Dudo, or Dudon, was a Picard

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...

, and dean of Saint-Quentin, where he was born about 965. Sent in 986 by

Albert I, Count of Vermandois {{Infobox noble, type , name = Adalbert I , title = Count of Vermandois , image = , caption = , alt = , CoA = , more = no , succession = , ...

, on an errand to Richard I, Duke of Normandy, he succeeded in his mission, and, having made a very favorable impression at the Norman court, spent some years in that country. During a second stay in

Normandy Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...

, Dudo wrote his history of the Normans, a task which Duke Richard had urged him to undertake. Very little else is known about his life, except that he died before 1043.

''Historia Normannorum''

Written between 996 and 1015, his ''Historia Normannorum''—also known as ''Libri III de moribus et actis primorum Normanniae ducum'' and ''Gesta Normannorum''—was dedicated to

Adalberon, bishop of Laon Adalberon, or Ascelin (died July 19, 1030/1031), was a French bishop and poet. He was a son of Reginar of Bastogne, and a nephew of Adalberon, Archbishop of Reims. He studied at Reims and was in the chapter of Metz Cathedral. He became bishop of La ...

. Dudo does not appear to have consulted any existing documents for his history, but to have obtained his information from

oral tradition Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication wherein knowledge, art, ideas and cultural material is received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another. Vansina, Jan: ''Oral Tradition as History'' (1985 ...

, much of it being supplied by Raoul, count of Ivry, a maternal half-brother of Duke Richard. Consequently, the ''Historia'' partakes of the nature of a romance, and on this ground has been regarded as untrustworthy by such competent critics as

Ernst Dümmler Ernst Ludwig Dümmler (2 January 183011 September 1902) was a German historian. Biography Ernst Ludwig was born in Berlin, the son of (1777–1846), a Berlin bookseller. He studied law, classical philology and history, among other things, at B ...

and

Georg Waitz Georg Waitz (9 October 1813 – 24 May 1886) was a German medieval historian and politician. Waitz is often spoken of as the leading disciple of Leopold von Ranke, though perhaps he had more affinity with Georg Heinrich Pertz or Friedrich Christo ...

. Other authorities, such as

Jules Lair Jules–Auguste Lair (25 May 1836 – 16 May 1907) was a French lawyer, businessman and scholar. At the École des Chartes he studied palaeography, and was offered a position with the Archives, but he decided instead to become a lawyer. At the ag ...

and Johannes Steenstrup, while admitting the existence of a legendary element, regard the book as of considerable value for the history of the Normans. In the introductory portion of this work, Dudo claims that he was a "frequent visitor of Duke Richard, the son of Marquess William" and that it was

Richard Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Frankish language, Old Frankish and is a Compound (linguistics), compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic language, Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' an ...

who desired that Dudo should write this history of the Normans. This would have been in the time period 994-996 in which later year Richard died. Although Dudo was acquainted with

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: t ...

(''Aeneid'') and other

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

writers, his Latin is affected and obscure. The ''Historia'', which is written alternately in

prose Prose is a form of written or spoken language that follows the natural flow of speech, uses a language's ordinary grammatical structures, or follows the conventions of formal academic writing. It differs from most traditional poetry, where the f ...

and in

verse Verse may refer to: Poetry * Verse, an occasional synonym for poetry * Verse, a metrical structure, a stanza * Blank verse, a type of poetry having regular meter but no rhyme * Free verse, a type of poetry written without the use of strict me ...

of several metres, is divided into four parts, and deals with the history of the Normans from 852 to the death of Duke Richard in 996. It glorifies the Normans, and was largely used by

William of Jumièges William of Jumièges (born c. 1000 - died after 1070) (french: Guillaume de Jumièges) was a contemporary of the events of 1066, and one of the earliest writers on the subject of the Norman conquest of England. He is himself a shadowy figure, only ...

Wace Wace ( 1110 – after 1174), sometimes referred to as Robert Wace, was a Medieval Norman poet, who was born in Jersey and brought up in mainland Normandy (he tells us in the ''Roman de Rou'' that he was taken as a child to Caen), ending his care ...

, Robert of Torigni, William of Poitiers and

Hugh of Fleury Hugh of Fleury (Hugo Floriacensis, Hugo a Santa Maria) (d. not before 1118) was a French Benedictine monk and ecclesiastical writer. He is known only by his works. *In 1109 he compiled an ecclesiastical history in four volumes, up to the death of ...

in compiling their chronicles. More recently, Leah Shopkow has argued that Carolingian writing, particularly two saints' lives, the ninth-century ''Vita S. Germani'' by

Heiric of Auxerre Heiric of Auxerre (841–876) was a French Benedictine theologian and writer. He was an oblate of the monastery of St. Germanus of Auxerre from a young age. He studied with Servatus Lupus and Haymo of Auxerre. His own students included Remigius ...

and the early tenth-century ''Vita S. Lamberti'' by

Stephen of Liège Stephen of Liège (also Étienne de Liège; ( – 16 May 920) was a Frankish churchman who was the bishop of Liège from 901 until his death in 920. He was a hagiographer and composer of church music. His surviving compositions include three Prope ...

, provided models for Dudo's work. The work was first published by

André Duchesne André Duchesne (; sometimes spelled ''Du Chesne'', Latinized ''Andreas Chesneus'', ''Andreas Quercetanus'', or ''Andreas Querneus''; May 158430 May 1640) was a French geographer and historian, generally styled the father of French history. Duch ...

in his ''Historiae Normannorum scriptores antiqui'', at

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

in 1619. Another edition is in the ''

Patrologia Latina The ''Patrologia Latina'' (Latin for ''The Latin Patrology'') is an enormous collection of the writings of the Church Fathers and other ecclesiastical writers published by Jacques-Paul Migne between 1841 and 1855, with indices published between ...

'', tome cxli, of

J. P. Migne Jacques Paul Migne (; 25 October 1800 – 24 October 1875) was a French priest who published inexpensive and widely distributed editions of theological works, encyclopedias, and the texts of the Church Fathers, with the goal of providing a u ...

(Paris, 1844), but the best is perhaps the one edited by J. Lair (Caen, 1865). Dudo claims that

Richard I of Normandy Richard I (28 August 932 – 20 November 996), also known as Richard the Fearless (French: ''Richard Sans-Peur''; Old Norse: ''Jarl Rikard''), was the count of Rouen from 942 to 996.Detlev Schwennicke, '' Europäische Stammtafeln: Stammtafeln ...

was sent by his father William I Longsword to learn the " Dacian" language with Bothon. Dudo stated in the same passage that the inhabitants of

Bayeux Bayeux () is a Communes of France, commune in the Calvados (department), Calvados Departments of France, department in Normandy (administrative region), Normandy in northwestern France. Bayeux is the home of the Bayeux Tapestry, which depicts ...

more often spoke "Dacian" than "Roman" (i.e.

Old French Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intelligib ...

Notes

Edition and translation

*French Translation: Lair, Jules (ed.). ''De moribus et actis primorum Normanniæ ducum''. Mémoires de la Société des Antiquaires de Normandie 23. Caen, 1865
PDF scan available from Google Books
*English Translation: Christiansen, Eric. (tr.). '' Dudo of St Quentin. History of the Normans''. Woodbridge, 1998. .

External links

*Dudo, ''Historia Normannorum'':
Latin text and English translation
The Orb.

Bibliotheca Augustana.

{{Authority control Medieval Latin poets 11th-century Normans 960s births 11th-century deaths 11th-century French historians French male poets 10th-century Normans French male non-fiction writers 11th-century Latin writers

''Historia Normannorum''

Notes

Edition and translation

Further reading

External links