Homepage
Login
Profile
BookClubs
dmBox
Read Ebook: The Boy's King Arthur Sir Thomas Malory's History of King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table by Malory Thomas Sir Lanier Sidney Editor Wyeth N C Newell Convers Illustrator
Font size:
Background color:
Text color:
Add to tbrJar First Page Next Page
Ebook has 1489 lines and 91575 words, and 30 pages
INTRODUCTION
THE HEROIC AGE PAGE
Epic and Romance: the two great orders of medieval narrative 3
The heroic age represented in three kinds of literature--Teutonic Epic, French Epic, and the Icelandic Sagas 6
Conditions of Life in an "heroic age" 7
Homer and the Northern poets 9
Progress of poetry in the heroic age 13
Growth of Epic, distinct in character, but generally incomplete, among the Teutonic nations 14
EPIC AND ROMANCE
The complex nature of Epic 16
No kind or aspect of life that may not be included 16
This freedom due to the dramatic quality of true Epic 17 as explained by Aristotle 17
Epic does not require a magnificent ideal subject 18 such as those of the artificial epic 18
True Epic begins with a dramatic plot and characters 20
The Epic of the Northern heroic age is sound in its dramatic conception 20 and does not depend on impersonal ideals 21
The German heroes in history and epic 21
Relations of Epic to historical fact 22
The epic poet is free in the conduct of his story 23 but his story and personages must belong to his own people 26
Nature of Epic brought out by contrast with secondary narrative poems, where the subject is not national 27
This secondary kind of poem may be excellent, but is always different in character from native Epic 28
Disputes of academic critics about the "Epic Poem" 30
Tasso's defence of Romance. Pedantic attempts to restrict the compass of Epic 30
Bossu on Phaeacia 31
Epic, as the most comprehensive kind of poetry, includes Romance as one of its elements 32 but needs a strong dramatic imagination to keep Romance under control 33
ROMANTIC MYTHOLOGY
Mythology not required in the greatest scenes in Homer 35
Myths and popular fancies may be a hindrance to the epic poet, but he is compelled to make some use of them 36
He criticises and selects, and allows the characters of the gods to be modified in relation to the human characters 37
Early humanism and reflexion on myth--two processes: rejection of the grosser myths; refinement of myth through poetry 40
Two ways of refining myth in poetry-- by turning it into mere fancy, and the more ludicrous things into comedy; by finding an imaginative or an ethical meaning in it 40
The old gods rescued from clerical persecution 43
Imaginative treatment of the graver myths--the death of Balder; the Doom of the Gods 43
Difficulties in the attainment of poetical self-command 44
Medieval confusion and distraction 45
Premature "culture" 46
Depreciation of native work in comparison with ancient literature and with theology 47
An Icelandic gentleman's library 47
The whalebone casket 48
Epic not wholly stifled by "useful knowledge" 49
THE THREE SCHOOLS--TEUTONIC EPIC--FRENCH EPIC--THE ICELANDIC HISTORIES
Early failure of Epic among the Continental Germans 50
Old English Epic invaded by Romance 50
Old Northern poetry full of romantic mythology 51
French Epic and Romance contrasted 51
Feudalism in the old French Epic not unlike the prefeudal "heroic age" 52
Iceland and the German heroic age 57
The Icelandic paradox--old-fashioned politics together with clear understanding 58 o, at the desire of Griflet, the king made him knight.
"Now," said King Arthur to Sir Griflet, "sithen that I have made thee knight, thou must grant me a gift."
"What ye will, my lord," said Sir Griflet.
Add to tbrJar First Page Next Page