saga

saga — noun

1. a type of medieval prose tale from Iceland and Norway that recounts the deeds of

1.nounB2
Definition

a type of medieval prose tale from Iceland and Norway that recounts the deeds of heroes and the histories of early families, originally composed in Old Norse and preserved mainly from the twelfth through the fourteenth centuries

Example

Jabari read the Saga of the Volsungs for his literature class last semester.

proper noun reference: the Saga of the Volsungs

The medieval library held an original manuscript of a thirteenth-century Icelandic saga.

Common collocations
  • Icelandic saga
  • medieval saga
  • Old Norse saga
  • family saga (historical sense)
  • the ... saga (with proper name)
Synonyms
  • epic

    similar in being a long narrative of heroic deeds, but epics are usually in verse form, while sagas are prose

  • legend

    a traditional story that may be less detailed and historically grounded than a saga

  • myth

    a story about gods or supernatural beings, whereas sagas focus on human families and historical events

Grammar Patterns

the + Saga + of + [name]

a + Saga + about + [topic]

Usage Note

Commonly capitalised when referring to a specific known work (e.g. Egil's Saga, Laxdæla Saga). The word itself comes from Old Norse, and this sense is still closely tied to its original cultural context.

Common Mistakes

I read a saga about two business rivals' (when meaning any long story).
I read Njáls saga for my medieval literature course.
Sense 1 refers specifically to medieval Icelandic or Norse narratives, not to any long modern story.

2. a very long and detailed account of events that unfold over many years, often fo

2.nounB2
Definition

a very long and detailed account of events that unfold over many years, often following a family, a group, or a community through several generations

Example

Heather wrote a family saga tracing her ancestors from Ireland to Boston over four centuries.

a family saga + that-clause for scope

The novel is a sprawling saga of three generations of a Korean shipping dynasty.

Common collocations
  • family saga
  • multigenerational saga
  • sweeping saga
  • a saga of ...
  • sprawling saga
Synonyms
  • chronicle

    more formal and historically focused; a chronicle records events in time order without the same narrative drama

  • epic

    suggests grand scale and heroic qualities, but often in verse; can overlap with saga in modern usage

  • sweeping narrative

    a descriptive phrase rather than a single word, emphasising wide scope across time

Antonyms
  • anecdote

    a short, personal, and often amusing story — the opposite in scope and length

Grammar Patterns

a + saga + of + [noun phrase]

the + [possessive] + saga

Usage Note

In this sense the word carries a positive or neutral tone — it emphasises length and detail without implying anything negative. Unlike sense 3, this sense is about the telling of a story, not about a difficult experience.

Common Mistakes

The office saga took three years to sort out' (when meaning an annoying problem).
Her trilogy is a sweeping saga of four generations of a farming family.
Sense 2 is about an epic story or account, not about a troublesome series of events (that is sense 3).

3. a long and complicated series of connected events, especially ones that cause fr

3.nounB2
Definition

a long and complicated series of connected events, especially ones that cause frustration, worry, or trouble, and seem to take an unnecessarily long time to resolve

Example

João's saga with the insurance company dragged on for eight months after the storm.

collocation: saga with [organisation]

The whole saga of getting the building permit took over a year and countless forms.

Common collocations
  • visa saga
  • insurance saga
  • the whole saga
  • long saga
  • saga of ...
  • permit saga
  • customer-service saga
  • bureaucratic saga
Synonyms
  • ordeal

    focuses on the suffering aspect rather than the length; a saga involves successive problems over time

  • saga (informal)

    the word itself in this informal use is its own synonym category

  • drama

    suggests emotional intensity but can be shorter; a saga implies cumulative length

Antonyms
  • breeze

    informal; describes something that was surprisingly easy and quick

Grammar Patterns

a + whole + saga

a + long + saga

the + [possessive] + saga

Usage Note

Usually appears informally in conversation or journalism. Frequently pairs with possessive determiners (my saga, their visa saga) and carries a tone of exasperation or complaint. Distinguish from sense 2: this sense is about a frustrating experience, not a narrated story.

Common Mistakes

She wrote a saga about her travels in Europe' (when meaning a positive long story).
She told us the saga of how her flight was cancelled three times.
Sense 3 implies difficulty and frustration; for a neutral or positive long story, use sense 2.

Word family

  • sagalike
    adjectiveC2

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/2

Saga, chronicle, and epic all describe long accounts, but they differ in tone and scope. A saga is a long, detailed story that often follows a family or group through generations — it has a novelistic, emotionally engaging quality. A chronicle is more factual and time-ordered, like a historical record that prioritises accuracy over drama. An epic is grand and heroic, originally in poetic form, and focuses on a central hero's extraordinary deeds rather than a family's everyday life. A narrative is the broadest term: any structured account of events, regardless of length. For example, you would call War and Peace a family saga, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle a historical chronicle, and The Odyssey an epic — but all three are narratives.

saga ↗chronicle ↗epic ↗narrative ↗

Common collocations

Phrases

  • the saga continues
  • part of a larger saga
  • the whole saga
  • the latest chapter in the saga

Prepositions

  • saga about
  • saga of
  • saga with

Etymology

Old NorseIcelandicEnglish

Saga entered English from Old Norse in the early 18th century, originally referring to the medieval prose narratives of Iceland and Norway. The Old Norse word saga literally means 'a story, a saying, a tale' and is related to the verb segja 'to say, to tell'. It shares a distant ancestor with the English word 'say'. Over time the meaning broadened from the specific medieval literary form to any long, dramatic story — and later, informally, to any drawn-out frustrating experience.