Sagas Books
In this charming holiday story by the bestselling author Nancy Thayer, a winter wedding takes place on Nantucket, bringing together family and friends for a ...
Lucy and Kate first crossed paths when they were young wives and mothers. Since then, their families have grown close, spending every August together on ...
They were once a happy family. However, everything changed when her daughter accused his son...of rape. Authors Owen and Linda McFarland had been enjoying a ...
Description
Sagas are prose stories and histories, composed in Iceland and to a lesser extent elsewhere in Scandinavia.
The most famous saga-genre is the Íslendingasögur (sagas concerning Icelanders), which feature Viking voyages, migration to Iceland, and feuds between Icelandic families. However, sagas' subject matter is diverse, including pre-Christian Scandinavian legends; saints and bishops both from Scandinavia and elsewhere; Scandinavian kings and contemporary Icelandic politics; and chivalric romances either translated from Continental European languages or composed locally.
Sagas originated in the Middle Ages, but continued to be composed in the ensuing centuries. Whereas the dominant language of history-writing in medieval Europe was Latin, sagas were composed in the vernacular: Old Norse and its later descendants, primarily Icelandic.
While sagas are written in prose, they share some similarities with epic poetry, and often include stanzas or whole poems in alliterative verse embedded in the text.