Why did the Norman-Viking families of Sicily adopt topographical surnames when they conquered the Island?

by thatchhatch

And can topographical surnames indicate Norman and or Lombard ancestry? Can you point me towards anything that indicates so.

Also, can you recommend me some good books or documentaries on the Normans of the South and how they conquered and ruled Sicily. Thank you.

Porphyrius

I can't answer the first part of your question, but I can point you towards some books worth reading on the Normans in the South (I had an article published related to the subject last year). Apologies for weird formatting, I'm copy-pasting from a bibliography page.

Primary sources:

  • Dunbar, Prescott N., trans. The Deeds of the Normans by Amatus of Montecassino. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2004.

  • Loud, Graham A. and Thomas Wiedemann. The History of the Tyrants of Sicily by ‘Hugo Falcandus’, 1154-69. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1998.

  • Malaterra, Geoffrey. The Deeds of Count Roger of Calabria and Sicily and of his Brother Duke Robert Guiscard. Translated by Kenneth Baxter Wolf. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2005.

  • Romuald of Salerno. Chronicon Sive Annales, 1153-69. Translated by Graham A. Loud and Thomas Wiedermann. In The History of the Tyrants of Sicily by ‘Hugo Falcandus,’ 1154-69, translated by Graham A. Loud and Thomas Wiedermann, 219-43. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1998.

Secondary sources:

  • Caspar, Erich. “Die Legatengewalt der Normannisch-Sicilischen Herrscher im 12. Jahrhundert.” In Quellen und Forschungen aus italienischen Archiven und Bibliotheken, v.7 (1904): 189- 219.

  • The Society of Norman Italy, edited by Graham A. Loud and A. Metcalfe, Boston: Brill, 2002.

  • Conquerors and Churchmen in Norman Italy, edited by Graham A. Loud, 215-233. Brookfield, VT: Ashgate, 1999.

  • Loud, Graham A. The Latin Church in Norman Italy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.

  • White Jr., Lynn Townsend. Latin Monasticism in Norman Sicily. Cambridge, MA: The Mediaeval Academy of America, 1938.

  • Wolf, Kenneth Baxter. Making History: The Normans and their Historians in the Eleventh Century. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995.

As you can see, Graham Loud is the name to look for here. Sorry for not being able to answer your actual question, my own work focused more on religion. If you have any questions in that regard, I'd be happy to try to answer.