The Estory of William Longsword

This book is the result of a master's thesis in Modern Literature, classics option, written at the University of Rennes 2, defended in 2012. While it can borrow from history, through a certain number of historical archives, this research work borrows more from legend and literary sources that made it possible to free the second Duke of Normandy, a Viking and son of the Viking Rollo, founder of Normandy in 911, from anonymity. Indeed, this academic work is the first to deal with a character that is not sufficiently known, sometimes confused with a homonym, but of fundamental importance. The choice of the title, The Estory of William Longsword, can be explained by the following considerations: it is a question of history; but signifying by this choice, that it will be a question of entering into this history, of preserving as much as possible its medieval character, its medieval meaning, and therefore not only of being the modern observer of a timeless sequence. It will not be history but a story that is told. In 7 chapters, all the dimensions inherent to such publications will be revealed, including the sources, the gaps between the story and the texts, the legendary dimension of the character, his human dimension, the mysteries to be discovered...