fornaldarsǫgur

▪ Scandinavian literature

Old Norse“sagas of antiquity”

      class of Icelandic sagas dealing with the ancient myths and hero legends of Germania, with the adventures of Vikings, or with other exotic adventures in foreign lands. These stories take place on the European continent before the settlement of Iceland. Though the existing fornaldarsǫgur were written in 1250–1350, after the Icelanders' family sagas (written 1200–20), they are thought to be of earlier oral composition. Despite their fantastic content, they are written in the terse, objective style of the family sagas.

      These heroic sagas have not the same literary value as the Icelanders' sagas, but, because they are based on lost heroic poetry, they are of great antiquarian interest. The most important in this respect is the Vǫlsunga saga. This story of Sigurd, grandson of Volsung, is the Northern version of the story of Siegfried and of the destruction of the Burgundians told in the Middle German epic Nibelungenlied. It differs in many particulars from the Nibelungenlied.

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