Saga
Saga names 3 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Saga in Scandinavian literature
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
in Scandinavian literature, a legend or tradition. The Saga in Scandinavian mythology is the name of the goddess of history and narrative. It was the duty of the skalds and sagamen to preserve the accounts of warriors and their deeds and recite them when called for. The skald recited or sang in poetry, but the stories of the sagamen were in prose. These legends came gradually to be composed in regular form and according to fixed laws. A saga gave the history of some hero and resembled the epic in every respect excepting the one of versification. The sagas preserved specially in Icelandic literature are of great historical value. The oldest sagas extant are believed to have been written down first during the twelfth century, probably after they had been recited orally for a generation or two. The sagas fill over 200 volumes and include mythical and romantic, as well as heroic, stories, for the word saga seems to denote both tradition and history. They are in reality prose epics, resembling the regular hero epic in every respect except versification. The most important of these prose epics, as they have been called, are Frithiof's Saga, the title of which has been used by the Swedish Tegner for his great poem; and the Volsunga Saga, relating to the ancestors of Sigurd, the hero of the Nibelungen Lied. In time, almost every important Icelandic family came to have its written saga. The legends and nursery tales popular among the common people are called folk-saga. They have been collected in recent times. Among them are found the originals of many tales popular in various European countries. Jack the Giant Killer, and Cinderella are two of them. See Literature ; Icelandic; Edda ; Skald
Saga an ancient Scandinavian tale
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
an ancient Scandinavian tale, legend, or tradition, of considerable length, and relating either historical or mythical events; a tale, a history, a story, a legend. The Scandinavian sagas were compiled chiefly in the 12th and three following centuries. The most remarkable it as a tonic for debility of the stomach are those of Lodbrok, Hervara, Vilkina, Völsunga, Blomsturvalla, Yynglinga, Olaf Tryggva-Sonar, with those of Jomsvikingia and of Knytlinga (which h contain the legendary history of Iceland), the Heims- Kringla and New Edda, due to Snorri Sturlason.
Saga a town of Japan
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a town of Japan, capitol of the province of Hizen, on the island of Kioo Lioo 74 miles N. E. of Nagasaki. It is important as a seaport and commercial center. A large number of brooks and channels traverse the town. The most important channel is that of Sentonofutsi, 50 miles in length. It unites the Gulf of Simabara with the Northern Sea, and greatly conduces to the inland commerce of the island. Pop. about 38,000. fetid gum-resin
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Aiton's 1910 assurance that the sagas are "of great historical value" has been heavily qualified: since the 1930s the Icelandic school led by Sigurður Nordal has treated the family sagas as thirteenth-century literary compositions rather than faithful oral records, though the Vinland sagas were dramatically vindicated when Norse buildings were excavated at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland from 1960. The manuscripts themselves have moved: Denmark began returning the great Icelandic codices to Reykjavík in 1971, starting with the Codex Regius of the Poetic Edda. Collier's other Saga, "capitol of the province of Hizen," is now the capital of Saga Prefecture (Hizen was abolished in 1871) and a city of roughly 230,000, no longer a seaport of consequence; the printer's slips in that 1921 column, which drop "as a tonic for debility of the stomach" and "fetid gum-resin" into the text, are stray lines from neighbouring entries.
Written for this edition, 2026.