Ancient sagas

Prehistoric sagas (Old Icelandic Fornaldarsögur , singular Fornaldarsaga ) is the name for a genre of Old Norse literature from the late 13th or 14th century. They report on events before Iceland was settled in the year 870 and therefore never play in Iceland, which distinguishes them from the Icelandic sagas . The representations have a strongly fictional character and also differ in literary quality from the prose of earlier Nordic poetry.

The prehistoric sagas are mostly divided into hero sagas, Viking sagas and adventure sagas, whereby the transitions are fluid. The heroic sagas contain motifs from European heroic literature, e.g. B. the Völsunga saga , which is about Siegfried the dragon slayer and his ancestors. They are heavily fictional and often end tragically for the main characters. Viking sagas may be more historical and describe journeys to different parts of Europe. An example would be the Örvar odds saga . The adventure sagas tell of the experiences of individuals in foreign countries and seem to be largely fictitious. These include B. the saga of one-handed Egil and the slayer Asmund .

Text output

• Rudolf Simek, Valerie Broustin, Jonas Zeit-Altpeter (eds.): Sagas from prehistory. Volume I (Hero sagas) . Kröner, Stuttgart 2020, ISBN 978-3-520-61301-1 .
• Ulrike Strerath-Bolz: Icelandic prehistoric sagas . Vol. 1. Diederichs, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-424-01375-7 .

Secondary literature

• Heiko Uecker: History of Old Norse Literature . Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-15-017647-6
• Jan de Vries: Old Norse literary history . 3. Edition. Berlin / New York 1999, ISBN 3-11-016330-6

swell

1. ^ Simek, Rudolf / Pálsson, Herrmann: Lexicon of Old Norse Literature. Stuttgart: Kröner 1987. ISBN 3-520-49001-3