ETYM Icel., akin to Eng. saw a saying. Related to Say, Saw.
An narrative telling the adventures of a hero or a family; originally (12th to 14th centuries) a story of the families that settled Iceland and their descendants but now any prose narrative that resembles such an account.
Prose narrative written down in the 11th–13th centuries in Norway and Iceland. The sagas range from family chronicles, such as the Landnamabok of Ari (1067–1148), to legendary and anonymous works such as the Njala saga.
Other sagas include the Heimskringla of Snorri Sturluson celebrating Norwegian kings, the Sturlunga of Sturla Thordsson (1214–1284), and the legendary and anonymous Laxdaela and Grettla sagas. “Family saga” is often used of a novel whose protagonists span two or more generations.