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In medieval Iceland the literary term
saga denoted any kind of story or history in prose, irrespective of the kind or
nature of the narrative or the purposes for which it was written. Used in this
general sense, the term applies to a wide range of literary works, including
those of hagiography
(biography of saints), historiography,
and secular fiction in a variety of modes. Lives of the saints and other stories
for edification are entitled sagas, as are the Norse versions of French romances
and the Icelandic adaptations of various Latin histories. Chronicles and other
factual records of the history of Scandinavia and Iceland down to the 14th
century are also included under the blanket term saga literature. In a stricter
sense, however, the term saga is confined to legendary and historical fictions,
in which the author has attempted an imaginative reconstruction of the past and
organized the subject matter according to certain aesthetic principles. Using
the distinctive features of the hero
as principal guideline, medieval Icelandic narrative fiction can be classified
as: (1) kings' sagas, (2) legendary sagas, and (3) sagas of Icelanders.
The origin and evolution of saga writing
in Iceland are largely matters for speculation. A common pastime on Icelandic
farms, from the 12th century down to modern times, was the reading aloud of
stories to entertain the household, known as sagnaskemmtun ("saga entertainment"). It seems to have
replaced the traditional art of storytelling. All kinds of written narratives
were used in sagnaskemmtun: secular,
sacred, historical, and legendary. The Icelandic church took a sympathetic view
of the writing and reading of sagas, and many of the authors whose identity is
still known were monks or priests.
European narratives were known in
Iceland in the 12th and 13th centuries and undoubtedly served as models for
Icelandic writers when they set out to form a coherent picture of early
Scandinavian history. Translations of lives of the saints and the apostles and
accounts of the Holy Virgin testify to the skill of Icelandic prose writers in
handling the vernacular for narrative purposes from the 12th century onward.
Histories were also adapted and translated from Latin, based on those of the
7th- and 8th-century Anglo-Saxon writer Bede, the 7th-century Spanish historian
Isidore of Seville, and others; on fictitious accounts of the Trojan wars,
notably, one of the 5th century attributed to Dares Phrygius and one of the 4th
century attributed to Dictys Cretensis; on the 12th-century British chronicler
Geoffrey of Monmouth; and on the 1st-century Roman historians Sallust and Lucan.
In the 13th century, Abbot Brandr Jónsson wrote a history of the Jews
based on the Vulgate, on the 10th-century biblical scholar Peter Comestor, and
on other sources.
In the 13th century, saga literature was
also enriched by Norwegian prose translations of French romance literature.
These soon found their way into Iceland, where they were popular and a strong
influence on native storywriting. Probably the earliest, Tristrams
saga(the story of
Tristan and Iseult), was translated in 1226. Most of the themes of French
romance appear in Icelandic versions; e.g.,
Karlamagnús saga was based on Charlemagne
legends. (see also Norwegian
literature)
Icelandic historians seem to have
started writing about their country's past toward the end of the 11th century. Saemundr
Sigfússon, trained as a priest in France, wrote a Latin history of
the kings of Norway, now lost but referred to by later authors. The first
Icelander to use the vernacular for historical accounts was Ari
Thorgilsson, whose Íslendingabók
(or Libellus Islandorum [The
Book of the Icelanders]) survives. It is a concise description of the course
of Icelandic history from the beginning of the settlement (c.
870) to 1118. Ari seems to have written this book about 1125, but before
that date he may already have compiled (in collaboration with Kolskeggr Ásbjarnarson)
the so-called Landnámabók("Book of Settlements"), which lists the names and land
claims of about 400 settlers. Because this work survives only in 13th- and
14th-century versions, it is impossible to tell how much of it is Ari's. Both
books gave the Icelanders a clear picture of the beginning of their society;
both works served to stimulate public interest in the period during which events
recounted in the sagas of Icelanders (see below) are supposed to have taken
place. Other factual accounts of the history of Iceland followed later: Kristni
saga describes Iceland's conversion to Christianity about the end of the
10th century and the emergence of a national church. Hungrvaka("The Appetizer") contains accounts of the lives of the
first five bishops of Skálholt, from the mid-11th to the third quarter of
the 12th century; the biographies of other prominent bishops are in the Biskupa
sögur. Though some of these have a strong hagiographical flavour,
others are soberly written and of great historical value. The period c.
1100-1264 is also dealt with in several secular histories, known
collectively as Sturlunga saga, the
most important of which is the Íslendinga
saga ("The Icelanders' Saga") of Sturla
Thórdarson, who describes in
memorable detail the bitter personal and political feuds that marked the final
episode in the history of the Icelandic commonwealth (c. 1200-64). (see also "Book
of the Icelanders, The," )
After Saemundr Sigfússon,
Icelandic and Norwegian authors continued to explore the history of Scandinavia
in terms of rulers and royal families, some of them writing in Latin and others
in the vernacular. Broadly speaking, the kings' sagas fall into two distinct
groups: contemporary (or near contemporary) biographies and histories of remoter
periods. To the first group belonged a now-lost work, written in about 1170 by
an Icelander called Eiríkr Oddsson, dealing with several 12th-century
kings of Norway. Sverris saga describes
the life of King Sverrir (reigned 1184-1202). The first part was written by
Abbot Karl Jónsson under the supervision of the King himself, but it was
completed (probably by the Abbot) in Iceland after Sverrir's death. Sturla Thórdarson
wrote two royal biographies: Hákonar
saga on King Haakon Haakonsson (c. 1204-63)
and Magnús saga on his son and
successor, Magnus VI Lawmender (Lagabøter; reigned 1263-80); of the latter only
fragments survive. In writing these sagas Sturla used written documents as
source material and, like Abbot Karl before him, he also relied on the accounts
of eyewitnesses. Works on the history of the earlier kings of Norway include two
Latin chronicles of Norwegian provenance, one of which was compiled c.
1180, and two vernacular histories, also written in Norway, the so-called Ágrip
(c. 1190) and Fagrskinna(c. 1230). The Icelandic Morkinskinna(c. 1220) deals with the
kings of Norway from 1047-1177; an outstanding feature of it is that it tells
some brilliant stories of Icelandic poets and adventurers who visited the royal
courts of Scandinavia.
The kings' sagas reached their zenith in
the Heimskringlaor Noregs konunga sögur
("History of the Kings of Norway"), of Snorri Sturluson, which describes the history of
the royal house of Norway from legendary times down to 1177. Snorri was a
leading 13th-century Icelandic poet, who used as sources all the court poetry
from the 9th century onward that was available to him. He also used many earlier
histories of the kings of Norway and other written sources. Heimskringla
is a supreme literary achievement that ranks Snorri Sturluson with the great
writers of medieval Europe. He interpreted history in terms of personalities
rather than politics, and many of his character portrayals are superbly drawn.
Two of the early kings of Norway, Olaf
Tryggvason (reigned 995-1000) and Olaf
Haraldsson (Olaf the Saint; reigned 1015-30), received special attention
from Icelandic antiquarians and authors. Only fragments of a 12th-century Ólafs
saga helga ("St.
Olaf's Saga") survive; a 13th-century biography of the same king by Styrmir
Kárason is also largely lost. (Snorri Sturluson wrote a brilliant saga of
St. Olaf, rejecting some of the grosser hagiographical elements in his sources;
this work forms the central part of his Heimskringla.) About 1190 a Benedictine monk, Oddr Snorrason, wrote
a Latin life of Olaf Tryggvason, of which an Icelandic version still survives. A
brother in the same monastery, Gunnlaugr Leifsson, expanded this biography, and
his work was incorporated into later versions of Ólafs saga Tryggvasonar. Closely related to the lives of the
kings of Norway are Foereyinga
saga, describing the resistance of Faeroese leaders to Norwegian
interference during the first part of the 11th century, and Orkneyinga
saga, dealing with the rulers of the earldom of Orkney from about 900 to the
end of the 12th century. These two works were probably written about 1200. The
history of the kings of Denmark from c. 940
to 1187 is told in Knýtlinga saga.
(see also Faroe
Islands)
The learned men of medieval Iceland took
great pride in their pagan past and copied traditional poems on mythological and
legendary themes. In due
course some of these narrative poems served as the basis for sagas in prose. In
his Edda(probably written c. 1225), Snorri
Sturluson tells several memorable stories, based on ancient mythological poems,
about the old gods of the North, including such masterpieces as the tragic death
of Balder and the comic tale of Thor's journey to giantland. Snorri's book also
contains a summary of the legendary Nibelungen cycle. (A much fuller treatment
of the same theme is to be found in Völsunga
saga and Thidriks
saga, the latter composed in Norway and based on German sources.) Other
Icelandic stories based on early poetic tradition include Heidreks
saga; Hrólfs saga kraka,
which has a certain affinity with the Old English poem Beowulf;
Hálfs saga ok Hálfsrekka; Gautreks saga; and Ásmundar
saga kappabana, which tells the same story as the Old High German HildebrandsliedThe term legendary sagas also covers a number of stories the antecedents and
models of which are not exclusively native. These sagas are set in what might be
called the legendary heroic age at one level and also vaguely in the more recent
Viking age at the other, the
action taking place in Scandinavia and other parts of the Viking world, from
Russia to Ireland, but occasionally also in the world of myth and fantasy. It is
mostly through valour and heroic exploits that the typical hero's personality is
realized. He is, however, often a composite character, for some of his features
are borrowed from a later and more refined ethos than that of early Scandinavia.
He is in fact the synthesis of Viking ideals on the one hand and of codes of
courtly chivalry on the other. Of individual stories the following are notable: Egils
saga ok Ásmundar, which skillfully employs the flashback device; Bósa
saga ok Herrauds, exceptional for its erotic elements; Fridthjófs saga, a romantic love story; Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar; Göngu-Hrólfs saga; and
Halfadanar saga Eysteinssonar. There
are many more. The legendary sagas are essentially romantic literature, offering
an idealized picture of the remote past, and many of them are strongly
influenced by French romance
literature. In these sagas the main emphasis is on a lively narrative,
entertainment being their primary aim and function. Some of the themes in the
legendary sagas are also treated in the Gesta
Danorumof the
12th-century Danish historian Saxo
Grammaticus, who states that some of his informants for the legendary
history of Denmark were Icelanders. (see also
fornaldar saga, Danish
literature)
In the late 12th century, Icelandic
authors began to fictionalize the early part of their history (c. 900-1050), and a new literary genre was born: the sagas of
Icelanders. Whereas the ethos of the kings' sagas and of the legendary sagas is
aristocratic and their principal heroes warlike leaders, the sagas of Icelanders
describe characters who are essentially farmers or farmers' sons or at least
people who were socially not far above the author's public, and their conduct
and motivation are measurable in terms of the author's own ethos. These authors
constantly aimed at geographic, social, and cultural verisimilitude; they made
it their business to depict life in Iceland as they had experienced it or as
they imagined it had actually been in the past. Though a good deal of the
subject matter was evidently derived from oral tradition and thus of historical
value for the period described, some of the best sagas are largely fictional;
their relevance to the authors' own times mattered perhaps no less than their
incidental information about the past. An important aim of this literature was
to encourage people to attain a better understanding of their social environment
and a truer knowledge of themselves through studying the real and imagined fates
of their forbears. A spirit of humanism, sometimes coloured by a fatalistic
heroic outlook, pervades the narrative. The edificatory role, however, was never
allowed to get out of hand or dominate the literary art; giving aesthetic
pleasure remained the saga writer's primary aim and duty. (see also
Icelanders' sagas, folk
literature, oral literature)
Nothing is known of the authorship of
the sagas of Icelanders, and it has proved impossible to assign a definite date
to many of them. It seems improbable that in their present form any of them
could have been written before c. 1200.
The period c. 1230-90 has been
described as the golden age of saga writing because such masterpieces as Egils
saga, Víga-Glúms saga, Gísla saga, Eyrbyggja saga,
Hrafnkels saga Freysgoda, Bandamanna saga, Hoensa-Thóris saga, and
Njáls saga appear to have been
written during that time. Although a number of sagas date from the 14th century,
only one, Grettis saga, can be ranked
with the classical ones.
The sagas of Icelanders can be
subdivided into several categories according to the social and ethical status of
the principal heroes. In some, the hero is a poet who sets out from the rural
society of his native land in search of fame and adventure to become the
retainer of the king of Norway or some other foreign ruler. Another feature of
these stories is that the hero is also a lover. To this group belong some of the
early-13th-century sagas, including Kormáks
saga, Hallfredar saga, and Bjarnar
saga Hítdaelakappa. In Gunnlaugs
saga ormstungu, which may have been written after the middle of the 13th
century, the love theme is treated more romantically than in the others. Fostbraeda
saga ("The Blood-Brothers' Saga") describes two contrasting
heroes: one a poet and lover, the other a ruthless killer. Egils sagaoffers a brilliant study of a complex personality--a ruthless Viking who is
also a sensitive poet, a rebel against authority from early childhood who ends
his life as a defenseless, blind old man. In several sagas the hero becomes an
outlaw fighting a hopeless battle against the social forces that have rejected
him. To this group belong Hardar saga ok Hólmverja
and Droplaugarsona saga; but the
greatest of the outlaw sagas are Gísla
saga, describing a man who murders his own brother-in-law and whose
sister reveals his dark secret; and Grettis sagawhich deals with a hero of great talents and courage who is constantly
fighting against heavy odds and is treacherously slain by an unscrupulous enemy.
Most of the sagas of Icelanders,
however, are concerned with people who are fully integrated members of society,
either as ordinary farmers or as farmers who also act as chieftains. Hrafnkels
saga describes a chieftain who murders his shepherd, is then tortured and
humiliated for his crime, and finally takes cruel revenge on one of his
tormentors. The hero who gives his name to Hoensa-Thoris
saga is a man of humble background who makes money as a peddler and becomes
a wealthy but unpopular landowner. His egotism creates trouble in the
neighbourhood, and after he has set fire to one of the farmsteads, killing the
farmer and the entire household, he is prosecuted and later put to death. Ölkofra tháttr (the term tháttr
is often used for a short story) and Bandamanna
saga ("The Confederates' Saga") satirize chieftains who fail in
their duty to guard the integrity of the law and try to turn other people's
mistakes into profit for themselves. The central plot in Laxdoela
sagais a love
triangle, in which the jealous heroine forces her husband to kill his best
friend. Eyrbyggja saga describes a
complex series of feuds between several interrelated families; Hávardar saga is about an old farmer who takes revenge on his
son's killer, the local chieftain; Víga-Glúms
saga tells of a ruthless chieftain who commits several killings and swears
an ambiguous oath in order to cover his guilt; while Vatnsdoela saga is the story of a noble chieftain whose last
act is to help his killer escape.
In the sagas of Icelanders justice,
rather than courage, is often the primary virtue, as might be expected in a
literature that places the success of an individual below the welfare of society
at large. This theme is an underlying one in Njáls saga,
the greatest of all the sagas. It is a story of great complexity and
richness, with a host of brilliantly executed character portrayals and a
profound understanding of human strengths and weaknesses. Its structure is
highly complex, but at its core is the tragedy of an influential farmer and sage
who devotes his life to a hopeless struggle against the destructive forces of
society but ends it inexorably when his enemies set fire to his house, killing
his wife and sons with him.
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