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Archiver > GEN-MEDIEVAL > 1996-11 > 0847383606


From: Gordon Fisher <>
Subject: Re: William the Conqueror and others ??
Date: Thu, 7 Nov 1996 11:20:06 -0500


At 10:51 AM 11/7/96 -0500, you wrote:

[snip]

>
>> (c) Rosamond McKitterick says: "Rollo is thought to have been Norwegian
>> rather than Danish, and later Icelandic sources identify him with Hrolf
>the
>> Ganger (walker), son of Ragnvald earl of Moer, who had a career as a
>Viking
>> before settling in Francia. He married a Christian woman and his son
>> William, according to the Lament of William Longsword, was born
>overseas."
>> Admittedly McKitterick is a secondary source, but she is a considerable
>> scholar who contacts original sources. Whether she did so in this case
>or
>> not, I don't know.
>>
>> I'm not sure what you mean by contemporary evidence in this case? Does
>this
>> include medieval historians like Florence of Worcester, who admittedly
>was
>> not a contemporary of Rollo, but was considerably closer to him in time
>than
>> we are?
>
>Decidedly NOT contemporary. COntemporary means contemporary. ANything later
>than that may know traditions or sources we don't know, but may also be
>making things up. Dynasties did, you know, on settling in. And the
>standards of historiography have risen a tad in the last two hundred years.
>I'd trust McKitterick over Florence, except on events contemporary with
>Florence. And even there, I would sift.
>

[snip]

>Jean Coeur de Lapin
>
>

Are there any contemporary documents known which deal with Rollo and/or
contemporary associates? Or does all we know come from later writers? As
for trusting McKitterick more than Florence, I would say yes, about numerous
things, and no, about some others.

Gordon Fisher

>

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