Legend says that when the Viking Rollo received Normandy in 911, he refused to kiss the French king's foot and sent one of his men instead.
The warrior lifted the royal foot to his mouth without bending — and the king toppled over.
More amazing facts
- 900 Japan's oldest surviving tale is about a girl from the Moon.
- 901 · 903 A disgraced Japanese minister became the god of learning.
- 905 'Born in the purple' was literal.
- 916 The Russian word for China, Kitai, comes from a people who were not Chinese: the nomadic Khitans, who founded the Liao empire in northern China in 916.
- 918 The name Korea comes from Goryeo, the kingdom founded in 918 that united the peninsula for almost five centuries and under whose name the country became known abroad.
- 922 The Arab envoy Ibn Fadlan described the Rus as 'tall as date palms'. On the Volga in 922 he admired their build, fair hair and ruddy skin — then called them the filthiest of God's creatures for not even washing their hands after eating.