Rollo: The First Norman

Gone Medieval

History Hit

History

4.6 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 30 July 2024

⏱️ 44 minutes

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Summary

Rollo was a Viking leader who became the first ruler of Normandy in the early 10th century. His descendants, the Normans, later conquered England and southern Italy, leaving a lasting legacy on European history. So how did a Viking outlaw became a respected Frankish Jarl and founder of a conquering dynasty?

In this episode of Gone Medieval, Dr. Eleanor Janega meets Mathias Dilys, cultural interpreter at Château de Falaise in Normandy, to find out why canny political manoeuvres are often as important as military prowess.

Gone Medieval is presented by Dr. Eleanor Janega and edited by Ella Blaxill. The producers are Joseph Knight and Rob Weinberg. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.

Gone Medieval is a History Hit podcast.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Today I'm joined by Matias Delise, historian and cultural interpreter at
0:08.4	Valais Castle in Normandy. To find out exactly how a Viking outlaw came to be a respected Frankishjaro,
0:16.0	and why cany political maneuvers are often as important as military prowess.
0:21.0	I'm Dr. Eleanor Yanegaaga and this is gone medieval.
0:25.0	I was recently in Normandy to film an amazing program,
0:30.0	if I do say so myself, all about the Rise of the Normans, which will be out next month on the History Hit TV channel.
0:38.0	It was during filming that I first met Matias when he showed me around Falais Castle, the birthplace of William the Conqueror. But I wanted to have a longer conversation with him to dig into the details of the founder of Normandy, Rolo. So I invited him to Gone Medieval to find out more about this
0:56.2	enigmatic ruler. If you lovely listeners want to see the castles and cathedrals we're discussing,
1:01.7	do check out the Norman's program next month on
1:04.2	history hit TV there's a link in the show notes.
1:08.8	Well, Matthias first of all thank you very very much for joining us it's so wonderful to speak with you again
1:14.3	yeah thank you I'm so happy to be talking with you again I'm really excited to speak with you today
1:19.7	especially because Rolo is one of these people that really excites historians,
1:26.2	but he's kind of a little unsung in general,
1:29.2	in the public imagination, because we kind of don't really know much about him right so we know he's
1:36.0	the founder of the Norman dynasty he founds Normandy itself as a province but we know very little about his early life, is that correct?
1:46.1	Yes, exactly. He's a bit of a mysterious figure. So we need to take a look at the chronicles.
1:51.2	He pops up in very separate chronicles.
1:54.0	So it's very difficult to take all of the chronicles at face value, but we can piece things together.
2:00.0	So perhaps we could focus on his actual name, because we call him Rolo, which is very convenient for us.
2:06.1	It's Rose of the Town. That's the Latinites version of his name, but his actual Scandinavian name is a bit more of a mouthful.
2:15.0	So let's start with the actual name.
	...

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