What is a Saga?
Saga Thing: Putting the Sagas of the Icelanders on trial - Episode 1-C
Now that you’re an expert in medieval Icelandic history, you’re probably wondering about Icelandic literary expression. Why wouldn’t you? In this episode, John and Andy answer the question they probably ought to have covered right away…what is a saga, exactly? Strap yourself in for a whirlwind introduction to the genre of saga literature. Expect to hear an overview of the different kinds of sagas medieval Icelanders produced. Along the way, you’ll find out the difference between a family saga and a lying saga, discover the wonders of bookprose and freeprose theory, and learn a little something about a guy named Njal. All in all, it’s good clean fun for the whole family.
Saga Thing is a podcast hosted by two professors with beards: Dr. John Sexton of Bridgewater State University and Dr. Andy Pfrenger of the University of Mississippi. Having met back in grad school while pursuing our PhDs in Medieval Studies, we've been reading, researching, and talking about the Icelandic sagas with each other for a very long time. Back in 2013, we launched Saga Thing with a mission to spread the good word about the incredible stories and fascinating history we love so much.
Though we live far apart now, recording Saga Thing lets us get together, just like we did in grad school, to dive back into the fascinating world of medieval Iceland and its incredible literature.
Our goal on Saga Thing is simple. One by one, we're putting the sagas of the Icelanders on trial. We read and review each of the sagas, celebrating their brilliance while offering a fresh and engaging scholarly perspective.
For a complete list of sagas to be covered, go to https://sagathingpodcast.wordpress.co...
You can also listen to episodes on:
Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/36fUAa9...
Podbean - https://sagathing.podbean.com/
Podchaser - https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/sa...
PlayerFM - https://player.fm/series/saga-thing-2...
Each "episode" or series covers a single saga and can be broken down in two main sections:
Summary and Discussion: We review the saga's characters, action, and plot-lines while digging into some of the major themes, issues, and questions that drive the story. Sometimes this gets done in a single episode, but more often it turns into a multi-episode series.
Judgments: We evaluate some of the saga's more memorable moments and pass judgment in a series of several categories:
1) Best Bloodshed - Who delivered (or suffered) the most spectacular death or maiming?
2) Body Count - A tally of every unnatural untimely death in the saga.
3) Notable Witticisms - An award for the best bit of dialogue or description in the saga.
4) Nicknames - A review of the most creative and interesting nicknames in the saga, with an award for our favorite
5) Outlawry - We recount the worst offenses committed by saga's more despicable characters and sentence the most irredeemable of the bunch to outlawry
6) Thingmen - We each don the mantle of a goði (chieftains) and choose the best of the best from the saga to join our crew of thingmen who will support us in a feud, at the Althing, or at the inevitable Ragnarok-style battle that comes at Saga Thing's end.
7) Ratings - We take turns offering a wholly subjective assessment of the saga's quality, rating it on a scale of 1-10.
As if all that weren't inducement enough, we'll also offer random bits of trivia, snippets of scholarly assessment, and the occasional digression into feud dynamics, Icelandic history, legal culture, and even the finer points of land management. Join us for all this and more...at Saga Thing!
Dr. John Sexton is a professor of English at Bridgewater State University, specializing in medieval literature and history. While his primary areas of interest include both Old Norse and Old English literature, he's happy to geek out about most things medieval and Star Wars.
Dr. Andy Pfrenger is the Director of Interdisciplinary and Multidisciplinary Studies at the University of Mississippi. Once a professor of medieval literature, he now spends most of his time in academic program development and promoting the value of interdisciplinary approaches to education.
Please visit the Saga Thing website: http://sagathingpodcast.wordpress.com/
You can also follow them on social media at:
Instagram - / sagathingpodcast
Bluesky - https://bsky.app/profile/sagathingpod...
Facebook - / sagathingpodcast
And join them on Discord at / discord
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