Epic and History

by Editor: David Konstan (Brown University, USA); Editor: Kurt A. Raaflaub (Brown University, USA)

• ISBN13: 9781444315646
• ISBN10: 1444315641
• Format: eBook
• Copyright: 2009-10-01
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

With contributions from leading scholars, this is a unique cross-cultural comparison of historical epics across a wide range of cultures and time periods, which presents crucial insights into how history is treated in narrative poetry. The first book to gain new insights into the topic of 'epic and history' through in-depth cross-cultural comparisons Covers epic traditions across the globe and across a wide range of time periods Brings together leading specialists in the field, and is edited by two internationally regarded scholars An important reference for scholars and students interested in history and literature across a broad range of disciplines

Table of Contents

Series Editor's Preface

Notes on Contributors

Introduction

Maybe Epic: The Origins and Reception of Sumerian Heroic Poetry

Historical Events and the Process of Their Transformation in Akkadian Heroic Traditions

Epic and History in Hittite Anatolia: In Search of a Local Hero

Manly Deeds: Hittite Admonitory History and Eastern Mediterranean Didactic Epic

Epic and History in the Hebrew Bible: Definitions, "Ethnic Genres," and the Challenges of Cultural Identity in the Biblical Book of Judges

No Contest between Memory and Invention: The Invention of the Pandava Heroes of the Mahabharata

From "Imperishable Glory" to History: The Iliad and the Trojan War

Historical Narrative in Archaic and Early Classical Greek Elegy

Fact, Fiction, and Form in Early Roman Epic

The Song and the Sword: Silius' Punica and the Crisis of Early Imperial Epic

The Burden of Mortality: Alexander and the Dead in Persian Epic and Beyond

Slavic Epic: Past Tales and Present Myths

Historicity and Anachronism in Beowulf

The Nibelungenlied - Myth and History: A Middle High German Epic Poem at the Crossroad of Past and Present, Despair and Hope

Medieval Epic and History in the Romance Languages

Roland's Migration from Anglo-Norman Epic to Royal French Chronicle History

A Recurrent Theme of the Spanish Medieval Epic: Complaints and Laments by Noble Women

History in Medieval Scandinavian Heroic Literature and the Northwest European Context

Traditional History in South Slavic Oral Epic

Lord Five Thunder and the Twelve Eagles and Jaguars of Rabinal Meet Charlemagne and the Twelve Knights of France

History, Myth, and Social Function in Southern African Nguni Praise Poetry

Epic and History in the Arabic Tradition

Comments

Index

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