Icelandic sagas: description, features, content and reviews

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Icelandic sagas are the most famous genre of Scandinavian literature. It originated around the 12th century, at a time when writing appeared in this country, according to scientists. However, oral stories and legends existed before, and it was they that formed the basis of these works.

Short description

Icelandic sagas are prose works that tell about the ancient times not only of this state, but also of neighboring regions and lands. That is why they are the most valuable source on the history of the Nordic countries. In general, the term itself in translation means "told". The plot and form of these works are distinguished by a certain freedom of presentation, an abundance of fairy-tale motifs, which are often intertwined with real facts of the past. The main characters of the story usually became kings, warriors, kings. Thus, the Icelandic sagas are a kind of chronicle of events, but only presented in a fantastic, semi-legendary form. The difficulty in understanding the historical realities in these writings lies in the fact that they have come down to us in copies, secondary editions, abridged manuscripts, in which it is quite difficult to identify the original text.

Tales of Kings

Icelandic sagas can be roughly divided into several groups. One of the most common categories is stories about Norwegian kings. Some works tell about individual rulers, but there are also consolidated collections, for example, the famous "Circle of the Earth", the authorship of which is attributed to the famous collector of Scandinavian antiquities, poet, historian and statesman Snorri Sturluson. This collection includes a cycle of stories from ancient times to 1177. There are also sagas about Danish kings, for example, one of them tells about one ruling family of Knutlings.

About Icelandic history and translations

The second group is the legends about Iceland itself. They can also be roughly divided into several categories. There are so-called sagas about ancient times, which at one time were called "false", because they told about the centuries before the colonization of the island, information about which was almost not preserved. Therefore, their main source was ancient epic tales, legends and songs, in which, by the way, characters appear in the folklore of other Germanic peoples.

The most famous Icelandic saga in this series is perhaps the "Tale of the Sturlungs", representatives of an ancient family who fought for power. It is characterized by extreme detail in the depiction of events: in the text you can find many details and interesting historical facts about the past of the country. The second group also includes sagas aboutbishops, which tells about the clergy of the 11th-14th centuries, as well as the church in the country. And, finally, the third group is translated works dedicated to events from the history of other European peoples (for example, the Trojan Saga).

Toponymy

An important place among Scandinavian literature is occupied by legends about Icelanders. These works have a number of distinctive features that distinguish them from other works of this genre. They contain a large number of geographical designations, which, by the way, are difficult to translate into Russian. In the text you can find the names of not only such large geographical objects as rivers, lakes, mountains, but also villages, farms, villages. The latter circumstance is explained by the fact that a legend of this kind is, first of all, the story of a person who, at the time of the creation of the work, lived in a particular area. For example, the Icelandic "Saga of the Whale" denotes the names of the fjord where the main character lived. All this toponymy is of great importance in the analysis of sources, since it contains valuable information about nature.

The problem of historicity

The second characteristic feature of these works is their apparent authenticity and realism. The fact is that the authors sincerely believed that their heroes of the code existed, and therefore they described in great detail, even meticulously, their deeds, exploits, dialogues, which made the story especially convincing. Many scientists even "caught" in the texts, often taking what was said forthe truth. However, the historical background and specific realities are still visible here, but they are covered with such a powerful folklore layer that it can be very difficult to separate truth from fiction.

Question of authorship

For some time in historiography, the point of view dominated that those who wrote down the sagas were not their direct authors, but merely recorded the oral tradition. However, in the 20th century, a hypothesis arose that the storytellers, who were well acquainted with Old Norse folklore, created original works of their own. At present, the prevailing opinion is that these writers, while collecting and literary processing folklore material, nevertheless brought a lot of their own into it, so that in their works the folk tradition is closely intertwined with the literary one. This contributes to the fact that it is quite difficult to determine who was the original author of the work. For example, the Icelandic "Saga of Eimund", a Norwegian king who took part in the events of ancient Russian history, has been preserved as part of the "Saga of Olaf the Saint", the authorship of which is traditionally attributed to the aforementioned Sturluson, but this is just an assumption that has not been fully proven.

About our country

In the works under consideration, as mentioned above, there is information about other northern countries, including our state. Many storylines even overlap, scientists often find parallelsbetween the texts of Scandinavian legends and ancient Russian chronicles. Icelandic sagas often paid attention to their neighbors. Rusichi (the name of the people) often found themselves, if not in the center of attention, then full participants in the ongoing events. Often the works mention Russian lands, areas where this or that story takes place. For example, the "Saga of Hrolf the Pedestrian", dating from the 14th century, moves the action to Ladoga, where this hero marries the king's daughter, defeats the Swedes and becomes the ruler. By the way, it is in this legend that there is a plot very similar to the famous legend about Prophetic Oleg (the story of the prince and his horse). This once again proves how close cultural contacts were between these peoples.

Here it should be mentioned that the famous "Eimund's Saga" also contains information about ancient Russian history. It tells how the main character, the king, arrives at the service of Prince Yaroslav and enters his service. He takes part in the turbulent political events of that time, connected with the struggle of this ruler for power. Thus, the Icelandic Viking sagas about Northern Russia are an interesting additional source on the history of our country.

S. Sturluson

This is the first writer and collector of Icelandic antiquities, of which the news has been preserved. The scientist collected folklore works, poems, and, most likely, it was he who compiled the two largest collections of Icelandic literature: a kind of textbook of skaldic poetry and a collection of sagas. Thanks to this person, we have a fairly detailedan idea of what the ancient legends were. He did not limit himself to retelling and processing ready-made works, but inscribed the history of his people in the context of European events, starting from the most ancient times. His Icelandic royal sagas about Eastern Europe are the most valuable material on the geography and toponymy of this region.

There is also some information about the Slavs in his essay. He tried to explain on an almost scientific level the techniques and methods of Scandinavian poetry using the example of his own compositions. This allows us to judge the lexical and linguistic ways of creating legends. Thus, his work is a summing up of the results of a huge period in the development of Old Norse literature.

Reviews

In general, opinions about the Icelandic sagas are extremely positive. Readers and users say that it was interesting to get acquainted with the life and social structure of the ancient peoples. They also note that very simple human relationships are conveyed in these legends, which gives a unique charm to the plot. At the same time, some readers note that the language of the sagas is rather dry and monotonous, that there are too many names, characters and characters in them, which can greatly complicate the perception of the whole story. Nevertheless, most users recommend that everyone who is interested in ancient Russian (and not only) annals and medieval history be sure to familiarize themselves with at least some sagas.