A saga is a long story composed in medieval times in Norway or Iceland. a Nordic saga of giants and trolls. Genre of prose narrative typically dealing with prominent figures and events of the heroic age in Norway and Iceland, especially as recorded in Icelandic manuscripts of the late 12th and 13th century. Once thought to be orally transmitted history that had finally been written down, sagas are now usually regarded as reconstructions of the past, imaginative in varying degrees and created according to aesthetic principles. Important ideals in sagas are heroism and loyalty; revenge often plays a part. Action is preferred to reflection, and description of the inner motives and point of view of protagonists is minimized. Subdivisions of the genre include kings' sagas, recounting the lives of Scandinavian rulers; legendary sagas, treating themes from myth and legend; and Icelanders' sagas. See also Grettis saga, Njáls saga. Grettis saga Njáls saga Volsunga saga Icelanders' sagas family sagas
a popular account of the prehistory or early heroic period of a people Sagas are usually tales about the ancestors of a particular group, or the founders of a country Many of the stories in the early chapters of Genesis are sagas
or family sagas Class of heroic prose narratives written in the 13th century about the great families who lived in Iceland from 930 to 1030. They represent the zenith of classical Icelandic saga writing and are far in advance of any contemporary medieval literature in their realism, controlled style, character delineation, and overwhelming tragic dignity. Their artistic unity, length, and complexity suggest that they were written by individual authors rather than composed orally. Justice, not courage, is often the primary virtue, as in the greatest of the family sagas, Njáls saga
Old Norse word meaning a story (originally in prose) of quasi-legendary events; colloquially, a long tale Used chiefly to describe the historical stories current in Iceland in the Middle Ages
A Scandinavian legend, or heroic or mythic tradition, among the Norsemen and kindred people; a northern European popular historical or religious tale of olden time
A saga is a long story, account, or sequence of events. a 600 page saga about 18th century slavery. the continuing saga of unexpected failures by leading companies
a narrative telling the adventures of a hero or a family; originally (12th to 14th centuries) a story of the families that settled Iceland and their descendants but now any prose narrative that resembles such an account