Saga
One of the twelve major goddesses, second only to Frigg according to
Snorri. She sits by the stream of memory and drinks from golden chalices in her hall at
Sokkvabekk.
Saga's name is most likely directly related to the word saga (epic story) which in turn comes from the Old Norse verb segja 'to say, tell'.
Saga is said to live at grand estate called Sokkvabbekk. Sokkvabbekk means "Sinking Beach" and was a landscape of flowing waterfalls.
There she and Odin drink every day from golden chalices.
The liquid is either the waters of the stream of memory, or perhaps from the
Well of Urd.
Saga is second only to
Frigg
(the main Goddess of the Norse Pantheon)
according to the Prose Edda. Her name means
"seeress" or "omniscience" and is connected with the Norse word for history -- thus, some call
her the goddess of history. She is often assumed to be the sibyl or seeress who
prophesizes in the beginning of the Poetic Edda, who fortells of the
death of Baldr
and what will happen at Ragnarok.
It has also been postulated that since Frigg knows everything about the present,
and Saga knows all about the past, that Saga is an aspect of Frigg as Memory.
Saga's genealogy is lost to the mists of time, and seems to belong to an older generation than that of the
Vanir and
Aesir, like Tyr. It is thought that she may have been an ancient sea deity akin to a Nerthus/Njord or Aegir/Ran combination, which is why sometimes she has been described as the grandmother of Heimdall (who had nine mothers, the waves).
From Grimnismal
Odin is describing the halls of the gods:
Sokkvabekk,
a fourth is called, and cool waves
resound over it;
there Odin and Saga drink everyday,
joyful, from golden cups. From The Poetic Edda,
translated by Carolyne Larrington
From Gylfaginning
In answer to 'Who are the Asyniur?'
The highest is Frigg. She has a dwelling called Fensalir and it is very splendid. Second is
Saga. She dwells at Sokkvabekk, and that is a big place. From Snorri Sturluson's Edda,
translated by Anthony Faulkes