Norse Goddess Magic by Alice Karlsdóttir

Norse Goddess Magic by Alice Karlsdóttir

Author:Alice Karlsdóttir
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Spirituality/New Age
Publisher: Inner Traditions / Bear & Company
Published: 2015-04-11T00:00:00+00:00


10

Saga

The Storyteller

Lore

Saga (ON Sága) is another of the Norse goddesses who are numbered among the Asynjur. Snorri (Gylfaginning, ch. 35) lists her as the second goddess and states that she lives in a great dwelling called Sokkvabekk. In the Grímnismál (st. 7) we learn that Sokkvabekk is the fourth hall in Asgard, surrounded by cool waves, and that every day Odin and Saga drink there gladly together from cups of gold.

Although we are not told many details about Saga, there is still much that can be inferred from the sparse information available. Her name, while technically not the same word as the feminine Icelandic noun saga, undoubtedly comes from the same root, segja, meaning “to say or tell.” The Old Norse word saga means “story,” “tale,” or “history,” and in modern German and English it still means “legend” or “myth.” More specifically, we use it to refer to heroic narratives written in the twelfth or thirteenth centuries that chronicle the feats of historical or legendary figures in Scandinavian culture or modern narratives written in the same style.

A saga is more than mere history—it blends fact with legend, narrative with poetry. The pre-Christian Norse made no distinction between factual, historical works and fictional, literary ones.1 Instead, people sought to record all aspects of reality, combining factual, artistic, and spiritual truths into an organic whole. They had no concept of fiction but regarded all tales as true on a certain level. To them, legends were as real as documented occurrences, and therefore they did not distinguish between the two in their sagas. A saga records the history of a people’s soul rather than mere events and thus is a link between the ancestors and the present and future generations.

A Personification of Legends

The goddess Saga, then, can be seen as a personification of these stories, and indeed she is not the only feminine figure to be used to personify a legend. The Greek muse Klio personified history, although what Saga represents would probably encompass several of the muses’ functions. In Germany, when people took turns telling stories, they said the Märlein went around from house to house. This game of passing around the telling of myths or fables was also practiced by the ancient Greeks and Romans.2 In Norway parents still tell their children eventyr (“fairy tales,” from the ON ævintyr and related to the English adventure).

The poets of the thirteenth century captured the spirit of adventure in their verse. In their Frau Aventiure tales, Dame Aventiure wandered the countryside on foot, knocking at the doors of the minstrels and demanding that they let her in.3 Peter Suchenwirt, late-fourteenth-century Austrian poet, describes a vision of Dame Aventiure. In it, she appears in a forest grove and says she has traveled throughout the land, visiting kings and lords as Frau Ehre’s messenger, and now has come to make her report. Then, putting a gold ring on her finger, she disappears.4Ehre is the German word meaning “honor,” “reputation,” or “glory,” and, like Saga, it is a feminine noun.



Download



Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.