Translated by B. J. Timmer.
Originally published in Holland 1959 ('Heldenlied en Heldensage').
Everyone knows a few epic poems, even if for most people this knowledge is only fragmentary. There are not many children who have read the whole of the 'Iliad' or the 'Odyssey' at school, and not much is normally known about the 'Chanson de Roland' or the 'Nibelungenlied', except that they are very old poems and therefore difficult to digest.
In order to appreciate these creations of earlier days one should learn to see them against the background of their time. This book is intended to give a general introduction to the reading of an heroic epic, of whichever nation or kind it may be. If it should stimulate the reader to make a closer acquaintance with this poetry, I would consider myself amply rewarded. For it has not so much been my intention to impart knowledge, as to provide a background for the reading of such poetry.
Author(s): Jan de Vries
Series: Oxford Paperbacks, 69
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 1963
Language: English
Pages: 286
City: London
PREFACE v
1. THE HOMERIC EPIC 1
2. THE OLD FRENCH EPIC 22
3. THE GERMANIC HEROIC SONGS 44
4. IRISH AND ICELANDIC PROSE SAGAS 72
5. THE EPIC OF INDIANS AND PERSIANS 99
6. THE SLAVONIC FOLK-EPIC 116
7. THE EPIC POETRY OF NON-INDO-EUROPEAN NATIONS 138
8. POETS AND RECITERS 164
9. THE HERO AND THE HEROIC AGE 180
10. THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF HEROIC LEGEND 194
11. THE PATTERN OF AN HEROIC LIFE 210
12. THE MYTHICAL BACKGROUND OF HEROIC LEGEND 227
13. BEGINNING AND END OF THE HEROIC EPIC 242
INDEX 271
