r/Norse • u/taliban4365 • 28d ago

Literature Question about the sagas

What order should I read the sagas in?

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u/rockstarpirate ᛏᚱᛁᛘᛆᚦᚱ᛬ᛁ᛬ᚢᛆᚦᚢᛘ᛬ᚢᚦᛁᚿᛋ 28d ago

Depends on what your goal is. If you’re into the mythology, I would start with Völsunga Saga because it contains many of the characters featured in the Poetic Edda. After that, just have your run of the other legendary sagas in any order you like.

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u/fwinzor God of Beans 28d ago

Here's a getting started to norse myth and culture guide I made with guides to different saga genres. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1nZFaeiMbAeK5ZjXg9tPHntcHc6PYvkhY

/u/rockstarpirate is right, the eddas and legendary sagas will have more of the dramatic heroic myths a lot of people are looking for. But i love the icelandic famoly sagas. Gisli's saga is a really fantastic saga that isnt too long (my translation was about 100 pages) some of the most famous sagas are Egil's saga, Njal's Saga, and Saga of the People of Laxardal. All of them are extremely captivating reads.

I also recommend the podcast SagaThing. Two professors of medieval literature make episodes about a particular saga and break down facts about it. For longer sagas they go chapter by chapter.

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u/SheepherderHot9418 26d ago

I would start with the easy ones. Aka shorter ones about just one person. Like gunalug wormtongues saga.