A legendary saga or fornaldarsaga (literally, "story/history of the ancient era") is a Norse saga that, unlike the Icelanders' sagas, takes place before the settlement of Iceland.[The article Fornaldarsagor in Nationalencyklopedin (1991)] There are some exceptions, such as Yngvars saga víðförla, 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,[Einar Ól. Sveinsson, "Fornaldarsögur", in Kulturhistorisk leksikon for nordisk middelalder fra vikingtid til reformasjonstid, bd. 4 (Copenhagen, 1959)] such as Hrólfs saga kraka.[ The Literary Encyclopedia]
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
Poetic Edda (unlike the
skaldic verse found in most other saga genres).
[Margaret Clunies Ross, The Cambridge Introduction to the Old Norse-Icelandic Saga (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), p. 77.] The setting is primarily
Scandinavia in the time prior to the settlement of Iceland and the conversion of Scandinavia, but occasionally it moves temporarily to more distant and exotic locations or has its characters encounter Christian cultures (one example of both being
Örvar-Odds saga). There are also very often mythological elements, such as
Norse dwarves,
elves, giants and magic. 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.
[Else Mundal, "Sagalitteraturen", in Odd Einar Haugen (ed.) Handbok i norrøn filologi (Bergen, 2004)] 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.
In the words of Margaret Clunies Ross,
- 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.
[Margaret Clunies Ross, The Cambridge Introduction to the Old Norse-Icelandic Saga (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), p. 80.]
Some of the sagas are based on distant historic characters, and this is evident in cases where there are corroborating sources, such as Ragnar Lodbrok, Yngvars saga víðförla and Volsunga saga. In the case of Hervarar saga, it conveys names of historical places in present Ukraine during the period c. 150-450,[Omeljan Pritsak. (1981). The origin of Rus'. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Distributed by Harvard University Press for the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute. p. 214] and the last part of the saga is used as a historic source for Swedish history.[e.g. in the article Blot-Sven in Nationalencyklopedin (1990), Larsson, Mats G (2002). Götarnas Riken : Upptäcktsfärder Till Sveriges Enande. Bokförlaget Atlantis AB pp. 154, 158, 160 and Lagerquist, Lars O. (1997). Sveriges Regenter, från forntid till nutid. Norstedts, Stockholm. pp. 26, 42, 44, 45] Indeed, they often contain very old Germanic matter, such as the Hervarar saga and the Völsunga saga which contains poetry about Sigurd that did not find its way into the Poetic Edda and which would otherwise have been lost (see the Great Lacuna). Other sagas deal with heroes such as Ragnar Lodbrok, Hrólf Kraki and Orvar-Odd.
Philology 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, who wrote Frithiof's saga, based on the Friðþjófs saga ins frœkna. One such saga was even forged in the early modern period: Hjalmars och Hramers saga.[Gödel, Vilhelm, “Hjalmars och Hramers saga. Ett literärt falsarium från 1690”, Svenska fornminnesföreningens tidskrift 9(2) (1896): 137–54.]
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.
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Áns saga bogsveigis
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Ásmundar saga kappabana - A saga based on the German language Lay of Hildebrand.
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Bósa saga ok Herrauðs - like Beowulf it has Geatish heroes.
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Egils saga einhenda ok Ásmundar berserkjabana
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Eireks saga víðförla
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Frá Fornjóti ok hans ættmönnum
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Friðþjófs saga ins frœkna
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Gautreks saga
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Gríms saga loðinkinna
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Göngu-Hrólfs saga
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Hálfdanar saga Brönufóstra
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Hálfdanar saga Eysteinssonar
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Hálfs saga ok Hálfsrekka - A Norwegian legend, the hero of which is compared to Hrólf Kraki.
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Hervarar saga - a saga which may be of Swedish origin containing Swedish, Geatish and Gothic heroes. This saga still serves as a source for Swedish historians.
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Hjálmþés saga ok Ölvis
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Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar - A saga about a Swedish warrior princess who is won by a Geatish prince.
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Hrólfs saga kraka; A saga which is related to the Old English poem Beowulf.
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Hrómundar saga Gripssonar
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*Huldar saga, a lost saga, and also one of the names of a post-medieval fornaldarsaga.
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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.
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Ketils saga hœngs
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* Ormars saga Fraðmarssonar, thought to have existed as the source of Ormars rímur.
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Örvar-Odds saga (two versions)
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Ragnar Lodbrok (two versions) - Sagas of Ragnar Lodbrok a legendary Viking warrior and his sons.
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Sturlaugs saga starfsama - A prequel to Göngu-Hrólfs Saga.
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Sögubrot af fornkonungum - A remnant of a larger work dealing with the Swedish and Danish kings of old.
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Sörla saga sterka
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Völsunga saga - The Scandinavian version of Nibelungenlied.
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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.
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Þjalar-Jóns saga
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Þorsteins saga Víkingssonar
Þættir (short stories)
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Helga þáttr Þórissonar
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Jökuls þáttr Búasonar
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'Norna-Gests þáttr
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Ragnarssona þáttr
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Sörla þáttr
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Tóka þáttr Tókasonar
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Völsa þáttr
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Þorsteins þáttr bæjarmagns
Notes
Translations
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(Tale of Jokul Buason, pp. 53-64)
External links
