Sadha-Sing, the mourner of the desert.—Sir W. Scott, The Surgeon’s Daughter (time, George II.).
Sæmund Sigfusson, surnamed “the Wise,” an Icelandic priest and scald. He compiled the Elder or Rythmical Edda, often called Sæmund’s Edda. This compilation contains not only mythological tales and moral sentences, but numerous sagas in verse or heroic lays, as those of Völung and Helgê, of Sigurd and Brynhilda, of Folsungs and Niflungs (pt. ii.). Probably his compilation contained all the mythological, heroic, and legendary lays extant at the period in which he lived (1054-1133).
Saga, the goddess of history.—Scandinavian Mythology.
Saga and Edda. The Edda is the Bible of the ancient Scandinavians. A saga is a book of instruction, generally, but not always, in the form of a tale, like a Welsh “mabinogi.” In the Edda there are numerous sagas. As our Bible contains the history of the Jews, religious songs, moral proverbs, and religious stories, so the Edda contained the history of Norway, religious songs, a book of proverbs, and numerous stories. The original Edda was compiled and edited by Sæmund Sigfusson, an Icelandic priest and scald, in the eleventh century. It contains twenty-eight parts or books, all of which are in verse.
Two hundred years later, Snorro Sturleson, of Iceland, abridged, re-arranged, and reduced to prose the Edda, giving the various parts a kind of dramatic form, like the dialogues of Plato. It then became needful to distinguish these two works; so the old poetical compilation is the Elder or Rythmical Edda, and sometimes the Sæmund Edda, while the more modern work is called the Younger or Prose Edda, and sometimes the Snorro Edda. The Younger Edda is, however, partly original. Pt. i. is the old Edda reduced to prose, but pt. ii. is Sturleson’s own collection. This part contains “The Discourse of Bragi” (the scald of the gods) on the origin of poetry; and here, too, we find the famous story called by the Germans the Nibelungen Lied.
Sagas. Besides the sagas contained in the Eddas, there are numerous others. Indeed, the whole saga literature extends over 200 volumes.
I. The Edda Sagas. The Edda is divided into two parts and twenty-eight lays or poetical sagas. The first part relates to the gods and heroes of Scandinavia, creation, and the early history of Norway. The Scandinavian “Books of Genesis” are the “Voluspa Saga,” or “prophecy of Vola” (about 230 verses), “Vafthrudner’s Saga,” and “Grimner’s Saga.” These three resemble the Sibylline books of ancient Rome, and give a description of chaos, the formation of the world, the creation of all animals (including dwarfs, giants and fairies), the general conflagration, and the renewal of the world, when, like the new Jerusalem, it will appear all glorious, and there shall in no wise enter therein “anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie.”
The “Book of Proverbs” in the Edda is called the “Hâvamâl Saga,” and sometimes “The High Song of Odin.”
The “Völsunga Saga” is a collection of lays about the early Teutonic heroes.
The “Saga of St. Olaf” is the history of this Norwegian king. He was a savage tyrant, hated by his subjects, but because he aided the priests in forcing Christianity on his subjects, he was canonized.