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Submitted by: Luca Panaro

Title: Göngu-Hrólfs saga

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Description:

"Walking-Hrólf's saga," or more often translated as the saga of Hrólfr the Stamper/Tramper, is a fornaldarsaga, a legendary or heroic saga about Scandinavian pre-history. Hrólf's by-name or cognomen refers to his superhuman size and weight, as no horse could carry him and he thus had to travel everywhere by foot. His legs are also cut off during the story, and later reattached by a dwarf, and this may also play into the name, though ironically. Göngu-Hrólfr is identified as Rollo (the Latinized version of Hrólfr), the Viking leader who seized a permanent foothold in Frankish land, and in appeasement the Frankish king, Charles the Simple, granted him land near the mouth of the Seine river in 911 AD. This region became known as Normandy, named for the Northmen who settled it, and Rollo was its first ruler. However, the events of Göngu-Hrólfs saga are entirely fictional and have nothing to do with the historical Rollo; they only share a name. Göngu-Hrólfs saga is an example of a bridal quest romance, a narrative type originating in the Old French courtly romance tradition which was incorporated into the repertoire of Old Norse literature in medieval Iceland.

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