The Title Saga
Saga is originally an Old Norse word meaning “story” or “epic tale”. It has immigrated into English by way of The Icelandic Sagas, which were first translated into English in the 19th century.[1]
Since then, “saga” in English has the meaning of a long, epic story, sometimes with the subtext “long-winded”.
Titles containing "Saga" most often come in the format "(The) X Saga" (the article is optional). X is sometimes the protagonist, but can be practically anything—though usually a proper name or a noun. “Saga” is simply attached at the end, treating the whole title as a compound term.
This is different from the original Norse sagas, where there was always a genitive case involved—mostly of the type "<Protagonist's> saga" or "Saga of <the protagonists>".
A third, rare variant is "(The) <adjective> Saga" (not always clearly distinguishable from the first type).
This kind of title usually lampshades that the work is a series of more-than-average length and/or has a considerable number of instalments.
Examples of the The X Saga type:
Anime and Manga
- Each of the Dragon Ball Z Story Arcs is titled a saga, such as the Saiyan Saga, the Namek Saga, the Cell Saga, the Buu Saga; among the shorter ones are Androids Saga, Garlic Jr Saga and the Great Saiyaman Saga.
- Excel Saga
- Mermaid Saga
- Vinland Saga
- Future GPX Cyber Formula SAGA, the third OVA in the series.
Comic Books
- The Clone Saga, starring Spider-Man.
- The Dark Phoenix Saga, starring the X-Men.
Fanfic
Film
- The Dark Knight Saga
- The Twilight Saga, the film version of the Twilight books.
Literature
- The full title of Battlefield Earth (both the book and the film) is Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000.
- The Bedwyn Saga
- Commonwealth Saga
- The Elric Saga by Michael Moorcock.
- The Forerunner Saga
- The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy (written 1906-21) shows that this type is at least as old as the early 20th century.
- Great Alta Saga
- The Gor series has "The Xth book in the Tarl Cabot Saga" or "the Saga of Counter-Earth" on the covers, but it's not part of the official title.
- Heechee Saga
- Maradonia Saga
- Seafort Saga
- Synergenesis Saga
- The Transall Saga
- Vorkosigan Saga
- The Wingfeather Saga
- Books three through seven of The Witcher series are known collectively as Blood of the Elves Saga.
Machinima
Videogames
- Card Saga Wars
- Crimson Gem Saga
- Dark Forces Saga
- Digital Devil Saga
- Hoshi Saga
- Lost Saga
- Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
- Metal Saga
- MS Saga: A New Dawn
- Tear Ring Saga
- Unlimited Saga
- Xenosaga
Webcomic
Web Original
Examples of other types (with genitive or adjectives)
Literature
- Asian Saga
- Brians Saga
- Saga is the name of the second book in the The Avatar Chronicles series.
- The Saga of Darren Shan series and its prequel series, The Saga of Larten Crepsley.
- Saga of Recluce
- The Saga of Seven Suns
- The Saga of the Noble Dead
- Saga of Soul
- Saga of the Exiles
- As mentioned, The Icelandic Sagas always fall into this group.
Videogames
Web Original
- ↑ Etymology ramble: Old English had the equivalent cognate sagu, but this word morphed into saw “saying”, as in old wife’s saws, and is terribly obsolete.