 a legendary saga or fornaldarsaga (literally, "story/history of the ancient era") is a norse saga that, unlike the icelanders' sagas, takes place before the colonization of iceland.the article fornaldarsagor in nationalencyklopedin (1991) there are some exceptions, such as yngvars saga vÃ­Ã°fÃ¶rla, which takes place in the 11th century. the sagas were probably all written in iceland, from about the middle of the 13th century to about 1400, although it is possible that some may be of a later date,einar Ãl. sveinsson, "fornaldarsÃ¶gur", in kulturhistorisk leksikon for nordisk middelalder fra vikingtid til reformasjonstid, bd. 4 (copenhagen, 1959) such as hrÃ³lfs saga kraka.the literary encyclopedia ==description of the sagas== in terms of form, fornaldarsÃ¶gur are similar to various other saga-genres, but tend towards fairly linear, episodic narratives. like sagas in other genres, many quote verse, but in the fornaldarsÃ¶gur that verse is almost invariably in the metre of eddaic verse (unlike the skaldic verse found in most other saga genres).margaret clunies ross, the cambridge introduction to the old norse-icelandic saga (cambridge: cambridge university press, 2010), p. 77. the setting is primarily scandinavia in the time prior to the settlement of iceland and the conversion of scandinavia, but occasionally it moves temporarily to more distant and exotic locations or has its characters encounter christian cultures (one example of both being Ãrvar-odds saga). there are also very often mythological elements, such as dwarves, elves, giants and magic. in centuries past, they were considered to be reliable historic sources by scandinavian scholars, but since the 19th century, they have been considered to contain very little historic material.else mundal, "sagalitteraturen", in odd einar haugen (ed.) handbok i norrÃ¸n filologi (bergen, 2004) the present consensus is that, although some of the sagas contain a small core which is not fiction, or are based on historical characters, the primary function of the legendary sagas was entertainment, and the aim of the sagas has not been to present a historically accurate tale. recently, however, it has been emphasized that the sagas are useful sources for the culture of 13th and 14th century iceland, "in terms of the light that they can shed on the culture in which they were composed"{{citation |author=a. hall |year=2005 |title=changing style and changing meaning: icelandic historiography and the medieval redactions of heiÃ°reks saga |journal=scandinavian studies | volume=77 |url=http://epri
Legendary_sagas Scandinavian_history