Saga Brief 5: The Story of Rollo the Viking

In this episode, we celebrate the
life and accomplishments of the historical Rollo.  Known to many as the envious brother of the
incomparable Ragnar Loðbrok in the History Channel’s Vikings.  While the historical Rollo may not have been
Ragnar’s brother, Vikings gets a lot of things right.  As an exile from his homeland, Rollo earned
the nickname “the Walker” by wandering throughout northern Europe raiding and
conquering everything in his path.  Among
his most significant conquests would come to be known as Normandy, a territory
in northern France named for the Northmen led by Rollo in the late 9th or early
10th century.  Fearing further Viking
aggression, the French King Charles the Simple turned over the city of Rouen over
to Rollo and his men.  This simple act
(get it?) provided the French with a buffer against future Viking attacks from
the north.  Or so they hoped.  In this case, it worked out nicely.  Rollo and his fellow Vikings quickly rebuilt
the territories they had ravaged and assimilated into French culture.  Rollo’s descendants would go on to play a
very significant role in European history. 
As the great-great-great-grandfather of William the Conqueror, Rollo’s
blood flows through many veins of later European royalty.
 If you’re interested in learning
more about that part of the story, we recommend the following episodes of Rex
Factor, our very favorite podcast:
 http://rexfactor.podbean.com/e/17-william-the-conqueror/
 http://rexfactor.podbean.com/e/18-william-rufus/Looking for more Vikings and Saga Thing cross-over?  We've got a few episodes that might interest you:The Saga of Ragnar Loðbrok and His Sons - where we review the medieval stories behind the Vikings hero.The Blood Eagle - where we discuss the Viking practice of splitting a man open and its historical veracity.The Krákumál - a detailed look at the famous death song of Ragnar

Episode 18a - The Saga of Finnbogi the Strong (Part 1)

The
Saga of Finnbogi the Strong tells the tale of a farmer’s son who overcomes an ignoble
birth and rises to become one of Iceland's greatest men, or so the saga author
would have you believe.  This obscure and rarely discussed 14th
century saga is thought to have been written in response to Vatnsdæla Saga, where Finnbogi comes off
rather poorly.  In his own saga, Finnbogi
proves to be an upright and noble figure who almost always does the right
thing.  With superhuman strength, he’s
capable of dispatching an angry bull with his bare hands, snapping the spine of
an angry Norwegian bear, and coming out ahead in a seemingly endless feud with Vatnsdæla Saga’s brutish Jokul
Ingimundarsson.   Finnbogi’s
Saga deserves more attention than it has gotten in the past.  And
that's why you come to Saga Thing.    References:John Kennedy, Review of Bachman/Erlingsson Translation of The Saga of Finnbogi the Strong, in Scandinavian Studies 64 (1992), 149.Phillip Pulsiano and Kirsten Wolf, Medieval Scandinavia: An Encyclopedia (1993), 194.Paul Schach, Icelandic Sagas (Boston, 1980), 155-56.Music for the brief summary: "Nerves" by Kevin MacLeod (incopetech.com).  Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0