Epic and its types

The word epic is derived from ancient Greek letter " epikos " which means a poetic story.

A long story in verse is called epic.

In literature , epic is a long narrative poem divided into books.

Theme :-

Legend, myth, folktale, and history are the main themes of epic.

Characteristics of epic :-

The following are several characteristics of epic.

• It is bulky usually , which means that it is an extensive and prolonged verse in the form of several books.

• The main themes of epic are legend, myth, history of a traditional hero etc.

• Every epic must have a common idea about supernaturalism. There are stuff related to gods and goddesses, fairies, angels and supernatural forces.

• Its purpose is to arouse patriotism and to give moral lesson to society.

• In an epic the author must praise and invocate muse ( Musa AS ). The author seeks help from muse at the start of an epic.

• The theme of an epic is lofty and sublime.

• There are certain epic conventions that a story may be diverged from the main point but at the end it will be discussed smoothly.

Types of epic :-

The following are some of the types of epic.

#1:-  Folk epic :-

It is an ancient type of epic , originally in oral form. After some time , authors tried to preserve them in written form but nobody know about the real authorship of folk epics.

It is particularly based on ancient mythology.

Beowulf is an example of folk or oral epic.

#2:- Literary epic :-

 It usually known as an art epic. In this epic the author intimate the ideas of the folk epic and give it a proper written shape.

Literary epic tends to be more coherent, polished and compact in structure.

Paradise Lost is the example of literary epic.

Difference between folk epic and literary epic :-

• Folk epic is an oral epic while  Literary epic has a proper written shape.

• Folk epic is based upon the ideology of myths and gods while Literary epic shows talent of the author.

• literary epic is compact and more coherent while the folk epic is incoherent and rambling.

Difference between epic and ballad:-

Both are stories in verse but ballad is short in length as compared to epic , which is a prolong verse divided into several books.

As paradise lost is divided into 12 books.