The Literature of the Sagas by W. P. Ker
Published 1930 · 55,000 words · about 5 hours at an average pace · Essays & Criticism, Literary History
How hard is The Literature of the Sagas to read?
The Literature of the Sagas scores 56 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it quite demanding. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 58 out of 100
- Old Norse saga titles and terms, medieval literary vocabulary — explained in passing rather than systematically glossed.
- Sentence structure: 55 out of 100
- Abstraction: 68 out of 100
- High engagement with narrative theory and comparative literature across medieval European traditions.
- Information density: 72 out of 100
- Dense with saga references, comparative literary judgments, and analysis of narrative technique.
- Narrative indirection: 18 out of 100
- Direct argument but digressive in the Victorian scholarly manner; each chapter covers significant lateral ground.
- Symbolic density: 12 out of 100
- Analytical throughout; Ker writes criticism, not literature.
- Ironic distance: 20 out of 100
- Ker's prose has the measured irony of the Victorian man of letters when discussing academic commonplaces.
- Resolution withholding: 14 out of 100
- Each critical chapter resolves its argument; the overall essay builds a clear cumulative case.
- Structural complexity: 35 out of 100
- Organized thematically with comparative excursions; requires familiarity with the sagas discussed.
How The Literature of the Sagas is regarded
The Literature of the Sagas holds a literary regard score of 79 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.