San Antonio College Library

Overview of world's major traditional epics and the characters who bring them to life, offering unique insight into the cultures from which they were born. Easy-to-use A-Z format, with more than 1,400 entries, this sweeping literary tour places all the legendary heros and heroines, courageous deeds, and phenonmenal myths in one rich and informative volume. Here are famous epics such as the Arthurian tales of the legendary ruler and his court, and...

In the Encyclopedia of Literary Epics, Jackson not only analyzes the monumental works that are the cornerstones of the Western literary canon - from Vergil's Aeneid, the first of the great literary epics of Europe - to twentieth-century works such as Ezra Pound's The Cantos and The Bridge by Hart Crane. She also brings to light hundreds of less familiar poems from both the Western tradition and cultures around the world, including the Swahili Al-Inkishafi,...

This is the most comprehensive reference work published on epics from cultures worldwide. Jackson is a lecturer in the English Foundations Department at the University of Houston. She defines epic as "a long narrative poem of grand scope, style, and theme that recounts the fantastic exploits of a legendary or historical figure or figures endowed with superhuman might and ... epitomizes the character or ideals of a certain race, tribe, or nationality."...

Mirabile Dictu covers in six separate chapters the works of Virgil, Dante, Boccaccio, Ariosto, Tasso, and Spenser. Its broad aim is to provide a select cross section of works in the Middle Ages and Renaissance in order to examine and compare for the first time the marvelous in the light of epic genre, in the light of literary and critical theory (both past and present), and in the light of historically and culturally determined representational practices....