SAGA, originally something related, Icelandic segin saga, a tale told, in English a saw. The early books speak of sagas which, apparently, were never 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 for written historical books.
A volume made up of such histories was known as a sogubok or book of sagas. They were not rigidly historical; any story which was constructed according to the literary formula was called a saga. The telling of tales was a recognized form of entertainment at Icelandic banquets; the person who repeated or read the tale being known as the sogumcar or sagaman, and being held in high honour at the feast.
The saga, as has been often pointed out, is a prose epic, and in its various kinds it follows strict laws of composition. It was composed with great regularity, so as to proceed uniformly from the birth of the hero to his death, and indeed from before the one date until after the other. The style is brief, clear and con versational ; the hero was often a distinguished poet, and in that case some of the best of his verses are interwoven into the narra tive, being put in his mouth on striking occasions. Alliteration takes a great part in the ornament of the style. The skill with which the story is told, the quick turns of the dialogue, the bril liant evolution of the plot, all these give enduring charm to the more successful and ample of the sagas, and in the earlier examples these qualities are very rarely missing. The sogu-old or epoch celebrated in the sagas, lies between the years 890 and 1030, and opens with the original colonization of Iceland; before the end of the II th century, the actual age of saga-composition has arrived ; and lastly comes the age of writing when the sagas received their present literary form, the blossoming time of which was the 13th century. According to the definite statement of the great historian, Sturla, the first man who wrote down in the Norse tongue, in Iceland, "histories relating to times ancient and mod ern," was Ari FrO6i (1067-1148), who was therefore the earliest of the saga-writers. He, as we know, was the author of Islendin gabok, an invaluable survey of the history of Iceland from the Settlement down to the year 1120. An earlier Islendingabok by Ari, now lost, contained lives of the kings of Norway (Konun gabok or book of kings) and pedigrees of early Icelandic settlers.
These pedigrees with others supplied by Kolskeggr Frobi and Brandr served later as a basis for the famous Landncimabok, which has come down to us and is of priceless value. The Landncimabok was gradually enlarged by the addition of new matter from the sagas and elsewhere till it reached its final form about the year 1220. It is believed that the admirable style in which the sagas are composed owed much to Ari, to whose indi vidual genius the form of Icelandic classical prose is attributed. The works of Saemundr Sigfusson (1056-1133), who succeeded Ari as a writer of the lives of kings, are unfortunately, lost.
We now pass to what are called the Greater or Islendinga sagas, which are of a more romantic character than the historical biographies. Among these the greatest is Njdlssaga (or Njdla), the work of an unknown author. Extensive as is the work, it was evidently written by one hand, for the same idiosyncrasies of style recur throughout the whole saga. It must have been composed between 123o and 1280. Vigfusson has described Njdla 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 Nja.1, 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 Njcila is placed at the close of the loth and the early years of the nth century. Eyrbygg iasaga deals with politics as Njdlssaga deals with law; it is a precious compendium of history and tradition handed down from heathen times. Extremely beautiful in its attitude to external nature, a matter often ignored in the sagas, is Laxdaelasaga, which is also the most romantic in sentiment. The aristocratic spirit of the great Icelandic families finds its most characteristic expression in Egilssaga, a stirring tale of adventure, the central figure of which, Egill, is depicted with more psychological subtlety than is usual in the sagas; it probably belongs to about 123o. In Grettissaga biographical and mythical elements are curiously mingled; it is probably a recension, made about 131o, of two or more earlier sagas now lost. These are the five famous groups of anonymous narrative which are known as the Greater Sagas.