Anonymous, Völsunga saga

Aðalheiður Guðmundsdóttir (University of Iceland)

Ed. by Ármann Jakobsson, University of Iceland
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.3.4: Icelandic Writing and Culture.
Vol. editors: Ármann Jakobsson (University of Iceland), Sven Hakon Rossel (Universitat Wien), Herbert Rowland (Purdue University), Jakob Stougaard-Nielsen (University College London)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1200

Places

Norway (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Prose Fiction Narrative

Resources

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Völsunga saga

belongs to the mythical heroic sagas, a group of Icelandic sagas also known as legendary sagas [

fornaldarsögur

]. The saga is believed to date from the thirteenth century and is based mainly on the preserved eddic poems [

eddukvæði

], i.e., the heroic poems of the Edda. These heroic poems in turn are derived from Germanic heroic legend, and in part on Norse legends about ancient kings and heroes. To a large extent, the saga can be said to be a sort of editorial compilation in which the author has selected material from the ancient poems, arranged it into a coherent sequence, and filled in the gaps. Similar material is preserved in German epic poems such as the

Nibelungenlied

, which dates from about 1200, and the Old Norse

Þiðreks saga af Bern

from the thirteenth…

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2319 words

Citation: Guðmundsdóttir, Aðalheiður. "Völsunga saga". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 23 February 2023 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=40710, accessed 21 November 2024.]

Anonymous, Völsunga saga

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