page_title: Rodulf, Herule king
hierarchical_section_title: Rodulf, Herule king
caption_attribution_description: English: Southeastern Europe c. 520 AD. The Byzantine Empire, Ostrogothic kingdom, and 'barbarian' polities.
context_page_description: King Rodulf was king of the Heruli kingdom on the Middle Danube in the period around 500, and possibly of Scandinavian origin. He died in a battle with the neighbouring Lombards which led to the splitting up of the Heruli. He is probably the same Heruli king that Theoderic the Great wrote to in two surviving letters, in one of which Theoderic "adopted" him with a gift of arms. Less certainly, he is also sometimes equated to a King Rodulf that Jordanes mentions as having come from Scandinavia to Italy, to join Theoderic.
  Rodulf was described by Procopius as the king of the Danubian Heruli already three years after the beginning of the reign of Emperor Anastasius. Paul the Deacon gave the same name for the Herul king who died when they were defeated by the Lombards, which is normally dated by historians to about 508. After this defeat Procopius reported that while some crossed the Danube into the Roman empire, another part of the Heruli nobility migrated north to the island of Thule. They passed through the lands of Sclavenes, Warini, and finally the Dani, before crossing Ocean and settling near the Gauti.
context_section_description: King Rodulf was king of the Heruli kingdom on the Middle Danube in the period around 500, and possibly of Scandinavian origin. He died in a battle with the neighbouring Lombards which led to the splitting up of the Heruli. He is probably the same Heruli king that Theoderic the Great wrote to in two surviving letters, in one of which Theoderic "adopted" him with a gift of arms. Less certainly, he is also sometimes equated to a King Rodulf that Jordanes mentions as having come from Scandinavia to Italy, to join Theoderic.
  Rodulf was described by Procopius as the king of the Danubian Heruli already three years after the beginning of the reign of Emperor Anastasius (reigned 491-518). Paul the Deacon gave the same name for the Herul king who died when they were defeated by the Lombards, which is normally dated by historians to about 508. After this defeat Procopius reported that while some crossed the Danube into the Roman empire, another part of the Heruli nobility migrated north to the island of Thule (the name Procopius gave to Scandinavia). They passed through the lands of Sclavenes, Warini, and finally the Dani (Danes), before crossing Ocean and settling near the Gauti. He mentions that later generations of Heruli still living near the Danube successfully went to search for royalty in this region in the 540s.
  It is uncertain but possible that this Rodulf is the same king of that name who is described in the Getica of Jordanes, as the king of the Ranii on the island of Scandza (what Jordanes called Scandinavia), who left his kingdom near the Danes, and came to Italy, where he succeeded in gaining the "embrace" (gremium) of the Ostrogothic King of Italy, Theodoric the Great. Notably, Jordanes also mentions that the Heruli had been living in this area also, until they were driven out by the Danes, though his text does not clearly connect this Rodulf to the Scandza Heruli.
  The Scandza passage of Jordanes is subject to many different interpretations, and some historians have proposed that Jordanes made errors. For example, Theodor Mommsen believed Jordanes should have described the Scandinavian Rudolf as a Herul, and the historian Herwig Wolfram has described this Scandinavian Rudolf as a Gaut.
  Due to the similarity of the circumstances, it has been suggested that the various accounts describe one individual, although this remains uncertain. Historians such as Andrew Merrill have pointed out that the similar elements in the accounts of Jordanes and Procopius may come from a common source, such as Cassiodorus, who worked for Theoderic.
  Apart from the name Rudolf, the association with the region of the Dani, their apparent allegiance to Theoderic is notable. 
  Another possible record of Rodulf is thus one of the surviving state papers of Theoderic shows that he adopted a Herule king (who is not named in that passage) as a "son in arms". The letter was made during the time of Cassiodorus's public service in the early 6th century, and is dated to 507-511. 
  More speculatively, another debated issue is whether Rodulf could be the inspiration for certain aspects of later heroic poetry, possibly including the Norse saga character Hrólfr Kraki.
caption: Polities in southeastern Europe c.500 AD before the Lombard destruction of the Herulian kingdom
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