Rollo

Here is the second image selected from Ruminations – my compilation of some recent items on this blog. All of the images have a significance for me beyond the purely literal, but I’ll give a few thoughts on the latter here.

Rollo was a Norse Viking who was the founder of the Viking principality that later became Normandy, of which he became the first ruler and of course his descendents eventually became kings of England. I understand that there is an ancestral connection with our present day Royal Family.

Vivienne and I came across a commemorative statue of Rollo on a visit to Olesund in Norway some years ago. It was a very strange experience to see a figure having such a strong likeness to myself - the sculptor’s envisioning of him bearing a striking if imaginative and co-incidental resemblance.

But could other parallels be formed I am, as ever, tempted to wonder? It is sometimes enlightening and helpful to inter-personal understanding and tolerance to look for something of ourselves in others – but in this case I suppose it would be stretching things a good deal!

But I have nevertheless found it intriguing to look for parallels and correspondences between people, places or situations where there is no purely rational reason to expect them to exist. Some surprising and illuminating insights can arise from undertaking such exercises.

I claim no Norman blood and in fact have always much preferred the long lost Anglo-Saxon culture and its stirring language and heroic tales. But the classical virtue of courage in the face of challenge that was demonstrated both by Rollo and the Anglo Saxons is something that I will always find worthwhile developing further in my own life.

Meanwhile, I have immodestly adopted this image of the statue of Rollo as my current profile picture on Facebook – the original being a version I can scarcely recall! So comes Rollo into the modern age!