In terms of form,
fornaldarsögur are similar to various other saga-genres, but tend towards fairly linear, episodic narratives. Like sagas in other genres, many quote verse, but in the
fornaldarsögur that verse is almost invariably in the metre of
Eddaic verse (unlike the
skaldic verse found in most other saga genres). The setting is primarily
Scandinavia in the time prior to the
settlement of Iceland and the conversion of Scandinavia, but occasionally it moves temporarily to more distant and exotic locations or has its characters encounter Christian cultures (one example of both being
Örvar-Odds saga). There are also very often mythological elements, such as
dwarves,
elves,
giants and
magic. In centuries past, they were considered to be reliable historic sources by Scandinavian scholars, i.e. Iceland in the later Middle Ages. Some of the sagas are based on distant historic characters, and this is evident in cases where there are corroborating sources, such as
Ragnars saga loðbrókar,
Yngvars saga víðförla and
Völsunga saga. In the case of
Hervarar saga, it conveys names of historical places in present
Ukraine during the period c. 150-450, and the last part of the saga is used as a historic source for Swedish history. Indeed, they often contain very old Germanic matter, such as the
Hervarar saga and the
Völsunga saga which contains poetry about
Sigurd that did not find its way into the
Poetic Edda and which would otherwise have been lost (see the
Great Lacuna). Other sagas deal with heroes such as
Ragnar Lodbrok,
Hrólf Kraki and
Orvar-Odd. ==List of the sagas==