What passes as ‘factual’ in most accounts of the earliest lineage of the Norman Dukes is nothing more than a preference for a Norwegian or Danish origin, fiercly contested in the 19th century by nationalistic zealots. Later accounts employed the twenty-first-century equivalent of propagandists to produce accounts compatible with the Noman Dukes’ hereditary legitimacy to rule. Spin doctor par excellence was the Frankish Chronicler, Dudo of St Quentin, who grappled with the problem of the male succession from Rollo to his son, William, through a concubine – what the church deemed pagan. The added risk, apart from the enmity of the church, was that competing members of the ruling clan could challenge a claimed descent through a particular concubine as spurious, which they often did. A point often missed is that concubines would have been the sisters of rival claimants.

Of Dudo’s work, Henry Howorth commented that it was “a mere farrago of distorted and altered fragments from the old annalists” (A Criticism of the Life of Rollo, as told by Dudo de St Quentin, Archaeologia, 45, no. 2, 1880), a view shared, in the round, by most present-day historians; who also point to elements of fact within the “farrago”; diamonds in the coal.

Dudo lent heavily on Greek mythology, claiming that the Vikings who conquered Normandy descended from Antenor, a companion of Aeneas, and a Trojan who betrayed Troy to the Greeks. A later chronicler, Orderic Vitalis, invented a son of Antenor, who he named Danus, after whom, it was claimed, the Dani (Danes) were named, and whom settled in Dacia (Denmark).

What stands out as fact is that Rodulf (latinised to Rollo) commanded a force of Danes (with some Anglo-Saxon mercenaries) in a failed attack on Chartres in 911. He almost certainly had the same origin as his men. The invaders of Normandy were referred to as “Marchmen”, describing an origin between the Elbe and Eyder, that is, of the march, the boundary between Germany and Denmark.

When Dudo tells of Rollo’s dream, it is an allegory that depicted the Norman view of of their ancestry, in which “birds of many types and colours came to bathe on a mountain” – that is, the ‘Normans’ were of mixed breed, ruled by an aristocratic, probably Danish, component.

Given a probable Danish origin of Rollo, it would not seem unreasonable to outline the leaders of Danish war-bands associated with attacking France, as Rollo was their successor, and, perhaps, kin – of the “clan of Ivar”.

The conjecture that the “clan of Ivar” descended from Ragnar Lodbrok is built on the genealogical quicksand of assigning legendary status to supposed founders of dynasties. Ragnar Lodbrok has been equated with the Reginheri who attacked Paris in 845 and (probably the same person) the Raginerius given land by Charles the Bold in 840. The chronicler Adam of Bremen wrote of: “Ingvar, the son of Lodbrok, who everywhere tortured Christains to death”. Ragnar was first equated with Lodbrok in Norse sources in 1070, and this assimilation brought about the theory that Lodbrok was the feminine noun Lodbroka, derived from the name of a fertility goddess, Lopkona; its second component is ON kona, ‘woman’, and, according to Lid (1942, 1, 18), the name probably refers to the ritual custom of wearing grass costumes (hairy-breeches) for the purpose of invoking fertility.

It is unnecessary to ponder such speculation, as there is no proof of who was the father of Ivar. This, in a broad sense, did not matter, as, even if Ragnar and his ancestors are purely fictional, such fiction provided the inspiration for Viking colonists. In 940, Knut and Harald invaded the north of England because “they claimed it as their inheritence, because the sons of Lodbrok and other forbears of theirs had possessed it” (Jomsvikinga). Rulers have always used myths to justify their rule and inspire their followers.

In the genealogical construction that follows, relationships have been assumed. It can not be known how or whether those named were related by blood. They were almost certainly related as kin of sorts, and, by this measure, can be assigned a collective identity. Viking armies were composed of “sodalitates” – “bands of companions” or “brotherhoods” – distinct groupings whose leaders usually shared close familial ties.

1. A Norse chieftain.

1.1. Ivar. 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). Traditionally, Ivar has been assigned two sons, viz. Sitric (Sigtryggr); and Godfrey (so called in Cod. Clarendon, tom. 47), alias Guthfrith. Sitric I. is not known to have left any descendants; thus Guthfrith is assumed to have had had four sons, Anlaf, Guthfrith; Ragnal, 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 Guthfrith II., and Guthfrith I. was father of Sitric II.; a view partly supported by Adam of Bremen, who identifies only Ragnall and Sitric as the sons of Guthfrith Ivarsson, on the authority of a work not now extant.
1.1.1. Sitric 1 (Sigtryggr).
1.1.1.1. Guthfrith Sigtryggsson (Gofraid ua Ímair), king of York in 927, who died in 934. The first report of Guthfrith is in 918, when he accompanied Ragnall’s expedition to Northumbria.
1.1.1.1.1. Olaf Guthfrithson (Óláfr Guðfriðarson), King of Dublin from 934 to 941. He married the daughter of king Constantine II of Scotland. In 939, he invaded York, forcing Athelstan’s successor, Edmund, into a treaty which ceded to Olaf Northumbria and part of Mercia.

1.1.2. Godfrey/Guthfrith), “Duke of Frisia”, and ruler in Dublin in 883 – the Danish leader who had probably been with the Great Heathen Army (led by Sigifridus, between 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, illegitimate daughter of King Lothair II., as his wife.

“The original war-band that Sitric 1 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” (leader of the various Viking war bands). 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).

1.1.2.1. Sitric II. He commanded Viking forces in the Battle of Confey. The Annals of Ulster records the arrival of two viking fleets in Ireland in 917, one led by Ragnall ua Ímair and the other by Sitric, both of the House of Ivar. It is perhaps worth noting that Vikings did not conquer Ireland; they only controlled certain localities, often for short periods.
1.1.2.1.1. Harald: ‘Aralt (great) grandson of Ivar and son of Sitric, lord of the foreigners of Limerick’ (Four M.), proposed as synonomous with Harald of Bayeux, a 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).
1.1.2.2. Bernard the Dane. (Beorn).
1.1.2.3. Ragnall (ua Ímair). “The identity between the Ragnall of the Irish Sea and Ragnald of northern Britain is no longer in doubt” (Downham, Viking Kings, p. 94). I equate him with this Ragnall: 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 the Irish annals, this entire grouping are specifically referred to as ua Imair (descendants of Ivar), or Clann Imair (kindred of Ivar). The latter term would perhaps be the more accurate, as descent through a powerful matriarchal line was of some importance in Viking society.

1.1.3. Osketil, perhaps the Ketil who was said by Richer of Reims (Historia, i, 28, vol. 1, p. 62) to be the father of Rollo (‘filio Catilli’). 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 Helgi, alias Hulci. lt was probably the case that Icelandic saga accounts were based on the similarity of the names Ragnall and Rollo with the Norwegian ones of Ragnvald and his son Hrollaugr, resulting in the claim that Rollo was a son Ragnvald of More, who may, in any case, have been a creation.

“A Danish king or chief, named Osketil, who had commanded a band of his countrymen in the siege of Paris, and to whom Count Eudes had promised an establishment in France, upon condition that he should renounce his piratical habits and embrace the religion of the Franks, was assassinated by a standard bearer, in the suite of the Count, at the very moment he presented himself at the baptismal font. This sacrilegious murder was not only excused by the king, but the assassin received the castle of Blois, the lord of which had been slain by the Normans, as his reward for delivering the kingdom of an enemy, who, it was alleged, might have become the more dangerous for his pretended conversion” (Henry Wheaton, History of the Northmen, p. 231, 1831, cit. Depping, tom. ii. pp. 23–35. Suhm, H. af D. tom. ii. pp. 395, 398, 408, 411).

1.1.3.1. Rollo (Hrolfr). Norse name ‘Hrolfr’, cognate to the Franco-Germanic ‘Rodulf’ or ‘Radulf’. In order to show that the exploits of Rollo were based on those of Guthred (Godfrey), I will again borrow from Mr. Howorth:

“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. 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”.

1.1.3.1. William Longsword. He was not named as William in 927 by Flodoard. This Christian name was bestowed upon him in 933, probably at the time of his sister’s marriage to Count William of Poitou. Her Norse name, Gerloc (‘Geirlaug’), was changed to Adele at this time; her brother’s Norse name remains unknown. It was almost certainly the case that “William” was chosen by Rollo as his successor from a number of rival claimants, of mothers of rival clans; a scenario undoubtedly pertinent to Williams’s choice of Robert as his successor.

“The 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. 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, 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”.

1.2. Healfdene, named as a brother of Sigfried in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles.

1.3. Sigfried, ‘king’ in Denmark in 873. In this year, Hedeby, and thus the fortress of Hochburg, was controlled by Sigfried, 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).

A commander of Sigfried and Healfdene was Hals, 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.

1.3.1. Helgi (Malahulc), who succeeded his father as ruler of Hedeby; a reign that was short-lived.
1.3.1.1. Gorm the Old (Gorm den Gamle), who is mentioned in Cogadh Gall fri Gaedh-alaibh as 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 916, and to have put in at Inis Sibtond, at Limerick. The same person is mentioned in Mageoghegan’s translation of the Annals of Clonmacnoise, under the year 922, where the following strange passage occurs: ” A.D. 922. Tomrair Mac Alchi, king of Denmarck, is reported to go (to have gone) to hell with his pains, as he deserved. This is evidently the Tamar mac Elgi of H. 2, 172″ (J. O’Donavon, ed. and trans., intro, xli, 1847).
1.3.1.1.1. King Harald Gormsson.

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