Norse mythology Legendary saga
In Norse mythology, a Legendary saga or Fornaldarsaga (literally, a tale of
times past) is a Norse saga that, unlike the Icelanders' sagas, takes place
before the colonization of Iceland. There are some exceptions, such as Yngvars
saga víđförla, which takes place in the 11th century.
The setting is Scandinavia, but occasionally it moves temporarily to more
distant and exotic locations. There are also very often mythological elements,
such as dwarves, elves and giants, but in spite of this they were in centuries
past considered to be reliable historic sources by Scandinavian scholars. In
those days, they were much studied because they present a heroic and romantic
past for Scandinavians, something that has fallen out favour among historians
during the last century.
Many or most of the sagas are based on distant historic events and this is
evident in cases where there are corroborating sources, such as Göngu-Hrólfs
saga, Ragnars saga lođbrókar, Yngvars saga víđförla and Völsunga saga. In the
case of Hervarar saga the names in the Gothic setting indicate a historic basis,
and the latter parts of the saga are still used as a historic source for Swedish
history. They often contain very old
Germanic
matter, such as the Hervarar saga and the Völsunga saga which contains poetry
about Sigurd that did not find its way into the Poetic Edda and which would
otherwise have been lost. Other sagas deal with heroes such as Ragnar Lodbrok,
Starkad, Hrólf Kraki and Orvar-Odd.
Hjorvard and Hjalmar propose to IngeborgUnlike the Icelandic sagas, the
Fornaldarsagas have great value for legend research, since they contain motifs
and complexes of motifs from many types of legend of which there is otherwise no
documentation in Scandinavia prior to the mid-19th century. They are also of
great value for scholars studying medieval Scandinavian ballads which are often
based on the same matters. Moreover, they are also very important for the study
of Scandinavian and Germanic heroic legends together with Saxo Grammaticus'
Gesta Danorum which was based on the same heroic poetry and traditions.
Their influence on J.R.R. Tolkien's works and on the modern fantasy genre is
considerable. For example, one of the most famous Swedish literary works,
Frithiof's saga, was based on the Friđţjófs saga ins frkna.