Chapter I: Introduction

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.

J. Berg Esenwein

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

Portuguese Epics

The Lusiad

Italian Epics

Divine Comedy

The Inferno

Purgatory

Paradise

The Orlandos

Gerusalemme Liberata, or Jerusalem Delivered

Epics of the British Isles

Beowulf

The Arthurian Cycle

Robin Hood

The Faerie Queene

Paradise Lost

Paradise Regained

German Epics

The Nibelungenlied

Story of the Holy Grail

Epics of the Netherlands

Scandinavian Epics

The Volsunga Saga

Russian and Finnish Epics

The Kalevala, or the Land of Heroes

Epics of Central Europe and of the Balkan Peninsula

Hebrew and Early Christian Epics

Arabian and Persian Epics

The Shah-Nameh, or Epic of Kings

Indian Epics

The Ramayana

The Mahabharata

Chinese and Japanese Poetry

American Epics

Index

ILLUSTRATIONS

Odin Bids Farewell to Brunhild before He Surrounds Her by a
Barrier of Fire (Frontispiece)
From the painting by Th. Pixis

Oedipus Solving the Sphinx's Riddle
From the painting by Ingres

Achilles Disguised as a Girl Testing the Sword in Ulysses' Pack
From the painting by Battoni

Circe and Ulysses' Companions Turned into Swine
By L. Chalon

Venus Meeting Aeneas and Achates Near Carthage
From the painting by Cortona

Roland at Roncevaux
From the painting by L.F. Guesnet

The Palace Where Inez de Castro Lived and was Murdered

Dante Interviewing Hugues Capet
From an illustration by R. Galli

Hermione Finds Tancred Wounded
From the painting by Nicolas Poussin

The Body of Elaine on its Way to King Arthur's Palace
By Gustave Dora

Una and the Red Cross Knight
From the painting by George Frederick Watts

The Heralds Summon Lucifer's Host to a Council at Pandemonium
By Gustave Dore

The Dead Sigfried Rome Back to Worms
From the painting by Th. Pixis

St. John the Evangelist at Patmos Writing the Apocalypse
From the painting by Correggio

Sita Soothing Rama to Sleep
From a Calcutta print

The Monk Breaks into the Robbers' House to Rescue White Aster
From a Japanese print

"It is in this vast, dim region of myth and legend the
sources of the literature of modern times are hidden; and it
is only by returning to them, by constant remembrance that
they drain a vast region of vital human experience, that the
origin and early direction of that literature can be
recalled."--Hamilton Wright Mabie.