Unlike most other ancient European, Near Eastern, and Mediterranean
civilizations, Jewish culture surprisingly developed no early epic tradition:
while the Bible comprises a broad range of literary genres, epic is not
among them. Not until the late medieval period, Beginning in the fourtheeth
century, did an extensive and thriving epic tradition emerge in Yiddish.
Among the few dozen extant early epics, there are several masterpieces,
of which ten are translated into English in this volume. Divided between
the religious and the secular, the book includes eight epics presented in
their entirety, an illustrative excerpt from another epic, and a brief heroic
prose tale.These texts have been chosen as the best and the most interesting representatives
of the genre in terms of cultural history and literary quality:
the pious “epicizing” of biblical narrative, the swashbuckling medieval
courtly epic, Arthurian romance, heroic vignettes, intellectual high art, and
popular camp.
