THE SAGAS IN THEIR RELATION TO ENGLISH HISTORY. 330 
them ‘‘ Northmen out of Heeretha-land,’’? which has been identified 
with a district on the west coast of Norway. The fact is that 
Dane was used as synonymous with Scandinavian at this period, 
the Danish kingdom including a large district in the south of 
Sweden, and the earliest Icelandic writers calling their tongue 
Donsk. The way in which the appellation Danes ousted that of 
Northmen may be seen by comparing the two following accounts of 
the first arrival of the invaders: 3 
‘‘a4, 787. This year King Berhtric took to wife Eadburga, 
King Offa’s daughter; and in his days first came three ships of 
Northmen out of Heeretha-land.” 
So reads the Chronicle. Turn now to Henry of Huntingdon. 
‘‘a.p. 787. In the fourth year of his reign Bertric took to wife 
Eadburga, daughter of Offa, king of Mercia, . . . In those days the 
Danes landed in Britain, from three ships, to plunder the country.”’ 
The Scandinavians possess a valuable literature. To disregard 
it therefore, in the study of that portion of English history which 
it illustrates, which may be roughly set down as from the 9th 
century to the 12th, would be very much like sitting down to write 
a history of the Norman conquest without consulting Norman 
authorities. Of that literature the following classification has been 
made: (1) Poetry, (2) Laws, (3) Sagas. 
A Saga (English saw) is a prose narrative or legend repeated by 
word of mouth; but as the Greek Adyos, which originally signified 
the spoken word, came to be used by Herodotus for the written 
narrative, whether legendary or historical, so the word Saga came to 
be applied also to the written story. There are Sagas of all degrees 
of truth. First we have the mythical, in which the deeds of 
heroes, half gods and half men, are recorded. Of some such Saga 
Mr. Thorpe thinks the A.S. poem, ‘‘ Beowulf,” to be a metrical 
paraphrase, and he cherishes the hope that the original may one 
day be discovered in some Swedish library. Next we have those 
relating to Iceland, either national, as the Landndma, the Icelandic 
Domesday Book ; or relating to individuals, as the celebrated Njal’s 
Saga. Others relate to foreign countries, as the series of Sagas of 
kings of Norway, of the great line of Orkney Jarls (the Orkneyinga 
Saga), and of the chiefs who ruled in Faroe (the Fereyinga Saga). 
For many years traditions were handed down by the mouths of the 
Saga tellers; but shortly after the introduction of Christianity 
into Iceland (a.p. 1000), they were reduced to writing. Scomund 
