The Saga Tradition

The Icelandic sagas — written in Old Norse, the language shared by medieval Scandinavia — are among the earliest examples of prose narrative in any European language. Njal's Saga, the greatest of them, follows a feud across generations with the sophistication of a modern novel, centuries before the novel was supposedly invented.

The sagas also shaped modern fantasy. Tolkien read Old Norse and modeled Middle-earth on saga geography and values, so most fantasy readers absorb honor, fate, and laconic courage without knowing the source.