According to Snorre Sturlason the Icelandic historian and other accounts a young man named Rolf the Granger was on trial for murder, but because his family knew the family of the Queen he was granted exile instead of death. He and some young rowdies settled in the north of France, a region that was thereafter called Normandy or ‘land of the Northmen’.
In the great tradition of Gallic capitulation the King of France gave him title to Normandy in exchange for recognizing him as King of all France.
The Normans spawned such a vibrant and warlike people that they soon ruled England, Sicily, southern Italy, and the Crusader kingdom of Antioch (one of the major metropolises of the ancient world) and twice came within one battle of ruling Byzantium (the major Empire of its day).