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60 INTEODtrCTION.
Old-Iceland is, in the broad sense of the term, only
one continuous, unending Saga.
The Sagas may be divided into the Poetic or Fictitious,
and the Historicalr-the former embracing
the Mythic and the Sonumtic, the latter including
all general, local and famili/ Histories, and Biographies.
"^
Of the Mythic class we have—1. The Volsungasaga
; 2. The Nornagests-saga, and 3. The Vilkina-
saga, which contain the same story of the Volstogar
aijd Niflungar. The two former are mostly drawn
from the Eddaic Lays, although the first refers to
other poems now lost, and the second is much dis-
guised by arbitrary fiction. The Yilkina-saga is the
history of Diedrich of Bern, a collection of Sagas in
accordance with the German Heldenhuch and
Nihehmgen Lied. It has not the stamp of antiquity
which the others possess, being evidently written
about the fourteenth century, and though not a
translation from thp German, is wholly written down
from the German stories. 4. ' Fundinn Noregr—the
Found Norway—^is a curious attempt at a genealogical
history of Ancient Norway, drawn from
mythological names and genealogies. For a long
time it was regarded as a reliable source of history,
and is the basis of many earlier historical works on
the North.
The following heroic Sagas belong also to the
Mythic class, for, although the heroes are remotely
historical, yet amid the drapery of the Sagas they
step forth as mythic beings:—1. HAlfs-sagia, which
relates the history of King Alfrek, of HorSaland,