Approximate Family Tree of Rollo Ragnvaldsson

There are records for the family of Rollo going back many generations but the spelling of names and dates vary within the records. However it is possible to trace an outline of part of this section of the family tree and how they lived via segments of the Scandinavian sagas written many years later. Gaining information about most of the individuals is next to impossible as few written records were kept.

Rollo Ragnvaldsson was born in Scandinavia - possibly in Norway though some sources mention Denmark as the country of his birth. His exact year of birth is unknown but was probably in the mid 840s.

Rollo's parents 

Rollo's father was Ragnvald (or Rognvald) 'the Wise' I Eysteinsson who became the Earl (Jarl) of Møre in Norway, Earl of Orkney and Count of Maer. 

He was born c825 in Maer and died c890 in Scotland. 

Rollo's mother was Hildr Hrólfsdóttir. Hildra and Ragnvald had three sons including Rollo.

Vikings started to move to the islands north of Scotland at the end of the eighth and beginning of the ninth centuries. The King of Norway, Harold  Hårfagre, passed control of the Orkney and Shetland Islands to Ragnvald Eysteinsson around 875. Ragnvald then passed the earldom to his brother, Sigurd.

The following articles provide a little more information: 

Rollo Ragnvaldsson Earl of  Møre 

Hildr Hrólfsdóttir 

Vikings in Scotland 

 Rognvald Eysteinsson: the Viking Earl who shaped North Atlantic History

Parents of Ragnvald 'the Wise'

Eystein 'the Noisy' Glumra was Jarl of the Uplanders (Earl of part of Norway). He was born in 788 in Maer, Norway. He died c 860.

Ascrida Ragnavaldsdottir was the daughter of  King Rognvald Olafsen of Norway and Thora Olafsson and was born in c812 and died 890.

Parents of  Eystein 'the Noisy' Glumra

Earl Ivar Halfdansson was born in Oppland, Norway (date unknown). He died in Oppland in 824.

Gundella Eysteindatter was born c785 in Trondheim, Norway and she died in Oppland, Norway in 850. 

Parents of Ivar Halfdansson

Halfdan Vanha (the Old) Sveidasson was born c745 in Oppland Norway and died c800 in Borri, Norway. The name of the mother of Ivar Halfdansson is unknown.

The further back you go the more difficult it becomes to locate viable information. 

During the time of the Vikings in Scandinavia, particularly in the eighth and ninth centuries, what is now known as Norway was divided into Petty Kingdoms, including Oppland. In 872 King Harald unified the petty kingdoms into one entity.

Petty Kingdoms in Norway c872

Although the information about individuals is vague it is interesting to be aware of this family connection to Norway and to the Vikings.

William Longsword

(d. 942) Son of Rollo, William count of Rouen (r. c.928-42), was the second ruler of Normandy. William continued the expansionist policy of his father and was granted the Contentin peninsula in 933 and attempted to establish his protection over Brittany. In 935 William invaded Flanders but was defeated at Therouanne. William also consolidated his authority over the Scandinavian settlers in Normandy, putting down a rebellion led by a Viking called Rioul in 933-4. In 939 he allied himself with Hugh the Great in a rebellion against King Louis IV. The war was ended through the mediation of the pope, and Louis confirmed William's investiture of Normandy in 940. William's murder, on the orders of Arnulf I, count of Flanders, during a meeting on an island in the River Somme in 942, threw Normandy into chaos. He was succeeded by his illegitimate son Richard I (Richard the Fearless).

Notes from Encyclopaedia of the Viking Age by John Haywood. Thames & Hudson 2000. p 208.

Wessex

The only Anglo-Saxon kingdom to survive the Viking invasions of the late 9th century intact. Wessex, the kingdom of the West Saxons, is traditionally considered to have been founded by Cerdic c AD 500, and by the 9th century it covered most of England south of the River Thames. Its main towns were Winchester and Hamwic (Southampton). The victory of Egbert (r. 802-839) over the rival kingdom of Mercia at Ellandun in 825 established Wessex as the strongest Anglo-Saxon kingdom, and in 829 he was recognised as Bretwalda (high king of Britain). Viking attacks on Wessex began during the reign of Egbert's predecessor Beorhtric (r. 786-802) with a raid on Portland, probably in 789. Later tradition in Wessex held that this was the first Viking raid in Britain. Large-scale Viking attacks began only in 836 when Egbert was defeated by thirty-five ships' companies at Carhampton in Somerset. The scale of raids escalated dramatically in the 850s when the Vikings wintered at Thanet in the Thames Estuary, but generally the West Saxons gave the Vikings as good as they got.

With the arrival of the Danish great army in East Anglia in 865 the Viking threat escalated yet again, but its first foray into Wessex five years later was defeated by king Aethelred and his brother Alfred after bitter fighting. The Danes under Guthrum, Oscetel and Anund, invaded again in 875 and Alfred, now king (r. 871-899), was hard pressed, driving them out only after his decisive victory at Edington in 878. Alfred successfully defended his kingdom against a second Viking onslaught in 892-6.

Alfred was followed by a succession of able kings who progressively brought the rest of England under their control. Alfred's son Edward the Elder worked closely with his sister Aethelflaed, wife of the Mercian earldoman Aethelred, to conquer the Danelaw of eastern England in 912-18. A year after Aethelflaed's death in 918, Edward annexed Mercia, taking West Saxon control to the Humber and the Mercy. When Edward's son Athelstan captured York from the Norse in 927, all the Anglo-Saxons and all the Scandinavian settlers in England came under a single ruler for the first time and Wessex was transformed into the kingdom of England.

Notes from Encyclopaedia of the Viking Age by John Haywood. Thames & Hudson 2000. p 208.

Harald Hardrada

1015-1066 - King of Norway (r. 1046-166). Harald's spectacular, if largely unsuccessful, career carried him across much of the world then known to the Vikings: it is not without justification that he is widely regarded as the last great Viking leader. Harald's career is known mainly from his saga in Snorri Sturluson's 13th century Heimskringla. At the age of 15, Harald fought for his half-brother king Olaf Haraldsson in the battle of Stiklestad in 1030. Defeated, Harald went into exile in Sweden in Sweden and then to the court of prince Jaroslav the Wise at Novgorod. For three years he served Jaroslav as a mercenary, before joining the Byzantine emperor's Varangian Guard at Constantinople. Though it can be shown from contemporary Greek sources that the saga exagerates harald's importance, he undoubtedly made a good reputation as a warrior and a small fortune for himself during his service in the guard. In 1044 he returned to Sweden, marrying Jaroslav's daughter Elislief (Elizabeth) on his way back through Russia. There he allied with Svein Estrithson to try to win a share of his nephew Magnus the Good's Norwegian-Danish kingdom. When Magnus offered him joint rulership of Norway in 1046, Harald abandoned his alliance with Svein. When Magnus died the following year, Harold became sole ruler of Norway, but Svein seized power in Denmark.Harald tried vainly to dislodge Svein from Denmark. Despite winning every battle he fought, in 1064 Harald finally recognised Svein as king of Denmark. Harald also faced frequent opposition to his rule in Norway, earning his nickname 'hardradi' (hard ruler) for the ruthless measures he took to defend his authority. Harald had inherited a claim to the English throne as a result of a treaty between Magnus and Cnut's son Harthacnut in 1036. The death of England's king Edward the Confessor in 1066 seemed the ideal opportunity to pursue the claim. Landing in the Humber Estuary with a fleet of 300 ships in September, he defeated an English army at Fulford Gate and then took York. Only days later, another army under the English king Harold Godwinson surprised Harald's force at Stamford Bridge and annihilated. Harald himself was killed, and the severity of the losses in the battle weakened Norway for a generation. Harald was succeeded by his son Magnus II.

Notes from Encyclopaedia of the Viking Age by John Haywood. Thames & Hudson 2000. pp 91 - 92.

Rollo

Viking leader who founded the duchy of Normandy (d. c928). Although regarded in Norman sources as a Dane, Rollo was probably Norwegian: late Icelandic sources identify him with Gongu-Hrolf, a son of Rognvald of More, who turned to piracy after he was outlawed by Harald Fairhair. According to the Norman chronicler Dudo of St Quentin, Rollo arrived on the Seine in 876. In 911 he led a band of Danish Vikings in an unsuccessful attack on Chartres. In peace talks at St-Claire-Sur-Epte, king Charles the Simple of the West Franks granted Rollo the county of Rouen and other districts on the lower Seine in return for his homage and defence of the area against other Viking raiders. Rollo was baptised in 912, though he did not give up worshipping the pagan gods. Rollo was granted further territories around Bayeux in 924, but broke the treaty in 925, attacking Amiens, Arras and Noyon, before he was defeated at Eux by the counts of Flanders and Vermandois. Rollo was succeeded by his son William Longsword.

Notes from Encyclopaedia of the Viking Age by John Haywood. Thames & Hudson 2000. pp 160.

Rollo of Normandy - First of the Normans

A detailed online post by Marius posted 25 January 2025. 

VikingR - Norse Mythology and Viking History 

Rollo at Rouen Cathedral

Rognvald of More

Jarl (earl) of More in western Norway (fl. c870) Rognvald was remembered as a close ally of king Harald Fairhair. Rognvald is generally considered to have been the founder of the earldom of Orkney. Irish sources suggest that this happened about the same time as the Danes captured York (866). Rognvald was content to remain in Norway and handed Orkney over to his brother Sigurd the Mighty who consolidated the authority of the earldom. Rognvald was killed in a dispute with king Harald's son Halfdan Halegg and was succeeded by his son Thore as jarl of More. His illegitimate son Torf-Einar later became earl of Orkney. Another of his sons was Gongu-Hrolf, who is probably to be identified with Rollo, the founder of Normandy.

Notes from Encyclopaedia of the Viking Age by John Haywood. Thames & Hudson 2000. p 159.

Earldom of Orkney

Norse earldom comprising in the 11th century the Orkney and Shetland Islands and Sutherland and Caithness on the Scottish mainland. The origins of the earldom are obscure. According to medieval Icelandic historical traditions, Orkney was conquered in the late 9th century by King Harald Fairhair of Norway, who granted the islands to his ally Rognvald of More as compensation for the death of his son Ivar on the campaign. Independent Irish sources suggest that it was Rognvald himself who conquered the islands at the same time that the Danes captured York (866) much too early for Harald to have had a hand in events. Archaeological evidence generally supports the conclusion that the main period of Scandinavian settlement in Orkney was around the middle of the 9th century. The story of Harald's expedition, if not actually true, certainly does reflect an early interest in Orkney by the Norwegian kings. Although up to the end of the 11th century the earls of Orkney were effectively independent rulers, they did acknowledge Norwegian sovereignty.

Sigurd the Mighty (d. c892) began the expansion of the earldom, conquering Caithness and Sutherland. Considerable Norse settlement in Caithness followed. The maximum expansion of the earldom took place under Sigurd the Stout (r. c895-1014) who brought the Norse settlements in the Hebrides  under his control, and Thorfinn the Mighty (R. c1020-1065), who probably conquered Ross (c1030-1035). Thorfinn is also known to have ruled in the Shetland Islands: whether he was the first Orkney earl to do so is unclear, as it is possible they had formerly been rules from Norway. Many Orkney earls, including Thorfinn, found the islands a convenient base for Viking raiding in the Irish Sea area, and Norse pirates such as Svein Asliefarson continued to harass the British coasts into the second half of the 12th century. By this time, the earldom was a declining power. Shetland was brought back under direct rule by Norway in 1195, and SutherlandCaithness and Ross were conquered by the Scots in 1199-1202: the Hebrides had already been lost to the kingdom of Man in the late 11th century. After the union of Kalmar in 1397, Orkney, along with Shetland, came under Danish sovereignty until they were both ceded to Scotland in 1469.

Orkney and Shetland are unique among the areas settled by Scandinavians during the Viking Age in that the native population (the Celtic Picts in this case) became assimilated to Scandinavian culture and language and not vice versa, as happened in other areas. So complete was this assimilation - a sign probably that the Scandinavian settlers were very numerous - that almost all place-names in Orkney, Shetland and even Caithness are of Norse origin. Orkney and Shetland developed their own Norse dialect, known as Norn. By the beginning of the 15th century, however, the Scots dialect of English was being used in official documents and by the mid-18th century Norn had died out. Physical reminders of the Norse age in Orkney and Jarlshof in Shetland have been excavated, and the ruins of fine early Norse churches, built soon after the Christianization of the islands in the 11th century, survive at Orphir and Egilsay in Orkney. Most impressive of all is the early 12th century cathedral of St Magnus (Magnus Erlendsson) at Kirkwall, Orkney, which is, after Durham Cathedral, perhaps the finest Romanesque building in the British Isles.

Notes from Encyclopaedia of the Viking Age by John Haywood. Thames & Hudson 2000. pp 142 - 143.

Normandy

Duchy of Normandy - region of northern France that came under Viking rule in the 10th century, the name of which is derived from Nordmannia (Northmans Land). The origins of Normandy can be traced to the arrival of a large Viking army on the Seine in 885. In 890 most of the force had moved on to Flanders, and eventually to England, but some Vikings remained behind and continued to raid the area. After the seine Vikings unsuccessfully besieged Chatres in 911, thier leader Rollo reached a peace agreement with the Frankish king Charles the Simple at St-Claire-Sur-Epte. In return for his homage, conversion to Christianity and an undertaking to defend the Seine against other Viking raiders, Rollo was made count of Rouen (the title of duke was adopted by Norman rulers only in 1006). Though the establishment of Normandy would certainly cause some major problems for future kings of France, the treaty achieved its immediate objective: permanently ending the threat to the Seine. Rollo was granted further lands around Bayeux in 924, and his son William Longsword gained the Cotentin peninsula in 933, but the powerful counts of Flanders defeated their attempts to expand eastwards. A political crisis followed the murder of William Longsword in 942 and the subsequent accession of his ten year-old son Richard the Fearless, but by 946 the threat to the survival of Normandy had been averted. Under Richard and his successor Richard the Good, Normandy became progressively assimilated into the political life of the West Frankish kingdom (France).

Normandy may owe its creation and name to the Vikings but they had very little influence on the region in the long term. Place-name evidence suggests that Scandinavian settlement was fairly dense around Fecamp, Rouen, Caen and the Cotentin peninsula, but elsewhere it was sparse: the Scandinavian settlers were certainly a minority in Normandy as a whole. Place-names indicate that most of settlers were Danish, though many may have previously settled in the Danelaw in England, and others in the Cotentin were Irish-Norse. There is almost no archaeological evidence of Scandinavian settlement, indicating that the settlers quickly adopted Frankish material culture and burial customs. One of the most important finds is a richly furnished female grave from Pitres. Finds of several swords of Anglo-Saxon pattern strengthen the case for immigration via England. A new wave of pagan settlers arrived c942 and, led by one Turmod, started a brief pagan revival, but most of the original settlers had become at least nominally Christian by this time, and monasteries such as Jumieges, abandoned in the previous century, were being reoccupied. A final influx of pagan Viking warriors created a brief stir in the early 960s. Trade links with Scandinavia were never important and had been abandoned by the early 11th century, by which time Norman coins cease to appear in Scandinavian hoards. Scandinavian speech probably survived until the early 11th century, as the presence of a Norwegian poet at the ducal court in 1025 suggests that there were still people there who could understand him. By the time William the Conqueror led his invasion of England in 1066, however, the Normans had become completely assimilated to French culture and language.

Notes from Encyclopaedia of the Viking Age by John Haywood. Thames & Hudson 2000. pp 134 - 135.

Vikings in Francia part II

The Vikings have often been blamed for causing the breakup of the Frankish Carolingian Empire, but the driving force for this was internal and dynastic: the Vikings certainly profited from the empire's internal divisions but they did not cause them. Carolingian rulers did not regard the Vikings as being nearly as serious a threat as their dynastic rivals. However, the Franks did not share their rulers' priorities. They increasingly perceived royal countermeasures  against the Vikings as half-hearted  or even cowardly, and by demonstrating the ineffectiveness of royal power the Vikings probably hastened its decline. The most important long-term consequences of Viking activity in Francia was the establishment of of the duchy of Normandy, the importance of which to the future history of France, England and Italy can hardly be understated.

As in other areas of western Europe, Frankish monasteries - and their monks - suffered severely from Viking attacks, and many were abandoned. Monasteries were the main cultural centres of early medieval Europe, and the revival of learning fostered by Charlemagne, known as the 'Carolingian Renaissance', had collapsed before the end of the 9th century. Severe economic damage  must also have been caused in the short term by Viking plundering both in the towns and the countryside. Wooden buildings were easily rebuilt, and the fertility of the soil could not be taken away, but losses of livestock, seedcorn and manpower would have caused years of hardship for peasant farmers. Two major towns, Quentovic and Dorestad were completely abandoned in the Viking Age, but the culprit here appears to be silting of the rivers that gave access to them, rather than Viking attacks. Some Frankish merchants saw the in the plunder-laden Vikings an opportunity and traded with them, though this could be a dangerous business: Franks who had entered a Viking fort in Flanders to trade in 882 were captured and ransomed. Overall, however, the Vikings do not seem to have had the stimulating impact on trade in Francia that they had in the British Isles. Nor did the Vikings have any cultural impact on Frankish civilization: even in Normandy, the Scandinavian settlers were quickly assimilated to the native population, leaving little trace of their presence behind.

Notes from Encyclopaedia of the Viking Age by John Haywood. Thames & Hudson 2000. p76.

Danelaw

The eastern region of England, between the Thames and the Tees, conquered and settled by the Danes in the 9th century, in which the customary laws observed in local courts were strongly influenced by Danish legal customs. The word is derived from Old English Deone lage (Danes law), which is first known from a charter of 1008. The exact borders of the Danelaw during the Viking Age are uncertain, but in the 12th century it was defined as the fifteen counties of Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Huntingdonshire, Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Middlesex. The first recognition that different legal customs prevailed in the Danish-ruled areas of England comes in the peace treaty between Alfred the Great and Guthrum, the Danish king of East Anglica in 866-890. These differences persisted for about 200 years after the West Saxon conquest, and in 970-4 king Edgar officially granted legal autonomy to the Danelaw.

Place-name evidence shows that the Danes did not settle the whole of the Danelaw intensively and were probably a minority of the population in most areas. But while they did not displace the majority of the native population, the Danes did take over royal and aristocratic estates wholesale and formed a new social and political elite that had a lasting influence on local customs. In local administration, the hundred (the basic unit for the administration of justice in England) was usually called a wapentake, and the hide (the area of land needed to support a peasant family) was generally known as the ploughland. (OE plogesland). The law of the Danelaw  was distinguished from English law by procedural differences, heavy fines for breach of the king's peace, and the use, unknown in England at the time, of sworn aristocratic juries of presentment to initiate the prosecution of criminal suspects in wapentake courts. While under contemporary English law the most serious crimes could be tried by ordeal, in the Danelaw trial by combat was normal. There were also major differences  in the landholding in the Danelaw. At the time of the Norman Conquest there was an unusually high number of peasant freeholders or 'sokemen' in the Danelaw compared with the rest of England. In Lincolnshire they accounted for nearly fifty per cent of the population, and in many other Danelaw counties it was around a third. Many sokemen were driven down into serfdom during the Norman period.
Notes from Encyclopaedia of the Viking Age by John Haywood. Thames & Hudson 2000. pp 51-52.

Danegeld

A term commonly used by modern historians to describe paid tribute to the Danes by the English during the reign of Aethelred II (r.978-1016) in return for peace. It is often also used more generally to describe all such payments to the Vikings, such as tribute paid by the Franks in the 9th century. In fact, the term Danegeld did not appear until after the Norman Conquest (1066), when it was used to describe the heregeld (army tax), which was actually an annual land tax introduced by Aethelred in 1012 to pay for the hire of the mercenary army of Thorkell the Tall. Prior to this Aethelread had imposed general taxes - in 991, 994, 1002, 1007 and 1008 to raise tribute (known at the time as gafol) to buy off the Danes. Enormous sums were raised with apparent ease, a testament to Aethelred's abilities as an administrator and a sign of the wealth of late Anglo-Saxon England. After the Danish conquest of England, Cnut continued to levy the heregeld to pay his housecarls and Fleet, and after the Norman Conquest it developed into a tax to finance military campaigns. Dandgeld was last levied in 1162.

Notes from Encyclopaedia of the Viking Age by John Haywood. Thames & Hudson 2000. p51.

Vikings in Francia

Francia, the land of the Franks (roughly corresponding to most of modern France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxembourg and western Germany) was first raided by the vikings in 799. The emperor Charlemagne reacted vigorously, creating coastguard units and stationing fleets on major rivers. Except for the exposed coast of Frisa, Francia experienced no serious Viking raids until the 830s when the civil wars between the emperor Louis the Pious and his sons had begun to undermine royal authority and with it the effectiveness of the coastal defences. In 842 the Vikings established a permanent base on the island of Noirmoutier, near the mouth of the River Loire, and thereafter were a permanent presence on the Frankish territory for the next seventy years.

The main areas of Viking activity in Francia were the valleys of the rivers Seine and Loire, Flanders, Frisia and the Rhineland, all areas where navigable rivers offered the Vikings easy routes inland. Preoccupied by dynastic conflicts, Francia's Carolingian rulers were rarely able to concentrate on dealing with the Viking threat and were often reduced to buying them off with tribute. Towns were left exposed to attack because rulers such as Charles the Blad were reluctant to allow them to build defences in case they should be turned into strongholds by rebel princes and nobles. For some of these rebels, such as Pippin II of Aquitaine, the Vikings were event welcome as allies. Viking raids reached their peak in the period 879-92 when the Rhineland, the Ardennes, Flanders and the Seine valley were systematically ravaged. But the Franks were finally getting the measure of the Vikings. Able warrior kings such as Odo of West Francia (France) and Arnulf of East Francia (Germany) actively sought to bring the Vikings to battle and built fortresses and town walls across the whole of the region between the Seine and the Rhine. Faced with resistance wherever they went, and a severe famine in the winter of 891-2, the main Viking force withdrew to England in 892 where it fared no better. The worst of the Viking Age in Francia was now over but there remained Viking armies on the Seine and the Loire. The integration of the Seine Vikings into Frankish society was begun when their leader, Rollo, was made count of Rouen by Charles the Simple in 911. Normandy, as Rollo's territories came to be known, created problems of its own, but at least these were the familiar ones of dynastic and territorial ambitions that kings faced from any over-mighty subject. the problems of the Vikings on the Loire was solved when the Bretons captured their base at Nantes in 937. The last Viking raids on Francia occurred in the early 11th century.

Notes from Encyclopaedia of the Viking Age by John Haywood. Thames & Hudson 2000. pp 75-76.

Viking

The word Viking has come to be used to describe all early medieval Scandinavians, but as originally used by contemporaries the term vikingr only to someone who went i viking, that is plundering. Only a minority of early medieval Scandinavians were, therefore, Vikings in the strict sense of the word. Various explanations of the origin of the word have been proposed. The commonest explanations are that Viking is derived either from Viken in southern Norway, and therefore means simply 'the men from Viken', or that it comes from the Scandinavian word vik (bay or cove) and means 'the men from the bays'. Another possibility is that  it derives from the old Scandinavian verb vikya, meaning 'to turn away' and so came to be used to describe Scandinavians who were travelling away from home. However, a Scandinavian origin for the word  seems unlikely, as its use in Old English predates the Viking Age. It was used to describe any band of pirates, not simply those from Scandinavia. In the 8th century poem, Exodus, the seafaring sons of Reuben are described as wicingas, for example. In this case, it seems likely that wicing is derived from Old English wic (port of trade) and means 'the men who frequent (or attack) ports', and that it was only later adopted by the Scandinavians themselves. After falling into disuse in the central Middle Ages, the use of Viking was revived by the 19th century Romantic movement.

Notes from Encyclopaedia of the Viking Age by John Haywood. Thames & Hudson 2000. pp 198-199.

Vikings in England part III

The Vikings' impact in England was considerable. Their invasions effectively eliminated the kingdoms of East Anglia, Mercia and Northumbria, leaving Wessex as the only Anglo-Saxon Kingdom. When Wessex conquered the Danelaw in the 10th century, the English were for the first time united in a single kingdom. Thus, England owes its existence as a unified kingdom indirectly to the Vikings. The extensive Danish settlements in Eastern England had a long-lasting influence on local legal customs, and a wider impact on the English language through hundreds of Scandinavian loan words, including ones such as 'sky', 'skin', 'get', 'egg' and 'sister'. The Viking attacks on monasteries certainly caused a great deal of cultural damage, but English monasticism made a strong recovery in the 10th century. Viking roads must also have caused much short-term economic hardship for their victims through losses of livestock, seed corn and manpower. In the longer term the Vikings may have promoted urbanization, both directly through trade at centres like York and Lincoln, and indirectly by prompting the Anglo-Saxons to found fortified settlements called burhs.

The Scandinavian settlers in England were assimilated  into the native population within a few generations by intermarriage and conversion to Christianity. Archaeological evidence of the Scandinavian settlement is limited. There are a few pagan burials and many works of sculpture showing the influence of Scandinavian art styles, but from apart from at York no Scandinavian settlements have been identified with any certainty. Evacuations of Viking Age farmsteads at Ribblehead in North Yorkshire, Goltho in Lincolnshire, Bryants Gill in Cumbria and Simy Folds in County Durham, each one in an area settled by Scandinavians, have all failed to produce distinctively Viking artefacts. The most important source of evidence for Scandinavian settlement comes from place-names. In the old Danelaw counties of eastern England, Danish influence in place-names ending in -by, as in Thurkleby (Thurkil's farmstead), and -thorpe, as in Kettlethorpe (Ketil's outlying farm). Hybrid names incorporating a Danish personal name and the English element -tun, as in Grimston (Grim's village) are also common in the Danelaw. Norse place-names are common in north-west England, especially in Cumbria. Typical Norse place-name elements include -thveit, as in Brackenthwaite (bracken clearing), soetr, as in Gunnerside (Gunnar's shieling) and in fjall, as in Scafell (crag hill).

Notes from Encyclopaedia of the Viking Age by John Haywood. Thames & Hudson 2000. pp65-66.

Vikings in England part II

England enjoyed a respite from Viking attacks until 980, when raids from Denmark and the Norse settlements in Ireland and Scotland began.

England's King Aethelred II was a poor war leader who was soon reduced to paying Danegeld to buy off the Viking raids. Among the leaders of the Vikings were Olaf Tryggvason, who used the proceeds of the raids to win control of Norway in 995, and the Danish king Svein Forkbeard. As the English defences collapsed, Svein's objective changed from exacting tribute to outright conquest. At the end of 1013 Aethelred fled the country and Svein was accepted as king of England, but he died in a matter of weeks before he could consolidate his conquest. England had to be reconquered, after an epic struggle with Athelred's son, Edmund Ironside, by Svein's son, Cnut, in 1016. Though many Danish aristocrats were granted English lands, Cnut's conquest was not followed by any significant rural settlement. Under Cnut England became part of an empire that included most of Scandinavia, but his successors showed none of his ability and the native dynasty was restored in 1042.

The Norweigian king Harald Hardrada  attempted to conquer England in 1066, but was crushingly defeated at the battle of Stamford Bridge, fatally weakening the English just weeks before William the Conqueror led his successful invasion from Normandy. The Danes supported rebellions against William in 1069-70 and 1075, and Cnut II planned another invasion in 1085. Disputes prevented the fleet from sailing, however, and Cnut's assassination in 1086 effectively marked the end of the Viking Age in England, though the Norwegian king Harald Eystein led a plundering raid along the east coast as late as 1153.

Notes from Encyclopaedia of the Viking Age by John Haywood. Thames & Hudson 2000. pp64-65

Vikings in England

The Viking Age in England began with raids, the earliest recorded anywhere in Europe, on Portland (c789) and the monastery of Lindisfarne (793). A reference in the 792 charter of Offa, King of Mercia, to military service against 'pagans' may be evidence of other unrecorded raids around this time. The Anglo-Saxons prevented the Viking raiders penetrating inland by blocking rivers with bridges, and raiding remained small in scale until c835, when larger fleets began arriving and won some major victories, killing, for example, Raedwulf, king of Northumbria, in battle in 844. Attacks escalated further in 850 when a fleet, said to number 350 ships, established a winter camp on the Isle of Thanet near the mouth of the River Thames. Nevertheless, England suffered less severely from Viking attacks in this period than Francia or Ireland.

The decisive Viking intervention in England began with the arrival of an exceptionally large Danish army under Ivar Halfdan in the kingdom of East Anglia in 865. The Anglo-Saxon kingdoms did not cooperate effectively against the invaders, and by 876 the Danes had occupied East Anglia, eastern Mercia and southern Northumbria. Only the kingdom of Wessex, under Alfred the Great, successfully resisted Danish attacks.

Conquest was followed by widespread Danish settlement in eastern England and the foundation of small kingdoms, the longest of which was based in York. This Danish-settled area later came to be known as the Danelaw because of its distinctive Scandinavian-influenced customs. Around 900 Norse settlers, many of them from Ireland, began to settle quietly in north-west England.

Once the Vikings settled down, they lost their main military advantage - their mobility - and they became vulnerable to counter-attack. Alfred's successor, Edward the Elder, aided by his sister Aethelflaed, the ruler of Mercia, conquered the Danish-controlled areas south of the River Humber in 912-918, while the Danish kingdom of York came under Norse control in 919. Edward's son, Athelstan, captured York in 927, becoming the first king to rule over all of England. Not all Anglo-Saxons welcomed the rule of Wessex; some preferred the Danes and even fought for them. After Athelstan's death in 939 the Norse recaptured York, but could never hold it securely, and its last Viking king, Erik Bloodaxe, was overthrown and killed in 954.

Notes from Encyclopaedia of the Viking Age by John Haywood. Thames & Hudson 2000. p64

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is the single most important primary source for the history of Anglo-Saxon England from its beginnings in the 5th century up to the Norman Conquest in 1066: without it very little would be known about the Viking Age in England. The Chronicle is not a single source but a group of related chronicles that all derive from a common original compiled during the reign of Alfred the Great of Wessex, probably in the late 880s or early 890s. Copies of this original chronicle were circulated to several centres, where they were subsequently kept up to date by local annalists. All versions of the Chronicle share virtually the same information up to 890-2, but there are considerable differences between them from 893 onwards. Most versions of the Chronicle were discontinued soon after the Norman Conquest, but at Peterborough it was continued until 1154. Seven manuscripts of the Chronicle, written in the original Old English have survived, and the existence of several others, now lost, is known from extracts quoted in later Latin sources and entries in medieval library catalogues.

Though it is written mostly in a detached, dispassionate style, the Chronicle is not an objective record of events and it was probably begun on Alfred's orders as part of a propaganda campaign to present the Wessex dynasty as the leading defender of the Christian English from the heathen Vikings.

Notes from Encyclopaedia of the Viking Age by John Haywood. Thames & Hudson 2000. pp23-4

This is one of a number of versions of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle available online.

A brief introduction to history through genealogy

Following the family line to William the Conqueror takes us back to the Norman conquest of the Saxons in England. However using sources on the Internet such as thepeerage.com allows the family line to be continued much further to France, Norway and eventually to Finland.

William I of England was descended from the Dukes of Normandy. His father, Robert, was the 6th Duc de Normandie, his grandfather, Robert, was the 4th duke, his great grandfather was the 3rd duke, his great, great grandfather was the 2nd duke and his great, great, great grandfather, Rollo Ragnvaldsson, was the 1st duke, (c846 to c931). Rollo Rangnvaldsson was leader of the Viking invasion of France in the area that became known as Normany.

A brief account of the invasion is provided in a History Channel clip on YouTube Viking Fury from the North. The invaders settled in France and intermarried with the French, taking on the Christian religion.

This then leads to the next stage in the family saga in Norway.

Rollo Ragnvaldsson was the son of the Viking, Ragnvald I ‘the Wise’ Eysteinsson, Earl of More. Ragnvald I was born in Norway and was Earl of Orkney (Scotland) but died in More, Norway, c890 so he had been one of the Vikings raiding Scotland at that time. The listing in the peerage.com continues back to Sveidi' the Sea King 'Heytirsson, the Norse King born in Raumsdal, Norway c650 and dying in Norway in 710.

The further back you go the more rubbery the dates become but it is suggested that Sveidi's ancestors were originally from Finland.

From this exercise the British history that we learned at school and see being excavated in shows such as Time Team becomes much more relevant. Obviously we all have historical roots going back to these times and we are also aware of these threads of history but to be able to trace a family back through these periods of history makes the history itself far more interesting and relevant. I now also know that I have a great deal of work to do investigating all these trails and also learning the stories of the people named in the genealogy lists.