SAGA

Real Name: Saga

Identity/Class: Asgardian goddess

Occupation: Goddess of poetry and runes

Group Membership: Gods of Asgard

Affiliations: Odin

Enemies: None

Known Relatives: Aegir (alleged father, alias Hymir, SEE COMMENTS), Ran (possible mother), Grolp, Greip, Angeyja, Eisla, Eyrsjafa, Atli, Jarnsaxa (sisters), Tyr (son), Heimdall (possible nephew, SEE COMMENTS), Sif (possible niece, SEE COMMENTS),

Aliases: Her name translates as "story."

Base of Operations: Asgard

First Appearance: Thor I#342 (April, 1984)

Powers/Abilities: Saga possesses the conventional attributes of the Asgardian gods such as superhuman strength (Class 25), vitality, resistance to injury and conventional injury and a long life enchantment. She is particularly adept at mixing meads to relax and possibly inspire gods and mortals with poetic insight.

History: (Norse/German myth)- Saga is the daughter of the god Hymir and the goddess of runes, the ancient letters or symbols used in the earliest alphabets of the ancient Teutonic tribes which preceded the Germans and the Scandinavians. She became the mother of the war-god Tyr to Odin. As an adult, Tyr and one of Odin’s other sons, Thor, came to borrow Hymir’s cauldron in order to brew enough mead for all of the gods. Saga welcomed them both at first and so did Hymir, but upon realizing they were stealing his cauldron, he rallied the giants against them. As Tyr escaped with the cauldron, Thor fought them off to keep them from entering Asgard.

(Thor I#342) - Saga offered Odin his customary mead of poetry as he had every eventide but he turned it away as he contemplated the arrival of Eilif, the last Viking. Saga suggested that Eilif's arrival would be an occasion for joy, but Odin feared it might be a harbinger of doom for Asgard.

Comments: Adapted by Walt Simonson and Terry Austin

In the Norse myth of Thor and Tyr stealing the cauldron of mead from Hymir, it is mentioned that Saga, Tyr’s mother is the daughter of Hymir, but this complicated by the fact that Hymir is supposed to be Aegir, a giant who ruled the sea. Aegir has only been listed as having nine daughters so either Saga is a separate name for one of the nine (the list of their names varies on certain accounts, but almost wholly stays the same) or she is a daughter he had out of wedlock. It is known that one of the daughters of Aegir sired Odin the god Heimdall (but which one has never been answered. All the daughters called themselves the mother of Heimdall). Sif as the sister of Heimdall is a fabrication of the Marvel Universe that is unconfirmed in Norse or German Myth.

Saga’s “sister,” Jarnsaxa, is the mother of Magni and Modi, the sons of Thor in Norse Myth later described by the Sentient Eye of Odin, but since many of what it has described has been called into doubt, they are not listed here among Saga’s relatives.
    --It's not even whether it was called into doubt or not. The story involved a previous incarnation of the Asgardians. Thor does not have any known children in his modern incarnation--Snood.

Saga supposedly died during the Ragnarok in Thor II#85.

by Will U

CLARIFICATIONS:
Saga is not to be confused with:

• Sagayetha, Pictish wizard of the Hyborian Age, @ Savage Sword of Conan #46
• Sage, New Age guru, @ Man Thing I#20
• Sage, Tessa, member of the X-Men, @ X-Men II#109
• Sage, member of Godwulf’s Redeemers, @ Captain America I#288
• Henry Sage, vampire destroyed by Blade, @ Marvel Team Up II#7
• Sage-Wolf, a form of Khlog who was banished from the Keewazi Reservation by Wyatt Wingfoot, @ Strange Tales III#1
• Sid Saggio, criminal obsessed with finding a giant squid and killed by one, @ Punisher VI#23

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