I need help. Fortunately, there's the Internets.

[larryhammer]

Pimp me an epic.

Well, it doesn't have to be an actual epic. A book-length poem or poem cycle is what I'm in the mood for, but a sufficiently chewy prose epic (such as Journey to the West) might also do the trick. It doesn't have to be heroic, either -- comic epics (see Journey; also, Orlando Furioso) are also acceptable. Duration and chewiness are a must, though. I'm in need of diversion that lasts me a while. My one other requirement is print edition -- I don't have an e-reader and the point is to get away from the computer.

Things which I poked at and rejected include Troilus and Criseyde, as for now, at least, I don't have the brainpower to read outside my own vernacular, and Romance of the Three Kingdoms, as I don't have the brainpower to keep track of almost a thousand named characters. Things which I have picked up but failed to committed myself to include Williams's Taliessin Through Logres/Region of the Summer Stars, Lucan's Civil War, Knox's Dreamhunter duet, Robinson's Forty Signs of Rain trilogy, and John Brown's Body, any one of which I could possibly be sold on, if you're persuasive enough. I am open to any suggestion, even if I've read it before.

Help?

---L.

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Continuing with your East Asian focus, how about The Tale of the Heike? Helen McCullough has a translation. It's the locus classicus for lots of images, legends, etc., from Japanese literary tradition.

I have to confess I haven't read the whole thing. I've read bits and pieces of it. I can't guarantee that it wouldn't get tiresome overall. However, some bits are marvelous. Plus, it's got an interesting history as a text, because it started out as an orally transmitted epic, sung by blind itinerant monks. You can see some of the orality in things like descriptions of the heros getting geared up for battle.

[larryhammer]

That ... is a thought. I know the general story (and have read at least one novel based on it) but not the thing itself.

---L.

[janni.livejournal.com]

I'll be boring and suggest you reread Njala. :-)

Or, alternately, try to read The Sagas of the Icelanders from cover to cover, though that's not one single epic.

I'd suggest the Volsungs, but that's pretty short.

Or, reread Lord of the Rings?

[larryhammer]

It has been a few years since I reread the Ring....

---L.

[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

The parts of Taliessin/Summer Stars I've read are stunningly beautiful and I love them, but I can never seem to make myself read the book from beginning to end, so perhaps I shouldn't recommend it here.

All of the other texts I would recommend are in Middle English and therefore ineligible.

[larryhammer]

My edition of Taliessin/Summer Stars has C.S. Lewis's suggested chronological order and commentary, which I suspect would help.

---L.

[stillnotbored.livejournal.com]

I'm sure you've read all of these more often than I have, but I'll throw them out anyway.

Beowulf
The Iliad and the Odyssey, not the prose version, the poetic translation
Hiawatha, which I love but not many other people do
The Poetic Edda
And one of us needs to read Ivanhoe, so I choose you.

That will keep me from writing that Merlin and Morgan novel...

[larryhammer]

I don't love Hiawatha, but I did like it, despite the low ninja replacement score. And I've read Ivanhoe enough times* for one life.

And while I have read the Poetic Edda through, I haven't the Prose Edda. Hmmm.

* Three.

---L.

[marith.livejournal.com]

Hmm, have you read Jo Walton's King's Peace books yet? Not heroic, exactly, but they fit the chewy requirement, and are one of the best Arthurian reworkings I know of. (The odds you haven't read them yet seem slim, therefore, but it's what came to mind.)

[larryhammer]

Yeah, I have read (and liked) 'em. If I hadn't, they'd fit what I need pretty well.

---L.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Mahabarata? (Though you do have the cast of billions problem)

[larryhammer]

If I could find an edition, that'd be perfect. And I believe there's abridgments that address some of the casting issues.

---L.

[stevendj.livejournal.com]

The Long Walk, by Slavomir Rawicz. Nonfiction. Political dissidents escape from a prison camp in Siberia, walk across the continent to freedom in India.

Aside from epic scope, it doesn't seem like the kind of thing you're thinking of, but since the kinds of things you're thinking of aren't quite appealing to you I figure I should throw it out anyway.

[larryhammer]

Hmm. That's a thought -- I've seen that, but haven't tried it. Will see if I can find one.

You've got a good point about looking sideways here. A sufficiently detailed history of, say, the Great Game would work.

---L.

[stevendj.livejournal.com]

You've already read Kim, I presume?

[larryhammer]

Yup. Last reread about a couple years ago, just before reading Laurie King's The Game.

---L.

[malsperanza.livejournal.com]

aside from the usual suspects--Aeneid, Homer, Chaucer, Dante--have you ever read Herodotus? So. Much. Fun. Stories! Travel! History!

Or else Plutarch (cf. supr. re stories).

Lastly, there's Ovid, loads of fun if you find a good translation.

If none of these hits the spot, there's always Asimov's Foundation trilogy--badly written and very dated, but still thoroughly entertaining.

[larryhammer]

Lessee: Homer, Virgil, Ovid, Dante, and Chaucer were all reread (or finally read, in the case of Aeneid) in the last five years. Plutarch's Lives was about a decade ago, however, and Herodotus more like two decades -- both possibilities. And, come to think of it, while I've read large swathes of Pausanius, I've never read the Guide to Greece straight through -- travel and stories with bonus obscure local mythology out the wazoo.

Good suggestions there.

---L.

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

The Tale of Genji

[larryhammer]

Been stuck on chapter 20 since October. :-(

---L.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

Abolqasem Ferdowsi's Shahnameh (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shahnameh).

May have the large-cast problem to some extent, but the chronological structure should help with that. I hear good things about the Davis translation.

[larryhammer]

Hello. That is an excellent possibility. I've seen translations of episodes and, of course, Arnold's Thing, but never gotten around to tracking down a complete translation. This could be just the ticket.

---L.

[paulakate.livejournal.com]

Have you read Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles?

[larryhammer]

The first half.

---L.