History Literature / TheIcelandicSagas

* '''Chivalric Sagas''' (''Riddarasögur''), also called Sagas of Knights or Sagas of Chivalry: A collective name for translations or rather, retellings of contemporary continental literature of {{the High Middle Ages}}: {{Chivalric Romance}}s of KingArthur and his [[KnightInShiningArmor Knights]], French ''chansons de geste'', but also popular medieval versions of the defaults of classical legend and (pseudo-)history, such as UsefulNotes/TheTrojanWar, UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat, and [[AncientRome Roman history.]]

* [[{{Seer}} Second Sight]]: Most sagas have at least one person with this. Since PropheciesAreAlwaysRight, visions and premonitions are always a {{Foreshadowing}}. Seers are also frequently very good at interpreting [[DreamingOfThingsToCome other people's dreams.]]

* {{Foreshadowing}}: The Norse tended to believe in predestination, and [[{{Seer}} premonitions of clairvoyants]] and [[DreamingOfThingsToCome prophetic dreams]] will [[YouCantFightFate always turn out to be true.]] More subtle foreshadowings are seemingly minute happenings that go unexplained by the narrative, but are to be understood as omens. For example, a character stumbling means that there is trouble ahead, and depending on the character's own GenreSavvy he/she may actually realize this.

* MagicalWeapon: Gunnar in ''Njal's Saga'' had a magic Halberd that made its wielder invincible, and is notably one of the only major characters to survive the story, though partially by virtue of leaving the saga halfway through. He took it from a pirate who was invincible until the halberd got [[LeftStuckAfterAttack stuck in the boom of the ship.]]

* {{One Liner}}s: A trademark of the saga style. Subgroups include PreAssKickingOneLiner, PreMortemOneLiner, or FamousLastWords.

* FamousLastWords: The Icelanders must have loved them. Big bonus points when your [[DeadpanSnarker last words]] are ''[[GallowsHumor funny.]]''

The sagas contain such timeless elements as love, friendship, enmity, honor, and revenge. However they also contain a glimpse at everyday life and are traditionally seen as often written about characters whom we would call "upper middle class" rather then Princes and Nobles. In fact all the major sagas centre on the power struggles of the most powerful magnates, clans and personal alliances on Iceland and well depicts the situation of all the Scandinavian countries (even the forward and comparatively centralised Danmark) from Viking Age to High Middle Ages (and presumably before). The writing style is terse and laconic, depending heavily on the reader/listener being able to figure out context based on relationships, and can be hard to get used to for someone who grew up on the more descriptive style used in a modern novel format.

* '''Legendary Sagas''' (''Fornaldarsögur'' -- literally "Ancient Age Sagas"). Heroic legends set in the so-called ''fornaldar'' or Old Age, which, in the worldview of the Icelanders, means more or less the time before the settlement of Iceland by the Norse c. 870 AD. [[note]] This is quite stunning considering that Icelandic genealogies would, taken at face value, place the exploits of Sigurd the Dragonslayer at around 800 AD. [[/note]] Much of the legendary lore covered in the Legendary sagas is very old, often even predating the Viking Age. The ''fornaldarsögur'' were not claimed to be factual, but it was usually assumed (this being already the Christian era) that there was a core of truth in the old legends[[note]][There probably is in the sense that some named individuals did exist. However, apart from their names, there is not much else to go on[/note]].

* '''Legendary Sagas''' (''Fornaldarsögur'' -- literally "Ancient Age Sagas"). Heroic legends set in the so-called ''fornaldar'' or Old Age, which, in the worldview of the Icelanders, means more or less the time before the settlement of Iceland by the Norse c. 870 AD. [[note]] This is quite stunning considering that Icelandic genealogies would, taken at face value, place the exploits of Sigurd the Dragonslayer at around 800 AD. [[/note]] Much of the legendary lore covered in the Legendary sagas is very old, often even predating the Viking Age. The ''fornaldarsögur'' were not claimed to be factual, but it was usually assumed (this being already the Christian era) that there was a core of truth in the old legends.

* BoldExplorer: ''The Vinland Sagas'' tell how Leif Ericson's explorations led him to become the first European known to have set foot on North America. (The popular theory that Leif's father, Erik the Red, discovered Greenland, however, is not supported by the sagas, nor by any other historical evidence.)

* AnonymousAuthor: Most sagas in general, and ''all'' of the Sagas of Icelanders are of anonymous authorship[[note]]although many scholars believe that ''Literature/EgilsSaga'' was written by Creator/SnorriSturluson[[/note]].

[[center: [[AC: [[CaptainObvious And here we conclude the TV Tropes article on the Icelandic Sagas.]]]]]]

** Though ''Njal's Saga'' is arguably a really effective {{Deconstruction}}. Many of the male characters react pathetically to perceived slights to their manly honour and it is quite clear that much of the bloodshed in the story would have been easily avoided if thicker skins and cooler heads prevailed.

* {{Tricksters}}: Several sagas, such as Gisli Sursson's, have a character named Ref -- Icelandic for [[CunningLikeAFox "Fox"]] -- who always lives up to his name. There is also a Saga of Ref the Sly, where the eponymous hero tricks [[WarriorPrince Harald Hardradi]]. (Parts of the Saga of Ref, and some of the scenes dealing with bit-part Ref characters in other sagas, show [[WholePlotReference clear similarities]] to the French "[[FantasticFoxes Reynard]]" folktales.)

This fuzziness is not surprising as, in its basic meaning, the term ''saga'' can encompass almost all narrative prose of medieval Norse-speaking Europe [[note]] Which, besides UsefulNotes/{{Norway}}, UsefulNotes/{{Sweden}}, UsefulNotes/{{Denmark}}, and UsefulNotes/{{Iceland}}, also included Orkney, the UsefulNotes/FaroeIslands, UsefulNotes/{{Greenland}}, and some bilingual places -- like UsefulNotes/{{Dublin}}, the Isle of Man, the Hebrides, and Caithness in UsefulNotes/{{Scotland}}. [[/note]]. Medieval Iceland, however, was exceptionally productive in literary output, the place where writers most consequently used their native Norse (as opposed to Latin), and where most manuscripts of Old Norse literature were preserved.