The Real Sagas

For those playing Saga, you might be interested in reading real sagas, in order to get inspiration, ideas for scenarios or campaigns, or just because you are curious about how they read. I did a search on Amazon for sagas available on the Kindle, for free.

Told by the Northmen: Stories from the Eddas and Sagas: This is probably something more along the lines you were thinking of. Half of the stories are myth and half of them about the heroic actions of men. The second story (of about 20) is about Thor dressing up as a woman and wandering amongst men. Here is a list of the stories:

• How All Things Began 
• How All-Father Odin Became Wise 
• How the Queen of the Sky Gave Gifts to Man 
• How a Giant Built a Fortress for the Asas 
• The Magic Mead 
• How Loki Made a Wager with the Dwarfs 
• The Apples of Youth 
• How the Fenris Wolf was Chained 
• How the Pride of Thor was Brought Low 
• How Thor's Hammer was Lost and Found 
• The Giant's Daughters 
• The Story of Balder the Beautiful 
• How Hermon Made a Journey to the Underworld 
• How Loki was Punished at Last 
• The Story of the Magic Sword 
• How Sigmund Fought His Last Battle 
• The Story of the Magic Gold 
• How Sigurd Slew the Dragon 
• How Sigurd Won the Hand of Brunhild 
• How the Curse of the Gold is Fulfilled 
• The Boyhood of Frithiof the Bold 
• Frithiof and Ingeborg 
• Frithiof Braves the Storm 
• Balder Forgives 
• How the End of All Things Came About

Beowulf: An Anglo-Saxon Epic Poem: Note only is this a translation of a classic epic, it includes discussion, historical information, has a glossary, and a summary of the tale.


The Sagas of Olaf Tryggvason and of Harald The Tyrant (Harald Haardraade): classic Viking saga about famous Vikings. This looks like the first one I will tackle.

The Saga Hoard Volume 1: This is a collection of Icelandic sagas. From the publisher: "The Icelandic Sagas are histories written in prose, describing life and events that took place during the Icelandic Commonweath period, around the 10th and 11th centuries. They are stories of families, adventures, feuding, deal-making, political maneuvers, wars, treasure amassed, great journeys, geneology, tribute given, kings, freemen, history, and myth. They are stories of the Norse and Celtic settlers and their descendants in Iceland during what is sometimes called the Saga Age."

The Story of Burnt Njal from the Icelandic of the Njals Saga: This Icelandic saga may be a little harder to get through, according to reviewers on Amazon. Probably one I will leave for later.

A lot of reading to do! I probably won't get through it all, to be honest, so if anyone reads through any of these, let me know if you found any gaming inspiration.