Epic Poetry

[Androxine Vortex]

Do people still write epics? The famous ones were written hundreds of years ago, it seems there aren't any new ones out there.

And what are your thoughts on the format of epics? I know a lot of them use rhyme schemes but aside from that, what if they were written in paragraph format instead of verses? Do you think it would have the same effect?

(I am not suggesting that the language be modernized but instead just take out the verses and make it into more of a modern style book)

 

[Steerpike]

I've always wondered whether epic poems handed down via oral tradition were in verse because that made them easier to memorise. Maybe someone here knows the answer.

 

[Ireth]

I wrote a poem a matter of years ago that might qualify as an epic -- it's eleven typed pages long, and deals with the story of a king who goes out to fight a dragon in order to keep his kingdom safe, meeting both friends and enemies along the way. It's in my portfolio, if you're interested in reading it. /shameless plug

As for format, that's an interesting question. I think poetry and prose are quite distinct. Reading the Lay of Leithian and the Silmarillion chapter "Of Beren and Luthien" are two very different literary experiences, and both are excellent. They each give somewhat different details to the story and the characters; I think the Lay gives a lot more, simply because it's ginormously long. I haven't yet been able to get through the whole thing.

 

[Shockley]

I've always wondered whether epic poems handed down via oral tradition were in verse because that made them easier to memorise. Maybe someone here knows the answer.

Yes. That's also why you find so many referential titles in the Greek works (god-like, like a god, equal to a god, etc.).

 

[Steerpike]

Yes. That's also why you find so many referential titles in the Greek works (god-like, like a god, equal to a god, etc.).

Ah...I never thought of that. Makes sense.

 

[Androxine Vortex]

I wrote a poem a matter of years ago that might qualify as an epic -- it's eleven typed pages long, and deals with the story of a king who goes out to fight a dragon in order to keep his kingdom safe, meeting both friends and enemies along the way. It's in my portfolio, if you're interested in reading it. /shameless plug

As for format, that's an interesting question. I think poetry and prose are quite distinct. Reading the Lay of Leithian and the Silmarillion chapter "Of Beren and Luthien" are two very different literary experiences, and both are excellent. They each give somewhat different details to the story and the characters; I think the Lay gives a lot more, simply because it's ginormously long. I haven't yet been able to get through the whole thing.

I wrote sort of an epic poem for a project in my senior year English class (we just got done reading Beowulf) and I found it the other day and thought, "You know, this is a really cool plot and I think I could really expand on this."

So now I'm in the process of making a better plot but I'm wondering how I should write it. This might be a publishing question but if I do want this to be published I have two options:

A) Keep it in its verse format and try to get it published under Poetry.

B) Change from verse to paragraph format and publish it under Fantasy.

I don't want to change the way I wrote it though. Meaning that I want it to have that authentic, old English inspired sound to it. Occasionally using words such as, "thy" and "cometh." I want to keep the wordings the same but I don't know if that would work well in a modern paragraph format, especially if it's not published under the genre of Poetry. Suggestions?

EDIT: I also used a rhyme scheme that I liked, ABABC DEDEC, but I might consider changing that. I don't know if I still want a particular scheme or just free verse.

 

[Lorna]

I've often asked that question. Epic poems have been been throughout the centuries. The latest I can think of are 19th C- Tennyson 'Idylls of the King' Keats - 'Endymion.' But I think there will be 20th and even 21st C epic poems if you look hard enough. The rhyme schemes seem to vary. 'The Odyssey' isn't that tight, but imagine writing iambic pentameter like Milton!

I wrote an epic called 'The Search of Mabon' based on part of 'How Culwch Won Olwen' in the Mabinogion I've submitted to a magazine but don't think I'll hear back for a while so it'll be interesting to see how that goes.

I know a bit about the oral tradition in Pre-Saxon Britain, in particular in relation to where I live in Lancashire in the North West. It was the job of the bards to learn the genealogy of their tribes, the tales of the land and local gods and they didn't record it. When the Anglo-Saxons came to Britain (then known as Prydein) many of the natives fled to Wales, which was never fully Anglicised (Wales comes from the Anglo-Saxon word Waelisc. They basically came over and called the natives foreigners (!)). The early British stories were recorded in Wales in the medieval period by the clergy. Some of the literature such as 'The Book of Talisein' and the poems attributed to Llywarch Hen in 'The Red Book of Hergest' are written in verse but there as just as many prose pieces. (The stories in 'The Mabinogion' are all prose). You can tell the prose was written 'to be told' by it's use of repetition, rhyme and onomastic tags etc. I'm not sure about Anglo-Saxon literature.

Androxine- I think you should try both. Make poetry more fantastic and fantasy more poetic. That's my ploy anyway.

 

[ScipioSmith]

It seems to me that not only epic, but long form narrative poetry itself have gone by the board. Which is a pity for me because it's the only kind of poetry I actually like.

It's not surprising, given the fact that prose fiction has attained respectability, but its still said. I also think it means getting a long form story published in poetry would be tough.

 

[Androxine Vortex]

I'm going to make a followup thread on this and place it in "Publishing." Take a look if you are interested.

 

[Chilari]

It would be interesting to see if it would be possible to write a poem that rhymes, and then change the line breaks so at first glance it looks like prose, and see how that is received.

But yes, as Shockley said, it's easier to remember things in poetry or song than prose. Think of all the songs you know even though you've not sung them in ages. Even if you can't remember the exact words you can remember the tune so you know where there are words missing. It's also easier to remember things if they are frequently repeated. In the Odyssey, phrases like "rosy-fingered dawn" and "the wine-dark sea" are used quite a lot.

 

[gavintonks]

Thing to remember is translation like the Vedas or the Rubaiyat all eventually loose a lot in translation
I am sure someone somewhere is writing just depends if it ever gets read - the saga of the banking sector
- How a criminal brought the world to its knees through greed - government bonds
it was a lonely winter when he was let out of jail after his almost destroying Barings bank
he was immediately offered a new job in banking in america
it was not long and he was cooking up bonds, in new and inventive ways
then when people could not pay and the houses were overvalued
snip snap 25% of the worlds assets disappeared
tax payers money was used to bail out the criminals
banks made billions
tax payers will probably never be paid back
add in spears and knives and dragons
people are battling for 2 years now
the end

quite hard to get a 24 000 rhyming couplets without a monastery of dedicated monks vowed to silence