Medieval Epics

Modern Library, 1963 - Epic poetry - 590 pages

Beowulf is the foundation of English literature. It celebrates the courage and leadership of the mythical Anglo-Saxon warlord in his battles with supernatural monsters. The Nibelungenlied endures as a remarkable fusion of history and poetry that is avital component of German literature. Goerthe maintained that knowledge of the work constituted an integral part of the country's education. The Song of Roland extolling the chivalric ideals in the France of Charlemagne. The Poem of the Cid extolls the chivalric ideals of Castilian Spain.

Contents

• MAIN: 7
• Translated by Helen M Mustard: 208
• Translated by W S Merwin: 441

About the author

W. S. Merwin was born William Stanley Merwin in New York City on September 30, 1927. He received a bachelor's degree from Princeton University in 1948 and did some graduate work there in Romance languages. He worked as a tutor and translator while writing poetry. In 1952, his first collection of poetry, A Mask for Janus, was awarded the Yale Younger Poets Prize. He wrote numerous collections of poetry including Green with Beasts, The Moving Target, The Lice, The Compass Flower, The Rain in the Trees, The River Sound, The Moon Before Morning, and Garden Time. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1971 for The Carrier of Ladders and in 2009 for The Shadow of Sirius, the National Book Award in 2005 for Migration: New and Selected Poems, and the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize for The Vixen. He also published essays, short fiction, memoirs, and translations of Dante, Pablo Neruda, and Osip Mandelstam. Merwin's other works included Unframed Originals, The Lost Upland, The Ends of the Earth, and Summer Doorways. He also received the Bollingen Prize, the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, the PEN Translation Prize, the Shelley Memorial Award, the Tanning Prize and the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Writers' Award. He died on March 15, 2019 at the age of 91.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Medieval Epics; Modern library giants; Modern library of the world's best books; Modern library
• Translated by: William Alfred, William Stanley Merwin, Helen Meredith Mustard
• Publisher: Modern Library, 1963
• Original from: the University of California
• Digitized: Jul 7, 2007
• ISBN: 0394604555, 9780394604558
• Length: 590 pages