saga

Forms

saga f (genitive sǫgu, plural sǫgur) (weak ōn-stem)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *sagǭ (“what is said, account”),^[1][2] a noun formed beside the verb *sagjaną (“to say”), the source of segja.^[2][3] Its cognates are Old English sagu (“statement, story”), Old Frisian sege (“statement, testimony”) and Old High German saga (“story, statement”).^[2][4]

Orel and Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon compare Lithuanian pasaka (“tale”) and the root Proto-Indo-European *sekʷ- (“to say”);^[4][5] Kroonen thinks the likeness to the Baltic word chance, since an Indo-European form with a labiovelar would have given a different Germanic word.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

IcePaHC's earliest text, the Icelandic Homily Book, which it dates 1150, has the dative plural sögum.^[6] Menota's first datable records are in AM 619 4to and AM 677 4to, of 1200–1225, with sǫgur, sǫgu and saga.^[7][8]

Semantic evolution

Fritzner and Zoëga put first the sense “what someone says, a statement”, then the told or written story, and the events the story is about.^[9][10] In the laws saga is a formal statement, as the accusation made against someone or the dying man's naming of his killer (saga hins sára).^[11][12] Cleasby and Vigfússon describe how the word came to be used for the written histories, since these grew out of told tradition and kept its name.^[13]

It continues as Icelandic saga, Faroese søga, Norwegian Nynorsk soge and Swedish saga.^[5][3] The English word saga was taken from Old Norse in 1709 for the medieval narratives of Iceland and Norway, and Danish and Swedish saga are revivals of the Icelandic word.^[14][15]

Timeline

• 1150 – sögum in the Icelandic Homily Book, by IcePaHC's dating.^[6]
• 1200–1225 – sǫgur, sǫgu and saga in AM 619 4to and AM 677 4to.^[7][8]
• c. 1200 – perhaps s[ôg]u “story” on the Åker font in Denmark, in a damaged passage.^[16]
• 1709 – English saga.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. what is said, a statement, report.^[10][9]
2. (law) a formal declaration, an accusation.^[11][12]
3. a tale, story, history, told or written.^[10][17]
4. the events a story tells of.^[10]

Word family

• sǫgubók
• sǫgufróðr
• dœmisaga
• lǫgsaga
• uppsaga

Descendants

• Icelandic saga^[1]
• Faroese søga^[1]
• Norwegian Nynorsk soge^[1]
• Swedish saga^[18]
• Danish sage^[1]
• English saga^[14]

Related words

• segja
• sǫgn

Usage notes

The verb saga “to saw” has a separate source: it is made from sǫg “saw”.^[5][2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 421
3. ^ a b de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 459
4. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 311
5. ^ a b c Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. saga
6. ^ a b Wallenberg, Joel C.; Ingason, Anton Karl; Sigurðsson, Einar Freyr; Rögnvaldsson, Eiríkur, Icelandic Parsed Historical Corpus, version 0.9
7. ^ a b Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 619 4to
8. ^ a b Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 677 4to
9. ^ a b Fritzner, Johan (1886–1896), Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 2nd ed., Kristiania, p. s.v. saga
10. ^ a b c d Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. saga
11. ^ a b Hertzberg, Ebbe (1895), Glossarium, in Norges gamle Love indtil 1387, vol. 5, Christiania, p. 532
12. ^ a b A Lexicon of Medieval Nordic Law, Digital Humanities Institute, University of Sheffield, p. s.v. saga
13. ^ Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 508
14. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com, p. s.v. saga
15. ^ Jóhannesson, Alexander (1956), Isländisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern, p. 779
16. ^ Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. DR 373
17. ^ Baetke, Walter (1965–1968), Wörterbuch zur altnordischen Prosaliteratur, Berlin (digital ed. Greifswald 2006), p. 513
18. ^ Hellquist, Elof (1922), Svensk etymologisk ordbok, Lund, p. s.v. saga