/lit/ - Literature

I rate this thread 0/10

Interesting idea for thread.
Kitab-i Dede Qorqud -7/10.
Epic of Koroghlu - 8/10

Divine Commedy

10/10

get rekt tbh fam

The Mabinogion

8/10

>>7275823
But y
>>7275954
I'm not gonna disagree with that rating. DC it GOAT

Elder and Prose Edda: 8/10
Terje Vigen: 9/10

Well, I'm Greek, so.... yeah.

Beowulf 8/10 (it's underrated)
Paradise Lost 9/10

Gesta Danorum.
>Written in latin.
>Pretty badly written.
>Nobody except dedicated scholars even know it exists.

At least we have H.C. Andersen.

>>7275999
accurate

>>7276006
lmao Denmark, ur national epic is probably the ugly duckling or something. SMH.

Mahabharata - 9.9/10

>>7276000
so, the Odyssey or the Iliad?
i would say odyssey

Osman
9/10

>>7276021
yeah, odyssey is actually way better.

It's prose rather than verse, but it's probably the closest thing to an epic. 7.5/10

Ang Ibong Adarna (The Adarna Bird)

7/10

>>7275999
Not Peer Gynt?

>van den vos Reynaerde (apperantly)
6/10

>>7276053
Norwegian scholars don't count that as an epic afaik, rather a dramatic poem, but it could definitely classify as such as well (if the Illiad and Oddyssey counts, for example).

if it is I'll give it a 10/10

stuff about Brigands, Mercenaries and The Battle of Kosovo, Serbian national poetry ain't bad

>>7276061
Or apparently*

>>7275821
>tfw Dutch

Willhelm Tell

4/10

>>7276023
8/10 for me.

Fuck the lost books and fuck the Sorkočević version that I've read.

>>7276071
>even belgiums is better

>>7276062
Right on!

beowulf

5/10

>tfw Banterland Down Under doesn't have a national epic

>>7276089
not as such, more just a body of poems and folk tales creating a body of work exploring Australia's national identity

Song of Myself

10/10

Beowulf 8/10
Paradise Lost 9/10
Canterbury Tales 8/10

>tfw Austria has never produced an epic

Is there an American national epic?

Pic related?

>>7276080
I suppose we could just claim whatever Germany's got, we're practically the same country anyways. It's not like when WWIII breaks out we won't willingly offer our annexation to The Reich.
>tfw can boast about composers and philosophers now

Chanson de Roland, 9/10 would slay kebab after reading it.

>>7276137
Song of Hiawatha
Evangeline
Leaves of Grass

>>7275821
What about the National Anthem? (pic related)

>>7276120
God, the british are so good a epic literature, it's almost scary
>>7276128
That's what you get for letting a bunch of criminals have their own country
>>7276063
I don't think I ever read a Serbian epic. With which one should I start?

Graal cycle (though strictly speaking it spans several countries).

8/10

>>7276120
Don't forget the Faerie Queen

>Italy
The Aeneid - 7/10
The Divine Comedy - 10/10

>United States
According to wikipedia, its

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Song_of_Hiawatha
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaves_of_Grass
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evangeline

I have not heard of a single one of these.

I would personally go with Moby-Dick. In which case, 10/10.

>>7276225
I guess it's not technically an epic poem, but it is epic nonetheless.

I believe this counts. 7/10

>>7276002
Does Paradise Lost count though? Seems to me a national epic should at least refer to the nation in passing.

>>7275821
>Kalevala

nationalism/10

Os Lusíadas

9/10 in portuguese, probably a 7/10 translated into other languages.

>>7276225
>Song of Hiawatha
He wasn't even American, and the Iroquois weren't even allies with the U.S.

>Leaves of Grass
Eh...

>Evangeline
It's about a fucking Canadian.


A poem about Washington's escapades in the revolution would've been better tbh.

>>7276184
add to those British ones Don Juan by Byron, Idylls of the King by Tennyson, Dunciad (for banter) by Pope... the list goes on

Pan Tadeusz 8/10
I prefer Dziady by far when it comes to Mickiewicz

Burgerland reporting in. I can think of a few possible epics:

> Mason and Dixon, 9/10

> Border Trilogy, 7/10
(Would be higher if not for the sloppy second act of ATPH)

>Red Dead Redemption, 8/10
(Points retracted for not being literature, but it's one of the most American stories I can think of)

>>7276212
Ah, shit you are right! I feel I should now dig up Spenser and apologize to him.

>>7276225
>I have not heard of a single one of these.

... you haven't heard of leaves of grass? lol they teach whitman multiple times throughout american education

Mabinogion

8/10

>>7275954
why does lit say "tbh fam" so much it makes me want to kill myself

>>7276333
Smh tbqhwy fam

>>7276267
>Eh...
retard

>>7275821

>Scotland

First four lines of The Brus are this:

>Storys to rede ar delatibill
>Suppos that thai be nocht bot fabill,
>Than suld storys that suthfast wer
>And thai war said on gud maner
>Have doubill plesance in heryng.

>tfw you have a worthless national epic

3/10

>>7276349
Leaves of Grass is a collection of barely related poems m8. It isn't an epic at all.

Táin Bó Cúailnge 11/10
www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5G8AJf4Xzw

>>7276443
I think 'Song of Myself' was meant.

I haven't read my national epic

Which national epic is the best?

Also, can anyone name some Slav national epics?
I don't think I know of any

Hart Crane's The Bridge

7/10 (lost a point for a couple weaker parts)

>>7276128
Just claim the nibelungen

>>7276137
I'm agreeing with this. I'd also categorize American Tall-Tales like John Henry, Johnny Appleseed, and Paul Bunyan but those nowhere near epics. Still great stories though that embody the American Spirit.

>>7276128
EIN VOLK, mein Bruder

>>7276128
What is Mein Kampf

>>7276513
an autobiography of an art student

>>7276245
Yeah. England's true national epic is the Faerie Queene

>>7276521
pity the tudors are welsh and a dead line

U.S.:
Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha County 11/10

>>7276463
>I haven't read my national epic
treason

>>7276063
>mfw jos neki srbin na /lit/u
BROTHER

jesus i don't even know if australia even has one
if it does
1/10 probably

>>7276549
I'm pretty sure it was read to me at a young age, but I can't recall any of the details besides some major plot points and set pieces.

I'm feeling rather bad about that and have been meaning to get to reading through it myself, I just haven't gotten around to it yet.

>still holding onto to concepts of nationalism

Goddamn it, we are never going to evolve are we? The time for the Overman is gone isn't it?

>>7276582
>I just haven't gotten around to it yet.
treason

>>7275999
>Terje Vigen: 9/10
Why not 10/10? It has an ending that first time readers are unlikely to expect, moreso if they are foreign.

>>7276120
>Beowulf 8/10
Which country do you consider it to belong to?

>>7276076
You didn't read the original?

>>7275821

>Moby-Dick
10/10

The only countries that can match us are Italy (Dante) and Greece (Homer).

>>7276615
>confirmed for non-reader

>>7276463
>Also, can anyone name some Slav national epics?
Well, I'm a Croat, so here are some (according to Wikipedia):
Marko Marulić - Judita (Judith)
Ivan Gundulić - Osman
Brne Karnarutić - Vazetje Sigeta grada

>>7276614
I have, but with the missing parts rewritten by Sorkočević.

>>7276620
But they were written by Mažuranić and it's pretty great.

>>7276615
>implying homer was greek

>>7276611
England, since it's written in early English - we've located the composition (the only manuscript of it) to somewhere in East Sussex, looking at the vocabulary and all that jazz.

>>7275821

Star Wars
8/10

>>7276626
Well, the ones written by Sorkočević weren't so good.

>>7276463
Tears of the Prodigal son and Osman as well as Judith by Ivan Gundulić and Marko Marulić.

>>7276627
Pretty sure he wasn't anything else

>muh homer

>>7276635
I didn't even know there was a version by him and not Mažuranić.

>>7276242
>7/10

Come on, son.

>>7275821
>be American
>that feel when the age of classical epics had ended before my country was even founded

>>7276649
Well, there are at least five reconstructions of the missing parts, IIRC. Sorkočević and Mažuranić are the most popular ones.

>>7276629
Strange, isn't it, that it is set somewhere else? I am not drawing conclusions and I am not a Swede, I just found the origins a bit odd.

>>7276669
Several national epics don't actually take place in or originate from their nations. I wouldn't make that a necessarily disqualifying factor

>>7276120
Canterbury Tales is 10/10, but it's not a national epic.

>>7276212
Faerie Queen is though
>tl;dr/10

>>7276669
Not really, a lot of the northern counties in England still have partially Norse lexicons. Old English is mostly North Germanic.

>>7276443
>barely related

>>7276669
No, I don't think that's particularly strange.

Guy rips bears apart with his bare hands, no jokies, i wsar aon me4 on mi,q

>>7276698
What?

>>7276713
you don't joke azround lāčplēsos cunt

>>7275821
Read this image

>but this is spam! MODS MODS MODS!
If you are a 4chan defense force cuckold, that enjoys this place that was destroyed by the mods who censored anything fun or political in nature, then your opinion is irrelevant at this point. You like 4chan and belong here, stay here.

>too long didn't read
then you belong on 4chan as well, this image is not for you.

>>7276333
it's accelerationism fam
catch up tbh

>>7276333
tbh, why? are you racist fam? smh

>>7276717
this is the most cuck post I have ever seen

>>7276754
n-no

Well, you see, uh, the the thing about that is, uh

>The Illuminatus! trilogy

10/10

>>7276137
john brown's body

>>7276675
I am not disqualifying it, I just find it odd.

At the top of my head I cannot remember any other national epics that do not link to the country of origins. Could you provide some examples?

>>7276688
>Old English is mostly North Germanic.
I was told the Scandinavian and the old English were much more similar than today. I read parts of Beowulf in original text and it seemed like an odd mix of English and Scandinavian. I was rather surprised I could understand so much of it.

>>7276852
>I was told the Scandinavian and the old English were much more similar than today. I read parts of Beowulf in original text and it seemed like an odd mix of English and Scandinavian. I was rather surprised I could understand so much of it.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsVz5U76kX0

Martin Fierro

10/10 :)

>>7275821
Beowulf

7.5/10

Also Lang's Die Nibelungen is amazing.

>>7276137

Huckleberry Finn
Tom Sawyer
The Great Gatsby
East of Eden
Grapes of Wrath
To Kill A Mockingbird
Infinite Jest

>>7276902
You forgot Blood Meridian tbh fam

>>7276902
>Infinite Jest

>>7276435
What about ossian mate

What does canada have

>>7276902
You have no idea what an "epic" actually is, do you?

>americans

>>7277012

Huckleberry Finn and East of Eden qualify tbh

Shahname: the only true 10/10 epic out there.

10/10 fam

>>7276479
At most it's a 3/10 (I'm being particularly generous).

>>7276164
bump for this.

>>7276611
>Beowulf 8/10
>Which country do you consider it to belong to?
Denmark, though it's actual composition was most likely done by Catholic Monks (probably from Ireland or Scotland).

>>7277180
Beowulf is written in Anglo-Saxon though

>>7276137

Thirding this. Also 7/10.

>>7276000
pay debts

>>7276989
You can find some stuff on Wikipedia, Wacousta, Flint and Feather.

Can't speak for Wacousta, but Flint and Feather is allright... probably really boring for most and I dunno who could call it an 'epic' though. If you're interested in the traditionally Canadian read Sunshine Sketches of a Small Town :)

romanian

Miorița 4/10 (literally about a shepherd talking to his sheep and waiting to die)

>>7277323
That sounds interesting, tbh

>>7275821
Never read a Mexican epic. Don't even know which ones qualify as a national epic. ?/10

Faust.10/10. Nobody else better captured the midlife crisis of a highly educated man. Not to mention the craftsmanship that went into phrasing it.

>>7277451
I didn't know a drama about a man's midlife crisis can be considered a national epic.

>>7277418
it's not really an epic, it's just a really old ballad and has countless variations
it's also fairly short
http://spiritromanesc.go.ro/Miorita%20-eng.html

Meșterul Manole (Master Manole) is more 'epic' http://www.tkinter.smig.net/romania/MesterulManole/index.htm

Epic of the Forgotten 10/10
Song of Blood haven't read/10

>canada
>literature worth reading

Few and far between

>>7277498
I'm Australian, so you win.
At least you have Munro, and Atwood, if you're into that.

>>7277063
Epics are more ambitious in scope.

America's epic is painted on the side of a rapists van.

As russian I'd say that Constitution is really epic.
11/10
seriously, I prefer Greek

>>7277874

The Oddyssey is literally a dude on a boat of redshirts sailing around, getting into mishaps, and going home.

Can't you see that Huckleberry Finn is literally the same book set in America?

>>7276313
Might be the case that those works are unknown outside the US.

In which case, we're all just a bunch of self-aggrandizing funcummers

Or he could just be an idiot

>>7277970
This.

Also Moby Dick is literally the same book as Rainbow Fish, it's really just two books about a fish swimming around.
They even both have the fish's name in the title.

>>7277970
No. Not bigger than life like the Odyssey was.

>>7276333

Nice trips tbh fam.

>>7276225
>The Aeneid
>7/10
Holy fuck son

>>7276916

isnae Ossian git a muckle o' invention in it but?

>>7275821
Gone With the Wind
>9/10

I guess its 100 years of solitude. 10/10

El Cid 8/10

After reading Gilgamesh, The Song of the Nibelungs, the Rddas and the greek classics, what do you guys reccomend? I was thinking some english epic

>>7276137
Moby Dick is about the human condition, not America
500 years from now it will be common among academics to name the national epic of the Americans to be Mason & Dixon

>>7278509
>500 years from now it will be common among academics to name the national epic of the Americans to be Mason & Dixon

How come the cover looks so terrible then?

>>7276253
Ayy yo fam
Concordo.

>>7278226
It deserves far worse. Roman propaganda trash.

>>7276212
legitimate 10/10

>>7276225
>Aeneid - 7/10
>hasn't heard of Whitman's most famous work

Pull your shit together, man.

>>7276301
I completely agree, actually?

>>7276531
Can you consider a body of work as one epic?
If so, right with you there m8

>>7276879
>No ∞/10

>>7277498
Honestly, Munro is one of my favorite short-story authors, and I'm a burger

>>7275821
> Loosely defining "Nation" here

My peoples' language only continues to exist in about a dozen known speakers. Our folklore is patchwork at this point, our bloodlines muddied, our way of life no longer existing as such -- reduced to the highly conception thesis work of pale folks in wide-rimmed glasses.

But Louise Erdrich's Ojibwe stuff is a solid 9/10. She's gonna do amazing stuff as she gets older.

Might give Faulkner an honest run for his money.

>>7275821
The Plains of Abraham. Well I guess.

>>7276137
America encapsulates too many distinct cultures to have a single epic.

>>7276029
>>7276021
ohohoh wow

>>7278709
No it doesn't. If America has an epic, it's Song of Myself.

>>7278710
retard

>>7277498
Two Solitudes? Duddy Kravitz? L'avalée des avalées? Bear? There's great Canadian lit man...

>>7278679
Isn't Ojibwe pretty healthy as Native American languages though? Or is your mother tongue a related language?

The Scarlet Letter - 9/10
Huckleberry Finn - 5/10
Moby Dick - 11/10

>>7277953
>Russia
>not having the greatest literature in the western canon
Smh tbh fam

10/10

RIP João Ubaldo Ribeiro

>>7276116
America's national epic
me me me me
me me me me
me me me me
me me me me
jagoff poem tbh

>>7275821
My country doesn't really have a national epic. Song of Roland is too old and not studied enough in our schools, but it's the closest we had. Hugo's Legend of Centuries would be a good shot at a 10/10, but it's not cemented in popular consciousness as "le epic of our country".

Though I guess you could say the same for a lot of works mentioned itt. Still, is saddening.

>>7278899
>I haven't read the poem
This would've also been an acceptable reply

>>7278876
>Not I-Juca Pirama

No meio das tabas de amenos verdores,
Cercadas de troncos - cobertos de flores,
Alteiam-se os tetos d’altiva nação;
São muitos seus filhos, nos ânimos fortes,
Temíveis na guerra, que em densas coortes
Assombram das matas a imensa extensão.

>>7276879
>>7278649
based

Also,
>Adán Buenosayres
9.2/10

Canada

Oliver Goldsmith Jr's The Rising Village

1.5/10

>>7278607
With which one?

>>7278569
0/10, the worst of /lit/'s memes

>>7279198
This. It's the same as when people claim that the divine comedy was just a polemic against his political enemies. They've obviously never read them

>>7276089
Dreamtime 1.5/10

Not applicable

Kill me

>>7278835
To my limited knowledge, "my" language isn't related to at all, aside from some of the most surface-level concepts.

Embracing her is a matter of extreme irony for me, but I'm happy she's around. Hoping the boom in Native lit keeps up.

That's the best Fritz Lang film as well as the best adaptation of the Nibelungenlied

Sir Thaddeus, or the Last Lithuanian Foray: A Nobleman's Tale from the Years of 1811 and 1812 in Twelve Books of Verse

11/10

>>7280716
m8

>A Statistical, Historical, and Political Description of the Colony of New South Wales and Its Dependent Settlements in Van Diemen's Land, With a Particular Enumeration of the Advantages Which These Colonies Offer for Emigration and Their Superiority in Many Respects Over Those Possessed by the United States of America
10/10, eternal and incomparable

The lusiads
8/10.

Kambar's is better than Valmiki's and I think is the first proper epic, but it's medieval. Lots of poetry and even a grammar treatise were written before.

>>7276253
>7/10 translated into other languages
more like a 2 in english

>>7277443
Popol Vuh
Coódices?

>>7276902
>>7276164
>>7278855
these aren't epics

a national epic is defined as a long poem with a narrative that is somehow connected to a nations values and ideals

honestly, it makes sense that America doesn't have one

>>7280716

No excuses anon, get working

>>7276280
>8/10
Seriously now

>>7280990
How do you read an aztec or mixtec codex?
also isn't popol vuhl just mayan not "mexican?"

The Lord of the Rings

10/10

>>7277246

>thisnigga.jpg

>>7280716
Oi reading's for cunts aye

>>7276138
You guys aren't making your country look any better by spouting /pol/ memes.

So fucking embarrassing.

Allen Ginsberg - Howl
6.5/10

>>7277461
Reading the second part sure is.

>>7276879
>tfw MF is Pynchon approved

Snorra Edda
10/10
It's fucking brilliant

La Araucana
5-7/10 in spanish
10/10 in mapudungu

Huckleberry Finn----9/10
Moby Dick--------------8/10

>>7281379
It's Quiché Mayan, which I think is South Mecican?

>>7277323
Yeah but the sheep can see the future, come on man. I've always liked the wedding description, it's surreal.

>>7276061
Isnt it Karel en de Elegast?

Kalevala 9/10 in finnish, 0/10 in all other languages

Fänrik Ståls sägner 8/10 in swedish, 5/10 in finnish

>>7276253
Concordo

>>7275821
Hotel California is an 8 out of 10

Star Wars, America, 10/10

>tfw your national epic is YA-tier

>>7285395
whose is that?

>mfw my country has literally no cultural impact yet alone any fucking epic
Just fuck my shit up fam

>>7285441
Then create it, mate!

Odyssey, iliad
:D

PHARSALIA IT'S THE FUCKING BEST ITALIAN EPIC POEM EVER; FUCK DANTE, WE HAVE A LOT OF BETTER WRITERS THAT ARE NOT CRISTFAG GIORDANO BRUNO'S MURDERER! JUST THINK TO ORLANDO FURIOSO, GERUSALEMME LIBERATA, SATYRICON......

Szigeti Veszedelem

9/10 it's alright - IGN

I will write the great Canadian epic poem

>>7275821

Krst pri Savici
6/10
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baptism_on_the_Savica

It's all right, though it can't compare to the greats.

Also, since there appears to be no Irish here:
Ulysses 11/10

>>7277970

Epic MUST have a character doing epic stuff. You know shooting an arrow through axes, spearing people trying to fuck your wife, stuff like that.

Finn is a kid having an adventure. To compare the two is simply idiotic.

>>7286899
No.

Just no.

>Australia

N/A

Waltzing Matilda
10/10 mate

>>7286875
Not Hlapci?