Gautrekr was a legendary Geatish king who appears in several sources, such as Gautreks saga, Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar, Bósa saga ok Herrauðs, Ynglinga saga, Nafnaþulur (part of the Prose Edda) and Af Upplendinga konungum.
He appears in different temporal settings, and he could represent different kings named Gautrekr, as the name simply means "Geatish ruler". In the various settings, he also has different offspring. However, all settings present him as the son of a Gaut or Gauti, and in one of the later settings, his father Gaut gave his name to Götaland (Geatland).
In Nafnaþulur, he is mentioned as one of the sea-kings, after his father Gauti.
In the early setting, Gautrekr is the contemporary of legendary characters such as Starkad and the Swedish kings Erik and Alrik.
Gautreks saga tells that Gautrekr was born out of the meeting between Gauti, the king of Västergötland, and Snotra who was the most intelligent of a family of backwoods skinflints. Her family committed suicide for having lost too much food supporting Gauti as their guest. Snotri took the child Gautrek to Gauti's court and King Gauti, years later on his deathbed, made Gautrek his heir.
Gautrekr married Álfhildr, the daughter of king Harald of Wendland. When she died, Gautrekr went somewhat out of his mind, ignored all matters of state, and spent all his time on Álfhildr's burial mound, flying his hawk.