Archives For November 30, 1999

Far over the misty mountains cold
To dungeons deep and caverns old
We must away, ere break of day,
To find our long-forgotten gold.

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

Fairy tale does not deny the existence of sorrow and failure: the possibility of these is necessary to the joy of deliverance. It denies (in the face of much evidence, if you will) universal final defeat…giving a fleeting glimpse of Joy; Joy beyond the walls of the world, poignant as grief.

J.R.R. Tolkien

The Epic of Gilgamesh (Mesopotamia) – author unknown

Iliad (Greece) – ascribed to Homer

Odyssey (Greece) – ascribed to Homer

Aeneid (Rome) – Virgil 

Metamorphoses (Rome) – Ovid

Beowulf (Britain) – author unknown

Both Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained (Britain) – John Milton

 

Of course there are loads of more amazing epic poems and stories to read, but these are for me some that are must reads. Enjoy. 

I never exactly made a book. It’s rather like taking dictation. I was given things to say.

C.S. Lewis