https://en.bharatpedia.org/w/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=National_epicNational epic - Revision history2026-11-15T21:46:45ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.43.6https://en.bharatpedia.org/w/index.php?title=National_epic&diff=314126&oldid=prevImportMaster: robot: Import missing articles2022-06-18T23:38:17Z<p>robot: Import missing articles</p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{More citations needed|date=November 2019}}<br />
{{OriginalResearch|date=December 2020}}<br />
<br />
[[Image:Inha runonlaulajat.jpg|thumb|right|[[Republic of Karelia|Karelian]] poem singing brothers Poavila and Triihvo Jamanen reciting traditional Finnish folk poetry, Russia, 1894.]]<br />
[[File:Karwar Pictures - Yogesa 19.JPG|thumb|Modern depiction of [[Vyasa]] narrating the ''[[Mahabharata]]'' to [[Ganesha]] at the [[Murudeshwara]] temple, Karnataka.]]<br />
A '''national epic''' is an [[epic poetry|epic poem]] or a literary work of epic scope which seeks or is believed to capture and express the essence or spirit of a particular [[nation]]—not necessarily a [[nation state]], but at least an ethnic or linguistic group with aspirations to [[independence]] or [[wikt:autonomy|autonomy]]. National epics frequently recount the origin of a nation, a part of its history, or a crucial event in the development of national identity such as other [[national symbol]]s. In a broader sense, a national epic may simply be an epic in the national language which the people or government of that nation are particularly proud of. It is distinct from a [[pan-national epic]] which is taken as representative of a larger cultural or linguistic group than a nation or a nation-state.<br />
<br />
==History==<br />
[[File:Beowulf Cotton MS Vitellius A XV f. 132r.jpg|thumb|150px|left|First page of ''[[Beowulf]]'' in Cotton Vitellius A. xv]]<br />
[[File:Jan Holly Vilimek.jpg|right|thumb|180px|[[Ján Hollý]] - author of the Slovak national epic poem ''Svatopluk''.]]<br />
[[File:Elias Lönnrot portrait-2.jpg|right|thumb|upright|[[Elias Lönnrot]] - author of the Finnish national epic poem ''[[Kalevala]]''.]]<br />
[[File:Dante Alighieri01.jpg|right|thumb|upright|[[Dante Alighieri]] - author of the ''[[Divine Comedy]]''.]]<br />
<br />
In medieval times Homer's ''[[Iliad]]'' was taken to be based on historical facts, and the [[Trojan War]] came to be considered as seminal in the genealogies of European monarchies.<ref>Paul Cohen, "In search of the Trojan Origins of French", in ''Fantasies of Troy, Classical Tales and the Social Imaginary in Medieval and Early Modern Europe'', Alan Shepard, Stephen David Powell eds., published by the Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, 2004, p. 65 sq., {{ISBN|0-7727-2025-8}}. "Like many of their counterparts across Europe, seventh-century scholars in France had invented a myth of the Trojan origins of Gaul" (p. 67)</ref> Virgil's ''[[Aeneid]]'' was taken to be the Roman equivalent of the ''Iliad'', starting from the Fall of Troy and leading up to the birth of the young Roman nation. According to the then prevailing conception of history,{{vague|date=May 2013}} empires were born and died in organic succession and correspondences existed between the past and the present. [[Geoffrey of Monmouth]]'s 12th-century classically inspired ''[[Historia Regum Britanniae]]'', for example, fulfilled this function for the [[Britons|British]] or [[Welsh People|Welsh]]. Just as kings longed to emulate great leaders of the past, Alexander or Caesar, it was a temptation for poets to become a new Homer or Virgil. In 16th-century Portugal, [[Luís de Camões]] celebrated Portugal as a naval power in his ''[[Os Lusíadas]]'' while [[Pierre de Ronsard]] set out to write ''La Franciade'', an epic meant to be the Gallic equivalent of Virgil's poem that also traced back France's ancestry to Trojan princes.<ref>[http://www.ditl.info/arttest/art352.php Epic]{{in lang|fr}} Liliane Kesteloot, University of Dakar</ref><br />
<br />
The emergence of a national ''ethos'', however, preceded the coining of the phrase ''national epic'', which seems to originate with [[Romantic nationalism]]. Where no obvious national epic existed, the "Romantic spirit" was motivated to fill it. An early example of poetry that was invented to fill a perceived gap in "national" myth is [[Ossian]], the narrator and supposed author of a cycle of poems by [[James Macpherson]], which Macpherson claimed to have translated from ancient sources in [[Scottish Gaelic]]. However, many national epics (including Macpherson's ''Ossian'') antedate 19th-century romanticism.<br />
<br />
Adam Mickiewicz's ''[[Pan Tadeusz]]'' (1834) is often considered the last epic poem in European literature. <ref name="CM">[[Czesław Miłosz]], [https://books.google.com/books?id=R-MkT9vavwIC&lpg=PP1&dq=The%20history%20of%20Polish%20literature&pg=PA228#v=onepage&q=%22the%20last%20epos%22&f=false ''The history of Polish literature.''] IV. ''Romanticism'', p. 228. [[Google Books]]. ''[[University of California Press]]'', 1983. {{nowrap|{{ISBN|0-520-04477-0}}. Retrieved October 7, 2011.}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/pan-tadeusz-poem-adam-mickiewicz-epic-polish-poland-google-doodle-a8978516.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220618/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/pan-tadeusz-poem-adam-mickiewicz-epic-polish-poland-google-doodle-a8978516.html |archive-date=2022-06-18 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Pan Tadeusz Poem: Five things you need to know about this epic Polish masterpiece |access-date=2019-09-15}}</ref><br />
<br />
In the early 20th century, the phrase no longer necessarily applies to an epic poem, and occurs to describe a literary work that readers and critics agree is emblematical of the literature of a nation, without necessarily including details from that nation's historical background. In this context the phrase has definitely positive connotations, as for example in [[James Joyce]]'s ''[[Ulysses (novel)|Ulysses]]'' where it is suggested ''[[Don Quixote]]'' is Spain's national epic while Ireland's remains as yet unwritten: <blockquote>They remind one of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. Our national epic has yet to be written, Dr Sigerson says. Moore is the man for it. A knight of the rueful countenance here in Dublin.<ref>James Joyce. ''Ulysses'', Vintage Books, New York, 1961, 189 (p.192)</ref><br></blockquote><br />
<br />
==See also==<br />
*[[National poet]]<br />
*[[Civil religion]]<br />
*[[Epic film]]<br />
*[[Epic poetry]]<br />
*[[Founding myth]]<br />
*[[Great American Novel]]<br />
*[[List of national poets]]<br />
*[[List of world folk-epics]]<br />
*[[National myth]]<br />
*[[Philippe-Alexandre Le Brun de Charmettes]]<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
{{Reflist}}<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
{{Nationalism}}<br />
{{National symbols}}<br />
{{World view}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Epics]]<br />
[[Category:National symbols|Epics]]</div>ImportMaster