ABSTRACT
The heroic and legendary sagas, also known by such varied terms as Mythical-Heroic Sagas and fornaldarsögur norðrlanda (‘Nordic sagas of antiquity’), constitute a group of some thirty late medieval Icelandic texts. Although the genre was given its canonical shape by modern editors, especially P.E. Müller (1818) and Carl C. Rafn (1829), few readers fail to sense the unity of these narratives. Characteristic features include the valorisation of Nordic heroes, wide-ranging exploits across the map of Europe, frequent pagan theophanies, and a remarkable array of supernatural creatures and villains. These features, and a frequent suspension of normal temporal and spatial frames of reference, contrast sharply with the more realistic saga genres (e.g. íslendingasögur, Sturlunga saga). Many of these same formal features are also true of a group of texts closely resembling the fornaldarsögur but which, due to their foreign origins and non-Nordic heroes, are usually assigned to a separate genre of translated and original chivalric romances (e.g. Karlamagnús saga, Kirjalax saga).
