The Annals of Fontenelle (Annales Fontanellenses, [1] Chronicon Fontanellense) or Chronicle of Saint-Wandrille (Chronicon sancti Wandregesili) is a short history compiled at the Abbey of Saint-Wandrille between 840 and 856. [2] It is in annalistic form and its primarily concerns are local.
The Annales are an important source for the raid of the Viking chiefs Sidroc and Bjørn in 856–58, and also for King Charles the Bald's war with Nominoe, the duke of Brittany. [3] Ferdinand Lot found the Annales to be generally unreliable with dates and dated their composition to after 872. [4]
A French translation of the Annales was published by Jean Laporte in the Mélanges de la Société d'Histoire de Normandie in 1951. [2] An English translation by Christian Cooijmans was published as a special volume of Apardjón Journal for Scandinavian Studies in 2022. [5]
Normandy is a geographical and cultural region in northwestern Europe, roughly coextensive with the historical Duchy of Normandy.
Lorient is a town (commune) and seaport in the Morbihan department of Brittany in western France.
The Duchy of Normandy grew out of the 911 Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte between King Charles III of West Francia and the Viking leader Rollo. The duchy was named for its inhabitants, the Normans.
Jean Victor Audouin, sometimes Victor Audouin, was a French naturalist, an entomologist, herpetologist, ornithologist, and malacologist.
Björn Ironside, according to Norse legends, was a Norse Viking chief and Swedish king. According to the 12th- and 13th-century Scandinavian histories, he was the son of notorious Viking king Ragnar Lodbrok and lived in the 9th century, between 855 and 858. Björn Ironside is said to have been the first ruler of the Swedish Munsö dynasty. In the early 18th century, a barrow on the island of Munsö was claimed by antiquarians to be Björn Järnsidas hög or Björn Ironside's barrow.
Sitric Cáech or Sihtric Cáech or Sigtrygg Gále, was a Hiberno-Scandinavian Viking leader who ruled Dublin and then Viking Northumbria in the early 10th century. He was a grandson of Ímar and a member of the Uí Ímair. Sitric was most probably among those Vikings expelled from Dublin in 902, whereafter he may have ruled territory in the eastern Danelaw in England. In 917, he and his kinsman Ragnall ua Ímair sailed separate fleets to Ireland where they won several battles against local kings. Sitric successfully recaptured Dublin and established himself as king, while Ragnall returned to England to become King of Northumbria. In 919, Sitric won a victory at the Battle of Islandbridge over a coalition of local Irish kings who aimed to expel the Uí Ímair from Ireland. Six Irish kings were killed in the battle, including Niall Glúndub, overking of the Northern Uí Néill and High King of Ireland.
Annales Bertiniani are late Carolingian, Frankish annals that were found in the Abbey of Saint Bertin, Saint-Omer, France, after which they are named. Their account is taken to cover the period 830-82, thus continuing the Royal Frankish Annals (741–829), from which, however, it has circulated independently in only one manuscript. They are available in the Monumenta Germaniæ Historica and in a later French edition taking into account a newly discovered manuscript . The Annals of St. Bertin are one of the principal sources of ninth-century Francia, and are particularly well-informed on events in the West Frankish sphere of Charles the Bald. The Annales Fuldenses are usually read as an East Frankish counterpart to their narrative.
Michael Christopher Emlyn Jones is a British historian.
Ragnall mac Bárid ua Ímair or Rægnald was a Viking leader who ruled Northumbria and the Isle of Man in the early 10th century. He was a grandson of Ímar and a member of the Uí Ímair. Ragnall was most probably among those Vikings expelled from Dublin in 902, whereafter he may have ruled territory in southern Scotland or the Isle of Man. In 917, he and his kinsman Sitric Cáech sailed separate fleets to Ireland where they won several battles against local kings. Sitric successfully recaptured Dublin and established himself as king, while Ragnall returned to England. He fought against Constantín mac Áeda, King of Scotland, in the Battle of Corbridge in 918, and although the battle was not decisive it did allow Ragnall to establish himself as king at York.
Lambert II was the Count of Nantes and Prefect of the Breton March between 843 and 851. Lambert ruled the county in opposition to Amaury, the puppet count installed by Charles the Bald, King of West Francia. At his death, the county was effectively in Breton control. Lambert was the son of Lambert I and his wife Itta.
Ímar, synonymous with Ivar the Boneless, was a powerful Viking leader in Ireland and Scotland in the mid-late ninth century. He was the progenitor of the Uí Ímair dynasty, who would go on to dominate the Irish Sea region for several centuries. He was the son of the king of Lochlann, identified in the non-contemporary Fragmentary Annals of Ireland as Gofraid. The Fragmentary Annals name Auisle and Amlaíb Conung as his brothers. Another Viking leader, Halfdan Ragnarsson, is considered by some scholars to be another brother. The Irish Annals title Amlaíb, Ímar and Auisle "kings of the foreigners". Modern scholars use the title "Kings of Dublin" after the Viking settlement which formed the base of their power. Some scholars consider Ímar to be identical to Ivar the Boneless, a Viking commander of the Great Heathen Army named in contemporary English sources who also appears in the Icelandic sagas as the eldest son of the legendary Viking Ragnar Lodbrok by third wife Aslaug.
The Battle of Ballon took place on 27 March 845 between the forces of Charles the Bald, king of West Francia, and Nominoë, Duke of Brittany. Nominoë was appropriating border territory and opposing Charles' attempt to impose Frankish authority. Nominoë defeated Charles, initiating a period of Breton expansion and consolidation of power.
Noël Valois, was a French historian.
Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales is a French academic journal covering social history that was established in 1929 by Marc Bloch and Lucien Febvre. The journal gave rise to an approach to history known as the Annales School. The journal began in Strasbourg as Annales d'histoire économique et sociale; it moved to Paris and kept the same name from 1929 to 1939. It was successively renamed Annales d'histoire sociale, Mélanges d'histoire sociale (1942–1944), Annales. Economies, sociétés, civilisations (1946–1994), and, finally, Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales in 1994. In 2013 it began publication of an English language edition, with all the articles translated.
Lucien Musset was a French historian, specializing in the Duchy of Normandy and the history of the Vikings.
Yvon Thébert was a 20th-century French archaeologist and historian of marxist inspiration.
Mireille Issa is a Lebanese medievalist born in Beirut. She studies the Late Latin period of Antiquity.
Jean Mabire was a French journalist and essayist. A neo-pagan and nordicist, Mabire is known for the regionalist and euronationalist ideas that he developed in both Europe-Action and GRECE, as well as his controversial books on the Waffen-SS.
Viking incursions into Gascony began with a first raid in 840 and ended in 982 with the battle of Taller.
Houle, or more rarely goule, is the name given to cavities, particularly in rocks by the sea or in river banks, and to caves and grottos in the cliffs of the Normandy coast, the Channel Islands and the north coast of Upper Brittany. An important folklore is associated with these places, due to the supposed presence of the Houles fairies, Fions and Jetins.