Legendary saga
Encyclopedia
Norse saga
The sagas are stories about ancient Scandinavian and Germanic history, about early Viking voyages, the battles that took place during the voyages, about migration to Iceland and of feuds between Icelandic families...
that, unlike the Icelanders' sagas
Icelanders' sagas
The Sagas of Icelanders —many of which are also known as family sagas—are prose histories mostly describing events that took place in Iceland in the 10th and early 11th centuries, during the so-called Saga Age. They are the best-known specimens of Icelandic literature.The Icelanders'...
, takes place before the colonization of Iceland
Iceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
. There are some exceptions, such as Yngvars saga víðförla
Yngvars saga víðförla
Yngvars saga víðförla is a legendary saga said to have been written in the twelfth century by Oddr Snorrason. Scholars have been skeptical towards this claim but in recent years it has gained more acceptance....
, which takes place in the 11th century. The sagas were probably all written in Iceland, from about the middle of the 13th century to about 1400, although it is possible that some may be of a later date, such as Hrólfs saga kraka
Hrólfs saga kraka
Hrólfs saga kraka, the Saga of King Hrolf kraki, is a late legendary saga on the adventures of Hrólfr Kraki and his clan, the Skjöldungs. The events can be dated to the late 5th century and the 6th century. It is believed to have been written in the period c. 1230 - c. 1450...
.
Description of the sagas
The setting is primarily ScandinaviaScandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
, but occasionally it moves temporarily to more distant and exotic locations. There are also very often mythological elements, such as dwarves, elves, giants
Giant (mythology)
The mythology and legends of many different cultures include monsters of human appearance but prodigious size and strength. "Giant" is the English word commonly used for such beings, derived from one of the most famed examples: the gigantes of Greek mythology.In various Indo-European mythologies,...
and magic
Magic (fantasy)
Magic in fiction is the endowing of fictional characters or objects with magical powers.Such magic often serves as a plot device, the source of magical artifacts and their quests...
. In centuries past, they were considered to be reliable historic sources by Scandinavian scholars, but since the 19th century, they have been considered to contain very little historic material. The present consensus is that, although some of the sagas contain a small core which is not fiction, or are based on historical characters, the primary function of the legendary sagas was entertainment, and the aim of the sagas has not been to present a historically accurate tale. Recently, however, it has been emphasized that the sagas are useful sources for the culture of 13th and 14th century Iceland, "in terms of the light that they can shed on the culture in which they were composed" i.e. Iceland in the later Middle Ages.
Some of the sagas are based on distant historic characters, and this is evident in cases where there are corroborating sources, such as Ragnars saga loðbrókar
Ragnar Lodbrok
Ragnar Lodbrok was a Norse legendary hero from the Viking Age who was thoroughly reshaped in Old Norse poetry and legendary sagas.-Life as recorded in the sagas:...
, Yngvars saga víðförla
Yngvars saga víðförla
Yngvars saga víðförla is a legendary saga said to have been written in the twelfth century by Oddr Snorrason. Scholars have been skeptical towards this claim but in recent years it has gained more acceptance....
and Völsunga saga
Volsunga saga
The Völsungasaga is a legendary saga, a late 13th century Icelandic prose rendition of the origin and decline of the Völsung clan . It is largely based on epic poetry...
. In the case of Hervarar saga
Hervarar saga
Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks is a legendary saga from the 13th century combining matter from several older sagas. It is a valuable saga for several different reasons beside its literary qualities. It contains traditions of wars between Goths and Huns, from the 4th century, and the last part is used as...
, it conveys names of historical places in Ukraine during the period c. 150-450, and the last part of the saga is used as a historic source for Swedish history.
They often contain very old Germanic matter, such as the Hervarar saga
Hervarar saga
Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks is a legendary saga from the 13th century combining matter from several older sagas. It is a valuable saga for several different reasons beside its literary qualities. It contains traditions of wars between Goths and Huns, from the 4th century, and the last part is used as...
and the Völsunga saga
Volsunga saga
The Völsungasaga is a legendary saga, a late 13th century Icelandic prose rendition of the origin and decline of the Völsung clan . It is largely based on epic poetry...
which contains poetry about Sigurd
Sigurd
Sigurd is a legendary hero of Norse mythology, as well as the central character in the Völsunga saga. The earliest extant representations for his legend come in pictorial form from seven runestones in Sweden and most notably the Ramsund carving Sigurd (Old Norse: Sigurðr) is a legendary hero of...
that did not find its way into the Poetic Edda
Poetic Edda
The Poetic Edda is a collection of Old Norse poems primarily preserved in the Icelandic mediaeval manuscript Codex Regius. Along with Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, the Poetic Edda is the most important extant source on Norse mythology and Germanic heroic legends, and from the early 19th century...
and which would otherwise have been lost (see the Great Lacuna
Great Lacuna
The Great Lacuna is a lacuna of eight leaves where there was heroic Old Norse poetry in the Codex Regius. The gap would have contained the last part of Sigrdrífumál and most of Sigurðarkviða...
). Other sagas deal with heroes such as Ragnar Lodbrok
Ragnar Lodbrok
Ragnar Lodbrok was a Norse legendary hero from the Viking Age who was thoroughly reshaped in Old Norse poetry and legendary sagas.-Life as recorded in the sagas:...
, Hrólf Kraki
Hrólf Kraki
Hrólfr Kraki, Hroðulf, Rolfo, Roluo, Rolf Krage was a legendary Danish king who appears in both Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian tradition. His name would in his own language have been *Hrōþiwulfaz .Both traditions describe him as a Danish Scylding, the nephew of Hroðgar and the grandson of Healfdene...
and Orvar-Odd
Orvar-Odd
Örvar-Oddr is a legendary hero about whom an anonymous Icelander wrote a fornaldarsaga in the latter part of the 13th century. Örvar-Odds saga, the Saga of Örvar-Odd, became very popular and contains old legends and songs...
.
Saxo Grammaticus
Saxo Grammaticus also known as Saxo cognomine Longus was a Danish historian, thought to have been a secular clerk or secretary to Absalon, Archbishop of Lund, foremost advisor to Valdemar I of Denmark. He is the author of the first full history of Denmark.- Life :The Jutland Chronicle gives...
' Gesta Danorum
Gesta Danorum
Gesta Danorum is a patriotic work of Danish history, by the 12th century author Saxo Grammaticus . It is the most ambitious literary undertaking of medieval Denmark and is an essential source for the nation's early history...
which was based on the same heroic poetry and traditions.
Philologists
Philology
Philology is the study of language in written historical sources; it is a combination of literary studies, history and linguistics.Classical philology is the philology of Greek and Classical Latin...
have generally held the legendary sagas in less esteem, in terms of their literary value, than the Icelanders' sagas. The content is often less realistic, the characters more two-dimensional, and the sagas often borrow themes from each other, and from folk tales.
The legendary sagas have influenced later writers, for instance the Swede Esaias Tegnér
Esaias Tegnér
Esaias Tegnér , was a Swedish writer, professor of Greek language, and bishop. He was during the 19th century regarded as the father of modern poetry in Sweden, mainly through the national romantic epos Frithjof's Saga. He has been called Sweden's first modern man...
, who wrote Frithiof's saga, based on the Friðþjófs saga ins frœkna
Friðþjófs saga ins frœkna
Friðþjófs saga hins frœkna is a legendary saga from Iceland which in its present form is from ca 1300. It is a continuation from The Saga of Thorstein Víkingsson . It takes place principally in Norway during the 8th century.-Synopsis:King Beli of Sogn, Norway had two sons and a daughter named...
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List of the sagas
- Áns saga bogsveigisÁns saga bogsveigisÁns saga bogsveigis, the saga of Án the bow-bender, is one of the legendary sagas called the Hrafnistumannasögur surrounding the relatives of Ketil Trout. It concerns a feud between An the Bow-bender and Ingjald, king of Namdalen....
- Ásmundar saga kappabanaÁsmundar saga kappabanaÁsmundar saga kappabana is the saga of Asmund the Champion-Killer, a legendary saga from Iceland, first attested in the manuscript Stockholm, Royal Library, Holm. 7, 4to, from the first half of the fourteenth century...
- A saga based on the GermanGerman languageGerman is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
Lay of HildebrandLay of HildebrandThe Lay of Hildebrand is a heroic lay, written in Old High German alliterative verse. It is one of the earliest literary works in German, and it tells of the tragic encounter in battle between a son and his unrecognized father...
. - Bósa saga ok Herrauðs - like BeowulfBeowulfBeowulf , but modern scholars agree in naming it after the hero whose life is its subject." of an Old English heroic epic poem consisting of 3182 alliterative long lines, set in Scandinavia, commonly cited as one of the most important works of Anglo-Saxon literature.It survives in a single...
it has Geatish heroes. - Egils saga einhenda ok Ásmundar berserkjabanaEgils saga einhenda ok Ásmundar berserkjabanaEgils saga einhenda ok Ásmundar berserkjabana, or The Story of Egil One-Hand and Asmund Berserkers-Slayer, is a legendary saga, which takes place in Russia , a country located between Gardariki and Hunaland, the land of the Huns. There are also adventures in Halogaland and Jotunheim, the realm of...
- Eireks saga víðförlaEireks saga víðförlaEireks saga víðförla is a legendary saga on a Norwegian who travels to Miklagard and then to India and beyond in search of Údáinsakr , and returns. It merges the Údáinsakr of Norse mythology with the notion of heaven in Christianity....
- Frá Fornjóti ok hans ættmönnumFrá Fornjóti ok hans ættmönnumFrá Fornjóti ok hans ættmönnum is legendary saga consisting of a collection of three works on the foundation of Norway:*Hversu Noregr byggðist...
- Friðþjófs saga ins frœknaFriðþjófs saga ins frœknaFriðþjófs saga hins frœkna is a legendary saga from Iceland which in its present form is from ca 1300. It is a continuation from The Saga of Thorstein Víkingsson . It takes place principally in Norway during the 8th century.-Synopsis:King Beli of Sogn, Norway had two sons and a daughter named...
- Gautreks sagaGautreks sagaGautreks saga is a Scandinavian legendary saga put to text towards the end of the 13th century which survives only in much later manuscripts...
- Gríms saga loðinkinnaGríms saga loðinkinnaGríms saga loðinkinna, or The Saga of Grim Shaggy-Cheek is one of the legendary sagas. It is from the 14th century and takes place in 8th century Norway. It is one of the sagas called the Hrafnistumannasögur surrounding Kettil Hoeng and his relatives.It is about Grim, the son of Ketil Hoeng, and...
- Göngu-Hrólfs sagaGöngu-Hrólfs sagaGöngu-Hrólfs saga is a legendary saga, written mainly for entertainment, as the author clearly states in his preface and at the end of the story...
- Hálfdanar saga BrönufóstraHálfdanar saga BrönufóstraHálfdanar saga Brönufóstra c. 1300 is a legendary saga on Halfdan the son of the legendary king Hringr of Denmark.In the saga, Halfdan flees his father's kingdom after an attack by the Viking Soti, and goes to live in exile in Bjarmaland. During a sea-voyage he is dragged off course by the...
- Hálfdanar saga EysteinssonarHálfdanar saga EysteinssonarHálfdanar saga Eysteinssonar is a legendary saga from early 14th century Iceland about Halfdan Eysteinsson. The main events appear to take place in the 9th century....
- Hálfs saga ok HálfsrekkaHálfs saga ok HálfsrekkaHálfs saga ok Hálfsrekka or Hálfssaga is a legendary saga composed in the early 14th century. It is about Halfr who was one of Norway's most famous legendary sea-kings.His champions had to submit to harsh rules...
- A Norwegian legend, the hero of which is compared to Hrólf KrakiHrólf KrakiHrólfr Kraki, Hroðulf, Rolfo, Roluo, Rolf Krage was a legendary Danish king who appears in both Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian tradition. His name would in his own language have been *Hrōþiwulfaz .Both traditions describe him as a Danish Scylding, the nephew of Hroðgar and the grandson of Healfdene...
. - Hervarar saga ok HeiðreksHervarar sagaHervarar saga ok Heiðreks is a legendary saga from the 13th century combining matter from several older sagas. It is a valuable saga for several different reasons beside its literary qualities. It contains traditions of wars between Goths and Huns, from the 4th century, and the last part is used as...
- a saga which may be of Swedish origin containing Swedish, Geatish and Gothic heroes. This saga still serves as a source for Swedish historians. - Hjálmþés saga ok ÖlvisHjálmþés saga ok ÖlvisHjálmþés saga ok Ölvis is a late legendary saga without an apparent historic basis. It is about two children of a jarl, and one of them is Hjálmþér whose evil stepmother commands him to work as a thrall until he has performed an impossible task....
- Hrólfs saga GautrekssonarHrólfs saga GautrekssonarHrólfs saga Gautrekssonar is a Scandinavian legendary saga which was put to text in Iceland in the 13th century. It has a prequel in Gautreks saga.Gautrekr was a Geatish king who descended from Odin himself...
- A saga about a Swedish warrior princess who is won by a Geatish prince. - Hrólfs saga krakaHrólfs saga krakaHrólfs saga kraka, the Saga of King Hrolf kraki, is a late legendary saga on the adventures of Hrólfr Kraki and his clan, the Skjöldungs. The events can be dated to the late 5th century and the 6th century. It is believed to have been written in the period c. 1230 - c. 1450...
; A saga which is related to the Old English poem Beowulf. - Hrómundar saga GripssonarHrómundar saga GripssonarHrómundar saga Gripssonar or The Saga of Hromund Gripsson is a legendary saga from Iceland. The original version has been lost, but its content has been preserved in the rímur of Hrómundr Gripsson published in Fernir forníslenzkar rímnaflokkar...
- Illuga saga GríðarfóstraIlluga saga GríðarfóstraIlluga saga Gríðarfóstra is a Fornaldarsaga about a young Dane named Illugi who delivers a female troll and her daughter from a curse. The saga itself is of great modernity, the earliest extant manuscripts dating approximately to sometime in the 17th century.-Synopsis:The story begins in Denmark...
A saga of the more traditional fairy taleFairy taleA fairy tale is a type of short story that typically features such folkloric characters, such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, dwarves, giants or gnomes, and usually magic or enchantments. However, only a small number of the stories refer to fairies...
kind, where a young man delivers a troll woman and her beautiful daughter from a curse. - Ketils saga hœngsKetils saga hœngsKetils saga hœngs is a legendary saga from Iceland on the North Norwegian chieftain Kettil Trout from Ramsta in Hålogaland. It is one of the sagas called the Hrafnistumannasögur surrounding Ketil Trout and his relatives....
- Orvar-OddOrvar-OddÖrvar-Oddr is a legendary hero about whom an anonymous Icelander wrote a fornaldarsaga in the latter part of the 13th century. Örvar-Odds saga, the Saga of Örvar-Odd, became very popular and contains old legends and songs...
's saga (two versions) - Ragnars saga loðbrókarRagnar LodbrokRagnar Lodbrok was a Norse legendary hero from the Viking Age who was thoroughly reshaped in Old Norse poetry and legendary sagas.-Life as recorded in the sagas:...
(two versions) - We know that the hero of this legend has existed in real life and he conquered Paris and may be the most famous of the Vikings. - Sturlaugs saga starfsamaSturlaugs saga starfsamaSturlaugs saga starfsama is a legendary saga from the 14th century about Sturlaugr the Industrious, who was the son of a Norwegian Hersir.After having killed a competing suitor and chased away a second one, he married Åsa the Fair, the daughter of a jarl. Her old foster-mother helps Sturlaugr with...
- A prequel to Göngu-Hrólfs Saga. - Sögubrot af fornkonungum - A remnant of a larger work dealing with the Swedish and Danish kings of old.
- Sörla saga sterkaSörla saga sterkaSörla saga sterka is a legendary saga which was written in the 14th or 15th century.It is a sequel to Hálfdanar saga Brönufóstra and like its prequel one of its locales is England, which is a vassal to Sweden. Sörli the Strong is a son of the king of Oppland, and is at feud with Halfdan Brana's...
- Völsunga sagaVolsunga sagaThe Völsungasaga is a legendary saga, a late 13th century Icelandic prose rendition of the origin and decline of the Völsung clan . It is largely based on epic poetry...
- The Scandinavian version of NibelungenliedNibelungenliedThe Nibelungenlied, translated as The Song of the Nibelungs, is an epic poem in Middle High German. The story tells of dragon-slayer Siegfried at the court of the Burgundians, how he was murdered, and of his wife Kriemhild's revenge....
. - Yngvars saga víðförlaYngvars saga víðförlaYngvars saga víðförla is a legendary saga said to have been written in the twelfth century by Oddr Snorrason. Scholars have been skeptical towards this claim but in recent years it has gained more acceptance....
- A late saga of Swedish origin, which takes place in the 11th century and the historic basis of which is indisputable thanks to the fact that there are corroborating historic sources. - Þorsteins saga VíkingssonarÞorsteins saga VíkingssonarÞorsteins saga Víkingssonar or The Saga of Thorstein, Viking's Son is a legendary saga taking place in the 7th century and it is about the father of Frithjof the Bold. It begins in Norway and Sweden but continues into exotic places such as India. It is not one of the more famous sagas, but it is...
Þættir (short stories)
- Helga þáttr ÞórissonarHelga þáttr Þórissonar-Sources and external links:********...
- Norna-Gests þáttrNorna-Gests þáttrNorna-Gests þáttr or the Story of Norna-Gest is a legendary saga about the Norse hero Norna-Gest.-Summary:Norna-Gest was the son of a Danish man named Thord of Thinghusbit, who once dwelt on the estate of Grøning in Denmark. When he was born, three Norns arrived and had foretold the child's...
- Ragnarssona þáttrRagnarssona þáttrRagnarssona þáttr, Þáttr af Ragnars sonum or the Tale of Ragnar's sons is a short story on Ragnar Lodbrok and his sons.-Ragnar Lodbrok:When Sigurd Ring dies, Ragnar succeeds him as the king of Sweden and Denmark...
- Sörla þáttrSörla þáttrSörla þáttr is a short narrative from a later and extended version of the Saga of Olaf Tryggvason found in the Flateyjarbók manuscript, which was written and compiled by two Christian priests, Jon Thordson and Magnus Thorhalson, in the late 14th century.The narrative begins 24 years after the death...
- Tóka þáttr TókasonarTóka þáttr Tókasonar-Sources and external links:****...
- Völsa þáttrVölsa þáttrVǫlsa þáttr is a short story which is only extant in the Flatey Book, where it is found in a chapter of Óláfs saga helga. It is probably from the fourteenth century but takes place in 1029 when Scandinavia was still largely pagan, and it appears to preserve traditions of a pagan phallos cult, the...
- Þorsteins þáttr bæjarmagnsÞorsteins þáttr bæjarmagnsÞorsteins þáttr bæjarmagns or The Story of Thorsteinn House-Power is a short legendary saga.It is a reworking of many of Thor's adventures, where Thorsteinn takes the place of Thor.-Sources and external links:****...
External links
- Fornaldarsögur norðurlanda: A bibliography of manuscripts, editions, translations and secondary literature compiled by M. J. Driscoll & Silvia Hufnagel, Arnamagnæan Institute, Copenhagen
- Fornaldarsögur Norðurlanda in Old Norse and modern Norwegian from heimskringla.no
- Online publication of the legendary sagas in the original language
- A presentation of the Fornaldarsögur in Old Norse with all available English translations online.