What is a saga? Famous literary and cinematic sagas

In this article we will understand what a saga is, find out where it came from in our and world culture and what impact it has on it.

The concept of

Of course, the word "saga" did not come to us from the authors of the sensational story of vampires. It was born long before that. His homeland is far Iceland 13-14 centuries. The saga is a form that generalizes literary works of a narrative character that were recorded hundreds of years ago.

The word comes from the Old Norse "legend", and the age of the sagas accounted for about 900-1030 years. Initially, these were oral narratives transmitted from the older generation to the young. Then they were recorded.

From the point of view of literary criticism, the saga is a collection of literary works written in Scandinavia at the specified time.

In the modern world, there is one more meaning of this word, both in literature and in cinematography. Usually these are life stories that have taken on a certain form and are similar in their epic or content to the original source.

The modern generation should understand well what a saga is, because now it is a common genre phenomenon.

Principle

In the original saga, the canon of narration has always been strictly observed. It began with the representation of all the heroes, however, sometimes several generations were described before the main character appeared. It was all important: who whose husband, the names of all children and distant relatives, their occupation and so on.

Many sagas began their narrative from the moment of the birth of statehood in Iceland (Scandinavia). For this genre was characterized by a huge number of characters. They were so many that you can easily get confused and even lose the thread of the story.

The chronology of the sagas is strictly sustained. It is always possible to understand what time interval is involved. In works often you can meet fantastic elements (for example, the fight against undead, ghosts). Attitudes are not given enough attention, compared with later literature.

Varieties

It is impossible to understand what a saga is without acquaintance with the ancient Icelandic monuments of literature. Traditionally, they were divided into several cycles depending on the time, subjects.

Here are the best sagas of that period:

1. The family sagas (the narrative about relations within the family and between them):

• "The Saga of Nyala";
• "The Saga of Egil";
• "The saga of people from the Salmon Valley," etc.

2. Saga about the ancient times (based on the myths and legends of the Northern European peoples):

• "The Saga of the Völsungs";
• "The Saga of the Inglings".

3. Translation sagas (they tell about events outside their native land):

• "The Saga of Trojans";
• "The Saga of the Romans."

4. The saga of the kings (since Iceland was a country without monarchical power, this series included narratives about the history of Norway and Denmark):

• "The Knightling Saga";
• "The Saga of Olav Tryggvason."

5. Saga of the bishops (narrating about the history of the Catholic Church).

6. Saga of recent events (works about the cruel and bloody era of the Sturlungs).

Literary sagas

Most authors, including the word "saga" in the title of their work, imply that this is the story of one large family, perhaps in several generations.

In modern literary criticism there is such a thing as a family saga. It implies that the history of the birth, development or withering of one family occurs against the backdrop of some world or political events in the country, some kind of external factor. If you look at examples of such works, let alone read them, then it will be very simple to understand what a saga is in literature.

Here are some family sagas of Russian and foreign authors:

• The Forsyte Saga, a monumental work by Galsworthy, the Nobel Prize laureate, consists of five cycles and tells of several generations of the Forsyte family.
• "Quiet Flows the Don" - the work of the Nobel laureate M. Sholokhov, in the center of the plot is the Melekhov family.
• "Buddenbroki, the story of the death of one family" - a family chronicle from the classic of the German literature of Thomas Mann.
• "Eternal Call" is the epoch-making work of Anatoly Ivanov, covering several decades. In the center of the plot is the Saveliev family.
• "Singing in thorns" - K. McCullough wrote an amazing book that became the anthem of all-consuming love. In the center of the story is the story of Maggie Cleary's family.
• "Ugryum River" is a work by the Russian author Vyacheslav Shishkov, who described the fate of three generations of the Gromov family.

Cinematographic sagas

What is a saga in a movie, probably everyone knows. Annually on the wide screens there are exciting films with an intricate plot, in the center of which there is some kind of family history.

So, the most interesting kinosagi:

1. "Star Wars" - a fantastic epic, which includes seven films.
2. "The taste of sunlight" - a film directed by István Szabó tells of three generations of the Sonnenshain Jewish family.
3. "Hobbit" and "Lord of the Rings" - not needing a saga of Middle-earth.
4. "Twilight" - a notorious vampire saga, conquered millions of viewers around the world.
5. "Divergent" - a film, an anti-utopia, based on the book of the same name.

In fact, to understand what a saga is, it's not so difficult. The main thing is to understand its basic principles.