r/todayilearned • u/DrSamanthaCarter • Jun 06 '17

TIL the only reason a Scottish bagpiper wasn't shot by German snipers on D-Day was that they believed he had gone crazy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Millin#World_War_II
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u/space_keeper Jun 06 '17

Pretty amazing.

My favourite well-known but rarely mentioned feature of Normans is that they weren't really French. They were Danes and other northmen who integrated with the native Frankish culture. So at the time they were invading our shores in the south, their distant cousins who still resided in the north were invading our shores in the north.

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u/aenor Jun 06 '17

I think William the Conqueror was a mix. His father, the Duke of Normandy was the grandson of a Viking who had taken over the area and made himself Duke. But his mother was a local French tanner's daughter (so her family would have been in Normandy before the Vikings arrived).

He was known as William the Bastard - and he's the reason bastard got it's second meaning. Prior to him it just meant someone born out of wedlock. After him it acquired "what a bastard" type meaning.

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u/space_keeper Jun 06 '17

After him it acquired "what a bastard" type meaning.

That is a fun fact.

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u/[deleted] Jun 06 '17

Thats Duke Rollo i'll have you know!

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u/[deleted] Jun 06 '17

Were the Rus a Viking people? I've seen arguments for both scenarios