Rolf Kraki

[ krah-kee ]

noun

, Scandinavian Legend.

1. a possibly historical Danish king of the 9th century, the subject of an Old Icelandic saga and in accounts by the Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus: involved in great battles with his stepfather, Adils of Sweden.

Word History and Origins

Origin of Rolf Kraki¹

< Old Norse Hrólfr, equivalent to hró ( thr ) fame + ( ú ) lfr wolf, cognate with Old English Hrōthwulf; kraki wretch (applied ironically)

Example Sentences

Turning back to the Saga of Rolf Kraki, we do find against that Danish setting a figure, that of the hero Bothvar Bjarki, bearing a very remarkable resemblance to Beowulf.

From Project Gutenberg

The equation of the modern Leire with the Leire of Rolf Kraki we may then accept.

From Project Gutenberg

This brings us to the second, serious difficulty: that, when we turn from the Saga of Rolf Kraki—belonging in its present form perhaps to the early fifteenth century—to the pages of Saxo Grammaticus, who tells the same tale more than two centuries earlier, the resemblance, instead of becoming stronger, almost vanishes.

From Project Gutenberg

Neither Saxo nor the Saga thinks of Hiarwarus as the cousin of Rolf Kraki: they do not make it really clear what the cause of his enmity was.

From Project Gutenberg

For none of the Scandinavian sources attribute any act of injustice or usurpation to Rolf Kraki.

From Project Gutenberg