Literature
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Sagas

The Literature dating from the middleages were mainly legends.

Saga f. (pl. Icelandic ,,sögur", in English also saga) has the meaning of "telling a tale" (from the verb "segja" "to tell"), and also is the definition of prose-tellings already originating during the l2th century. Nowadays one only uses this word for stories longer than about 5.000 words. Shorter tales are known as þættir (sg. páttr). The length of a typical middle-age Saga varies very strongly, under the Icelandic legends, the Njáls saga is with its 97.000 words the longest whereas the Hrafnkles saga with about 10.000 one of the shortest.

The beginning of the legend-writing goes back to the 12th century, its peak was though in the middle of the 13th century, when the most important legends and Konungasögur were written; the date most named for this climax is 1285 when the Njáls saga was written, though this period carried on until the 14th century when the Grettissaga was composed.

One can seperate the sagas from the other text-types by considering the origin and the rank of the heroes in combination with the time and place of the author of the saga; by using theses points, one can differ the different categories:

1. Íslendingasögur (Icelandic legends), the most independent and most important class of medieval legends, mainly originating in the time between 900 and 1050 ("söguöld" period of legends). The hero is mostly a peasents son.
2. Samtíðarsögur (present legends) are mainly true stories containing people and events that happened while the author was alive, mainly common between 1117 and 1264. These mainly factual texts are a collection called the Sturlunga saga.
3. Biskupasögur (Bishop-legends) take place in the near surroundings of bishops and their biographies between the 11th and the 14th century, generally tending to exaggeration and placing the hero into a very positive light.
4. Konungasögur (Kings-legends) are legends about Skandinavian kings or barons whose deeds are placed between the 9th and the 13th century and take place on the Orkneys or in the United Kingdom. Some of these tales were written by the kings themselves.
5. Fornaldasögur (Prehistoric-legends) are legends taking place at a unknown time in the far past in Skandinavia. These are mainly adventure stories and fantasy tales.
6. Riddarasögur (Knight-legends) are mainly translations of Norwegian or other foreign tales put into a different context and taking place at a different time very far away from the original inspiration. These sagas are also mainly fantasy stories with princes and princesses (so-called original Riddarasögur).
7. Fairy-tale legends are folk tales closely related to the fantasy tales like the fornaldarsögurs as well as the original riddarasögurs; the Icelandic name Lygissögur (lie-stories) is not quite accurate and negative and may be used for all the types of legends.
8. Heilgra manna sögur (holy-stories) are mainly translations of latin-christian stories and are more factual than the Konungasögurs or the Biskupasögur.
9. Historial world translationary literature origins from latin books like the Trójumanna saga, the Alexander saga, the Gyðinga saga, the Rómverja saga, the Breta saga and the Veraldar saga.

references: Rudolf Simek/ Hermann Pálsson: Lexica of old-northern literature. Stuttgart 1987, p.301ff

Very important are the types Islendigasögur, Fornaldarsögur, Konungasögur and the Lygissögur. The classical Familysaga, the Icelandic saga, can be called the Saga as such.

The legends themselves were written on parchment and then bound to books. Not like the most books in other European countries, these ones are rather simple and not at all overfull of illustrations and details because they were mainly made for use and not as some kind of ornament. That is why many of them were discarded easily and only few are left to be seen in museums in Iceland.