Anonymous, Hrólfs saga kraka [The Saga of King Hrólf Kraki]

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Hrólfs saga kraka

, the

Saga of King Hrólf kraki,

is a colourful and dramatic prose account of legendary events in and around Denmark that was composed in Iceland in the later Middle Ages. Characters and plot elements are shared with a number of other texts that survive from medieval Scandinavia and Anglo-Saxon England, including

Beowulf

and Saxo Grammaticus's

Gesta Danorum

(Hrólfr kraki himself, for example, corresponds to Hroþulf in

Beowulf

and Roluo Krake in Saxo, and there are intriguing similarities between Beowulf and Böðvarr Bjarki, one of Hrólfr's champions in the saga). On the basis of comparison with these and other texts the events of the saga may be dated to the late fifth and the sixth centuries, but a long oral tradition precedes the composition of the written saga and…

1377 words

Citation: Phelpstead, Carl. "Hrólfs saga kraka". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 03 September 2003 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=13133, accessed 19 March 2024.]

13133 Hrólfs saga kraka 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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