The saga, as a literary term, generally refers to a
cycle of stories composed and written in the medieval
Norse, Icelandic, and Germanic worlds.
Though other cultures use the form of the saga in
their literature (for instance, Celtic cultures retell
family sagas in works of BARDIC POETRY), the Norse
and Icelandic sagas are important for what they reveal
about the history and mythology (see MYTHOLOGY,
NORSE) of the Scandinavian cultures sharing a
Germanic origin. Largely written in the 13th century,
the stories in the sagas were composed and
communicated for centuries as a type of ORAL LITERATURE
and were recorded only when Christian
missionary efforts brought a new type of literacy,
and a new literary history, to Scandinavia.While
works such as SNORRI STURLUSON’s Prose EDDA reflect
knowledge of the BIBLE as well as the myths of
HOMER and VIRGIL, the sagas reveal native customs,
beliefs, and social mores associated with Icelandic,
Norse, and Germanic cultures.
Most of the sagas are assumed to have taken
their final shape by the beginning of the 12th century,
when efforts to record them began. Depending
on where they were transcribed, most of the
existing manuscripts were written in Old Icelandic
and Old Norse. The scribes recording them would
most likely have been educated through the
Church and would therefore have been Christian.
The histories and tales recorded in the sagas, however,
date almost entirely to a pre-Christian era
when northern Europe was ruled by the Scandinavian
tribes collectively known as the Vikings.
Vikings are traditionally depicted as adventurers,
merchants, and warriors with a strong appreciation
for challenge who also celebrated achievement
in battle. They migrated widely, and their explorations
were broader still, reaching the eastern
coast of North America sometime in the 10th century.
Viking tales preserve a strong heroic code
most aptly shown through fierceness in battle. In
the sagas, human figures battle with or against divine
creatures, and legends that abound in supernatural
elements just as accurately represent the
cultural values and religious beliefs of the pre-
Christian Icelandic, Norse, and German peoples.
Many of the sagas, in addition to gods, kings,
queens, and mighty warriors, feature a Valkyrie figure.
These were the divine women who served mead
in Valhalla, the hall where spirits of those killed in
battle feasted and fought after their mortal deaths.
They were also the choosers of the slain, and they
decided who would die on the field of battle.
Although the Icelandic NJAL’S SAGA and Norse
Egil’s Saga are frequently read and referenced, the
most famous saga has to be the Volsunga Saga, or
Song of the Volsungs (ca. 1270), the Icelandic version
of the NIBELUNGENLIED (ca. 1205). The Norweigian
version, Saga of Thidrek of Bern (ca. 1250),
replaces the hero with Thidrek (Dietrich to the
Germans), but the outlines of the story remain the
same. Sigurd, among his many other adventures,
slays a dragon, finds the hoard of Nibelung gold,
and rescues the warrior maiden Brynhild. He is
later forced, through a magic drink, to marry Gudrun,
and Brynhild plots revenge. In addition to a
portrayal of the Germanic warrior code, the Volsung
cycle contains echoes of CHIVALRY/COURTLY
LOVE that reflect the influence of outside cultures
and beliefs during the reign of King Haakon IV.
Other sagas composed in the 13th century include
the Eyrbyggia Saga, which tells of the feud
between the Snorri family and Thorolf Twist-foot.
Viga Glum’s Saga, whose eponymous hero was a
king who ruled Iceland around 940, portrays the
social manners and legislative practices of 10thcentury
Iceland as well as the religious ideas of the
time. The Laxdaela Saga (ca. 1245), thought by
many to have been composed by a woman, tells the
story of Aud the Deep-minded and her descendants.
Weland the smith, who has semimagical
powers, appears frequently in the Germanic sagas,
as well as in the poem BEOWULF and certain OLD
ENGLISH POETRY, indicating the shared Germanic
origins of the peoples of northern Europe.
The color, vitality, violence, and poetry of the
sagas continue to inspire retellings, perhaps most
famously in the operas of Richard Wagner and The
Lord of the Rings trilogy by J. R. R. Tolkien.
English Versions of Sagas
Egil’s Saga. Translated by Hermann Palsson and Paul
Edwards. New York: Penguin Classics, 1977.
The Saga of the Volsungs. Translated by Jesse L. Byock.
New York: Penguin Classics, 2002.
The Sagas of the Icelanders. Edited by Robert Kellogg.
New York: Penguin 2001.
Sagas of Warrior-Poets. Translated by Diana Whaley.
New York: Penguin Classics, 2002.
Seven Viking Romances. Translated by Hermann Palsson
and Paul Edwards. New York: Penguin Classics,
1985.
Works about the Sagas
Byock, Jesse L. Feud in the Icelandic Saga. Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1993.
Jones, Gwyn. A History of the Vikings. Oxford:Oxford
University Press, 2001.
Roberts, David and Jon Krakauer. Iceland: Land of
the Sagas. New York: Villard, 1998.