| 释义 |
▪ I. saga1|ˈsɑːgə|
[a. ON. and Icel. saga wk. fem. (Sw. saga) narrative, story, history; corresp. (exc. in declension) to OE. saᵹu str. fem.: see saw n.2]
1. a. Any of the narrative compositions in prose that were written in Iceland or Norway during the middle ages; in English use often applied spec. to those which embody the traditional history of Icelandic families or of the kings of Norway.
1709Hickes in Pepys' Diary (1879) VI. 201 The histories of the old Northern nations, which commonly have the title of Saga, which signifies a narration of History. 1777Robertson Hist. Amer. (1783) I. 326 The credit of this story rests, as far as I know, on the authority of the Saga, or Chronicle of King Olaus..published by Perinskiold at Stockholm a.d. 1697. 1805Scott Last Minstr. vi. xxii, Many a Saga's rhyme uncouth. 1897W. P. Ker Epic & Romance 66 The Icelandic Sagas—the prose histories of the fortunes of the great Icelandic houses.
b. transf. A narrative having the (real or supposed) characteristics of the Icelandic sagas; a story of heroic achievement or marvellous adventure. Also, a novel or series of novels recounting the history of a family through several generations, as The Forsyte Saga. Now freq. in weakened use, a long and complicated (account of a) series of more or less loosely connected events.
1857Longfellow Discov. North Cape viii, For the old seafaring men Came to me now and then, With their sagas of the seas. 1862H. Marryat Year in Sweden II. 63 With this last visit terminates my saga of Gripsholm. 1891Kipling Light that Failed v, Dick delivered himself of the saga of his own doings. [1891R. L. Stevenson Let. 19 May (1899) II. 231 Henry Shovel has now turned into a work called ‘The Shovels of Newton French’.., which work is to begin in 1664..and end about 1832... I mean to make it good; it will be more like a saga.] 1895Hall Caine Bondman (ed. 4) p. viii, I have called my story a Saga, merely because it follows the epic method. 1919J. Galsworthy Let. 25 Nov. in H. V. Marrot Life & Lett. J. Galsworthy (1935) iv. i. 485, I have just finished a sequel to The Man of Property, and, in accordance with the scheme I broached to you..have still one story and a third novel in further sequel to write, to make the whole of The Forsyte Saga. 1935D. L. Sayers Gaudy Night iii. 51 She felt she would rather be tried for life over again than walk the daily treadmill of Catherine's life. It was a saga, in its way, but it was preposterous. 1942‘M. Innes’ Daffodil Affair ii. 89 Appleby and Hudspith were scarcely in a position to give it the dispassionate appraisal of literary critics; the saga had a sort of aura of alligator which made it uncomfortable hearing. 1952Times Lit. Suppl. 1 Jan. 15/3 The latest, no doubt the logical, development of the ‘life with mother’ saga is the chronicle of pregnancy and childbirth. 1959Listener 18 June 1074/1 The Burrell Collection..is still, after a long saga of misadventures, looking for a site. 1970Nature 18 Apr. 197/1 By now, the daily newspapers will tell how the saga of Apollo 13 has been finished. 1977‘E. Crispin’ Glimpses of Moon x. 190 Rousing themselves hastily from the morbid fascination induced by this saga, Thouless, Padmore and the Major all went into action. 1978H. Wouk War & Remembrance xlix. 497 ‘Found her! Where?’ ‘In Marseilles. Told me about it for two hours over dinner. It's a saga.’
¶2. In incorrect uses (partly as the equivalent of the cognate Ger. sage): A story, popularly believed to be matter of fact, which has been developed by gradual accretions in the course of ages, and has been handed down by oral tradition; historical or heroic legend, as distinguished both from authentic history and from intentional fiction.
1845B. Thorpe in J. M. Lappenberg's Hist. Eng. I. 90 The poem of Beowulf.., in which the old Anglian saga is ennobled by an Anglo-Saxon of the eighth century. 1855Geo. Eliot in Fraser's Mag. July 55/1 The libretto is founded on the old German saga of the Venusberg and the knightly minstrel Tannhäuser. 1864Kingsley Rom. & Teut. i. (1875) 1, I shall begin..with a saga. 1869H. F. Tozer Highl. Turkey II. 265 The Popular Tale is thus..distinguished from..the Myth, or Saga. 1873R. H. Busk Sagas fr. Far East 242 While displaying the usual exaggerations common to the Sagas of all nations, these Indian Sagas have one leading peculiarity. 1881H. Morley Longer Works in Eng. Verse & Prose I. i. 1/1 Most ancient of English poems is the old saga which tells how Beowulf rescued Hrothgar from the attacks of Grendel. 1883Kennedy tr. Ten Brink's E. Eng. Lit. 150 The Sagas of Guy of Warwick and Bevis of Hampton. 1898T. Arnold Notes on Beowulf v. 71 Whether the Sigemund— Siegfried saga is of Scandinavian or German origin. 1903L. F. Anderson Anglo-Saxon Scop 16 The great number of sagas learned by the scop of Beowulf is expressly mentioned... It was praiseworthy in a scop to have learned not only the more familiar sagas, but some not generally known. 1912R. W. Chambers Widsith 15 How much of this is history, and how much saga, it is not easy to say. 1960M. B. McNamee in Jrnl. Eng. & Gmc. Philol. LIX. 199 At least by the eleventh century, the mysterious serpent-infested mere of Anglo-Saxon saga had provided a means of making the story of Christ and Satan and Hell graphic to the Anglo-Saxon imagination.
3. Comb., as saga-age, saga-cycle, saga-hero; saga-writer; saga boy W. Indies, [perh. f. a different word], a well-dressed lounger, a playboy; saga-man [= ON. sǫgu-maðr], a narrator of sagas, also the hero of a saga.
1897W. P. Ker Epic & Romance iii. 230 In the material conditions of Icelandic life in the ‘Saga Age’ there was all the stuff that was required for heroic narrative. 1956Peterson & Fisher Wild Amer. xxxiii. 354 The..Eskimos used to drive the geese across the tundra..and net them..a method of wildfowling known..in Iceland, where it became a great art in the Saga Age.
1949Human Relations II. 358/2 This change in behaviour is clearly demonstrated by men who have been to Aruba, Curacao, Trinidad, or U.S.A., and who have acquired some money... In this group the ‘Saga-Boys’ are to be found—flamboyantly dressed men with exaggerated manners and mannerisms and somewhat aggressive tendencies. 1959V. S. Naipaul Miguel St. xi. 118 Eddoes was a real ‘saga-boy’. This didn't mean that he wrote epic poetry. It meant that he was a ‘sweet-man’, a man of leisure, well-dressed, and keen on women. 1966P. Sherlock West Indies xi. 143 Saga boys dressed in sheath-like saga pants, ‘peg-top trousers’ and saga coats called Bim-Bams.
1892S. A. Brooke Hist. Early Eng. Lit. I. 104 The first saga-cycle includes the songs sung concerning the earlier deeds of Beowulf before he became king. 1899W. H. Schofield tr. S. Bugge's Home of Eddic Poems 172 In the oldest reference to this saga-hero, in Widsith, 21, we read: Hagena [wéold] Holmrygum.
1823Crabb Technol. Dict., Saga-man (Archæol.), a tale⁓teller, or secret accuser. 1853Kingsley Hypatia xxix, You are the hero! you are the Sagaman! We are not worthy. 1866Reader 3 Mar. 221/3 All the skalds and sagamen of any note were Icelanders. 1866Baring-Gould Myths Mid. Ages Ser. i. 113 An arrow..penetrated the windpipe of the king, and it is supposed to have sped, observes the Saga writer, from the bow of Hemingr.
▪ II. ‖ saga2|ˈseɪgə|
[L. sāga.]
A witch.
1583Leg. Bp. St. Androis 312 Thair Saga slew ane saikles beast. 1834Lytton Pompeii iii. x, ‘Patience’, resumed the witch,..‘My mother was herself a saga’.
▪ III. ‖ saga
pl. of sagum. |