Hrólfr Kraki (Old Norse: [ˈhroːlvz̠ ˈkrɑke]), Hroðulf, Rolfo, Roluo, Rolf Krage (early 6th century[1]) was a semi-legendary Danish king who appears in both Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian tradition.

[4] Hroðgar is given three siblings, brothers Heorogar and Halga and an unnamed sister, all the children of Healfdene and belonging to the royal clan known as the Scyldings.

There seems to be some foreshadowing in Beowulf that Hroðulf will attempt to usurp the throne from Hroðgar's sons Hreðric and Hroðmund, a deed that also seems to be referred to in Saxo Grammaticus's Gesta Danorum (Book 2), where we find: "... our king, who laid low Rorik, the son of Bok the covetous, and wrapped the coward in death."

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.

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.

The Chronicon Lethrense and the included Annales Lundenses tell that Haldan (Healfdene) had two sons, Helghe (Halga) and Ro (Hroðgar).

The Book 2 of the Gesta Danorum by Saxo Grammaticus contains roughly the same information as the Chronicon Lethrense and the Annales Lundenses, i.e. that Ro (Hroðgar) and Helgo (Halga) were the son of Haldanus (Healfdene).

One day during his sea roving, Helgo arrived at Thurø, where he found and raped the young girl Thora, which resulted in Urse (Yrsa).

When the banquet had lasted for three days, Urse and Roluo escaped from Uppsala, early in the morning in carriages where they had put all the Swedish king's treasure.

A young man named Wigg was impressed with Roluo's bodily size and gave him the cognomen Krage, which meant a tall tree trunk used as a ladder.

They so went to Lejre (a town which Roluo had built) with arms hidden in the ships, under the pretense that they wanted to pay tribute.

They were well-received, but after the banquet, when most people were drunk asleep, the Swedes and the Goths (i.e. the Geats) proceeded to kill everyone at Roluo's residence.

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

In Hrólfr Kraki's saga, Halfdan (Healfdene) had three children, the sons Helgi (Halga) and Hróarr (Hroðgar) and the daughter Signý.

Whereas Hróarr moved to Northumbria and married the king's daughter, Helgi (i.e. Halga) went to the Saxons wanting to woo their warlike queen Oluf.

Yrsa was set to live as a shepherd, until she was 12 years old, when she met her father Helgi who fell in love with her, not knowing it was his daughter.

Yrsa then provided her son with a silver drinking horn filled with gold and jewels and a famous ring, Svíagris.

Under the pretext that they would wait three years before paying the accumulated tribute at one time, Skuld assembled a large army which included strong warriors, criminals, elves and norns.

A fight started and like in the account found in Gesta Danorum, Bödvar Bjarki fought in the shape of a spirit bear until he was awakened by Hjalti.

In Sweden, Yrsa and Adillus married Scullda to the king of Öland, Hiørvardus (also called Hiorvardus and Hevardus, and who corresponds to Heoroweard in Beowulf).

As her half-brother Rolfo was not consulted about this marriage, he was infuriated and he attacked Öland and made Hiørvardus and his kingdom tributary to Denmark.

Adillus then won the war, but refused to pay the expected tribute for the help and so Rolfo came to Uppsala to claim his recompense.

One day a poor boy called Vöggr arrived and expressed his surprise that such a great king would look like a little pole (kraki).

They brought the ships to the river Fyris and rode directly to the Swedish king's hall at Uppsala with his twelve berserkers.

The king and consort were not at home, and so Aðils and his men plundered their residence at ease driving cattle and captives down to the ships.

When the boy was three years of age, Yrsa's mother, queen Alof of Saxony, came to visit her and told her that her husband Helgi was her own father.

The Danish equivalent of hefna is at hævne, meaning revenge (or avenging), in this case for Fródi's murder, indicating no relation to Hroðgars death, but to Frodi's.

[citation needed] Hrólfr Kraki is mentioned briefly in Gautreks saga, written around 1300, when the adventurer Ref comes to him with a gift consisting of two dogs.

Danish playwright Johannes Ewald wrote a play about Rolf Krage (1770), based on Saxo's version of the story in Gesta Danorum.

In the 2022 video game God of War Ragnarök, Hrólfr is featured as a malevolent ghostly berserker and the final opponent in a series of side-quests involving him and his twelve lieutenants.