Viking Sagas (Civ3)/Civilopedia

Sagas, or epic poems, are the primary means by which Viking history was recorded. The first such epic in Sweden, 
the "Epic of Beowulf", describes in fantastic terms the political events by which Sweden first united. The Norwegian 
colonies in Iceland also produced a huge number of such sagas, from which many details of Viking society and history can be 
gleaned. The Viking sagas were mostly written in the 13th century C.E. but describe the beginning of unified Viking society. 
Uncommonly for ancient literature, Viking sagas often tell the stories of ordinary people, rather than the larger-than-life heroes 
of French or English lore. 
The most commonly read sagas today are Egil's Saga, the story of a farmer and warrior whose blood feud with his neighbors 
leads him to outlawry and eventual poverty and death, and Njal's Saga, the story of two brothers whose family obligations lead them into 
a cycle of vengeance spanning generations and dozens of lives. Both sagas describe the Icelandic legal system in some detail, and provide 
historical insight as well as compelling stories.