Rollo
Rollo on the Six Dukes statue in Falaise town square.
Duke of Normandy
Reign	911–927
Predecessor	New creation
Successor	William I
Born	c. 846
Died	c. 931 Normandy
Burial	Rouen Cathedral

Rollo (c. 846 – c. 931), baptised Robert^[1] and so sometimes numbered Robert I to distinguish him from his descendants, was a Norse nobleman of Norwegian or Danish descent and founder and first ruler of the Viking principality in what soon became known as Normandy. His descendants were the Dukes of Normandy.

The name "Rollo" is a Latin translation from the Old Norse name Hrólfr, modern Scandinavian name Rolf (cf. the latinization of Hrólfr into the similar Roluo in the Gesta Danorum), but Norman people called him by his popular name Rou(f) (see Wace's Roman de Rou).^[2] Sometimes his name is turned into the Frankish name Rodolf(us) or Radulf(us) or the French Raoul, that are derived from it.^{[Note 1]}

Historical evidence[link]

Rollo was a powerful Viking leader of contested origin. Dudo of Saint-Quentin, in his De moribus et actis primorum Normannorum ducum,^[3] tells of a powerful Danish nobleman at loggerheads with the king of Denmark, who had two sons, Gurim and Rollo; upon his death, Rollo was expelled and Gurim killed. William of Jumièges also mentions Rollo's prehistory in his Gesta Normannorum Ducum, but states that he was from the Danish town of Fakse. Wace, writing some 300 years after the event in his Roman de Rou, also mentions the two brothers (as Rou and Garin), as does the Orkneyinga Saga.

Norwegian and Icelandic historians identified Rollo instead with Ganger Hrolf (Hrolf, the Walker), a son of Rognvald Eysteinsson, Earl of Møre, in Western Norway, based on medieval Norwegian and Icelandic sagas. The oldest source of this version is the Latin Historia Norvegiae, written in Norway at the end of the 12th century. This Hrolf fell foul of the Norwegian king Harald Fairhair, and became a Jarl in Normandy. The nickname "the Walker", "Ganger" in Norse, came from being so big that no horse could carry him.

The question of Rollo's origins was a matter of heated dispute between Norwegian and Danish historians of the 19th and early 20th centuries, particularly in the run-up to Normandy's millennium anniversary in 1911. Today, the debate continues.

Latin Wikisource has original text related to this article: De moribus et actis primorum Normannorum ducum

Claimed Yngling lineage leading to Rollo[link]

The Yngling "Fairhair dynasty" lineage introduced in Hversu Noregr byggðist ("How Norway was settled") and the Orkneyinga and Heimskringla sagas suggests a line of Rollo going back to Fornjót, the primeval "king" who "reigned over" Finland and Kvenland.^{[citation needed]} The claimed line leading to Rollo includes Rognvald Eysteinsson, the founder of the Earldom of Orkney.^{[citation needed]}

Raids along the Seine[link]

In 885, Rollo was one of the lesser leaders of the Viking fleet which besieged Paris under Sigfred. Legend has it that an emissary was sent by the king to find the chieftain and negotiate terms. When he asked for this information, the Vikings replied that they were all chieftains in their own right. In 886, when Sigfred retreated in return for tribute, Rollo stayed behind and was eventually bought off and sent to harry Burgundy.

Later, he returned to the Seine with his followers (known as Danes, or Norsemen). He invaded the area of northern France now known as Normandy.

In 911 Rollo's forces launched a failed attack on Paris before laying siege to Chartres. The appeals for help of the Bishop of Chartres, Joseaume, were answered by Robert, Marquis of Neustria, Richard, Duke of Burgundy and Manasses, Count of Dijon. On 20 July 911, at the Battle of Chartres, they defeated Rollo despite the absence of many French barons and also the absence of the French King Charles the Simple.^[4]

The Principality of Normandy[link]

In the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte (911) with King Charles, Rollo pledged feudal allegiance to the king, changed his name to the Frankish version, and converted to Christianity, probably with the baptismal name Robert.^[5] In return, King Charles granted Rollo land between the Epte and the sea as well as Brittany and according to Dudo of St. Quentin, the hand of the King's daughter, Gisela, although this marriage and Gisela herself are unknown to Frankish sources. He was also the titular ruler of Normandy, centered around the city of Rouen. There exists some argument among historians as to whether Rollo was a "duke" (dux) or whether his position was equivalent to that of a "count" under Charlemagne.

According to legend, when required to kiss the foot of King Charles, as a condition of the treaty, he refused to perform so great a humiliation, and when Charles extended his foot to Rollo, Rollo ordered one of his warriors to do so in his place. His warrior then lifted Charles' foot up to his mouth causing the king to fall to the ground.^[6]

Statue of Rollo in Rouen. There are two bronze replicas of this statue : one at Ålesund (Norway) and the other one at Fargo, North Dakota

After 911, Rollo stayed true to his word of defending the shores of the Seine river in accordance to the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte, however he also continued to act like a Viking chief with attacks on Flanders.

After Charles was deposed by Robert I, Rollo considered his oath to the King of France to be over. It started a period of expansion westwards. Negotiations with French barons ended with Rollo being given Le Mans and Bayeux and continued with the seizure of Bessin in 924. The following year saw the Normans attack Picardy.

Rollo began to divide the land between the Epte and Risle rivers among his chieftains and settled there with a de facto capital in Rouen. Eventually^[when?] Rollo's men intermarried with the local women, and became more settled as Normans.^{[clarification needed]}

Family[link]

14th century depiction of the marriage of Rollo and Gisela

Two spouses are reported for Rollo:

1. Poppa, said by chronicler Dudo of Saint-Quentin to have been a daughter of Count Berenger, captured during a raid at Bayeux. She was his mistress or wife^[7] perhaps by more danico^[8] They had issue:

• William Longsword, born "overseas".
• Gerloc, wife of William III, Duke of Aquitaine. Dudo fails to identify her mother, but later chronicler William of Jumieges makes this explicit.
• (perhaps) Kadlin, said by Ari the Historian to have been daughter of Ganger Hrolf, traditionally identified with Rollo. She married a Scottish King called Bjolan, and had at least a daughter called Midbjorg, she was taken captive by and married Helgi Ottarson.

2. (traditionally) Gisela of France (d. 919), the daughter of Charles III of France.

Death[link]

Rollo's grave at the cathedral of Rouen

Sometime around 927, Rollo passed the fief in Normandy to his son, William Longsword. Rollo may have lived for a few years after that, but certainly died before 933. According to the historian Adhemar, 'As Rollo's death drew near, he went mad and had a hundred Christian prisoners beheaded in front of him in honour of the gods whom he had worshipped,^{[citation needed]} and in the end distributed a hundred pounds of gold around the churches in honour of the true God in whose name he had accepted baptism.' Even though Rollo had converted to Christianity, some of his prior religious roots surfaced at the end.^{[citation needed]}

Legacy[link]

Rollo is the great-great-great-grandfather of William the Conqueror. Through William, he is an ancestor of the present-day British royal family, as well as an ancestor of all current European monarchs and a great many pretenders to abolished European thrones. A genetic investigation into the remains of Rollo's grandson Richard I and great-grandson Richard II has been announced, with the intention of discerning the origins of the famous Viking warrior.^[9]

The "Clameur de Haro" in the Channel Islands is, supposedly, an appeal to Rollo.

Genealogy[link]

Depictions in fiction[link]

Rollo is the subject of the 17th century play Rollo Duke of Normandy written by John Fletcher, Philip Massinger, Ben Jonson, and George Chapman. He is also a minor character in the romance novel, The Reluctant Viking by Sandra Hill. His wife Poppa and his son William are also minor characters.

See also[link]

Normandy portal

• Viking Age
• Rulers of Normandy
• Clan Rollo

External links[link]

• D.C. Douglas, "Rollo of Normandy", English Historical Review, Vol. 57 (1942), pp. 414–436
• Robert Helmerichs, [Rollo as Historical Figure]
• Rosamond McKitterick, The Frankish Kingdom under the Carolingians, 751-987, (Longman) 1983
• Dudonis gesta Normannorum - Dudo of St. Quentin Gesta Normannorum Latin version at Bibliotheca Augustana
• Dudo of St. Quentin's Gesta Normannorum - An English Translation
• Gwyn Jones. Second edition: A History of the Vikings. Oxford University Press. (1984).
• William W. Fitzhugh and Elizabeth Ward. Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga. Smithsonian Institution Press. (2000)
• Eric Christiansen. The Norsemen in the Viking Age. Blackwell Publishers Ltd. (2002)
• Agnus Konstam. Historical Atlas of the Viking World. Checkmark Books. (2002)
• Holgar Arbman. Ancient People and Places: The Vikings. Thames and Hudson. (1961)
• Eric Oxenstierna. The Norsemen, New York Graphics Society Publishers, Ltd. (1965)
• Medieval Lands on Ragnvald the Wise, the father of Ganger Hrolf, traditionally identified with Rollo, but see the following link below
• Stewart Baldwin Henry Project: "Rollo "of Normandy", on disputed parentage of Rollo
• Decendents of Rollo
• Sturluson, Snorri. Heimskringla: History of the Kings of Norway, translated Lee M. Hollander. Reprinted University of Texas Press, Austin, 1992. ISBN 0-292-73061-6
• handrit.is (previously Saganet): Orkneyinga saga
• English translation:
• Orkneyinga Saga: The History of the Earls of Orkney. Trans. Pálsson, Hermann and Edwards, Paul. Hogarth Press, London, 1978. ISBN 0-7012-0431-1. Republished 1981, Harmondsworth: Penguin. ISBN 0-14-044383-5.
• Orkneyinga Saga. Trans A.B. Taylor. London, 1937.
• The Orkneyingers Saga (Icelandic Sagas, and other historical documents relating to the settlements and descents of the Northmen on the British Isles, Volume III). Translated by George Dasent (1894). London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office. Reprinted 1964 by Kraus Reprint. Text available at Sacred Texts and Northvegr.
• "Fundinn Noregr" ('Discovery of Norway'), opening portion of The Orkneyingers' Saga. Trans. Chappell, Gavin (2004) Northvegr: The Discovery of Norway.
• Thaler, David (2008-12-08). "Section P: Descendants of Halfdan the Old". http://armidalesoftware.com/issue/full/Thaler_841_main.html. 
• "Frá Fornjóti ok hans ættmönnum" in the Fornaldarsögur Norðurlanda, Old Norse text of Hversu Noregr byggdisk (including the Ættartolur) and Fundinn Noregr at Snerpa: Netúgáfan: Fornrit and University of Oregon: Norse: Fornaldarsögur norðurlanda.

Notes[link]

References[link]

v t e Dukes of Normandy House of Normandy 911–1135 Rollo William I Richard I Richard II Richard III Robert I William II Robert II Henry I William III House of Blois 1135–1144 Stephen House of Plantagenet 1144–1259 Geoffrey Henry II Henry the Young Richard IV John Henry III

This biography of a living person does not include any references or sources. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living people that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately. (April 2012)

Sister Bliss
Background information
Birth name	Ayalah Bentovim
Born	(1970-12-30) 30 December 1970 (age 41) London, United Kingdom
Genres	House, psychedelic trance, progressive electronic dance music, electronica, trip hop, chill-out, pop, electro
Occupations	Musician, songwriter, record producer, DJ, keyboardist, composer
Instruments	Piano, synthesizer, keyboard, violin, saxophone, bass guitar
Associated acts	Rollo Armstrong, Jamie Catto, Maxi Jazz, Faithless, Dido

Sister Bliss (real name Ayalah Bentovim, born 30 December 1970) is a British keyboardist, record producer, DJ, composer and songwriter. In the studio she is best known for her work with Rollo Armstrong, particularly as part of the now disbanded dance group Faithless.

She started music at the age of five, when she learned how to play the piano. She eventually moved on to the violin, saxophone and then bass.

She formed Faithless in 1995 with Rollo, Jamie Catto and Maxi Jazz. Bliss constructed most of the music of Faithless herself electronically, but also played the piano, violin, saxophone and bass guitar. Various others have been members and collaborators over the years including Zoë Johnston and, frequently, Rollo's sister Dido, who began her musical career providing backing vocals for the band. Faithless toured extensively, and while Rollo preferred to stay in the studio, Sister Bliss could be seen on stage with Maxi Jazz.

She released a two-disc compilation entitled Headliners: 02 in 2001.

On 10 September 2006 she gave birth to a baby boy named Nate. The track "Nate's Tune" found on the Faithless album To All New Arrivals is dedicated to him. Later on, Faithless founded their own record label called Nate's Tunes.

She released Nightmoves on 14 July 2008.

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

• 2001: Headliners: 02
• 2008: Nightmoves

Singles[link]

• 1993: "Future Pulse / The Future Is Now"
• 1994: "Cantgetaman, Cantgetajob (Life's a Bitch!)"
• 1995: "Oh! What a World"
• 1996: "Bad Man"
• 2000: "Sister Sister"
• 2001: "Deliver Me" (feat. John Martyn)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Sister Bliss on Myspace
• Sister Bliss discography at Discogs
• Sister Bliss at the Internet Movie Database

Rollo May (April 21, 1909 – October 22, 1994) was an American existential psychologist. He authored the influential book Love and Will during 1969. He is often associated with both humanistic psychology and existentialist philosophy. May was a close friend of the theologian Paul Tillich. His works include Love and Will and The Courage to Create, the latter title honoring Tillich's The Courage to Be.

Biography[link]

May was born in Ada, Ohio in 1909. He experienced a difficult childhood, with his parents divorcing and his sister becoming schizophrenic. He was the first son of a family with six children. His mother often left them to care for themselves, so with his sister being a schizophrenic, he endured a great deal of responsibility.^[1] His educational career took him to Michigan State College majoring in English and Oberlin College for a bachelor's degree, teaching for a time in Greece, to Union Theological Seminary for a BD during 1938, and finally to Teachers College, Columbia University for a PhD in clinical psychology during 1949. May was a founder and faculty member of Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center in San Francisco.^[2]

He spent the final years of his life in Tiburon on San Francisco Bay, where he died in October 1994.

Accomplishments[link]

May was influenced by American humanism, and interested in reconciling existential psychology with other philosophies, especially Freud's.

May considered Otto Rank (1884-1939) to be the most important precursor of existential therapy. Shortly before his death, May wrote the foreword to Robert Kramer's edited collection of Rank’s American lectures. “I have long considered Otto Rank to be the great unacknowledged genius in Freud’s circle,” wrote May (Rank, 1996, p. xi).

May used some traditional existential terms in a slightly different fashion than others, and he invented new words for traditional existentialist concepts. Destiny, for example, could be "thrownness" combined with "fallenness"— the part of our lives that is determined for us, for the purpose of creating our lives. He also used the word "courage" to signify resisting anxiety.

He defined certain "stages" of development:

• Innocence – the pre-egoic, pre-self-conscious stage of the infant. An innocent is only doing what he or she must do. However, an innocent does have a degree of will in the sense of a drive to fulfill needs.
• Rebellion – the rebellious person wants freedom, but does not yet have a good understanding of the responsibility that goes with it.
• Decision – The person is in a transition stage in their life such that they need to be more independent from their parents and settle into the "ordinary stage". In this stage they must decide what to do with their life, and fulfilling rebellious needs from the rebellious stage.
• Ordinary – the normal adult ego learned responsibility, but finds it too demanding, and so seeks refuge in conformity and traditional values.
• Creative – the authentic adult, the existential stage, self-actualizing and transcending simple egocentrism.

These are not "stages" in the traditional sense. A child may certainly be innocent, ordinary or creative at times; an adult may be rebellious. The only association with certain ages is in terms of importance: rebelliousness is more important for a two year old or a teenager.

May perceived the sexual mores of the 1960s and 1970s, as well as commercialization of sex and pornography, as having influenced society such that people believed that love and sex are no longer associated directly. According to May, emotion has become separated from reason, making it acceptable socially to seek sexual relationships and avoid the natural drive to relate to another person and create new life. May believed that sexual freedom can cause modern society to neglect more important psychological developments. May suggests that the only way to remedy the cynical ideas that characterize our times is to rediscover the importance of caring for another, which May describes as the opposite of apathy.

His first book, The Meaning of Anxiety, was based on his doctoral dissertation, which in turn was based on his reading of the 19th century philosopher Søren Kierkegaard. His definition of anxiety is "the apprehension cued off by a threat to some value which the individual holds essential to his existence as a self" (1967, p. 72). He also quotes Kierkegaard: "Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom". In 1956, he edited the book Existence with Ernst Angel and Henri Ellenberger. Existence helped introduce existential psychology to the US.

“Love and Will” is another of May’s famous texts. This book investigates the shifting viewpoints of love and sex in human behaviour. During the “Sexual Revolution” in the 1960s, many individuals were exploring their sexuality. “Free sex” was replacing the ideology of free love. May explains that love is intentionally willed by an individual, whereas sexual desire is the complete opposite. Real human instinct reflected upon deliberation and consideration^{[clarification needed]}. May then shows that to give in to these impulses does not actually make one free, but to resist these impulses is the meaning of being free.

Criticism of Modern Pyschotherapy[link]

May believed that psychotherapists in the late 1900's had fractured away from the Jungian, Freudian and other influencing psychoanalyst thought and started creating their own 'gimmicks' causing an crisis within the world of psychotherapy. These gimmicks were said to put too much stock into the self where the real focus needed to be looking at 'man in the world'. To accomplish this, May pushed for the use of existential therapy over individually created techniques for psychotherapy. ^[3]

Bibliography[link]

• The Meaning of Anxiety (1950), W W Norton 1996 revised edition: ISBN 0-393-31456-1
• Man’s Search for Himself (1953), Delta 1973 reprint: ISBN 0-385-28617-1
• Existence (1956), Jason Aronson 1994 reprint: ISBN 1-56821-271-2
• The Art of Counseling (1965), Gardner Press 1989 rev. edition: ISBN 0-89876-156-5
• Psychology and the Human Dilemma (1967), W W Norton 1996 reprint: ISBN 0-393-31455-3
• Love and Will (1969), W W Norton ISBN 0-393-01080-5, Delta 1989 reprint: ISBN 0-385-28590-6
• Power and Innocence: A Search for the Sources of Violence (1972), W W Norton 1998 reprint ISBN 0-393-31703-X
• Paulus. A personal portrait of Paul Tillich (1973), Harper & Row ISBN 0-00-211689-8
• The Courage to Create (1975), W W Norton 1994 reprint: ISBN 0-393-31106-6
• Freedom and Destiny (1981), W W Norton 1999 edition: ISBN 0-393-31842-7
• The Discovery of Being: Writings in Existential Psychology (1983), W W Norton 1994 reprint: ISBN 0-393-31240-2
• My Quest for Beauty (1985), Saybrook Publishing ISBN 0-933071-01-9
• The Cry for Myth (1991), Delta 1992 reprint: ISBN 0-385-30685-7
• The Psychology of Existence (1995) (with Kirk Schneider), McGraw-Hill ISBN 0-07-041017-8

See also[link]

• Stephen A. Diamond
• Abraham Maslow
• Carl Rogers
• Virginia Satir
• Kirk J. Schneider

References[link]

• Rank, Otto (1996). A Psychology of Difference: The American Lectures [talks given 1924–1938; edited and with an introductory essay by Robert Kramer]. Princeton University Press ISBN 0-691-04470-8

1. ^ American Psychologist (April 1996), 51 (4), pg. 418-419. <http://resolver.scholarsportal.info.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/resolve/0003066x/v51i0004/418_rm>.
2. ^ Saybrook: Historical Origins
3. ^ May, Rollo. (October 2009) Rollo May on Existential Therapy. Volume 49 Number 4. Journal of Humanistic Psychology. 419-434.

External links[link]

Primary Sources

• The Meaning of Anxiety By Rollo May, 1950, 1977, 1996
• The Courage to Create, by Rollo May, 1975
• Man's Search for Himself , By Rollo May, 1953, 1981, 2009
• The Discovery of Being: writings in existential psychology By Rollo May, 1983

Secondary Sources

• Famous Psychologists - Rollo May
• Rollo May page at Mythos & Logos
• Thinking Allowed - Interview with Rollo May Ph.D.
• Saybrook Graduate School's Historical Origins
• "Personality Theories - Rollo May"
• "Existential Primer: Rollo May"

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