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What is your country's national epic? Prose or poetry allowed.
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What is your country's national epic?

Prose or poetry allowed. Must involve history and the perceived national character.
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that's not an epic
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I'm not sure if you're not Irish and sincere, or Irish and trolling very hard, OP. Either way, you're retarded.
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Orlando Furioso
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>>7667018
>>7667218
Hilarotragoedia, italici anonimi.
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>tfw your country doesn't even have an epic
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>>7667223
Fuck off pleb
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>>7667233
t. someone who hasn't read it
The Tunnel is the most important works of literature written in the past 50 years.
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Does H.C. Andersen count when talking Danish authors?

I don't remember us having any huge world renowned writers other than Mr. HC.
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>>7667263
Genuinely retarded.
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It loses a lot in translation though.
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The Discovery of Heaven by Harry Mulisch is often seen as the best Dutch book ever written. I love his work, I love his style of writing and the content of most of his books, but I haven't gotten to reading it.

Other Dutch books which are noteworthy are The Dark Room of Damocles by Hermans, Back to Oegstsgeest by Wolkers and The Little Blonde Death by Buch.
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Does "My Struggle" count as an epic?
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>>7667278
Karin Blixen is the only one I can think of, and she's hardly written a national epic
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>>7666989
I'm pretty sure the answer to Ireland is Táin Bó Cúailnge
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>>7667295
yes
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>>7667295
It kind of does, in scope. But Norway has the poetic Edda and Asbjornsen & Moe, do we not?
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>>7667279
Have you even read it, anon? If so, did you even understand the significance of Kohler's tunnel?
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Well, that was easy enough.
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>>7667247
This
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The Iliad and the Odyssey
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Beowulf, The Canterbury Tales, The Faerie Queene, Paradise Lost
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>>7667293
There's a distinctive decline in quality toward the end, but the first two/three quarters of the book were pretty great. Definitely read it when you get the chance, anon.
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>>7667460
distinct*
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Martin Fierro
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>>7667293
Mooie meemee
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>>7666989
>netherlands
>pretty much all our literature is shit, we should just stick to painting
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>>7667456
You win
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>>7667293
>mulisch

recht de afvalbak in
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We have two short poems, one is about a talking sheep who warns her master his two bros are planning to kill him and steal his herd. Guy literally waits to get killed and in a really beautiful sequence tells it to let everyone (including his depressed sheep and desperate mother) know he got married to a queen with the entirety of nature as his witness.
The second one is about a man who keeps trying to build a church for his lord but the building keeps collapsing and one night he hears a voice 'from above' telling him that the first wife or daughter to bring the masons food will have to be immured in order for things to go well. The first woman to show up is obviously his pregnant wife and after a pretty depressing stanza which sounds like live footage of her slowly suffocating the church is done. The lord appears in the end and the masons are dumb enough to boast they can build something even more beautiful, so he just leaves them to die on the roof. They all start jumping off and the last one is our protagonist who can still hear his dying wife. The end.

Not too sure what the moral is but I guess it fits my people in a tragicomic way.
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>tfw canadian
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>>7668162
sounds pretty interesting, what country?
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>>7667288
Sweden's national epic mostly takes place in America?
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>>7667812
>recht de afvalbak in
>recht
rechtstreeks, vieze buitenlander.
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>>7667460
Oh I have it. Bought a hardcover 1992 version for 2.50 a while back.
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tfw all nz art is shit
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>>7667292
I wonder how "Polizajew i Uwaliszyn" or "Chowanski" are trabslated to english?
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>>7668186
*cheeky smirk*
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>>7668215
pretty much
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>>7666989
Either Ramón López Velarde's La suave patria, or Octavio Paz's Piedra de sol // El laberinto de la soledad.

I'd like to consider Sor Juana's Primero Sueño, because of its scope and poetic force, but she doesn't really deal with the Mexican character or even with that of the New Spain. It is perhaps more universal in that regard.
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>>7666989
It's the national hymn lyrics, talking about drinking alcohol and is hopeful for all nations in need. It's written by a giant drunkard lawyer that wrote dirty poetry - considered the country's greatest writer.
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>>7667293
Yup, pretty much a must-read and it should pay off for you in particular because you've read most of his other books. Though it doesn't quite fit the 'national character'-definition that the OP uses. But that's because it's a dumb definition. I guess The Assault is more in line with the national spirit of The Netherlands and it also has popcultural recognition.

>>7667764
Also true.

>>7667460
M8 the reveals at the end are the best part of the book and made the entire read pay off in such a significantly awestriking way. That of course doesnt detract from the quality of the first three quarters/.
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>>7668551
Noted
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Suzanne by Leonard Cohen
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>>7668588
>le epic shitalians are romans maymay
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>>7667224
>>7667018

good taste m8s

also the gerusalemme liberata, il giorno by parini and paraliponemi alla batracomiomachia
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"Pan Tadeusz" is considered to be Polish national epic. It also might be considered to be a Lithuanian national epic.
It's okay. But nothing spectacular. Just a nostalgic dream of the good old times, when there was anarchy in Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and every family fought with each other over trivial matters.
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>>7667231
Which country? I'm sure every (relevant) country does.
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People even dresses like the characters and throw around yellow butterflies made of paper for the carnivals on this one.
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>>7667003
Not Moby Dick?
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There's no such thing.
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>>7669835
That's why I'm going to write it.
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>>7669844
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>>7669835
Everybody loves Banjo Paterson - his body of work forms a national epic.
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>>7666989
>What is your country's national epic?
>Everyone is posting contemporary works

Are you trying to reinvent your national epics or what
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Fülembe forró ólmot öntsetek,
Legyek az új, az énekes Vazul,
Ne halljam az élet új dalait,
Tiporjatok reám durván, gazul.

De addig sírva, kínban, mit se várva
Mégiscsak száll új szárnyakon a dal
S ha elátkozza százszor Pusztaszer,
Mégis gyõztes, mégis új és magyar.
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>>7669835
Nice meme but we have a few
For Term of His Natural Life
Robbery Under Arms
Cloudstreet(Maybe)
Not overly heroic but it counts
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Mieleni minun tekevi, aivoni ajattelevi
lähteäni laulamahan, saa'ani sanelemahan,
sukuvirttä suoltamahan, lajivirttä laulamahan.
Sanat suussani sulavat, puhe'et putoelevat,
kielelleni kerkiävät, hampahilleni hajoovat.
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Soren Kirkegaard - Frygt og Bæven
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>>7667456
Excepto that among those only Spenser's poem could be considered a national epic.
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>>7668588
neat, didn't realize there were still romans around
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>>7666989
They're from my country but are set in Mlejas and Tlon. The works are never meant to refer to reality.
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>>7669835
Poor Fellow My Country
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>>7667293
de avondend van gerard reve
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>>7667278
>>7667297
Isn't Kongens Fald the Danish national epic?
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>>7667295
>>7667353
Terje Vigen
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>>7667293

Extending this to the south: The Sorrow of Belgium. Nobody captured the introverted and incestuous (often literally) nature of Flemish national character as well as Claus did.
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>>7670124
Too bad all of them are considered national epics
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>>7666989
Ramayana and Mahabharata.
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>>7671094
DESIGNATED
E
S
I
N
A
E
D
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>>7670909

Not really. Perhaps Beowulf and The Faerie Queene. The Canterbury Tales are not even considered epic poetry, and Paradise Lost is only an epic poem, but Milton never intended (and is not regarded as) an epic of the "national" kind.

So yeah, your smugness about it won't change that fact.
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Does Ulysses gets harder as it goes on?

I'm a non-native English reader and I checked out the first 4~ pages. A bit confusing but I guess I could read this looking up words and references here and there. Unless you're gonna tell me it gets significantly harder.
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>>7671360
Kinda. Some chapters are really wacky.But if you're okay with Telemachus I think you'll do just fine.
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>>7668338
Keri Hulme - the bone people
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>>7666989
>>
>>
Probably Paradise Lost.
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>>7669916
Ady and not the Tragédia

HOW MUCH OF A PLEB ARE YOU?
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Superior epic coming through
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>>7667242
Blámadurinn minn!
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>>7667003
>Takes place exclusively in Europe
>Almost entirely European cast of characters
>b-but the author's American!
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>>7669015
mah nigga i got that version
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>>7671837
>includes many, many references to American history, popular culture and most importantly the national "character", far more than with any other country

m8 pls

though i do think m&d fits far better
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>>7666989
Based Macha
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>>7671416
but its shit
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>>7671506
>nordestino
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>>7667354
>muh its a metaphor fool

God get fuckin bent mate
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On the Road is the 20th century American national epic and don't you dare comment if you haven't read the original scroll.
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>>7674365
Leave your moralism at the door please.
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Canada: nothing
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>>7668186
>tfw worse than no national epic
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>>7674373
Translation: I don't understand the significance of Kohler's tunnel.
Nigga, u ain't shit, nigga.
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>>7674385
I havent read it but I'm telling you to shut the fuck up anyway because you're a dumb dildo and you got memed into Gassposting.
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>>7674391
I am Gassposting, anon. Just read The Tunnel. You might like it :).
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>>7666989
australians cant read. so there's not really one national epic that I could pin down.
>>7669835

I own two.
>the great australian loneliness by ernestine hill
>les murray's freddy neptune
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>>7674422
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>>7674422
any takers? nobody interested?
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>>7668551
Came here to post El laberinto de la soledad, I feel like it truly encompasses the essence of Mexico from a political and historical standpoint.

Recomiendas leer La suave patria? Cómo está?
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>>7674435
this is pretty neat. I wouldn't have heard of it otherwise, so thx for posting based straya

kangaroo by dh lawrence is the only work i've read connected with australia besides some stuff incidentally here and there

did get really high and read a bunch of banjo paterson in a bookstore once tho, that was fun
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El Quijote y el Cantar de Mío Cid
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>>7668186
>tfw Professors push "muh Canadian lit" and it's all terrible
>tfw doomed to never be a great writer
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>>7671807
Is that translation good? I love mythology and Finnish myth is cool as fuck.
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>>7674422
hey fucker, recomend me some good Australian fiction.
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