National Epics

A concise introduction to the epic tradition, offering an accessible essay on origins, forms, and distinguishing features of primitive and modern epics, followed by brief sketches, bibliographic guidance, and selected narrative condensations of major national poems. Each chapter summarizes a poem's background, metre, and history, then presents carefully chosen episodes from works such as the Râmâyana, Mahâbhârata, the Homeric epics, Kalevala, Aeneid, Beowulf, the Nibelungenlied, the Song of Roland, the Shah-Nâmeh, the Poem of the Cid, the Divine Comedy, Orlando Furioso, the Lusiads, Jerusalem Delivered, and Milton's epics, enabling readers to grasp structure, themes, and characteristic incidents without reading entire texts.