h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Well, the title says it all really! I know it sounds silly, but the other day my friend said a saga was two films long... Is it just me, or does that not sound right?
Oberon2001

About this long.

Since sagas were invented by the Icelanders, I thought it would be best to check the lengths of some Icelandic sagas on my bookshelf. Njál's Saga, one of the longest, is 310 pages. Hrafnkel's Saga, on the other hand, is one of the shortest at only 37 pages.

I think that a saga _can_ be two films long, or even one film. Length is not one of the requisites of a saga, although it is often interpreted that way.

Where can I get hold of those Icelandic sagas of which you speak of?
Are they good, and what are they about?
I have only come across The Saga Of Noggin The Nog.

One of my primary school teachers once read us the Saga of Erik the Viking. I think that was written for early teens.

Penguin used to publish them. I have Njal's Saga, Vinland Saga, Egil's Saga and Orkneyinga Saga. Do a search on Amazon to see if they are still available, or ask your local bookshop.

As to whether they are any good, it depends on what kind of book you like to read. *I* enjoyed them. What are they about? Well, Orkneyinga Saga is about the history of the kings of the Orkney Islands. Vinland Saga is about the discovery of America by Icelanders in the 10th or 11th century. Njal's saga and Egil's Saga are about Icelanders (I think. It's a while since I read them!) Sagas traditionally are about Norwegian or Icelandic history as it was seen at that time, and are very good if you like that sort of thing.

Erik the Viking was written by Terry Jones (he of Python fame) and iluustrated by Michael Foreman. It was published in about 1983 by Penguin books. It was a little like Homers The Oddessey, and followed a young Norsemans adventures with his crew in a long boat. It is excellent. Unfortunately, Mr. Jones made some of the tales into the film "Erik The Viking" which was a bit of a mess. (Although at the end credits, it says that it has nothing to do with the book.)

I should have known.
My experiences with ancient literature are bad. In the past year or so, I've tried to read The Ramayana (ancient mythology from India and reputed to be the earliest ever work of fiction surviving to the present day) and Homer's Iliad. The former was a struggle but I finished. In the latter, I got to the bit where they list the armies, which I have since discovered is reasonably infamous, and gave up before I despaired of life.

Just Bob, you should read the Odyssey before you attempt to read the Iliad. It's much more approachable.

Hrafnkel's Saga is a good one of the Icelandic sagas to start with because it is short. If you like the style, you can attempt some of the longer ones. Njál's saga is a story of a family feud which lasted three generations, so it is long!

If you want to read the odyssey get hold of a copy of Odysseus, The greatest hero of them all by richard curtis/tony robinson...fantastic youll get to know the story so reading the original wont be such a slog.

I'm with Gnomon. I love Brennu-Njáls Saga, but you have to be aware that this is about several generations and lots of blood-revenge...

Anyone ever seen the Monty Python sketch where they talk about icelandic sagas? And they use the entire shows telling his lineage. Well, the real sagas are just like that. Save yourselves, stay far away from icelandic sagas. We had some about them in school, they are incredibly boring. I say we burn them.

Did enjoy the Odyssey though, and thinking about reading Epic of Gilgamesh.

Hey, I really love to read the icelandic sagas, unfortunatly I'm very far from reading them on Icelandic *still being happy to read the not-so-difficult newspaper articles*

Oh, I don't know I suppose it go on and on seemingly endlessly if one wasn't particularly interested in the goings on of the participants especially if the sentences seemed to drag on with no particular point like those enormous words the Germans make, you know the ones that put other words together into a descriptive phrase that seems so apt to the feeling they are trying to express all in one neat albeit lenghthy word while the English language can sometimes take whole sentences and still not accurately describe the sense that the German word might have, I suppose it depends on the translation as it would with a saga don't you think?

Well put, Zoomer.
I sort of know the story of the Odyssey, if not in detail.
Is there a significant difference between an pic and a saga?

In the original usage of the words, epics were poems from southern Europe, while sagas were prose from northern Europe.

In modern terminology, both sagas and epics are long and cover the histories of many different people. The distinction of prose and poetry has been lost. If talking about Europe, you would probably still use saga for Northern and epic for Southern, but both terms have been used indiscriminately in America: my dictionary lists 'the winning of the West was a great American epic' and 'a saga of the Old South'.

I think it was Star Wars which I have heard referred to as an epic saga...

@ Bob: I always thought that it is much more precise to say things in english... Anyway, things are very very precisely said in Icelandic, anyway

You's think so, Skugga, but...