Do you catch yourself wondering how The Saga Dynasty came to be? Well, let me tell you a story…
Where I come from a “saga” is a legend, a story passed on from generation to generation about trolls, witches and humans with remarkable items or powers. There are so many of them I can’t even begin to count. I grew up hearing these sagas from my grandmother, mostly, but some sagas I also heard in school.
My home village (I shouldn’t really even call it a village, it’s just a bunch of farms and houses scattered in a valley) has A LOT of these sagas. There is the saga of Hulabakken, a man who had a hat that made him invisible when he wore it. This hat was gifted to him by haugafolket. They’re little people-trolls (hard to explain as I don’t quite understand them myself) who inhabit the mountain farms in the winter. When the summer comes and you bring your cattle to the mountain farm you always have to make sure to grab a broom, literally sweep them out and announce your presence. In the summer they live outside, underground, and help you out on the mountain farm if you’re respectful of them. They will be mischievous and nasty if you don’t.
Anyway, back to the story. Hulabakken used this hat to loot everyone in the village, and stored his treasures in a cave beneath a large rock in the mountains. The leaders of my village one day decided he had to die to pay for this crimes. How he died is still much discussed to this day. There are multiple versions and which one you get depends on who you ask. In the version I’m familiar with he was tied up and dragged behind a boat until he died, so we’ll go with that. As he died, he cursed the family of his murderers for 7 generations to come. And according to the legend death, disease and misfortune have followed these families ever since.
Just this summer my sister told me that we are in fact descendants of one these cursed village leaders. And if I’m not entirely mistaken, we are the 7th generation. Not to be overly superstitious or anything, but all the disease and pain in my family comes from my father’s side, the “cursed” side. We all have achy backs or scoliosis, we are all humpbacks to various degrees, there’s psoriasis, there’s Crohn’s disease, there’s arthritis, there’s heart issues, gum disease, mental illness and the Gods know what else. I’m third generation chronically ill and I’m a humpback to the point where it looks like I have terrible posture, but good posture hurts and is unnatural to me, so you know. That’s all I’ve got to say about that. My sister knows a lady who is 7th and last generation cursed, and her diseases, illnesses and other problems were like taken straight out of a fairy tale curse, but that’s another story. But you have to admit, all of this makes you wonder, doesn’t it?
Despite being cursed and coming from a fairytale land close to Jotunheim, where many of our rocks are actually petrified trolls, hulder will kidnap kids or lure young men deep into the woods, and if you go swimming in the lake after sundown nøkken will drown you, I think I turned out somewhat normal. I have a strong connection to these myths and legends. My grandma would tell me many of these stories while we were hiking in the mountains together, as we were surrounded by deep valleys, high mountain peaks and roaring waterfalls. Can you imagine a more perfect place to hear these stories?
I have always been extremely fascinated by our sagas, and sagas in general. As a child I was obviously rather scared as well, with nøkken being the most terrifying thing I could ever imagine. I was also scared to sleep with my (or any) windows open, just in case huldra would try to lure me or my little sister out into the woods at night and we would never return.
When I was about 14-15 years old someone pointed something out to me that I had never thought of. Something that made me realize my connection to sagas might just run a tiny bit deeper. You see, I have two surnames. One after my mom, and one after my dad. The surname I got from my mother is Sagadalen. This name can be directly translated to “Valley of Sagas” or “Valley of Legends”. I can’t comprehend how I didn’t make that connection before. ME of all people, having been raised with these stories, and at the age of eight immersing myself in fantasy books out of sheer awe to everything mysterious and folklore?! Honestly, I thought my name was associated with saws, because “sag” means saw in Norwegian. So I thought it was a horribly lame name derived from a bunch of carpenters or something.
So I don’t know, maybe it’s in my blood? I am not a particularly superstitious person, but I am a person with lots of respect for nature and the energy that I know is all around us. This is more or less what I worship, if I have to commit to something like that. And with that comes my near-insatiable curiosity, fear, and respect for everything unknown to man. For all I know, maybe my family on my father’s side really was cursed, and maybe I have ancestors on my mother’s side who weren’t all human. This is of course all speculation, and it’s up to you what you choose to believe. Whether it’s real or not, it sure is fascinating.
So there it is I guess. My inspiration behind The Saga Dynasty. It didn’t take me too long to realize how it suited me perfectly and added a little flare and mystery to my blog. The “Dynasty” part was rather random, however. I struggled to find something to go with “Saga”, which I knew I wanted to use. How could I not with such an awesome surname? I ended up choosing Dynasty because I feel like that’s what I’m a part of. I’m not rich, famous, or in power like the word is often associated with. I’m doing my own thing and trying to build the life I want for me and the people I care about. But I am also a child of the sagas. Not many people can say that. That’s my legacy.
It’s my dynasty
THE SAGA DYNASTY 