Can someone explain Viking Sagas?

[Darkoath]

So I was browsing Amazon.com and came across many many listings for Viking Sagas...
both modern and classic...

Can someone explain these... are the classic sagas Norse Mythology?

Or are these actual historical narritives?

[pnweerar]

I know for certain there are historical ones out there, like Njal's saga.

That's all I know enough to say on the topic.

[Hammers]

So I was browsing Amazon.com and came across many many listings for Viking Sagas...
both modern and classic...

Can someone explain these... are the classic sagas Norse Mythology?

Or are these actual historical narritives?

Most mythologies probably has their roots in real historical events and persons, so in that sense I'd say yes.

Norse sagas are mostly moral stories about individual heros which the Asir (gods) favour or disfavour. They tend tro be long rambling accounts of people they meet, behead or bestove poetry of wisdom and laconic whit at.

Most well known are those put to paper quite late by the icelander Snorre Sturlafsson and they also contain the mythology of the Norse gods, giants, dwarves, elves (NOT the fairy kind, I assure you) trolls and other monsters (Midgårdsormen which spans the circumfence of the world, Oden's horse Sleipner which has eight legs etc.) Much was done in the 19th century to make them apear more like the Greek pantheon, I'm afraid.

[Plynkes]

Njáls saga has no supernatural elements. It is more like a kind of violent soap-opera crossed with a legal drama, and is thought to be based on real events in the 10th and 11th Centuries.

It's basically about a very long blood feud. It alternates between fights and court cases about the fights. Then a fight about the result of the court case, then a court case about the fight about the result of the court case. Then another fight about that. Goes on like this for a couple of generations until everyone in Iceland is dead except Björk. I forget what the original disagreement was about.

A bit of a moral lesson about how holding a grudge is not really a good thing, I suppose. I enjoyed it quite a bit. More than John Grisham film adaptations or Perry Mason episodes, that's for sure.

[Plynkes]

Somewhere in the tip where I store my books I also have the Vinland Sagas, which are about Eric the Red, Leif the Lucky and the Norse discovery of America.

Oddly enough, I have never got around to reading that one. I really should.

[Howard Whitehouse]

The sagas fall into several groups, and it's unwise to generalise. Njal's Saga, like a number of others (Laxdaela Saga, Grettir's Saga and more) are sometimes called 'family sagas', and are best compared to those long novels of the wild west that take place over two or three generations. They feature real people and places, mostly taking part in lengthy and bloody feuds mixed with ongoing lawsuits. The most common presumption is that these are best seen as historical novels, containing elements of fact and fiction together against a realistic and well-described background. Not solid history per se, but stories that the audience would connect with. There is very little supernatural involvement in these sagas.

Stories that take the protagonists to places like Greenland, Norway or England often seem to lose the sense of gritty realism of the Icelandic feud sagas - it's as if the writer and audience don't really have a sense of these places.

The sagas that feature the strongest mysthical qualities are those which deal with events in the distant past, and some later medieval sagas which have been influenced by  a then-current European vogue for chivalry and monster-slaying.

If anyone wants a Word Doc of my saga-styled skirmish game, "Battle-Troll", contact me at professorbellbuckle@yahoo.com

[zebcook]

(Dusting off my medieval lit)

As others have mentioned, most of the sagas tend to be historical or quasi-historical. Most have little or no mythological elements, being more concerned with people and events. They nonetheless make good reading for background material. There are several classes of sagas -- king's saga, saint's, Icelander, legendary (which have more fantastic elements than others), and knightly sagas. The last are sometimes classed as romances (in the medieval sense) and can have some pretty fantastic elements and plots.

The two main sources for Norse mythology are the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda. These are generally not considered sagas proper although they are an important part of Norse literature.They cover the gods and the mythological Germanic heroes -- particularly early versions of the tale of the Nibelungs. The Volsunga saga covers the tale of Sigurd and Brynhild and classed as a legendary saga.

Zeb Cook

[Darkoath]

Thanks to everyone who responded... it was a big help!

Any suggestions for what to read for my first Saga?

[Prof Steelblade]

Njals saga is intresting and if i remember right the fight starts about what seat there wifes should have at a party. Some nice humo too...

Otherwise I must say Egil Skallagrimssons saga. Thats a guy you wouldn't like to meet in a dark alley (or in daylight for that matter either) 

Not a saga but Adam of Bremens book is intresting too.

[archangel1]

One I remember reading a looonnng time ago was 'Hrolf Kraki's Saga'.  I can't remember if it was totally fiction or based on 'reality' but since it's stuck in my head for all those years, it must have caught my interest.

[Vanvlak]

And someday soon we'll be getting our first Maltese academic saga, how to complete a  part-time basis  PhD ...

Would I be right in saying that Viking myth is usually not included in sagas, which are usually grounded in realism? This is claimed by the fluff of a  small Penguin book including two Viking 'romances' as opposed to sagas, the rather racy Bosi and Herraud and Egil and Asmund.