It is cognate with the English words say and saw (in the sense 'a saying', as in old saw), and the German Sage but the modern English term saga was borrowed directly into English from Old Norse by scholars in the eighteenth century to refer to Old Norse prose narratives. The main meanings of the Old Norse word saga (plural sǫgur) are 'what is said, utterance, oral account, notification' and the sense used in this article: '(structured) narrative, story (about somebody)'. While sagas are written in prose, they share some similarities with epic poetry, and often include stanzas or whole poems in alliterative verse embedded in the text. Whereas the dominant language of history-writing in medieval Europe was Latin, sagas were composed in the vernacular: Old Norse and its later descendants, primarily Icelandic. Sagas originated in the Middle Ages, but continued to be composed in the ensuing centuries. However, sagas' subject matter is diverse, including pre-Christian Scandinavian legends saints and bishops both from Scandinavia and elsewhere Scandinavian kings and contemporary Icelandic politics and chivalric romances either translated from Continental European languages or composed locally.
The most famous saga-genre is the Íslendingasögur (sagas concerning Icelanders), which feature Viking voyages, migration to Iceland, and feuds between Icelandic families. Sagas are prose stories and histories, composed in Iceland and to a lesser extent elsewhere in Scandinavia.
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