Introduction
1. Summarizing an Epic Legend, The Legend of Ponnivala Nadu
2. Character and Plot Structures, The Mahabharata
3. Human Life as a Balancing Act, The Epic of Gilgamesh
4. Seven Great Phases of History, The Bible’s Old and New Testament
Stories
5. Landscapes and Identity Formation, The Vatsendaela Saga
6. Human versus Extra-Human Powers, The Nanabush Legend Cycle
7. Hidden Paradigms, Additional Themes and Some Overview
Theories
8. The Story Told by the Stars, Babylonian Star-lore and the Hindu
Nakshatras
9. An Epic Story Visualized as a Lotus Plant, The Lotus Plant in
Barabudur, Central Java Conclusion
Annotated Bibliography Listing Sources for Specific Epics
Discussed
General Bibliography
Brenda E.F. Beck is an adjunct professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Toronto Scarborough.
"Everyone with an interest in epic or, indeed, in narrative or
mythology generally should read this book by an internationally
respected authority. Taking an innovative comparative approach
likely to deeply affect this field of scholarship, it is full of
mind-opening insights that will delight the expert and the general
reader alike." --Ruth Finnegan, Emeritus Professor of Social
Sciences, The Open University
"Brenda Beck shows in this book that the oral folk epic Annanmar
katai 'the story of twin brothers' is not local or vernacular in
its reach. It is in essence a story of the emergence of a farming
culture superseding a hunting culture. This sets the ground for the
comparative study of five other legends from around the world.
Relating the local to the global is new in anthropology. The book
ends up showing that all humans journeyed through comparable paths
and that they have similar ways of telling that story."--E.
Annamalai, formerly of the Department of South Asian Languages and
Civilizations, University of Chicago
"By setting the Land of the Golden River in conversation with the
Mahabharata, the epic of Gilgamesh, the Bible, Icelandic saga, and
North American Indigenous legends, Brenda Beck explores how epic
narratives address perennial questions at the core of our humanity.
In the process, she reveals to the English-speaking world the
anthropological, psychological, and symbolic complexity of a
hitherto little-known masterpiece of world literature."--Jo Ann
Cavallo, Professor of Italian, Columbia University
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