Category talk:Legendary sagas

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[edit] Some questions

Why was this category created?

1. What does it distinguish "legendary" sagas from? The only other subcategory of Norse sagas doesn't appear to be of a parallel form (Sagas of Iceland). There isn't, not yet at least

a. any primary article linked to this category which would describe the criteria for inclusion in this category.

b. any description in the article text of what this category is supposed to contain.

2. Why is it a subcategory of, and only a subcategory of, Category:Norse sagas

a. there is nothing in the name of the category to suggest limitation to Norse sagas.

b. aren't there legendary "sagas" (as the English word, at least) other than Norse sagas? Gene Nygaard 11:39, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

Maybe I'm just jumping the gun on a newly created category, and this will all fall into place even without my questions. Gene Nygaard 11:39, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

No, your questions are good - this is all a bit messy. Basically the three most important subcategories of sagas are Icelanders' sagas, Kings' sagas and Legendary sagas. There are also Chivalric sagas, Bishops' sagas, Saints' sagas and Contemporary sagas but fewer people are interested in those. The terminology fluctuates a bit in the literature and sometimes other terms than those above are used, including Old Norse ones like fornaldarsaga. The most confusing thing on Wikipedia is the term "Sagas of Iceland" which crops up here and there - referring either to the Icelanders' sagas or to any saga written in Iceland. But almost all of them were written in Iceland anyhow so it's not a very useful term. I also think "Norse saga" is a bit confusing since saga isn't used in the same sense for the literature of other peoples. Try reading this: [1] Haukur 12:06, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

So, adding this category Fornaldarsaga and indexing it with a space or a * would be a start.

Then, since that is such an foreign, unfamiliar word, different from the category name, you should also index the redirect at Legendary sagas which corresponds to the category name, the redirected link which you used above, indexed with the same space or * (follow by the article name and the redirect name to get them indexed on the top). Be sure to categorize the redirect on the first logical line of the redirect page, no line breaks.

Then, put the explanation of the various kinds of sagas on the category page, too.

Then, explain why legendary sagas of other people shouldn't be included here. At least that will give someone who disagrees with you on that point a starting point for a discussion. Gene Nygaard 19:10, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

That's good advice. Don't get me wrong, though, I wouldn't be opposed to this category being a subcategory of a general cross-cultural category like "legendary literature" or something like that. Haukur 20:08, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Which plural?

Should this category not be named “Legendary sögur”, to indicate that what it categorises is sögur in the traditional sense, rather than the extended sense of lengthy stories? Raifʻhār Doremítzwr 15:23, 18 September 2006 (UTC)