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Title: The Book of the Epic
Author: Helene A. Guerber
Release Date: November 8, 2004 [eBook #13983]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
THE BOOK OF THE EPIC
The World's Great Epics Told in Story
by
H. A. GUERBER
Author of _Myths of Greece and Rome_, _Myths of Northern Lands_,
_Legends of the Middle Ages_, etc.
With an Introduction by J. Berg Esenwein, Litt. D.
With Sixteen Illustrations from the Masters of Painting
1913
Every now and then in our reading we come suddenly face to face with
_first_ things,--the very elemental sources beyond which no man may
go. There is a distinct satisfaction in dealing with such beginnings,
and, when they are those of literature, the sense of freshness is
nothing short of inspiring. To share the same lofty outlook, to
breathe the same high air with those who first sensed a whole era of
creative thoughts, is the next thing to being the gods' chosen medium
for those primal expressions.
All this is not to say that the epic is the oldest form of literary
expression, but it is the expression of the oldest literary ideas,
for, even when the epic is not at all primitive in form, it deals
essentially with elemental moods and ideals. Epical poetry is poetic
not because it is metrical and conformative to rhythmical
standards,--though it usually is both,--but it is poetry because of
the high sweep of its emotional outlook, the bigness of its thought,
the untamed passion of its language, and the musical flow of its
utterance.
Here, then, we have a veritable source book of the oldest ideas of the
race; but not only that--we are also led into the penetralia of the
earliest thought of many separate nations, for when the epic is
national, it is true to the earliest genius of the people whose spirit
it depicts.
To be sure, much of literature, and particularly the literature of the
epic, is true rather to the tone of a nation than to its literal
history--by which I mean that Achilles was more really a Greek hero
than any Greek who ever lived, because he was the apotheosis of Greek
chivalry, and as such was the expression of the Greeks rather than
merely a Greek. The Iliad and the Odyssey are not merely epics of
Greece--they are Greek.
This is an age of story-telling. Never before has the world turned so
attentively to the shorter forms of fiction. Not only is this true of
the printed short-story, of which some thousands, more or less new,
are issued every year in English, but oral story-telling is taking its
deserved place in the school, the home, and among clubs specially
organized for its cultivation. Teachers and parents must therefore be
increasingly alert, not only to invent new stories, but--this even
chiefly--to familiarize themselves with the oldest stories in the
world.
So it is to such sources as these race-narratives that all
story-telling must come for recurrent inspirations. The setting of
each new story may be tinged with what wild or sophisticated life
soever, yet must the narrator find the big, heart-swelling movements
and passions and thraldoms and conquests and sufferings and elations
of mankind stored in the great epics of the world.
It were a life-labor to become familiar with all of these in their
expressive originals; even in translation it would be a titanic task
to read each one. Therefore how great is our indebtedness to the ripe
scholarship and discreet choice of the author of this "Book of the
Epic" for having brought to us not only the arguments but the very
spirit and flavor of all this noble array. The task has never before
been essayed, and certainly, now that it has been done for the first
time, it is good to know that it has been done surpassingly well.
To find the original story-expression of a nation's myths, its
legends, and its heroic creations is a high joy--a face-to-face
interview with any great first-thing is a big experience; but to come
upon whole scores of undefiled fountains is like multiplying the
Pierian waters.
Even as all the epics herein collected in scenario were epoch-making,
so will the gathering of these side by side prove to be. Literary
judgments must be comparative, and now we may place each epic in
direct comparison with any other, with a resultant light, both
diffused and concentrated, for the benefit of both critics and the
general reader.
The delights of conversation--so nearly, alas, a lost art!--consist
chiefly in the exchange of varied views on single topics. So, when we
note how the few primal story-themes and plot developments of all time
were handled by those who first told the tales in literate form, the
satisfaction is proportionate.
One final word must be said regarding the interest of epical material.
Heretofore a knowledge of the epics--save only a few of the better
known--has been confined to scholars, or, at most, students; but it
may well be hoped that the wide perusal of this book may serve to show
to the general reader how fascinating a store of fiction may be found
in epics which have up till now been known to him only by name.
CONTENTS
Introduction by J. Berg Esenwein
Foreword
Greek Epics
The Iliad
The Odyssey
Latin Epics
The Aeneid
French Epics
The Song of Roland
Aucassin and Nicolette
Spanish Epics
The Cid
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