See also Origins for Beowulf and Hrólf Kraki for more on the historical background of these characters.

See also Origins for Beowulf and Hrólf Kraki for more on the historical background of these characters.

They also echo much later in the Norse sagas, where king Adils is always described as fighting on horseback ( both against Áli and Hrólf Kraki ).

Hrólf kept Gói as his wife and Nór afterwards married Hrólf's sister ( called Hödd in B ) and became Nór's man.

In that poem, the first section occurs during the reign of King Hrothgar of Denmark, the uncle of Hrólf Kraki ( called Hrothwulf in the poem ).

The future slaying of Hreðric may be the occasion of the future burning of the hall of Heorot in the beginning of the poem – though some take it instead to refer to the legendary death of Hrólf Kraki, who in Icelandic sources is said to have died in the burning of his hall by his brother-in-law Hjörvard.

" Rorik is the form we would expect Hreðric to take in Danish and we find personages named Rorik or Hrok or similar in most version of the Hrólf Kraki tradition but differently accounted for, seemingly indicating that Scandinavian tradition had forgotten who exactly Hreðric / Rorik / Hrok was and various story tellers subsequently invented details to explain references to this personage in older poems.

In the Norse sources, Hereoweard rebelled against Hroðulf / Hrólf Kraki and killed him, but otherwise the sources vary greatly.

* Hálfs saga ok Hálfsrekka-A Norwegian legend, the hero of which is compared to Hrólf Kraki.

She took a silver goblet, filled it and bowed to Hjörvard, telling him success to all Ylfings, this cup is to the memory of Hrólf Kraki drank half of it and offered the rest to Hjörvard.

# Hjörvard, who rebelled against Hrólf Kraki and killed him, see Heoroweard

* Hiartuar ( who killed Hrólf Kraki, but only Saxo makes him a king of Sweden )

In Arngrímur and the Chronicon Lethrense, Heoroweard is the son-in-law of Adils, married to his daughter Skuld, whereas Hrólf Kraki's saga makes him the son-in-law of Helgi ( according to Olrik, he could not be married to his own cousin ).

As for the king of the Danes, Hroðgar, he is identical to Hróar or Ro, the uncle of Hrólf Kraki who in other sources outside of Beowulf rules as a co-king with his brother Helgi.

This account differs from Hrólf Kraki's saga in the respect that Yrsa was first peacefully married to Eadgils, and later captured by Halga, who raped her and made her pregnant with Hroðulf.

It was this Hrólf who had taken Gói captive and had then made her his wife.

In Hrólf Kraki's Saga, Halfdan's eldest child is his daughter Signy who is married to a certain Jarl Sævil.

Hrólf Kraki of Denmark is noted for his interactions with King Adils ( Aðils ) of Sweden who in the Ynglinga saga is sixth in descent from King Alrek of Sweden, the contemporary of Víkar in the Starkad section of Gautreks saga.

However, according to the Chronicon Lethrense and Hrólf Kraki's saga, she was the daughter of Helgi ( Halga ), whereas Saxo is vague whether it was Adils or Helgi who was her father.

( Consequently, he had greater right to the Danish throne than Hrólf Kraki ( Hroðulf ), and it is not surprising that he was the one who slew Hrólf.

If both Snorri and Olrik are right, the Swedish king who supported Hereoweard when attacking and killing Hrólf may not have been Adils, but Östen.

This is an allusion to a legend retold in Skáldskaparmál and Hrólf Kraki's saga in which King Hrolf and his men scattered gold on the plains ( vellir ) of the river Fýri south of Gamla Uppsala to delay their pursuers.

The monster in Hrólf Krakis saga, however, is quite unlike the Grendel of Beowulf ; but it does have characteristics of a more typical dragon, a creature which appears later in Beowulf.

Notable examples include the Danish princess Skuld of Hrólf Kraki's saga, and the hero Högni of the Thidrekssaga ( his mother was a human queen ), and the royal line of Alfheim, which was related to the elves and more beautiful than other people, according to the Þorsteins saga Víkingssonar.

The famous poem Bjarkamál ( of which only a few stanzas are preserved but which Saxo Grammaticus presents in the form of a florid Latin paraphrase ) is understood as a dialogue between Bödvar Bjarki and his younger companion Hjalti which begins by Hjalti again and again urging Bödvar to awake from his sleep and fight for King Hrólf in this last battle in which they are doomed to be defeated.

The Annals of Lund tells the same tale, save that the king of Sweden is Adils which harmonizes with other tales in which Adils reigns over Sweden during the reigns of Helgi and his son Hrólf Kraki.

A specialty was his ancestral Scandinavia, as in his novel versions of the legends of Hrólf Kraki ( Hrolf Kraki's Saga ) and Haddingus ( The War of the Gods ).

Later, by his wife Ragnhild ( Ragnhildr ) daughter of Hrólf Nose ( Hrólf Nefja ), Rögnvald was father of three legitimate sons: Hrólf, Ívar, and Thórir ( Þórir ) the Silent.

As explained in the prose, this rousing was ill-done, as Bjarki was in a trance and his spirit in the form of a monstrous bear was already aiding Hrólf far more than Bjarki could do with only his mannish strength.

Hrólf was son of the giant Svadi ( Svaði ) from Dovre Mountain in the north.

Thereupon Helgi's son Hrólf was made king.

The Hversu relates that Höddbrodd son of Höd was the father of Hrólf ( Hrólf ), father of Hrómund Beserk ( Hrómundr beserkr ), father of three children: Hámund ( Hámundr ), Haki, and Gunnlöd ( Gunnlǫðr ).

Hrólf Kraki's saga does not mention where he came from, but according to Arngrímur Jónsson, Heoroweard was the king of Öland and according to Saxo, he became Hrólf's jarl in Sweden, whereas in the Chronicon Lethrense, he was German and the jarl of Skåne.

A common identification is that Hrólf Kraki is the same as the character Hroðulf ( Hroðgar's nephew ) in Beowulf.

It seems to have been intended as a compilation of traditional stories, often humorous, about a legendary King Gautrek of West Götaland, to serve as a kind of prequel to the already existing Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar ( Saga of Hrólf son of Gautrek ).

After Hrólf Kraki no two sources give the same succession.

The Old English Beowulf poem and the Old Norse legend of Hrólf Kraki are both set in the Germanic Heroic Age, around AD 450 – 550.

It has even been proposed that Beowulf and Hrólf Kraki's story are two versions of the same original Germanic heroic epic.

In some of the Hrólf Kraki material, Bödvar Bjarki aids Adils in defeating Adils ' uncle Áli, in the Battle on the Ice of Lake Vänern.

This has obviously nothing to do with a common origin of the Beowulf and Hrólf Kraki legends in particular but simply reflects a shared genealogical tradition.

In Scandinavian sources, Heorot corresponds to Hleiðargarðr, King Hroðulf's ( Hrólfr Kraki ) hall mentioned in Hrólf Kraki's saga, and located in Lejre.

Bödvar Bjarki ( Old Norse: Böðvar Bjarki ), meaning ' Warlike Little-Bear ', is the hero appearing in tales of Hrólf Kraki in the Saga of Hrólf Kraki, in the Latin epitome to the lost Skjöldunga saga, and as Biarco in Saxo Grammaticus ' Gesta Danorum.

Snorri Sturluson relates that Eysteinn ruled Sweden at the time when Hrólf Kraki died in Lejre.