, the

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

and Saxo Grammaticus's

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

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…

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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 21 November 2024.]

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