List of world folk-epics
World-folk epics are those epics which are not just literary masterpieces but also an integral part of the weltanschauung of a people. They were originally oral literatures, which were later written down by either single author or several writers.
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List of world folk epics
African languages
- Lianja a central African epic
- Silamaka a Western African epic
- Soundiata an African epic
American languages
- Tunkashila an American Indian epic
Asian languages
- Epic of King Gesar, a Tibetan epic, generally considered the longest in the world.
- Epic of Gilgamesh, the oldest epic from Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean world
- Heike monogatari a Japanese epic.
- Mahabharatha an epic from Northern India, also known as Bharathayudha in Indonesia
- Manas (epic) an epic from Kyrgyzstan
- Nagarakertagama an Indonesian epic
- On Jerusalem an epic written in Greek based on the Old testament characters of Abraham, Isaac and Joseph (dreamer).
- Silappadhikaram a South Indian epic
- Arabian Nights an epic from the Mediterranean Arabic world
European languages
- Beowulf an Anglo-Saxon epic written in Old English
- Bylina a Russian epic A bylina is analogous to a short saga, not an epic. Furthermore it the word for a kind of story rather than a title.
- Kalevipoeg an Estonian epic
- Lacplesis a Latvian epic
- Nibelungenlied an Icelandic legend which became the source of the music of Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen (1876). It is not Icelandic, it is Netherlandic. Icelanders have sagas that tell a version of this story, but these are not a single work like the Nibelunenlied.
- Njál's saga an Icelandic epic
- Prince Marko a Serbian epic
- Táin Bó Cúailnge Irish epic
- Volsunga saga, a Scandinavian epic