Hrothgar (Old English: Hrōðgār [ˈr̥oːðɡɑːr]; Old Norse: Hróarr) was a semi-legendary Danish king living around the early sixth century AD.

Hrothgar appears in the Anglo-Saxon epics Beowulf and Widsith, in Norse sagas and poems, and in medieval Danish chronicles.

[2] Hrothgar, also rendered Hrōðgār, is an Old English form attested in Beowulf and Widsith, the earliest sources to mention the character.

[7] Friderich Kluge (1896) accordingly suggested that the line be restored as hyrde ic þ [Sigeneow wæs Sæw]elan cwen, rendering the Norse names in Old English forms.

[8] He thus suggested the line should be emended to read hyrde ic þ[æt Ȳrse wæs On]elan cwen.

[27] Earlier in the poem, the poet tells us that the hall Heorot was eventually destroyed by fire:[28] It is tempting to interpret the new war with Ingeld as leading to the burning of the hall of Heorot, but the poem separates the two events (by a ne wæs hit lenge þā meaning "nor far way was that day when", in Gummere's translation).

[3] It has been a matter of some debate whether the hero Beowulf could have the same origin as Hroðulf's berserker Bödvar Bjarki, who appears in Scandinavian sources.

The focus is consequently on the Hrólfr Kraki's saga when a scholar questions the comparison of Hrothgar and other characters from Beowulf with counterparts in Scandinavian tradition.

Hrólfr Kraki's saga relates that Halfdan has three children, Hróarr, Helgi, and the daughter Signý, who is married to Sævil Jarl.

Although it agrees with all the other Scandinavian sources in telling the story of Halga's incestuous relationship with his daughter Yrsa, it disagrees with all of them and with Beowulf by removing Hrothgar altogether as the king of Denmark.

[38] Another difference is that Hrothgar's sons Hreðric and Hroðmund do not appear in the Scandinavian tradition, but correspond to Agnar, in Hrólfr Kraki's saga.

The sources relate that Haldan has a half-brother named Ingjaldus and a queen Sigrith with whom he has three children: the sons Roas and Helgo and the daughter Signy.

Ingjaldus, who is worried that his nephews will want revenge, tries to find them and kill them, but Roas and Helgo survive by hiding on an island near Skåne.

Another agreement with Hrólfr Kraki's saga is the information that their sister was married to a Sævil Jarl, and that they had to hide on an island fleeing their kin-slaying uncle, before they could kill him and avenge their father.

Harald fell at the Battle of the Brávellir against his nephew Sigurd Hring, a king of Sweden and the father of Ragnar Lodbrok.

However, the Skjöldunga saga tells that a Valdar disputed that Rörek, the cousin of Halga succeeded Hroðulf (Hrólfr Kraki) as the king of the Daner.

However, before Ro's nephew Rolf Krage (Hroðulf), who was Helghe's son by his own daughter Yrse, could ascend the throne, the rule of Denmark was given to a dog, on the orders of the Swedish king Hakon/Athisl[41] (that is, Eadgils).

The Chronicon Lethrense and the Annales Lundenses agree with Beowulf in presenting Hrothgar (Ro) and his brother Halga (Helghe) as the sons of Healfdene (Haldan).

Like Beowulf, the Annales Lundenses makes Hrothgar the contemporary of Eadgils (Athisl), whereas the Chronicon Lethrense calls the Swedish king Hakon.

The source used for the genealogical information and name spellings is the English translation provided by Mischa Hooker of Augustana College.

The Gesta Danorum (book 2), by Saxo Grammaticus, contains roughly the same information as Beowulf, the Chronicon Lethrense and the Annales Lundenses: that is, that Ro was the son of Haldanus and the brother of Helgo, and the uncle of his successor Roluo Krage (Hroðulf).

Ro could not defend his kingdom against the Swedish king Hothbrodd, who was not happy with warring in the East but wished to test his strength against the Danes (Oliver Elton's translation): Fain to extend his empire, he warred upon the East, and after a huge massacre of many peoples begat two sons, Athisl and Hother, and appointed as their tutor a certain Gewar, who was bound to him by great services.

The Gesta Danorum also agrees with Beowulf in presenting Hrothgar (Ro) and Halga (Helgo) as brothers and the sons of Healfdene (Haldanus).

A similar piece of information is also found in the Chronicon Lethrense and the Annales Lundenses, where Halga had to kill a man named Hodbrod to win all of Denmark.

However, Saxo also adds the god Höðr as the brother of Eadgils in order to present a euhemerized version of the Baldr myth, later.

In this version, Ingeld's son was about to marry Hroðulf's sister Rute, but a fight broke out and Agnar died in a duel with Bödvar Bjarki (called Biarco).

Name spellings are derived from Oliver Elton's 1905 translation, The First Nine Books of the Danish History of Saxo Grammaticus, via Wikisource.

With the exception of Hversu Noregr byggdist, where he is only a name in a list, three elements are common to all of the accounts: he was the son of a Danish king Healfdene, the brother of Halga, and he was the uncle of Hroðulf.

Apart from that, the Scandinavian tradition is unanimous in dwelling on the incestuous relationship between Halga and his daughter Yrsa which resulted in Hroðulf, a story which was either not presented in Beowulf or was not known to the poet.

The Danish sources (Chronicon Lethrense, Annales Lundenses, Gesta Danorum) all agree with Beowulf by making Hrothgar the king of Denmark.