Epic
The Saga of King Hrolf Kraki
Hrólfs saga kraka
Anonymous · 1400
Opening lines
MAÐR hét Hálfdan, en annarr Fróði, bræðr tveir ok konungasynir, ok stýrði sínu ríki hvárr þeira.
There was a man called Hálfdan, and another called Fróði, two brothers and the sons of a king, and each of them ruled his own kingdom.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from heimskringla.no
Synopsis
In heroic-age Denmark, King Hálfdan is killed by his brother Fróði, and his sons Helgi and Hróarr avenge him. From Helgi comes Hrólfr, who rules at Lejre, receives from the poet Vöggr his nickname Kraki and gathers around him twelve champions, among them Böðvarr Bjarki, who kills a monstrous beast at court. With them, Hrólfr sets out for Uppsala to take back from King Aðils of Sweden the gold that is his by right, and the saga follows the adventures of these warriors from one court to another.
Context
The material is much older than the text: the kings it tells of belong to the last decades of the fifth century and to the sixth century, and Hrólfr, the Hroðulf of the Anglo-Saxon epic, also appears in the Widsith, in Saxo Grammaticus, who calls him Roluo, and in Snorri's Edda. The surviving form dates from around 1400, and an earlier state may have existed in the thirteenth century. No medieval manuscript has survived: forty-four copies remain, the oldest from the seventeenth century, whereas a copy is recorded at the monastery of Möðruvellir around 1461. Böðvarr's fight against the beast of the court has long been compared to the death of Grendel.
Who it is for
A short prose narrative, available in French; the Danish genealogies of the opening chapters call for a little attention.
Prizes and reception
Translated into English by Gwyn Jones, Jesse Byock and Peter Tunstall, and into French by Régis Boyer in 2008.