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Works on the folk literature of nations are not only in the context of literature or oral culture. Since the beginning of humanity, following the impact of some events that are related to the life of the whole society or a part of the society, some stories have been told that have played a major role in the survival of these events. These kinds of narratives represent the feeling of a period of society and at the same time become a part of their oral history. Even though we hear them from singers or storytellers, they are not the only ones. They belong to the whole society and shows us their attitude towards some special events. Epics has a special place among these folk narratives. Compared to other types of folk literature, it is more advanced in representing the values and history of nations. The narrators of these stories have always been welcomed by the society and the leaders of the society, and they have always given messages to the society and the leaders of the society through these stories in the courts of lords and princes. In this text, although there are debates about its definition, we have limited our reviews to around seven epics. These epics are: Memê Alan, Siyabend and Xecê, Dimdim Castle, Zambilfiroş, Derwêşê Evdî and Edûlê, Cembelî and Binefşa Narîn and Kerr and Kulik. There is no doubt that one can debate whether these seven stories are epics or not, as a genre. Some other stories may also be included in this list. But we will take our text in the context of these narratives and examine them in terms of their forma and narrative fatures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Though rarely compared, Beowulf and Ruodlieb are two medieval epics composed by speakers of West Germanic languages that exhibit a shared sequence of folktale motifs. In both works, a young man considered unpromising in his youth seeks adventure abroad, serves a magnanimous foreign king well, and returns to his homeland with wealth and wisdom in his possession. In Ruodlieb, the king's wisdom is imparted to the hero in the form of a speech of counsels with unmistakable folkloric analogues. In Beowulf, it is argued, the king delivers a speech that derives from the same folkloric traditions but reflects the poet's radical alteration of his source materials. In the Beowulf poet's hands, the motif of the sapiential parting gift is shorn of its folkloric and demotic qualities and imbued with epic and aristocratic qualities instead. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Wrestling, an ancient Iranian sport, finds extensive representation in epic stories and poems. Heroes are consistently portrayed as skilled wrestlers, and hand-to-hand combat forms a central element of these narratives. Beyond its athletic significance, wrestling played a prominent role in the marriage ritual. Female Heroes, who possessed exceptional and sometimes superhuman attributes, deemed only those suitors worthy of marriage who could defeat them in a physical contest. With the decline of epic literature, this ancient practice gradually fell into oblivion. However, remnants of this tradition can still be observed in Persian folkloric narratives. Method and Research: This article employs an analytical-descriptive approach. The research begins by examining several Persian folkloric tales wherein female Heroes set the condition of a wrestling match for marriage. Subsequently, the feuilleton (serial story) of Hossein Gholi Mosta’ān, who held considerable influence among the general public from 1300 to 1350 (1921-1971), is analyzed. Findings and Conclusions: An examination of Persian folkloric narratives reveals that the stipulation of a wrestling match for marriage was prevalent among female Heroes. This theme is also alluded to in Mosta’ān’s feuilleton’s (serial story), where he recounts stories of female Heroes who vanquish their suitors in physical combat. The findings of this research indicate that the concept of wrestling in Persian folkloric narratives transcends the limited sphere of female Heroes and undergoes a semantic expansion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This article introduces a collection of essays that reassesses the work of J.R.R. Tolkien and celebrates his contribution to modern fantasy. Divided into two sections, the first examines the historical context in which Tolkien grew up, while the second explores the future direction of Tolkien studies. The essays cover various topics, including the possible inspiration for hobbit holes, the parallels between Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee and Bilbo Baggins's birthday party, and the complexities of documenting Tolkien's life. The collection aims to preserve and widen the variety of perspectives on Tolkien's work, emphasizing the depth of his stories and their resonance with readers. [Extracted from the article]

A conclusion to the book about the Northern narratives of J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium is presented. It discusses the character of Fëanor and the Germanic 'original sin' of kingslaying. It also explores the theological use of 'Authority' by which Tolkien means his godhead, and its Boethian aspects of fate. It also examines Edain and their relations with the Noldor.

Chapter 1 of the book "Northern Narratives of J. R. R. Tolkien's Legendarium" by R. Z. Gallant is presented. It explores Germanic heroic narrative in J. R. R. Tolkien's fiction. It discusses the controversial historic use of the term 'Germanic' which historian Patrick Armory identified from a historiographer's viewpoint. It also examines the problem with the term in the Germanic heroic literature of the Heroic Age.

A foreword to the book "Northern Narratives of J. R. R. Tolkien's Legendarium" by R. Z. Gallant is presented.

The article focuses on the poem Seudoaraucana by Elvira Hernández (2010; 2017) based on the rewriting as an articulating resource of an off-center and amplified look at the source text, La Araucana de Ercilla y Zúñiga. As a hypothesis, it proposes that the rewriting discusses social phenomena linked to the fissures of the Chilean nation and the political processes of the current situation. As an objective, it tries to establish a dialogue with the tradition and the literary field around the epic, on the one hand, and with critical reconsiderations about the poetic imagination of history, on the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This text provides an overview of Christian Schneider's book "Logiken des Erzählens," which examines the coherence and cognition in early Middle High German epic literature. Schneider explores the narrative connections and coherence in medieval literature, focusing on temporal-sequential storytelling and the perception of semantic-thematic connections by medieval readers. The book argues that the unique narrative logic of early Middle High German literature is shaped by the cognitive conditions of its time. The text also discusses the historical development of coherence theory and its connection to narration, cognition, and poetic linkage in ancient and medieval literature. It concludes by examining Schneider's analysis of grammatical and thematic coherence in medieval texts, particularly in relation to oral performance and the conditions of reception. Additionally, the text explores the concept of coherence in medieval narrative literature and its perception by contemporary readers, suggesting that the lack of syntactic coherence in medieval texts can be attributed to the oral transmission of these narratives. The bodily presence of the performer is also highlighted as a factor that blurs the boundaries between narrative levels and contributes to the perception of coherence. The text concludes by emphasizing the need for further research on the relationship between small narrative units and the overall coherence of medieval narratives. [Extracted from the article]

Women in the medieval period suffered from abuse and inequality. The pressure on women was so noticeable that they were treated as a marginal component of society in all aspects, an important one of which is the literary aspect. The literary role of women has largely disappeared from the European society in general and the English one in particular. Therefore, women, at every stage, struggled to show themselves amid these great pressures; their struggle led them to reach and succeed in the feminist movement. They attempted to counter the stereotypical image of the medieval women being helpless and subservient in the warrior societies depicted in Old English texts and the evil shrews responsible for men's failings in Middle English texts. Their new adapted literary role focuses on showing their strength, intelligence, agency in society, and the extent of women's impact on society and its change, despite the fact that this change came in secret. This study sheds some light on the women's role in the literary social movement by critically examining the relevant literary works through which the role and effectiveness of women are revealed. This study contributes to dispelling some of the myths surrounding the perspectives assumed about women by providing greater clarity for their cultural and historical settings. Also, this study offers a feminist reading to the female characters in the selected works which clearly illustrates women's role and the impact of feminist literature on English literature and English society at that period using the famous old legendary epic in English literature, Beowulf. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a book titled "Doing Justice to a Wronged Literature: Essays on Arabic Literature and Rhetoric of the 12th–18th Centuries in Honour of Thomas Bauer." The book includes seventeen articles that highlight the progress made in Mamluk and Ottoman literary studies, particularly in the study of Arabic literature of the Mamluk and Ottoman periods. The articles cover a range of topics, including the literature of the Ismaili community in Syria, the life and work of a little-known poet, the relationship between poetry and social history, and the use of Quranic quotations in poetry. The collection of articles provides valuable insights into Arabic literature and rhetoric during this time period. However, it is noted that the book focuses more on Mamluk literature and does not adequately cover Ottoman Arabic literature. [Extracted from the article]

This book explores liminal and extra-ordinary spaces and how they function and complement one another in contemporary psychoanalytic practice and ancient Greek thought. I begin with my autobiography and describe how I came to recognize and live in liminal spaces as a child and continue with the early death of my mother and how my grieving led to the study of psychoanalytic theory and the transitional spaces and transitions in ancient Greek literature from epic to tragedy, showing a psychic transformation of culture from Homer to Aeschylus. This shift led to the interiorization of the "unthought known" from a matricentric to a patriarchal paradigm. I explore how to regain and integrate the feminine into a western patriarchal paradigm. I conclude with clinical revelations that liquidity in multiplicity can lead to a coherent self while maintaining its sense of the liminal. At all points this book represents the crucial importance of art and symbolism as a necessary component of the psychoanalytic imagination and emphasizes poetic metamorphoses as crucial a way to heal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is a book review of "Advances in corpus applications in literary and translation studies." The book explores the use of corpus linguistics in analyzing literary works and translation. The first part of the book focuses on corpus-assisted analytical techniques for examining literary works, while the second part showcases corpus-based literary translation studies. The chapters cover a range of topics, including diachronic changes in fiction writing, stylistic variation in authors' works, and the influence of Dickens on other novelists. The book provides a diverse collection of studies that demonstrate the use of corpus linguistics as a methodological tool for analyzing literature and translation. [Extracted from the article]

Copyright of Auster is the property of Universidad Nacional de La Plata and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Erciyes Akademi is the property of Erciyes Universitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article focuses on the resurgence of interest in Georg Lukács, a Hungarian philosopher and literary theorist, following his marginalization during the postmodernism era. It discusses Lukács's various transformations and reinventions throughout his lifetime and reflects on his legacy in academia and public discourse, particularly celebrating the centennial of his influential work "History and Class Consciousness" (1923).

In the fourteenth-century epic Roman van Limborch the Saracens feature prominently. In particular, the Saracen character Demophon plays an important role in the second half of this extensive Middle Dutch chivalric tale. This article examines how the narrator of the Limborch relates to the conventional and stereotypical representations of the Saracens in contemporary epic literature. How does he vary in the degree of ‘otherness’ in representing the Saracens? I demonstrate that the narrator of the Limborch employs his method of ‘othering’ dynamically and selectively. His method of ‘othering’ cannot simply be explained as a striving for cultural and/or political expansion, as is common in modern conceptions of the motives for ‘othering’. The otherness of the Saracens in the Limborch, and that of Demophon in particular, serves primarily to problematize the relationships between the overarching story themes of love, friendship, and loyalty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This presentation discusses the views of three renowned authors – James Kugel, Robert Alter, and Jan Fokkelman – known for their literary-critical approach to the Bible, concerning biblical poetry. According to Kugel, looking at the Bible through the lens of division into poetry and prose (lyrical and epic literature) means looking at it wrongly. He maintains that even meticulous analyses of parallelism can be distorted if viewed through this lens. Therefore, Kugel asserts that there is no poetry in the Bible but rather a “continuum” of loosely connected parallel structures in what we see as prose sections and “heightened rhetoric” in what we often erroneously consider verses. According to Alter, biblical poetry is based on semantic parallelism. However, he points out that poetic expression deliberately avoids complete parallelism, just as language resists mere synonyms by introducing subtle differences between related terms. In contrast, Fokkelman believes that combining prose and poetry, and even transitioning between them, is possible because most Hebrew sentences contain two to eight words and are usually linked in sequences through parataxis (using “… and… and… but… and then”). All three opinions lead to the conclusion that biblical poetry, like prose, is to a large extent sui generis, and that any distinction between poetry and prose, if it exists at all, is not of the same nature as in Western literary culture and it is, therefore, inappropriate to refer to prosimetrum in the Bible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article concerns Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, and its interpretation according to which it may be read as a poem about women who break the traditional male monopoly on heroism in the epic literature. The author aims to prove Ariosto's innovative approach by analyzing Orlando Furioso's protagonists. Hence the paper is mainly dedicated to three of Ariosto's characters - Angelica, Marfisa and Bradamante. Those women are presented in a comparative perspective against their traditional prototypes with particular reference to those moments in the poem that render visible Ariosto's novelty in creating his protagonists. Angelica, Marfisa and Bradamante, especially in contrast with the poem's male cavalieri seem to be more in line with the canonical representations of heroism. In the first part of the study, the author presents Ariosto's Angelica, often interpreted as a mere capricious object of man's desire. Nevertheless, the character appears as self-aware and confident, striving to make her own decision when it comes to choosing the partner for life. The second part of the article is dedicated to Ariosto's most canonical virago - Marfisa. Undefeated in the battlefield till the end of the poem, she often breaks her stereotypical comical image and consciously resigns from love. The last part of the study concentrates on Bradamante, who combines both amori and armi: the Christian knight, future founder of the Este noble family despite being in constant pursuit of her lover Ruggero, not sacrificing her passion for chivalry. According to the author of the article, Bradamante should be perceived as the central character of Orlando Furioso, as she carries the main idea of Ariosto's masterpiece. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ovid Metamorphoses 14.81–83 and 15.464–66 display a repeated wordplay on ira , which corresponds to the anger of human beings and gods being depicted in those lines. This wordplay may relate to the broader background of epic μῆνις. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Epics are studied in two categories that are identified as national epics and folk epics in our literature. The national epics are long verse stories of nations about religious, virtuous and heroic adventures with an emphasis on national characteristics. The folk epics are created by folk poets in different themes in their poems. The main purpose of the study is to investigate folk epics. The folk epics are considered as a genre within the poetry of folk poets from past to present. The folk epics include many diverse themes such as military, widow, supplication, illnesses, animals, bigamy, heroism, husband and wife relationship, famine, homeland, fruit, prayer, advice, war, aging. The tradition of folk epics emerged after the first quarter of the twentieth century, especially in large cities such as Istanbul, when the minstrels began reading poetry in coffeehouses. Afterwards, these minstrels started to earn money by printing and selling these poems in the crowded places, paving the way for spreading folk epics. The minstrels who narrated folk epics have mentioned the events that took place in their hometown and throughout the country in their poems, while not making some interpretations to attract attention via improvisation. These epics were sold in public places by printing 1000 or even 5000 issues on papers slightly larger than the standard A4 paper in the printing offices. The public place were generally squares, yards of the mosques, market places, trains during travel and train stations. This tradition was carried out until the beginning of the 1980s. The tradition of folk epics requires the capability to recite poetry is a as having a sweet tone of voice that will gather the people and knowing musical maqams. Those who had these qualities have persisted their tradition of epics for many years. This tradition, which was in demand until the 1980s, could not find a space for itself as a result of the spread of mass media after this date. The present study contains information about the tradition of folk epics and the identified performers in Sivas. The performers of folk epics in Sivas were examined under two headings. The former includes those who write and sell only epic poems. The latter includes those who have not only written poems in the field of folk poetry, but also written and sold only epic poems for a while. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Art never exists within a vacuum: it is always embedded within a broader historical context and political interpretations. Frank Herbert's 1965 science- fiction epic Dune, currently in the midst of a two-part film adaption, exemplifies this dynamic.2 Dune narrates the story of a humanity dispersed across the stars 20,000 years into the future. It focuses on the young nobleman Paul Atreides as he acts upon a prophecy to control the planet Arrakis and its valuable spice--which makes space-travel possible--with the messianic command of Arrakis' indigenous Fremen people. Far more than a pulpy adventure tale, Herbert incorporated environmental science, history, religious thought, and political philosophy from the nearly two-hundred books he consulted to write Dune, resulting in a rich tome with commentary on religious and cultural synthesis, resource-based geopolitics, and colonialism and anti-colonial resistance.3 In this interview, GJIA covers these themes and more with Haris Durrani, a Ph.D. candidate in history at Princeton University who is also dubbed, the "leading post-colonial Dune scholar of our time."4 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Bulletin of Soil & Water Conservation is the property of Bulletin of Soil & Water Conservation Editorial Office and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article explores the genre of Shakespeare's play Othello, discussing its combination of tragedy, comedy, and romance. It examines the relationship between the characters of Othello and Iago and their impact on the play. The article also analyzes the adaptation of the original Italian source text and the influence of other dramatic genres on Othello. It argues that Othello can be seen as a hybrid genre that defies easy classification and offers a complex and mixed emotional experience for the audience. The text references other scholarly works and explores various aspects of the play, including Emilia's role and the concept of tragedy in English Renaissance drama. [Extracted from the article]

The olive tree has been a silent element of the chanson de geste of the Middle Ages. The Northern France has early developed an epic literature focused on the heroes of the Charles the Great's court (XII-XIII centuries). The paladins of the king are always engaged in the war against the infidels, both the Sarasin and the rebel vassals. In addition to the brave and the military strength, those wars require diplomacy and guile. Thus, before the battles, the king reunites the heroes under an olive tree in order to organize the war. The tree became an auspicious sign for the war; it had been charged of the religious symbolism that is based on the episode of Jesus Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, the night of the Last Supper. The article will try to highlight the role of the olive tree in the chanson de geste, trying to highlight the different roles of the tree. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present work analyzes how the language and mythology works in the fabric of a cultural cosmos in the proems of Theogony of Hesiod and Pythic I of Pindar, Also, shows ritual character of both poems and establishes the part of the intermediary entity (the muses or the golden lyre) as enablers of both hymns and the (re)cognition of the mythical order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the spring of 1942, Prime Minister Miklós Kállay sent 200,000 troops to the Russian front to strengthen Hungary’s position in the struggle for Transylvania, following the German demand. These soldiers’ equipment was not comparable to that of the Germans or the Russians. The army, which in January 1943 had a total of approximately 245,000 soldiers and 50,000 Jewish forced labor servicemen, lost some 128,000 soldiers and 45,000 forced labor servicemen in one year: 173,000 men in total. Other figures put the number of killed and wounded at 50-50,000, with 80,000 missing and 42,000 captured. The press was silent about the greatest catastrophe in Hungarian military history, the writers were unaware of it, and after 1945 the survivors were branded as fascists by the communist regime. Many of those who returned home were recruited and monitored by state security until 1989; those who spoke about their imprisonment were sent to Recsk for forced labor. Victims could not be commemorated; families could not mourn their dead. A change only occurred in the 1960s. The turning point came with István Nemeskürty’s essay Requiem egy hadseregért (Requiem for an Army), which refuted the false communist explanation of history. Requiem brought the forgotten victims into the public consciousness, making the facts part of national self-awareness. The search for human and historical justice continued in the 1980s with Sándor Sára and Sándor Csoóri’s monumental documentary series Krónika (Chronicle), which the authorities tried to prevent from being shown under Soviet pressure. The study traces the process in which the mourning and the struggle for truth, silenced for decades, has been accompanied by a confrontation with the regim in poetry, epic literature and essays, as well as in music and film, in Hungarian literature in Hungary, in Upper Hungary, Transcarpathia, Transylvania, and Vojvodina. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on French writer, Michel Butor's exploration of "America" in his literary works, particularly in "Mobile" and related writings. It highlights Butor's portrayal of America's diversity, people, and cultures, challenging singular representations. It emphasizes the significance of the "innombrable" (the countless) in capturing America's complexity through small epics and narratives of details and observations.

Helen Blatherwick's book, "Prophets, Gods and Kings in Sīrat Sayf ibn Dhī Yazan," focuses on the Egyptian popular epic, Sīrat Sayf ibn Dhī Yazan, which tells the story of Sayf ibn Dhī Yazan, a Yemeni king who leads an exodus to Egypt and subsequently conquers the world in the name of Islam. Blatherwick explores the intertextual connections between this epic and Islamic prophetic legends, ancient Egyptian myths, and Alexander narratives. She also examines the social tensions and conflicts within the epic, particularly those related to race and color. Blatherwick's analysis offers a challenging and fascinating perspective on the Sīrat Sayf ibn Dhī Yazan and its place within the broader tradition of Arabic epic literature. [Extracted from the article]

Stephanie Nelson's book, "Time and Identity in Ulysses and the Odyssey," explores the thematic relationship between James Joyce's Ulysses and Homer's Odyssey. Nelson argues that Joyce's play with Homer's text goes beyond parody and reveals core questions about time and identity that are present in both works. She examines the persistence of identity over time and the role of storytelling in shaping identities. Nelson's book offers valuable insights for scholars of literature, as well as historians and social scientists. The book is highly recommended for its creative and compelling analysis. [Extracted from the article]

This study investigates the extent to which English translations of Chinese Wuxia fiction and Western heroic literature in modern English are stylistically similar through stylometric analyses. It adds to literary translation research by highlighting possible stylistic connections between heroic literature in the East and that in the West, clues that may help understand the current reception of Wuxia translations. It also contributes to stylometric studies by introducing the stylistic panorama, a novel concept proposed to describe the stylistic picture of a (translated) text in a relatively holistic and functional way. Examining six English translations of Wuxia novels and twelve chivalric stories and heroic fantasies in modern English, the study finds that the Wuxia translations differ from the two Western subgenres in stylistic panoramas built by formal features (dispersion of word lengths and average sentence length), as well as the most frequent words (MFW) and the MFW-sequences. Such differences have foregrounded the unique stylistic features (richer Wuxia -specific vocabularies and shorter paragraph lengths) of these translations, which has contributed in part to their favorable reception among English-speaking readers. It is hoped that this study will encourage new applications for the concept of stylistic panoramas in future stylometric studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay examines mythopoesis in Tennyson’s Idylls of the King. This epic Arthurian poem includes features of the futuristic and fantasy genres and confounds linear time. The poet creates an imaginary geography—one steeped in history and myth—for the arrival and departure of his remarkable hero, Arthur. Moreover, through the mythopoesis of his epic poem, Tennyson’s King is more than human, differing in both degree and kind from his knights. The bookend poems that open and close the combined Idylls represent two of Tennyson’s boldest departures from the received legend that emerged out of the Middle Ages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay studies the persistence of the theme of the Trojan horse from Virgil's Aeneid in Silvestre de Balboa's Espejo de paciencia. First, some examples of the theme of the Trojan horse in classical Greco-Latin literature are presented, then its transmission in Spanish literature from medieval times to the Golden Age. Finally, its recreation in Balboa's text, in which it serves as programmatic metaphor of the poem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"The Russian Kurosawa: Transnational Cinema, or the Art of Speaking Differently" by Olga Solovieva is a unique and genre-defying monograph that explores the connections between renowned Japanese director Akira Kurosawa and Russian literature, Japanese history, and Slavic film history and theory. The book delves into the political turmoil surrounding the production of Kurosawa's films and suggests that his work is filled with homages to Slavic canon and nineteenth-century philosophy. Solovieva also examines Kurosawa's use of film to promote Japan's suppressed memory of progressive politics influenced by Russian literature. The book highlights the subversiveness of Kurosawa's films and their ability to question the state apparatus. [Extracted from the article]

This paper aims at exploring the role and functions of place names from a Kazakh and Tatar versions of the famous Turkic epic poem Edige. A total of 69 proper names denoting places such as settlements and localities, water objects and surface relief were analyzed qualitatively with the intensive topology approach. The findings show that toponymic lexemes perform five main functions in the epos: localizing, informative, accumulative, symbolic, and individualizing. In the Kazakh and Tatar versions of the epic poem Edige, toponyms can act as the main reference points in time and space, referring to some specific characteristics of the geographic objects, conveying the historical and cultural heritage of the Turkic peoples, and revealing connection to the religion of Islam. Moreover, in the national versions of the epos under analysis individual toponyms, i.e. those found only in one version of the epos and typical of the area where the storyteller lived, add authenticity and a local flavor to the events described in the text. The study enables a better understanding of the national and cultural originality of ideas about space, which can be transformed according to toponymic data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article identifies and explores two ways in which sex and violence are manifested in several medieval Spanish texts. In the first group of stories analyzed, rape and sexually-related violence are condemned as treacherous affronts that result in the dishonor of the female victim as well as a male figure in her orbit—namely, her father or her betrothed. Nevertheless, these episodes shed light on the admirable qualities of key female characters and often contribute to the heroic construct of the male protagonist. In the second group, the victims' roles are limited to enduring a sexual indignity—concubinage or rape—and bearing the illegitimate child who will restore lost order. The narrators celebrate the degradation of these noblewomen as a manifestation of heroic prowess, and they either delight in her family's disgrace or disregard the matter of honor entirely. All the episodes in question, some of which are violent in nature, add a layer of dramatism to the narration, and perhaps struck a chord with the audience on a human level. Considering some similarities between details in the stories and documented cases of sexual violence, we might imagine that the female characters inspired women who comprised a reading or listening public to act with equal bravery and resilience while navigating the dangerously male dominated world in which they lived. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cult of bravery and deeds, of the horse, of weapons, and of the beautiful woman is old. It can be said with certainty that it has been present in epic oral poetry since the beginning of its existence. Ancient epics such as "Iliad" and "Odyssey" etc. convince us of this. In literary works, which dealt with such aspects of human action, the cult of bravery and deeds took on a marked dimension. These works had a great influence not only on the development of epic genres, but also on other literary genres of different periods. Works of this character were called chivalric literature and had a wide spread. This literature was characterized by the symbiosis of the creator, poet or singer, with the public; in it the miracles of the actions of the knights, the various descriptions of heroic acts, of the actions to kidnap (rob) beautiful girls, to gain fame, and to preserve personal and family honor are expressed. Literature with such features developed especially in France and is associated with gesture songs, which made an impact on other European literatures, as the initiator is the writer, Chrétien, who began to write in the second half of the XII century. Works of this quality were spread by the so-called jugglers, who were wandering poets. Through them was revived the "old fame" of the brave actions (res gestae) of the brave and the former leaders. Even our knightly songs are deeply permeated by a spirit of chivalrous cult, namely the testimony of bravery and chivalric deeds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compared with epic heroes such as Geser and Jangar who are widely popular among the Mongolic peoples of Inner Asia, the far less well-known epic of Shono-Baatar stems from a determinable and relatively recent historical basis: the eighteenth-century Dzungar prince Louzang Shunu and his seeking sanctuary from persecution by his relatives in the Russian Empire. While legends and short songs about this figure are widely attested from Kalmykia to Xinjiang, only among the Buryats has any full-length oral epic been preserved: a single specimen taken down from storyteller Sagadar Shanarsheev in 1936. Although Shanarsheev's epic possesses a complex political and textual history, it was almost wholly unknown beyond a few scholars until its republication in a dual-language Russian-Buryat edition in 2015. Since then, it has increasingly become an important part of the symbolism of Buryat cultural identity and has even been hailed as a world-class epic equal to the Iliad and Nibelungenlied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article informs on the origin of mournful passions in epic genre. It mentions the poeticization of mournful passions, especially female ones, harbored a tension between the exaltation of the dead hero whose value was proportional to the suffering that his death caused in the living, and in the Christian era, this tension was superimposed in a new conception of death, the one that considers it apparent, a mere 'sleep break' before the eternal awakening of the second parousia.

This article will try to characterize the Cantar de Mio Cid as a literary object from matters linked to the writing process, mainly the configuration of the poetic voice. We will analyse the way in which the poetic voice establishes a reality marked by clarity and control of what is sensitive and how its constant motivation lies on showing and understanding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Safavid period had a significant impact on the direction of various literary fields, especially narratives. In this era, narratives in the literary genres of epic, lyric, and didactic found a relatively large variety and abundance. Yatim Nameh, as the last famous prose epic in Persian literature is considered an exception which, in addition to the common traditions in the field of storytelling, could adapt well to the dominant religious and historical discourse in the Safavid period. It has a little bit of the characteristics of fictional heritage and provides a reflection of the connection between the historical and religious themes of the Safavid era in the form of a fictional narrative. Due to the lack of scientific knowledge of authentic manuscripts, Yatim Nameh has been introduced for almost two centuries not only as a relatively incorrect title of Hossein Kurd Shabestari but also all its parts have not been identified and published. For the first time, the present study tries to inductively introduce the oldest unknown manuscript of the comprehensive narrations of Yatim Nameh and other unknown manuscripts and to correct some misconceptions in this field with further explanations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]