Georges Dumézil
Based especially on the Ossetian versions, the sagas have long been valued as a window towards the world of the Iranian-speaking cultures of antiquity. For example, the philologist Georges Dumézil used the Ossetian division of the Narts into three clans to support his "Trifunctional Hypothesis" that the Proto-Indo-Europeans were similarly divided into three castes—warriors, priests, and commoners.