Abstract
This monogram offers the most likely explanation for the Dark Age origins of the Wells family compared to all competing ones. Alternative hypotheses cannot be ruled out beyond reasonable doubt given the evidence we have at present. But the proposition I present here enjoys a significantly greater scope of agreement with what is known about the history of this period and about Ragemer himself. The story itself makes for an interesting tale involving Dark Age society, kings and emperors, petty warlords, and the tumult of the Viking Age in northern continental Europe.
The proposed hypothesis is the following: I propose that Ragemer was most likely descended from a small Viking tribe who lived in the southern Jutland peninsula at the end of the 8th and beginning of the 9th centuries AD. The specific area in the Jutland peninsula is known today as Southern Schleswig. This was where the ancient trade center of Hedeby once stood. Hedeby was not far from the present day town of Schleswig. This region was part of Denmark until it was annexed by Prussia in the mid-19th century. Early in the 9th century Ragemer's ancestors became refugees following the defeat and exile of their local king, Harald Klak. About 400 of Harald's followers were forced to flee south with him and ask Emperor Louis I (son of Charlemagne and known as Louis the Pious) for protection from their enemies. Their plea was granted and they took refuge in Saxony and Frisia. Gradually over the next two centuries the descendants of Harald's people migrated westward along the North Sea coast through Frisia (now part of the Netherlands) until at last Ragemer's family came to Flanders in the service of Gilbert de Gant's family.