The Heimskringla on Rolf Ganger

Heimskringla > The Chronicle Of The Kings Of Norway > 24. Rolf Ganger Driven Into Banishment.

• attestation: Rolf was so large that no horse could carry him, earning him the name Rolf Ganger (Rolf the Walker)

  "Rolf became a great viking, and was of so stout a growth that no horse could carry him, and wheresoever he went he must go on foot; and therefore he was called Rolf Ganger."

• attestation: Rolf Ganger went west to the Hebrides, then to Valland (France), where he conquered a great earldom that became Normandy

  "Rolf Ganger went afterwards over sea to the West to the Hebrides, or Sudreys; and at last farther west to Valland, where he plundered and subdued for himself a great earldom, which he peopled with Northmen, from which that land is called Normandy."

• attestation: Rolf Ganger's descendant line ran through William, Richard, another Richard, Robert Longspear, to William the Bastard, ancestor of all subsequent English kings

  "Rolf Ganger's son was William, father to Richard, and grandfather to another Richard, who was the father of Robert Longspear, and grandfather of William the Bastard, from whom all the following English kings are descended."

Heimskringla > The Chronicle Of The Kings Of Norway > 19. Of The Earls Of Rouen.

• attestation: Richard earl of Rouen descended from Rolf Ganger, first conqueror of Normandy, who was son of Ragnvald the Mighty, earl of More.

  "Richard the earl of Rouen was a son of Richard the son of William Long Spear, who was the son of Rolf Ganger, the earl who first conquered Normandy; and he again was a son of Ragnvald the Mighty, earl of More"

• attestation: The earls of Rouen considered themselves kin to Norwegian chiefs and always treated Northmen as friends, making Normandy a friendly country for any Northman.

  "From Rolf Ganger are descended the earls of Rouen, who have long reckoned themselves of kin to the chiefs in Norway, and hold them in such respect that they always were the greatest friends of the Northmen"