Everything individual, both physical and mental, is, when viewed in isolation, incomprehensible, mysterious, and inexplicable. It only becomes somewhat understandable when considered as an individual in its similarity to the whole and in its difference from others. To understand the essence of the old Norse sagas, one must therefore know the origin and nature of the saga in general or as a whole. Just as a word is originally the expression and communication of a received mental impression, so the saga is originally the expression and communication of something that has happened, which the narrator has either witnessed himself or learned from others. However, not everything that has happened has become the subject of a saga, but only the infinitely few things that an uneducated person has grasped and deemed important enough to share with others.