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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: SAC-SAR |
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SAGA (literally a story committed to writing) , a word derived from Icel. segja, to say. The term is common to most of the Teutonic languages, where we find Eng. say, Ger. sagen, the O. Eng. secgan, Dan. sige and Swed. segja, all identical in meaning. A saga, therefore, was originally something reported, segin saga, a tale told, in English a saw. But the earliest literature of Scandinavia goes back to an age before writing was invented, and when the legends were first put down they were called sagas because they were things which had been told or repeated from mouth to mouth. The early books speak of sagas which, apparently, had never been written down and were in consequence lost; but, as soon as the art of writing was understood, the word saga began for the future to be used exclusively for written historical books. A volume made up of such histories was known as a sogubdk or book of sagas. They were not rigidly historical; any story which was written down, and repeated according to the literary formula
The saga was properly a creation of the peculiar conditions under which Icelandic society was constituted in the earliest medieval times. The aristocratic Icelander had no diversions, except games of strength and skill out of doors and the listening to professional story-tellers indoors. As has been often pointed out, the saga is a prose epic, and in its various kinds it follows strict laws of composition. The lesser epic, in its original
quick
The period of the saga-age, as it was called, the sogu-Old or epoch celebrated in the sagas, is now confined between the years 890 and 1030, and opens with the original
We now pass to what are called the Greater or Islendinga sagas, which are of a more intense and romantic character than the historical biographies. Among these the greatest is Njalssaga (or Njala), which few critics will question to be the most eminent masterpiece of Icelandic literature. There is no clue to the name of the author, who was evidently a lawyer; extensive as is the work, it is evidently written by one hand, for peculiarities and felicitous originalities of style recur through-out the whole saga. It must have been composed between 1230 and 1280. Vigfusson has described Njala as being, par excellence, the saga of law, and adds, " the very spirit indeed of Early Law seems to breathe through its pages." The scene in which Njal, the Lawman of judgment and peace, is burned in his homestead by his enemies is perhaps the most magnificent passage which has been preserved in the whole ancient literature of the North. The story of Njala is placed at the close of the loth and the first years of the 11th century. Eyrbyggiasaga deals with politics as Njalssaga deals with law; it is a precious compendium of history and tradition handed down from heathen times. It has been suggested that it may be, at all events in part, the work of Sturla the Lawman, who died in 1284. Extremely beautiful in its relation to external nature, a matter often ignored in the sagas, is Laxdaelasaga, which is also the most romantic in sentiment. It was probably written about 1235, but by whom is unknown. The aristocratic spirit of the great Icelandic families finds its most characteristic exposition in Egilssaga, a very vigorous tale of adventure, the central figure of which, Egil, is depicted with more psychological subtlety than is usual in the sagas; it probably belongs to about 1230. Into Grettissaga there enter biographical and mythical elements, curiously mingled; it is also confused in form, and is probably a recension, made about 1310, of two or more earlier sagas now lost, the finest parts of which it is thought that Sturla may have written. These are the five famous groups of anonymous narrative which are known as the Greater Sagas. The Minor Sagas must be treated more briefly. Hensa-] Orissaga, belonging to the south-west of Iceland, deserves attention because of its extreme antiquity; it has been dated 993 Gunnlaugssaga Ormstungu (The story of Gunnlaug Worm- Tongue) is a love-story of great sentimental charm. In Gislasaga the gloom of the Icelandic outlaw-life is strikingly depicted in the adventures of Gisli, who is under a ban and is hunted from place to place. A very unusual specimen of the minor saga is Bandamannasaga, a comic story of manners in the north of Iceland in the r 1th century, in which an intrigue of the old families banded against the pretensions of a wealthy parvenu, is told in a spirit of broad humour. The most archaic of the minor sagas is Kormakssaga, the story of the loves of the dark-eyed Kormak and Steingerda; this is, according to Vigfusson, the most primitive piece of Icelandic prose writing that has come down to us. Another very ancient and very simple saga is Vatzdaelasaga. Among sagas which deal with the earliest history of America in the chronicles of Greenland and Vinland, a foremost place is taken by Floamannasaga, which possesses peculiar interest
late
pioneer
It is evident that a vast number of sagas must be lost; when we consider how many are preserved, we can only express amazement at the fecundity of the art of saga-telling in the classic age. The MSS., on which what we have were preserved, were all on vellum, and there were no sagas written on paper until the time of Bishop Odd, who died in 163o; there was an enormous destruction of vellums during the dark age. After 1640 it became the practice to make transcripts on paper from the perishing vellum MSS. The best authority on the history of the sagas is the copious prolegomena to Dr Gudbrandr Vigfusson's edition of the text of Sturlungasaga, published in 2 vols., by the Clarendon Press at Oxford in 1878. See also the edition of Biskupasogur, issued by the same author, atCopenhagen, it}! 1858. Mobius and Vigfusson published the Fornsogur or archaic sagas in 186o, and all the work of Vigfusson calls for the closest attention from those interested in this subject. In connexion with the descents of Northmen on the shores of Britain particular interest
series (18871894). William Morris, who had done much to interpret the spirit of the sagas to English readers, and who published a translation of Grettissaga in 1869, started in 1891 the " Saga Library," in conjunction with Mr E. Magnusson; of this a sixth
See also Jonnson, Der oldnordiske og oldislandske Literaturshistorie (Copenhagen, 18931902) ; F. W. Horn, Geschichte der Literatur des skandinavischen Nordens ( Leipzig
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