Talk:Epic poetry/Archive 1

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Gothinia Chronicle external link

I cut this external link - he is only asking for *voluntary* contributions, but still, it doesn't belong on the list of epics. --MichaelTinkler 15:51, February 25, 2002 (UTC)

external links:

• Gothinia Chronicle - Epic Poems of Human Experience

I don't think this qualifies as epic

I don't think this qualifies as epic:

1910s: The Silmarillion by J. R. R. Tolkien (fictive mythology of Middle-earth)

Is there somewhere else it can go? Maybe List of books Tolkien wrote before and as background for Lord of the Rings? Ouch, my head hurts. Atorpen 23:52 Jan 25, 2003 (UTC)

As it certainly does fit the dictionary definition, I assume you mean it doesn't qualify as notable epic poetry. While that's debatable, based on the popularity of Tolkien's works I'd have to answer yes.

On a side note, that other category would more correctly be List of books Tolkien's publisher wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole, forcing him to write the Lord of the Rings instead :-). Mkweise 00:24 Jan 26, 2003 (UTC)

A moot point; it doesn't count as poetry either way.

People seem to be missing the point: The Silmarillion is written entirely in prose. Epic or not, popular or not, it's not epic poetry, and so this is the wrong page for it.

The Law of Fives

I can't find anything on The Law of Fives by Tristan Parker, cited as a 21st century epic. I'm not confident enough about it to remove it, though.

I have deletes The Law of Fives and Ballad of the White Horse: the former because I can find no evidence of its existence, the latter because it is a narrative poem, not an epic. The Silmarillion is not a poem at all. Bmills 10:29, 22 Dec 2003 (UTC)

I have also removed Dante and Spenser, as their poems were allegories, not epics. Bmills 10:40, 22 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Mahabharaata

I've changed the statement that the Mahabharata is the largest literary work in hiistory. The two sites stated below show that the tibetan Epic of Gesar (which currently has no record in wikipedia) is the largest (three times the size of the Mahabharata).

• http://www.tibet-china.org/newbook/englishhtml/gesare.html
• http://web.utk.edu/~jftzgrld/MBh1Home.html

Risk one 03:38, 21 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Dante's Divine Comedy

Wouldn't Dante's Divine Comedy qualify as an epic poem? I always have considered it as such.

Mahabrarata date

1316 is a very precise date for the writing of Mahabharata. Any evidence for this? Zeimusu 13:43, 2004 Oct 31 (UTC)

Turkish Epic

I was just wondering why there isn't any mention of the nomadic epics from Central Asia turk influenced civilization (for example Ouighur, Turkmenish, Kazakh).

I found a comprensive book on the matter ("comparative studies on heroes and epics in Central Asia" recently edited in english from a Chinese house, from the top of my head). I however, do not possess the book anymore, but it mentions many old epics, along with both tibetan and mongolian Gesar/Gisor, they talked about 4-5 different central asian epics (from kazak, ouighur, turkmen and other population i can't recall) including short transcripts of the oral texts in both, native language and translated.

So if anyone know about them, i will be very interested to learn more...

Copyvio image

The image from the mahabharata was copyrighted. It could be used in an article of commentary on the image, (but is probably not notable enough for that) but it may not be used to decorate this article. Zeimusu | Talk page 12:55, 29 October 2005 (UTC)

Koroglu, legendary warrior, subject of many epics in Turkic literature. Folk poetry, Turkish Epic poetry.

Narrative vs. Epic

I think the Narrative vs. Epic section was a rather nice touch to this page. Why was it removed? I think the information should be back, but under a different title than Narrative vs. Epic (or whatever it was).

Oral poetry

I've removed this for making no sense: "In the modern era, as oral composition of poetry has fallen out of favor, epics have increasingly been written in prose." The point of the sentence pre-alteration was that long poems in general are currently unfashionable. The change utterly destroys that point, from something which is reasonable to something which is simply false; the oral, even spontaneous composition of (short) poetry is very much alive and well, and not just in non-literate societies. See Performance poetry and Slam poetry.