Where Have all the Epics Gone?

With the recent debut of Christopher Nolan's take on Homer's classic tale, I've had a lot of time to reflect on the modern view of classical literature, particularly the ancient trend of the epic poem. Does the world even understand the methods of writing that Homer employed, or do we simply grab for the nearest copy of the Cliff Notes, NIV edition to help with the digestion of what we often mistake as complex and archaic?

It's made me wonder about AI's power to construct the kind of epics that were told by bards, skalds, scops, and fireside storytellers throughout the history of the world. What happened to the kind of writing that was inventive, imaginative, simplistic, and yet broad in its depth of meaning through the beauty of poetic eloquence? Are such works achievable without the aid of a soul? What gives works such as the Odyssey its enduring power?

Perhaps one of the deepest swords that wounded the enduring legacy of great classical epic poetry was the rise of high fantasy. Even with giants like Tolkien, who birthed the high fantasy craze that followed him through inspiration of poetic epics, works like the Iliad and the Odyssey would today need exposition the length of a feature film, and a grounded explanation of how the magic system of the world works.

Even with Tolkien’s clear love and inspiration from works like Beowulf, the Nibelungenlied, the Kalevala, and the works of Homer, the modern writer’s playbook for fantasy and fiction slights simplistic poetry in favor of the cornucopia of George R. R. Martin house names, Sanderson's complex magic systems, and bloated world-building that alone could fill entire libraries.

It was this observation in part that I considered as I wrote my book, Lethwei: An Amorphous Epic. When I began, the concept was a far cry from what it would become. What turned into my modern take on the epic poetry genre, began life as an idea for a low budget dungeon crawler video game.

It was always a dream of mine to write, but at the particular time in my life when I first conceived the idea for Lethwei, I was hyper fixated on working my way into videogame development, despite knowing nothing of coding, game engines, or any of the skills needed to create what I saw in my mind’s eye.

Yet as I ruminated on the ideas, the more the story grew in my mind. The essence behind the story I was trying to tell became more than just a simple hack and slash affair for someone to sit down and complete in a matter of hours. The more I thought on the characters, and how I wanted to express the feelings and lessons through the medium of the story and world of Lethwei, the more it began to take on a life of its own.

I spent the next 4 years writing, studying, and investing my spare time in efforts to bring to life a story that my soul just couldn’t let go. But I didn’t want it to be like other books. I wanted it to capture the essence of what made the works of ancient writers so enduring. But what was that? What did Homer, Virgil, and so many others use to create such enduring works of literature? Many men have speculated and fought to pinpoint the exact reason.

Yet, who’s to say what it is that made those poems great? Perhaps its not one thing, nor a discernable pattern that can be deciphered. And perhaps, that is precisely why we love them.

Still, that shouldn’t deter us from considering what our modern epics could be. Poetry still thrives, but what of the epic poetry that captivated kings courts, that held audiences attention amid some of the harshest conditions men and women have lived in since the world began?

Where have all the epics gone? If we look, we are sure to find some, and if we work, there are still many left to write.

If you would like to read my critically acclaimed book, and see what a modern writers take on the epic could be, I will leave a link below. But if you are inspired to write your own, you know what to do!

I’d love to hear from you about what some of your favorite epics are! Comment below and share your thoughts.

Lethwei: An Amorphous Epic

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FRKSPBG2