The Legendary Sagas: Origins and Development

The present collection of articles about the Icelandic 'fornaldarsögur', 'fornaldarsögur Norðurlanda', comprises the third and final of those anthologies concerning these texts edited by Ármann Jakobsson, Annette Lassen and Agneta Ney. The first volume, 'Fornaldarsagornas struktur och ideologi: Handlingar från ett symposium i Uppsala 31.8–2.9 2001', was published in Uppsala in 2003. The second volume, 'Fornaldarsagaerne, myter og virkelighed: studier i de oldislandske fornaldarsögur Norðurlanda', appeared in Copenhagen in 2009. The first volume includes an extensive bibliography of the 'fornaldarsögur', the second a somewhat substantial addendum to that bibliography while this was not deemed necessary for this third volume. While the earlier volumes have focused upon structure and ideology, myth and reality, the present volume focuses on the origin and development of the 'fornaldarsögur Norðurlanda'. 'Fornaldarsögur Norðurlanda' are traditionally regarded as one of the youngest saga groups. Many 'fornaldarsögur', in their preserved form, were written in the 13th or 14th century. It has, nonetheless, also been argued that the oldest 'fornaldarsögur' may have been written in the same period as the 'classical' family sagas. A number of 'fornaldarsögur' are to a great extent based upon older traditional poetry. 'Völsunga saga' is presumably based on the Eddic poetry found in the 'Poetic Edda' and 'Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks' on the poems incorporated in its text. The former is in large passages a prose version of eddic poems belonging to the Völsunga-tradition, and the latter preserves seemingly old eddic poems that have not survived elsewhere in medieval manuscripts. Another subgroup of 'fornaldarsögur' deals with ancient Scandinavian Viking kings, and even though at least some of these may be based on an older tradition, they appear more remote from such a tradition and often more akin to 'riddarasögur' or romances. While the 'fornaldarsögur' related to eddic poetry have been held in high esteem, many of the sagas concerning Viking kings have been denounced as young sagas of bad taste, as fabulous and stereotypical entertainment. But many of the young sagas were indeed the most popular 'fornaldarsögur' in the Icelandic Middle Ages and early modern times, as evidenced by the large quantity of manuscripts.