Analysis of depicting saga fiction in the novel earthly powers by anthony burgess

The “Saga” as a literary type in literature
Saga, in medieval Icelandic literature, any type of story or history in prose, irrespective of the kind or nature of the narrative or the purposes for which it was written. Used in this general sense, the term applies to a wide range of literary works, including those of hagiography (biographies of saints), historiography, and secular fiction in a variety of modes. Lives of the saints and other stories for edification are entitled sagas, as are the Norse versions of French romances and the Icelandic adaptations of various Latin histories. Chronicles and other factual records of the history of Scandinavia and Iceland down to the 14th century are also included under the blanket term saga literature.
In a stricter sense, however, the term saga is confined to legendary and historical fictions in which the author has attempted an imaginative reconstruction of the past and organized the subject matter according to certain aesthetic principles. Using the distinctive features of the hero as principal guideline, medieval Icelandic narrative fiction can be classified as (1) kings’ sagas, (2) legendary sagas, and (3) sagas of Icelanders.
The origin and evolution of saga writing in Iceland are largely matters for speculation. A common pastime on Icelandic farms, from the 12th century down to modern times, was the reading aloud of stories to entertain the household, known as sagnaskemmtun (“saga entertainment”). It seems to have replaced the traditional art of storytelling. All kinds of written narratives were used in sagnaskemmtun—secular, sacred, historical, and legendary. The Icelandic church took a sympathetic view of the writing and reading of sagas, and many of the authors whose identity is still known were monks or priests.
Nonfictional saga literature
Translations
European narratives were known in Iceland in the 12th and 13th centuries and undoubtedly served as models for Icelandic writers when they set out to form a coherent picture of early Scandinavian history. Translations of lives of the saints and apostles and accounts of the Holy Virgin testify to the skill of Icelandic prose writers in handling the vernacular for narrative purposes from the 12th century onward. Histories were also adapted and translated from Latin, based on those of the 7th- and 8th-century Anglo-Saxon writer Bede, the 7th-century Spanish historian St. Isidore of Sevilla, and others; on fictitious accounts of the Trojan wars, notably one of the 5th century attributed to Dares Phrygius and one of the 4th century attributed to Dictys Cretensis; on the 12th-century British chronicler Geoffrey of Monmouth; and on the 1st-century Roman historians Sallust and Lucan. In the 13th century Abbot Brandr Jónsson wrote a history of the Jews based on the Vulgate, on the 10th-century biblical scholar Peter Comestor, and on other sources.
In the 13th century, saga literature was also enriched by Norwegian prose translations of French romance literature. These soon found their way into Iceland, where they were popular and a strong influence on native storywriting. Probably the earliest, Tristrams saga (the story of Tristan and Iseult), was translated in 1226. Most of the themes of French romance appear in Icelandic versions; e.g., Karlamagnús saga was based on Charlemagne legends.