Ebook: Heroic Song and Heroic Legend

Translated by B. J. Timmer.

Originally published in Holland 1959 ('Heldenlied en Heldensage').

Everyone knows a few epic poems, even if for most people this knowledge is only fragmentary. There are not many children who have read the whole of the 'Iliad' or the 'Odyssey' at school, and not much is normally known about the 'Chanson de Roland' or the 'Nibelungenlied', except that they are very old poems and therefore difficult to digest.

In order to appreciate these creations of earlier days one should learn to see them against the background of their time. This book is intended to give a general introduction to the reading of an heroic epic, of whichever nation or kind it may be. If it should stimulate the reader to make a closer acquaintance with this poetry, I would consider myself amply rewarded. For it has not so much been my intention to impart knowledge, as to provide a background for the reading of such poetry.