ABSTRACT
Saga in the Old Norse language simply meant a story – any story. The word is related to segja, ‘say’, and could be used about anything told or related, regardless of form, origin or subject matter. In modern English usage, however, an ‘Icelandic saga’ is a specific type of long epic prose narrative written in Old Norse in medieval Iceland at some time after 1150, at least partly based on indigenous oral tradition and primarily dealing with the legendary past of the Scandinavian people. The three most ancient and famous indigenous saga types – or genres – are called fornaldarsögur (‘mythical-heroic sagas’), konungasögur (‘sagas of kings’, normally about the kings of Norway) and Íslendingasögur (‘family sagas’ or ‘sagas of Icelanders’, about prominent Icelandic families and individuals living in the period 850–1050).
