Nora Caplan-Bricker Jordan S. Rubin 
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The original sagas were Icelandic prose narratives that were roughly analogous to modern historical novels. They were penned in the 12th and 13th centuries, and blended fact and fiction to tell the tales of famous rulers, legendary heroes, and average folks of Iceland and Norway. And they were aptly named: saga traces back to an Old Norse root that means "tale." The English word first referred only to those original Icelandic stories, but saga later broadened to cover other narratives reminiscent of those, and the word was eventually further generalized to cover any long, complicated scenario.
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A Brief History of Saga
Saga was originally used to describe Icelandic prose narratives composed in the 12th and 13th centuries. The word first appeared in English in that sense during the 18th century; by the middle of the 19th century we were employing saga in a somewhat looser fashion, in reference to modern stories involving heroic deeds that bore some resemblance to the Icelandic tales of yore. By the 20th century saga had come to be applied to other written works, typically a novel or series of novels, especially those that took place over a significant period of time. Today the word may also be used to describe a long and drawn-out story that is either written or spoken (as in “my neighbor told me the saga of his divorce again”). Saga comes from an Old Norse word of the same spelling. It does not have any connection with the adjective sagacious (“possessing quick intellectual perceptions”), which comes from the Latin sagax (“sagacious”).
Examples of saga in a Sentence
Daniel Fienberg, The Hollywood Reporter, 10 Apr. 2024
The saga began when Daybell and Vallow met in 2018 at a religious conference in St. George, Utah.
—Miles Klee, Rolling Stone, 10 Apr. 2024
The sentencing represents the end of a dramatic saga that has set a precedent of who can be held responsible for a mass shooting, aside from the perpetrator.
—Alexandra Banner, CNN, 9 Apr. 2024
The filing marks the latest chapter in the long-running legal saga around Hutchins’s death.
—Annabelle Timsit, Washington Post, 9 Apr. 2024
The dark, subversive antihero saga begins as Tom is enlisted by Dickie’s father , who mistakenly assumes Tom is a friend of his son , to venture to Italy to cajole him into returning home.
—Yvonne Villarreal, Los Angeles Times, 2 Apr. 2024
The credit for Doge’s success goes to the GameStop saga that began in January 2021.
—Vinamrata Chaturvedi, Quartz, 28 Mar. 2024
The ruling extended an decade-long legal saga over the controversial activist who has embarrassed and outraged the U.S. with a string of blockbuster leaks.
—Kim Hjelmgaard, USA TODAY, 26 Mar. 2024
The actress who spent five movies as clumsy YA heroine Bella Swan in the Twilight saga is far from enamored with the sparkling vampire at the center of the franchise.
—Shania Russell, EW.com, 26 Mar. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'saga.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Saga.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/saga. Accessed 19 Apr. 2024.
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Kids Definition
saga
noun
More from Merriam-Webster on saga
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Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about saga
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