SAGA

city and ken (prefecture), northern Kyushu, Japan. Saga was the castle town of the lord (daimyo) Nabeshima Kanso. Traces of feudal days remain in the town's thatched roofs and the lotus-covered castle moats. Saga, the prefectural capital, is now an industrial centre noted for its cotton textiles and ceramic wares. A university was founded there in 1949. The town of Arita continues to produce its characteristic china and pottery, called Imari ware, which was developed by Ri Sampei, a Korean potter, in the 16th and 17th centuries. Saga ken faces the Sea of Japan (north) and the Ariake Sea (south). Its area of 939 square miles (2,433 square km) includes the Tsukushi Plain, which is dissected by a network of creeks used for irrigation and drainage. Advanced agricultural techniques have been developed, and mechanization is extensive for large-scale orange cultivation, dairy farming, and cattle raising. Saga Plain is a major rice-producing area of Japan. Coal was an important industry until the shift of industrial energy sources to petroleum. Saga ken is believed to be the point at which the earliest contact between Japan and the Asian continent was made. In the late Tokugawa period (16031867) it was influenced by European culture through the city of Nagasaki. Pop. (1987 est.) city, 169,851; ken, 881,000. Additional reading The best guide to current research on the sagas is the annual Bibliography of Old Norse-Icelandic Studies (from 1964); for earlier works, see Islandica (from 1908). Standard editions of important texts include slenzk fornrit (from 1933); Altnordische Saga-Bibliothek, ed. by G. Cederschiold et al., 18 vol. (18921929); Editiones Arnamagnaeanae (from 1958); Fornaldar Sgur Nordurlanda, 4 vol. (1950); Sturlunga saga, 2 vol. (1946); and Nelson's Icelandic Texts (from 1957), with English translations. Useful general surveys of the sagas are Peter Hallberg, Den Islndska Sagan (1956; Eng. trans., The Icelandic Saga, 1962); S. Nordal, Sagalitteraturen (1953); and Kurt Schier, Sagaliteratur (1969). For criticism and interpretation of the saga, see Walter Baetke, ber die Entstehung der Islndersagas (1956); Theodore M. Andersson, The Problem of Icelandic Saga Origins (1964); Gabriel Turville-Petre, Origins of Icelandic Literature (1953); Theodore M. Andersson, The Icelandic Family Saga: An Analytic Reading (1967); Hermann Palsson, Art and Ethics in Hrafnkel's Saga (1971); Einar O. Sveinsson, Njlsbd, bok um mikid listaverk (1943; Eng. trans., Njls Saga: A Literary Masterpiece, 1971); Gabriel Turville-Petre, The Heroic Age of Scandinavia (1951) and Myth and Religion of the North (1964); and Hermann Palsson and Paul Edwards, Legendary Fiction in Medieval Iceland (1970). See also Margaret Schlauch, Romance in Iceland (1934); and E.F. Halvorsen, The Norse Version of the Chanson de Roland (1959).Of translations into English, the following may be mentioned: L.M. Hollander (ed. and trans.), Heimskringla: History of the Kings of Norway (1964) and The Sagas of Kormk and the Sworn Brothers (1949); Gwyn Jones (ed. and trans.), The Vatnsdalers' Saga (1944), Egil's Saga (1960), and Eirik the Red, and Other Icelandic Sagas (1961); George Johnston (ed. and trans.), The Saga of Gisli (1963); Hermann Palsson (ed. and trans.), Hrafnkel's Saga and Other Icelandic Stories (1971); Paul Edwards and Hermann Palsson (eds. and trans.), Arrow-Odd: A Medieval Novel (1970), Gautrek's Saga, and Other Medieval Tales (1968), Hrolf Gautreksson: A Viking Romance (1972), and Eyrbyggja Saga (1973); Magnus Magnusson and Hermann Palsson (eds. and trans.), Njal's Saga (1960), The Vinland Sagas (1965), King Harald's Saga (1966), and Laxdaela Saga (1969); M.H. Scargill and Margaret Schlauch (eds. and trans.), Three Icelandic Sagas (1950); J.I. Young (ed. and trans.), The Prose Edda of Snorri Sturluson: Tales from Norse Mythology (1954); J.H. McGrew (ed. and trans.), Sturlunga Saga, vol. 1 (1970); Denton Fox and Hermann Palsson (eds. and trans.), Grettir's Saga (1973).