List of epic poems

The first page of the Beowulf manuscript, 8th to 10th century.

This list can be compared with two others, national epic and list of world folk-epics.

Ancient epics (to 500)

20th to 10th century BC

• Epic of Gilgamesh (Mesopotamian mythology)
• Atrahasis (Mesopotamian mythology)
• Enuma Elish (Babylonian mythology)
• Legend of Keret (Ugaritic mythology)
• Cycle of Kumarbi (Hurrian mythology)

8th to 6th century BC

• Iliad, ascribed to Homer (Greek mythology)
• Odyssey, ascribed to Homer (Greek mythology)
• Works and Days, ascribed to Hesiod (Greek mythology)
• Theogony, ascribed to Hesiod (Greek mythology)
• Catalogue of Women, ascribed to Hesiod (Greek mythology)
• Shield of Heracles, ascribed to Hesiod (Greek mythology)
• Cypria, Aethiopis, Little Iliad, Iliupersis, Nostoi and Telegony, forming the so-called Epic Cycle (only fragments survive)
• Oedipodea, Thebaid, Epigoni and Alcmeonis, forming the so-called Theban Cycle (only fragments survive)
• A series of poem ascribed to Hesiod during antiquity (of which only fragments survive): Aegimius (alternatively ascribed to Cercops of Miletus), Astronomia, Descent of Perithous, Idaean Dactyls (almost completely lost), Megala Erga, Megalai Ehoiai, Melampodia and Wedding of Ceyx
• Capture of Oechalia, ascribed to Homer or Creophylus of Samos during antiquity (only fragment survives)
• Phocais, ascribed to Homer during antiquity (only fragment survives)
• Titanomachy ascribed to Eumelus of Corinth (only fragment survives)
• Danais (written by one of the cyclic poets and from which the Danaid tetralogy of Aeschylus draws its material), Minyas and Naupactia, almost completely lost

8th century BC to 3rd century AD

• Mahābhārata, ascribed to Veda Vyasa (Indian mythology)
• Ramayana, ascribed to Valmiki (Indian mythology)

3rd century BC

• Argonautica by Apollonius of Rhodes (Greek mythology)

2nd century BC

• Annales by Ennius (Roman history; only fragments survive)

1st century BC

• De rerum natura by Lucretius (natural philosophy)
• Georgics by Virgil
• Aeneid by Virgil (Roman mythology)

1st century AD

• Metamorphoses by Ovid (Greek and Roman mythology)
• Pharsalia by Lucan (Roman history)
• Punica by Silius Italicus (Roman history)
• Thebaid and Achilleid by Statius (Roman poet, Greek mythology; latter poem incomplete)

2nd century

• Buddhacarita by Aśvaghoṣa (Indian epic poetry)

2nd to 5th century

• The Five Great Epics of Tamil Literature: Cilappatikāram, Manimekalai, Cīvaka Cintāmaṇi, Valayapathi, Kundalakēci

3rd to 4th century

• Posthomerica by Quintus of Smyrna

4th century

• Kumārasambhava by Kālidāsa (Indian epic poetry)
• Raghuvaṃśa by Kālidāsa (Indian epic poetry)

5th century

• Argonautica Orphica by Anonymous
• Dionysiaca by Nonnus
• Mahavamsa, written in Pali
• Yadegar-e Zariran, written in Middle Persian

Medieval epics (500–1500)

File:Statue of Ferdowsi in Rome.JPG

Statue of Iranian poet Ferdowsi in Rome, Italy. Ferdowsi's national epic Shahnameh played an important role in revival of Iranian patriotism and the Persian language after both were systematically suppressed by the Arab occupation of Iran

7th century

• Táin Bó Cúailnge (Old Irish)
• Bhaṭṭikāvya, Sanskrit courtly epic based on the Rāmāyaṇa and the Aṣṭādhyāyī of Pāṇini
• Kiratarjuniya by Bharavi, Sanskrit epic based on an episode in the Mahabharata
• Shishupala Vadha by Magha, Sanskrit epic based on another episode in the Mahabharata

8th to 10th century

• Beowulf (Old English)
• Waldere, Old English version of the story told in Waltharius (below), known only as a brief fragment
• Daredevils of Sassoun (Armenian)
• Bhagavata Purana (Sanskrit) "Stories of the Lord", based on earlier sources
• Lay of Hildebrand and Muspilli (Old High German, c.870)
• Kakawin Ramayana, Javanese version of the Ramayana (c. 870)
• Shahnameh (Persian literature; details Persian legend and history from prehistoric times to the fall of the Sassanid Empire, by Ferdowsi)
• Waltharius by Ekkehard of St. Gall (Latin); about Walter of Aquitaine
• Poetic Edda (no particular authorship; oral tradition of the North Germanic peoples)
• Vikramarjuna Vijaya and Ādi purāṇa (c. 941), Kannada poems by Adikavi Pampa
• Ajitha Purana and Gadaayuddha (c.993 and c.999), Kannada poems by Ranna
• Neelakesi (Tamil Jain epic)

11th century

The Knight in the Panther's Skin by Shota Rustaveli, one of the greatest Georgian poets.

• Taghribat Bani Hilal (Arabic); see also Arabic epic literature
• Ruodlieb (Latin), by a German author
• Digenis Akritas (Greek); about a hero of the Byzantine Empire
• Epic of King Gesar (Tibetan)
• Carmen Campidoctoris, the first poem about El Cid Campeador (c. 1083)
• Borzu Nama, ascribed to 'Amid Abu'l 'Ala' 'Ata b. Yaqub Kateb Razi (Persian epic with a main character and a poetic style related to the "Shahnameh")
• Faramarz Nama (Persian epic with a main character and a poetic style related to the "Shahnameh")

12th century

• Acallam na Senórach (Middle Irish)
• The Song of Roland (Old French)
• The Knight in the Panther's Skin (Georgian) by Shota Rustaveli
• Alexandreis by Walter of Châtillon (Latin)
• De bello Troiano and the lost Antiocheis by Joseph of Exeter
• Carmen de Prodicione Guenonis, version of the story of the Song of Roland in Latin
• Architrenius by John of Hauville, Latin satire
• Liber ad honorem Augusti by Peter of Eboli, narrative of the conquest of Sicily by Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor (Latin)
• The Tale of Igor's Campaign and Bylinas (11th-19th centuries)
• Naishadha Charita by Sriharsha
• Roman de Troie by Benoît de Sainte-Maure, medieval re-telling of the Trojan War
• Poem of Almeria (Latin)
• Roman de Brut and Roman de Rou by Wace, chronicles in Norman language
• Eupolemius by an anonymous German-speaking author
• Bahman Nama and Kush Nama, ascribed to Hakim Īrānšāh b. Abi'l Khayr
• Banu Goshasp Nama
• Ramavataram by Kambar, based on the "Ramayana"

13th century

• Nibelungenlied (Middle High German)
• Kudrun (Middle High German)
• Brut by Layamon (Early Middle English)
• Chanson de la Croisade Albigeoise ("Song of the Albigensian Crusade"; Occitan)
• Antar (Arabic); see also Arabic epic literature
• Sirat al-Zahir Baibars (Arabic); see also Arabic epic literature
• Osman's Dream (Ottoman Turkish)
• Epic of Sundiata
• El Cantar de Mio Cid, Spanish epic of the Reconquista (Old Spanish)
• De triumphis ecclesiae by Johannes de Garlandia (Latin)
• Gesta Regum Britanniae by William of Rennes (Latin)
• Van den vos Reynaerde (Middle Dutch)
• Poema de Fernán González, cantar de gesta by a monk of San Pedro de Arlanza; 1250–1266 (Old Spanish)
• Jewang ungi by Yi Seung-hyu ("Rhymed Chronicles of Sovereigns"; 1287 Korea)
• Basava purana by Palkuriki Somanatha (Telugu)

14th century

• Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
• Cursor Mundi by an anonymous cleric (c. 1300)
• Africa by Petrarch (Latin)
• The Tale of the Heike, Japanese epic war tale
• The Brus by John Barbour (Scots)
• La Spagna, attributed to Sostegno di Zanobi (c. 1350-1360)
• Mocedades de Rodrigo (c. 1360)
• Siege of Jerusalem (c. 1370-1380, Middle English)
• Zafarnamah by Hamdollah Mostowfi
• Romance of the Three Kingdoms, by Luo Guanzhong (Chinese prose epic based on a series of folk legends)
• Water Margin, by Shi Nai'an (Chinese prose epic based on a series of folk legends)

15th century

• Kap Mahachat (Thai: กาพย์มหาชาติ by Royal Poets of King Baroma-Trilokanatha (1492)
• Orlando innamorato by Matteo Maria Boiardo (1495)
• Shmuel-Bukh (Old Yiddish chivalry romance based on the Biblical book of Samuel)
• Mlokhim-Bukh (Old Yiddish epic poem based on the Biblical Books of Kings)
• Book of Dede Korkut
• Morgante by Luigi Pulci (1485), with elements typical of the mock-heroic genre
• The Wallace by Blind Harry (Scots chivalric poem)
• Troy Book by John Lydgate, about the Trojan war (Middle English)
• Heldenbuch, a group of manuscripts and prints of the 15th and 16th centuries, typically including material from the Theodoric cycle and the cycle of Hugdietrich, Wolfdietrich and Ortnit
• Ibong Adarna, whose real author is not known

Modern epics (from 1500)

16th century

• Judita by Marko Marulić (1501)
• Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto (1516)
• Davidiad by Marko Marulić (1517)
• Christiad by Marco Girolamo Vida (1535)
• Os Lusíadas by Luís de Camões (c.1572)
• L'Amadigi by Bernardo Tasso (1560)
• La Araucana by Alonso de Ercilla y Zúñiga (1569–1589)
• La Gerusalemme liberata by Torquato Tasso (1575)
• Ramacharitamanasa (based on the Ramayana) by Goswami Tulsidas (1577)
• Journey to the West, by Wu Cheng'en (c. 1592), prose epic
• The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser (1596)
• Venus and Adonis (1593), and Lucrece (1594) by Shakespeare

17th century

• La Argentina by Martín del Barco Centenera (1602)
• La Cleopatra by Girolamo Graziani (1632)
• Biag ni Lam-ang by Pedro Bucaneg (1640)
• Il Conquisto di Granata by Girolamo Graziani (1650)
• Exact Epitome of the Four Monarchies by Anne Bradstreet (1650)
• Szigeti veszedelem, also known under the Latin title Obsidionis Szigetianae, a Hungarian epic by Miklós Zrínyi (1651)
• Gondibert by William Davenant (1651)
• Paradise Lost (1667) and Paradise Regained (1671) by John Milton

18th century

• Kumulipo by Keaulumoku (1700) an Ancient Hawaiian cosmogonic genealogy first published in 1889
• Henriade by Voltaire (1723)
• Utendi wa Tambuka by Bwana Mwengo (1728)
• La Pucelle d'Orléans by Voltaire (1756)
• The Seasons by Kristijonas Donelaitis (1765-1775)
• O Uraguai by Basílio da Gama (1769)
• Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire by Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill (1773)
• Caramuru by Santa Rita Durão (1781)
• Joan of Arc by Robert Southey (1796)
• Hermann and Dorothea by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1797)

19th century

• The Tale of Kiều by Nguyễn Du (c. 1800)
• Thalaba the Destroyer by Robert Southey (1801)
• Madoc by Robert Southey (1805)
• The Columbiad by Joel Barlow (1807)
• Milton: A Poem by William Blake (1804–1810)
• Marmion by Walter Scott (1808)
• Childe Harold's Pilgrimage by Lord Byron, narrating the travels of Childe Harold (1812-1818)
• Queen Mab by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1813)
• Roderick the Last of the Goths by Robert Southey (1814)
• The Lord of the Isles by Walter Scott (1813)
• Alastor, or The Spirit of Solitude by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1815)
• The Revolt of Islam (Laon and Cyntha) by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1817)
• Harold the Dauntless by Walter Scott (1817)
• Endymion, (1818) by John Keats
• Hyperion (1818) and The Fall of Hyperion (1819) by John Keats
• The Battle of Marathon by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1820)
• Phra Aphai Mani by Sunthorn Phu (1821 or 1823–1845)
• Don Juan by Lord Byron (1824), an example of a "mock" epic in that it parodies the epic style of the author's predecessors
• Camões by Almeida Garrett (1825), narrating the last years ans deeds of Luís de Camões
• Dona Branca by Almeida Garrett (1826), the fantastic tale of the forbidden love between Portuguese princesse Branca and Moorish king Aben-Afan
• Tamerlane by Edgar Allan Poe (1827)
• Creation, Man and the Messiah by Henrik Wergeland (1829)
• Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus, translated by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1833)
• Pan Tadeusz by Adam Mickiewicz (1834)
• The Baptism on the Savica (Krst pri Savici) by France Prešeren (1836)
• Florante at Laura, an awit by Francisco Balagtas (1838)
• King Alfred by John Fitchett (completed by Robert Roscoe and published in 1841-1842)
• János Vitéz by Sándor Petőfi (1845)
• Smrt Smail-age Čengića by Ivan Mažuranić (1846)
• Toldi (1846), Toldi szerelme ("Toldi's Love", 1879) and Toldi estéje ("Toldi's Night", 1848) by János Arany, forming the so-called "Toldi trilogy"
• Evangeline by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1847)
• The Mountain Wreath by Petar II Petrović-Njegoš (1847)
• The Tales of Ensign Stål by Johan Ludvig Runeberg (first part published in 1848, second part published in 1860)
• Kalevala by Elias Lönnrot (1849 Finnish mythology)
• I-Juca-Pirama by Gonçalves Dias (1851)
• Kalevipoeg by Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald (1853 Estonian mythology)
• The Prelude by William Wordsworth
• Song of Myself by Walt Whitman (1855)
• The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1855)
• The Saga of King Olaf by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1856-1863)
• Aurora Leigh by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1857)
• Meghnad Badh Kavya by Michael Madhusudan Dutta (1861)
• Terje Vigen by Henrik Ibsen (1862)
• La Légende des Siècles (The Legend of the Centuries) by Victor Hugo (1859–1877)
• The Earthly Paradise by William Morris (1868-1870)
• Ibonia, oral epic of Madagascar (first transcription: 1870)
• Martín Fierro by José Hernández (1872)
• Idylls of the King by Alfred Lord Tennyson (c. 1874)
• Clarel by Herman Melville (1876)
• The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs by William Morris (1876)
• L'Atlàntida by Jacint Verdaguer (1877)
• The Light of Asia by Edwin Arnold (1879)
• The City of Dreadful Night by James Thomson (B.V.) (finished in 1874, published in 1880)
• Tristram of Lyonesse by Algernon Charles Swinburne (1882)
• Eros and Psyche by Robert Bridges (1885)
• La Fin de Satan by Victor Hugo (written between 1855 and 1860, published in 1886)
• Canigó by Jacint Verdaguer (1886)
• Lāčplēsis ('The Bear-Slayer') by Andrejs Pumpurs (1888; Latvian Mythology)
• Tabaré by Juan Zorrilla de San Martín (1888; national epic of Uruguay)
• The Wanderings of Oisin by William Butler Yeats (1889)
• Lục Vân Tiên by Nguyễn Đình Chiểu
• Amir Arsalan, narrated by Mohammad Ali Naqib al-Mamalek to the Qajar Shah of Persia

20th century

• The Divine Enchantment by John Neihardt (1900)
• Lahuta e Malcís by Gjergj Fishta (composed 1902-1937)
• Ural-batyr (Bashkirs oral tradition set in the written form by Mukhamedsha Burangulov in 1910)
• The Ballad of the White Horse by G. K. Chesterton (1911)
• Mensagem by Fernando Pessoa (composed 1913-1934)
• The Cantos by Ezra Pound (composed 1915-1969)
• Dorvyzhy, Udmurt national epic compiled in Russian by Mikhail Khudiakov (1920) basing on folklore works
• The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún by J. R. R. Tolkien (composed 1920-1939, published 2009)
• A Cycle of the West by John Neihardt (composed 1921-1949)
• The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel by Nikos Kazantzakis (Greek verse, composed 1924-1938)
• Dymer by C. S. Lewis (1926)
• "A" by Louis Zukofsky (composed 1927-1978)
• John Brown's Body by Stephen Vincent Benét (1928)
• The Fall of Arthur by J. R. R. Tolkien (composed c.1930-1934, published 2013)
• The Bridge by Hart Crane (1930)
• Kamayani by Jaishankar Prasad (1936)
• Canto General by Pablo Neruda (1938-1950)
• Paterson by William Carlos Williams (composed c.1940-1961)
• Sugata Saurabha by Chittadhar Hridaya (1941-1945)
• Victory for the Slain by Hugh John Lofting (1942)
• Rashmirathi (1952), Hunkar by Ramdhari Singh 'Dinkar'
• Savitri by Aurobindo Ghose (1950)
• The Maximus Poems by Charles Olson (composed 1950-1970)
• Aniara by Harry Martinson (composed 1956)
• Song of Lawino by Okot p'Bitek (1966)
• The Banner of Joan by H. Warner Munn (1975)
• Kristubhagavatam by P. C. Devassia (1976)
• The Changing Light at Sandover by James Merrill (composed 1976-1982)
• The Battlefield Where The Moon Says I Love You by Frank Stanford (published 1977)
• Emperor Shaka the Great by Mazisi Kunene (1979)
• The Lay of the Children of Húrin and The Lay of Leithian by J. R. R. Tolkien (published 1985)
• Giannina Braschi's Empire of Dreams (1988)
• Omeros by Derek Walcott (1990)
• Arundhati by Jagadguru Rambhadracharya (1994)
• Mastorava by A. M. Sharonov (1994)
• Astronautilía Hvězdoplavba by Jan Křesadlo (1995)
• Fredy Neptune: A Novel in Verse by Les Murray (1998)

21st century

• Sribhargavaraghaviyam (2002), Ashtavakra (2009) and Gitaramayanam (2009-2010, published in 2011) by Jagadguru Rambhadracharya