History of the Normans

the long version

This is the first English translation of a work of semi-imaginary history which gave the Normans a past, present, and future at the outset of their triumphant century. Completed in or soon after 1015 by a visiting French scholar, it is a study in verse and prose of one family's rise from debt and exile in the world of the heathen Vikings to an honoured place among the great territorial rulers of France. It recounts two campaigns in England by Rollo, the founder of the family, and a series of stirring political, military and religious events on the Continent, most notably the baptism of Rollo, the dreadful murder of his son William, and the kidnapping, escape and precarious early career of Dudo's first patron, Count Richard I. The author's imagination is matched by his language, so presenting the unwary reader with difficulties, which the author notes and discusses throughout, defining and explaining the many poetic metres and prose embellishments used, and identifying the sources of numerous borrowings; he also re-examines and collates the manuscripts and printed versions of the text, and considers the most recent scholarship in the field.