speaks of "monimenta literarum;" also Malmesbury: "Sunt sane quædam vetustatis indicia, chronico more et patrio sermone, per annos Domini ordinata."[1]
In thus assuming Ælfred and his coadjutors as the originators of the Saxon Chronicle, the question arises: Is the Chronicle, in succeeding ages, to be regarded as a contemporaneous narrative of events? Generally speaking, I am inclined to answer in the affirmative, although it certainly is not free from interpolations of later date. Such interpolations are, however, chiefly prevalent in manuscript Domitian A. VIII., and the Laudian manuscript. As an instance of such interpolation, may be noticed the entry A.D. 876, in the manuscript first mentioned, where it is said, that Rodla (Rolf, Rollo)[2] penetrated into Normandy, and reigned
- ↑ Prol. Gest. Reg.
- ↑ As a progenitor of our Norman and Angevin kings, and, through them, of the present reigning house, a few words (after the example afforded by the Chronicle itself, in the case of the Saxon and Anglian kings) concerning Rolf's lineage, may not be deemed irrelevant. According to the idle tale told of this chieftain by the Norman writers, Dudo of St. Quentin, William of Jumieges, Benedict of St. More, and Wace, Rolf was a Dane, whose power appearing too formidable in the land, the king led a force against him and his brother Garin, or Gurim (Gorm ?); but, in an attempt to take his castle, was put to flight, though he afterwards worsted him through an ambuscade; from which, however, Rolf escaped, though his brother Garin was slain. He afterwards sailed to Scotland, and finally invaded and won the province thenceforward called Normandy. This story is probably the invention of a chronicler anxious to flatter the pride of his ducal patron. Far more probable is the account given by Snorri (Heimskringla, ch. 24), that Rolf was a son of Rognvald, jarl of Mœri in Norway, and, as we are told, was of so gigantic a stature, that he was compelled to go on foot, whence his appellation of Hrôlfr gavngr, or Rolf the ganger or walker. For his plunderings (strandhug) on the coast of Norway, he was expelled from the country by king Harald Harfagri. William of Malmesbury (and from him, Alberic) says of him: "De nobili, sed per vetustatem obsoleta, prosapia Noricorum editus." Dudo calls him the son of a truly free man, who, for no feudal obligation, would place his hands between those of another. And again: "Rollo superbo regum ducumque sanguine natus."
