Rodulf (petty King) - Rodulf of The Heruli

Rodulf of The Heruli

Around 507, Theodoric adopted a king of the Heruli as his "son in arms," by giving him a horse, sword and shield, similarly to what his father Theodemir formerly had done to the Suebi chieftain Hunimund. The accompanying letter to the king, which was translated into "German," read that the king would "hold the first rank among the peoples." Moreover, Procopius relates that the Heruli king Rodulf died in battle against the Lombards under Tato in 508. Having suffered a crushing defeat, Theodoric had not managed to intervene in time. Due to these circumstances, it has been suggested that the Rodulf in these accounts is identical with the Rodulf of the Ranii tribe.

The Heruli had originally settled at the river Morava following the Ostrogothic departure from Pannonia in 473, and established a federated kingdom that extended across the Danube and into the Roman Empire. After becoming ruler of Italy, Theodoric travelled to what was described as the previous homeland of the Goths, and thereafter, according to Herwig Wolfram, wanted to establish an alliance with the Heruli king Rodulf. According to Wolfram, Rodulf "probably included in his sphere of influence the region north of Lake Balaton."

Fridtjof Nansen suggested that Heruli perhaps at first was a common name for bands of northern warriors, who to a certain degree consisted of Norwegians. In his book In northern mists, Nansen suggested that Rodulf of the Ranii could have migrated south with a band of warriors, and that on arriving at the Danube, pressed by other warlike tribes in the vicinity, he sought alliance with Theodoric. Nansen believed this could have happened before Theodoric's invasion of Italy in 489, at the same time that the Heruli were just north of the Danube, and were the nearest neighbours of the Goths.