Man there are a lot here. I got to read a few of these sagas (in English) years ago and many of them are fun. Think crazy soap opera but with swords, boats and bows and all before 1000AD. Somebody else recommended the Saga of Erik the Red and the Greenland Saga. Those are great.<p>For an early look at democracy vs mob rule the The Story of Burnt Njal is great.<p>For great poetry[1], adventurism and, well, funny-shaped heads, Egil's Saga is also great.<p>If I remember, a lot of the Sagas will reference other ones, and the style definitely gives you the sense that they were spoken for centuries before they were written down. It's also worth noting that many (most?) were written down by Christians based on the tellings. Some people think the outlook of the Christians writing down these mostly-pagan tales comes through a little more than the original telling. Sorry I don't have a source for that.<p>If I remember correctly many Icelanders can trace their ancestry back to the subjects of some of these Sagas.<p>If you decide to read some, what I found was that I was mostly lost in the first saga, but by the third or fourth in a row the style started making more sense. It gets immersive.<p>[1] Old Norse poetry doesn't easily translate into English but a lot of the style still comes through. They relied heavily on kennings. There's a good description on wikipedia: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenning" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenning</a>