A medieval Icelandic prose narrative form recounting the lives, feuds and genealogies of historical or legendary Icelandic families, kings or heroes, written in a spare, understated prose style with minimal authorial comment, standing among the great vernacular prose achievements of medieval European literature.
Facts
Place of OriginIceland, 13th-14th century, recording events chiefly set in the 9th-11th century settlement period. 1 StructureExtended prose narrative, unrhymed and generally unversed, in a spare, restrained style, often incorporating genealogies and occasional embedded verse (skaldic stanzas) attributed to characters. 1 Notable ExampleNjal's Saga and Egil's Saga, among the most celebrated of the Icelandic family sagas. 1 Connections
Form Of Genre
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica
Influenced By
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica
Works In This Form
Source Njáls saga (Wikipedia)
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Source Encyclopaedia Britannicatier 1
Sources
1. Encyclopaedia Britannica
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.- Place of Origin: Iceland, 13th-14th century, recording events chiefly set in the 9th-11th century settlement period.
- Structure: Extended prose narrative, unrhymed and generally unversed, in a spare, restrained style, often incorporating genealogies and occasional embedded verse (skaldic stanzas) attributed to characters.
- Notable Example: Njal's Saga and Egil's Saga, among the most celebrated of the Icelandic family sagas.
View the Source Njáls saga (Wikipedia)
Works In This Form: Njals saga, Lead paragraph, sentence naming the formQuote, Works In This Form: Njals saga, Lead paragraph, sentence naming the form
Njáls saga (Icelandic pronunciation: [ˈnjauls ˌsaːɣa] ), also Njála ([ˈnjauːla] ), or Brennu-Njáls saga ([ˈprɛnːʏ-ˌnjauls ˌsaːɣa] ) (Which can be translated as The Story of Burnt Njáll, or The Saga of Njáll the Burner), is a thirteenth-century Icelandic saga that describes events between 960 and 1020.
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