Legendary saga
A legendary saga or fornaldarsaga (literally, "story/history of the ancient era") is a
Description of the sagas
In terms of form, fornaldarsögur are similar to various other saga-genres, but tend towards fairly linear, episodic narratives. Like sagas in other genres, many quote verse, but in the fornaldarsögur that verse is almost invariably in the metre of
- The themes, characters and the whole world of the fornaldarsaga lend themselves to interpretation, not as realistic narratives, but rather as subjects dealing with deep and disturbing issues that cannot be approached from the perspective of the mundane world but must rather be enacted in a literary world in which often taboo subjects can be raised and aired, though not necessarily resolved. They may also be treated in a comic or parodic vein.[7]
Some of the sagas are based on distant historic characters, and this is evident in cases where there are corroborating sources, such as
The Fornaldarsagas have great value for legend research, since they contain
Philologists 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.[2][5] In these aspects of style and reception, the fornaldarsögur tend to overlap with the Chivalric sagas, particularly those composed in medieval Iceland.
The legendary sagas have influenced later writers, for instance the Swede
List of the sagas
For a comprehensive list of the medieval fornaldarsögur, with information about manuscripts, bibliography, etc., see Stories for all time: The Icelandic fornaldarsögur.
- Áns saga bogsveigis
- Lay of Hildebrand.
- Geatishheroes.
- Egils saga einhenda ok Ásmundar berserkjabana
- Eireks saga víðförla
- Frá Fornjóti ok hans ættmönnum
- Friðþjófs saga ins frœkna
- Gautreks saga
- Gríms saga loðinkinna
- Göngu-Hrólfs saga
- Hálfdanar saga Brönufóstra
- Hálfdanar saga Eysteinssonar
- Hrólf Kraki.
- Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks- 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 Ölvis
- Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar - A saga about a Swedish warrior princess who is won by a Geatish prince.
- Hrólfs saga kraka; A saga which is related to the Old English poem Beowulf.
- Hrómundar saga Gripssonar
- *Huldar saga, a lost saga, and also one of the names of a post-medieval fornaldarsaga.
- Illuga saga Gríðarfóstra A saga of the more traditional fairy tale kind, where a young man delivers a troll woman and her beautiful daughter from a curse.
- Ketils saga hœngs
- *Ormars saga Fraðmarssonar, thought to have existed as the source of Ormars rímur.
- Örvar-Odds saga (two versions)
- Ragnars saga loðbrókar (two versions) - Sagas of Ragnar Lodbrok a legendary Viking warrior and his sons.
- Sturlaugs saga starfsama - 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 sterka
- Völsunga saga - The Scandinavian version of Nibelungenlied.
- Yngvars saga víðförla - 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.
- Þjalar-Jóns saga
- Þorsteins saga Víkingssonar
Þættir (short stories)
- Helga þáttr Þórissonar
- Jökuls þáttr Búasonar
- 'Norna-Gests þáttr
- Ragnarssona þáttr
- Sörla þáttr
- Tóka þáttr Tókasonar
- Völsa þáttr
- Þorsteins þáttr bæjarmagns
Notes
- ^ a b c d The article Fornaldarsagor in Nationalencyklopedin (1991)
- ^ Einar Ól. Sveinsson, "Fornaldarsögur", in Kulturhistorisk leksikon for nordisk middelalder fra vikingtid til reformasjonstid, bd. 4 (Copenhagen, 1959)
- ^ The Literary Encyclopedia
- ^ Margaret Clunies Ross, The Cambridge Introduction to the Old Norse-Icelandic Saga (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), p. 77.
- ^ a b c d Else Mundal, "Sagalitteraturen", in Odd Einar Haugen (ed.) Handbok i norrøn filologi (Bergen, 2004)
- ^ a b A. Hall (2005), "Changing style and changing meaning: Icelandic historiography and the medieval redactions of Heiðreks saga", Scandinavian Studies, 77: at p. 1.
- ^ Margaret Clunies Ross, The Cambridge Introduction to the Old Norse-Icelandic Saga (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), p. 80.
- ISBN 0-674-64465-4p. 214
- ISBN 91-1-963882-5pp. 26, 42, 44, 45
- ^ Gödel, Vilhelm, “Hjalmars och Hramers saga. Ett literärt falsarium från 1690”, Svenska fornminnesföreningens tidskrift 9(2) (1896): 137–54.
Translations
- Waggoner, Ben (2010). Sagas of Giants and Heroes. New Haven, CT: Troth Publications. ISBN 978-0578059334. (Tale of Jokul Buason, pp. 53-64)
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.