saga

   The term saga is an Icelandic word meaning “saying” or “telling.” For medieval Icelanders, it simply referred to anything written in prose, whether it told a story or simply related information.Modern scholars have applied it more specifically to any of a large number of narrative prose tales written in medieval Iceland (or occasionally in Norway), beginning in the 12th century and running through the 15th. These narratives are generally anonymous, and written in an objective, unadorned style by writers who saw themselves as simply recorders of traditions rather than as self-conscious literary artists. The sagas range in length from brief stories to novel-length narrative.

   Sagas developed and changed during the later Middle Ages in Iceland, and therefore fall into a number of different categories, based mainly on their subject matter, style, and intent. The earliest sagas were historical accounts in the form of biographies of Icelandic bishops and of Norwegian kings. Olaf ’s Saga, the story of King Olaf Tryggvason, may be the first of these, composed perhaps as early as 1180. SNORRI STURLUSON’s collection of kings’ sagas, HEIMSKRINGLA (ca. 1225), contains many of the most famous examples of this genre. The most important and admired narratives are the family sagas, or the “sagas of the Icelanders.” These texts are the major contribution of Iceland to world literature. Only 30-odd family sagas are extant.Writing during a period of social decline and lawlessness, the authors of the family sagas focused on significant Icelanders from what they perceived as a golden age of the building of their country, the so-called saga age of about 900 to 1050. They display a real interest in recording Icelandic history.Usually the protagonists of the sagas were the ancestors of the writers’ own influential contemporary Icelanders.

   The family saga generally told a tragic story, often involving legal disputes and blood vengeance. A conventional family saga would begin with a concise but important introduction of the main characters and their family backgrounds, focusing on certain character traits and behaviors that would become significant for the action of the narrative. A typical saga plot would pit a noble or virtuous man against a belligerent antagonist, whose willingness to bully or to take advantage of the better qualities of his victim most often has tragic consequences for the nobler protagonist. Revenge may be taken by the family of the wronged individual, and ultimately the two parties are usually reconciled.

   The most admired family sagas are usually about individuals, like the tragic NJAL’S SAGA and the fascinating EGIL’S SAGA about a cantankerous SKALDIC poet that may have been written by his descendent, Snorri Sturluson. Sometimes, however, they concern groups, such as LAXDAELA SAGA, which tells the sweeping story of the people of the region of Laxdaela over a 150-year period. Later in the 13th century, another type of historical saga developed dealing with contemporary events, known as the Sturlunga Saga, or the saga concerning the Sturlung Age. Named after the dominant Icelandic family of the period, the Sturlung Age (1200–64) was known for its civic turmoil, its greed, and its disregard for rule of law. The Islendinga Saga, the best known example of this genre, was composed by Snorri Sturluson’s nephew Sturla Thordarson, and features Snorri himself as an important character.

   Other sagas are fornaldarsögur, or legendary sagas, dealing with mythic or legendary heroes from Norse myth and folklore. Such tales were full of supernatural elements and thus formed a real contrast with the essentially realistic and historical family sagas. The best-known of these narratives is VOLSUNGA SAGA, a story of the Norse hero Sigurd, the famous dragon-slayer. Another later type of saga was the riddararsögur, or the saga based on foreign sources, most often ROMANCES or CHANSONS DE GESTE. The result of the influence of the European vogue for chivalric stories, these prose romances were composed in imitation of traditional sagas. The earliest was probably Tristram’s Saga: Based on the Tristram of THOMAS OF BRITAIN by a certain Friar Robert, it was composed at the request of the Norwegian king Hakon Hakonsarson in about 1226.

   By the 14th century, the romances and the legendary heroic sagas were indistinguishable and dominated Icelandic literature. Such texts, however, are generally seen as inferior to the family sagas.When critics or readers speak of Icelandic sagas, inevitably they are speaking specifically about the family sagas.

   Bibliography

   ■ Andersson, Theodore M. The Icelandic Family Saga: An Analytic Reading. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1967.

   ■ ———. “The Icelandic Sagas,” in Heroic Epic and Saga, edited by Felix J. Oinas. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1978, 144–171.

   ■ Bykock, Jesse L. Feud in the Icelandic Saga. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982.

   ■ Clover, Carol J. The Medieval Saga. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1982.

   ■ Miller,William Ian. Bloodtaking and Peacemaking: Feud, Law, and Society in Saga Iceland. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990.

   ■ Schach, Paul. Icelandic Sagas. Boston: Twayne, 1984.