied for outright
control of the relatively small amount of territory ceded to them, around
Rouen, by Charles III., King of France, in return for providing protection
against fellow Scandinavian raiders, and giving feudal allegiance to the king.
Although history tends to be written as if evolves around the actions of
individuals - making it easy for people to identify with and understand - these
leaders would have had the essential support of other powerful men.

1.1.1.3.1.1. William Longsword - his life is as obscure as his death, which is

the subject of conflicting accounts. However, it is certain that he and his
followers put an end to rival Scandinavian incursions into the territories they
controlled, and posed a threat to the hegemony of the French kings.

1.1.1.3.1.1.1. 'Duke' Richard I. of Normandy - Anceline de Bertrande, niece of

[1.1.1.2.2.2.] Guillaume Crispin, married Turketil de Harcourt, brother of
[1.1.1.2.3.1.1.] Turold of Pont-Audemer. Their daughter was Leceline de
Harcourt. She married Godfrey de Brionne. He was the son of 'Duke' Richard I.
of Normandy, 933-20/11/996, and Gonnor de Crepon. Godfrey and Leceline had a
son, Gilbert de Brionne [Elizabeth Van Houts, The Normans in Europe, p. 69,
2000 ;Ordericus Vitalis,The Ecclesiastical History of England and Normandy,
trsl. Thomas Forester, vol. i., p. 149, 1853]. n.b. He is often confused with
Gilbert Crispin, son of [1.1.1.2.2.2.1.] Crispin de Bec. In the foundation
charter of Bec Abbey, he describes himself as 'Gislebertus Brionensis Comes,
primi Ricardi Normannorium ducis nepos, ex filio Consule Godefrido.' i.e.,
grandson of Duke Richard I. of Normandy, by his son, the magistrate, Godfrey
[Francisque Michel, Gesta regnum Britanniae, p. 77, 1862]. The ancestry of
Godfrey's mother is unknown, albeit supposed pedigrees were composed over
proceeding centuries, with the earliest sources solely reporting her to be of
royal Scandinavian ancestry. That Godfrey was variously titled Crispin was
instrumental in the confusion surrounding his son, Gilbert. It may also suggest
that Godfrey's mother was of the Crispin family.

1.1.1.4. Gerlo "close relation" of [1.1.1.3.1.] Rollo.

1.1.1.4.1. Thibaut de Blois - cousin of [1.1.1.2.2.] Heriolfr Turstain and

[1.1.1.2.3.] Bernard the Dane. He married Luitgarde de Vermandois, widow of
[1.1.1.3.1.1.] William Longsword.

1.1.1.4.1.1. Odo de Blois - alias Eudes, married a decendant of [1.1.1.2.]

Godfrey Ivarsson.

1.1.3. Sigifridus Ragnarsson - alias Sigurðr ormr-í-auga - 'king' in Denmark in

873. In this year, Hedeby, and thus the fortress of Hochburg, was controlled by
Sigifridus, who negotiated its trade with King Ludwig of Germany [Angelo Forte,
Richard D. Oram, Frederik Pedersen, Viking Empires, p. 46, 2005]. According to
the testimony of Svein II. Estridsen, Sigfrid was succeeded as a king in
Denmark by [1.1.3.1.] Helgi, probably after the battle on the Dyle in 891 [Gwyn
Jones, A History of the Vikings, p. 111, 2001].

1.1.3.1. Helgi - a son of [1.1.3] Sigifridus [Sigurðr ormr-í-auga], who

succeeded his father as ruler of Hedeby. I would further suggest that Helgi was
the father of Gorm the Old [Gorm den Gamle], who is mentioned in the work
called Cogadh Gall fri Gaedh-alaibh under the name of Tamar Mac Elgi. In the
copy of that work preserved in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin, H. 2,
17, p. 359, he is said to have come with a royal great fleet, some time after
the death of the monarch Niall Glun-dubh, who was slain in the year 915, and to
have put in at Inis Sibtond, at Limerick. This is evidently the Tamar mac Elgi
of H. 2, 17, the "earl of the strangers in Limerick." "Tomar = Gormo Gamle,
called by the Irish Tomar" [Great Britain. Public Record Office Rerum
Britannicarum Medii Ævi Scriptores: Or, Chronicles and Memorials of Great
Britain and Ireland During the Middle Ages, p. 264, 1965].

1.1.3.1.1. Gorm den Gamle - alias Gorm the Old - ruler in Jutland - father of
King Harald Gormsson [Bluetooth] - Bjorn járnsíða's son Eric may be of some
interest. His nephew was Styrbjorn [Bjorn the Strong], who married Thyra,
daughter of King Harald Gormsson. It is said [Knýtlinga saga] that Styrbjorn
was Harald's overlord. Styrbjorn's son was Thorgils, father of Gytha, who
married Earl Godwin; they were the parents of King Harald Godwinson and Edith,
married to Edward the Confessor. It was through this lineage that the Saxon
Kings of England traced their ancestry to Gorm the Old, through his
grandaughter, Thyra, and to Bjorn járnsíða', through his grandson, Styrbjorn.
Such dynastic links gave legitimacy to rule. William the Conqueror was merely
stating his right to rule England as a fellow descendant of this dynastic
conglomerate, not because of the marriage of a female relative to a Saxon king;
that was the result shared ancestry, not the cause of it. King Gorm felt
himself strong enough to cross the Eider and invade Nordalbingia (Holstein),
then a province of the duchy of Saxony. The Danes were defeated, and Henry I.
the Fowler, established the March or margraviate of Schleswig, between the
Eider and the Schlei - which for nearly a century remained the battleground of
the hostile Danish and Saxon borderers. Otho the Great crossed the Dannevirke
in 970, overran all Jutland, and forced King Harald Bluetooth, the son of Gorm,
to be baptized, and grant the monks the liberty to convert his subjects
throughout the kingdom.

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