Online Resources for 9Th Grade World Literature Project

Epic Literature

Online Resources for 9th Grade World Literature Project

I. Finding Epic Literature and Context Information

Search generally – “Epic Literature”

Search specifically – by author or title

Search by historical event, time period, social or religious issues

The National Endowment for the Humanities Education Site describes the epic hero cycle as having the following elements: an extraordinary hero who is charged with a journey or quest. The quest itself has obstacles that force the hero to prove himself. In some cases mystical or supernatural beings are for or against the hero and may even lead that hero into the supernatural world, where other humans have never been. Like the tragic hero, the epic hero reaches a low point but rather than die, like the tragic hero, the epic hero resurrects himself and the epic comes to its resolution.

The epic poem has a clear set-up and design. The poem begins with an invocation - this invocation calls on a muse or god to inspire divine intervention while telling the tale. In the invocation, the subject and the epic question are introduced.

The epic's language is literary and elevated. The language is used by all in the poem, from king to servant (even though epics rarely detail lives or actions of the servants). Epic conventions include: the invocation, the epic question, the epic or Homeric simile, the epithet, the confrontation between two adversaries, the element of "in medias res", and a battle or combat

"In media res" translates to "in the midst of action". Essentially, the poem begins in the middle or during the action. The audience learns background information and details as the epic progresses. The simile is much like the literary simile using "like" or "as"; however, the epic simile is full of description and helps to move the action along and to build suspense.

The epic hero is not unlike the tragic hero in that he born into greatness or into leadership. However, the epic hero has some characteristics that clearly distinguish him from the others. The legendary hero is "often of divine descent who is endowed with great strength or ability". Gilgamesh shares these traits with other early epic heroes. The epic hero is in a different class of men based on his "skill, strength, and courage" .It is also no mistake that the hero is referred to as "he" because epic heroes are the central male character in the epic itself. ("Hero" Merriam Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature. Merriam Webster's, Inc. 1995 NA. Academic OneFile. Thomson Gale.).

The epic hero's main focus is dangerous activity, essentially a war or battle over an evil force. The epic hero is someone we want fighting on our side as he is cunning, resourceful, instinctive, and skilled. He works well under pressure; he is the leader those around him need. These skills, although possessed by us all, are magnified and shown to be glorious as the hero needs then to lead and save the day

Again, like the tragic hero, our epic hero is not without fault. Often the epic hero has excessive pride (or "hubris") and is not afraid to sing his own praises. Although respected, the hero is not always someone likeable. Is it better to be a well-liked leader or a well-respected leader? Are both aspects possible? Blinded by his own praises, the hero seeks to enhance his own reputation and may take on foolish, dangerous battles in an effort to continue to add to his list of achievements. These actions not only put him in danger but also risk the lives of those around him. This, however, makes his victory even more glorious and his people, even more grateful. (Landow, George. "Notes on Heroic Poetry." ).

Bryan M. Davis in his article on the site The Archetypal Hero in Literature, Religion, Movies, and Popular Culture ( further maps out characteristics of the archetypal or epic hero. He states that the following are common characteristics epic heroes possess. The characteristics are:

1 Unusual circumstances of birth; sometimes in danger or born into royalty

2 An event, sometimes traumatic, leads to adventure or quest

3 Hero has supernatural help

4 The Hero must prove himself many times while on adventure

5 When the hero dies, he is rewarded spiritually

These characteristics are not unlike modern heroes in movies and in popular culture. Having these characteristics allows students to read literature and look for these elements to determine whether or not a character or "hero" fits into the mold of the epic hero.

The journey is the key element of the epic and the epic cycle. The epic cycle, as outlined by Jennifer Foley in the online lesson plan, Story of Epic Proportions: What makes a Poem an Epic? (

identifies key elements of the cycle. The elements are:

1 the hero must possess supernatural abilities or powers. These can often be magnified qualities we all possess (for example, strength we all possess but the hero's is superhuman).

2 the hero is charged with a quest that will test his abilities. This will test his worthiness to be a leader.

3 Then is the presence of helpers and companions as well as mythical animals or creatures during his journey.

4 The travels of the hero will take him to a supernatural world that ordinary humans are barred.

5 The cycle reaches a low point when we think the hero has been defeated but in the end, the hero resurrects himself and regains his rightful place.

In the book, How to Read Literature like a Professor, Thomas Foster gives five elements of the journey that readers can analyze. The five elements are

1 the quester himself,

2 a place to go,

3 a stated reason to go there,

4 challenges or trials en route during the journey,

5 the real reason a quester goes on the journey

Many questers set out to kill a beast or do something heroic to continue their reign as king or as someone of high esteem. However, after the journey is over, there is a message or lesson the quester must learn. This absolutely becomes the real reason the quester must take the journey and becomes something universal the students can learn from. (Foster, Thomas How to Read Literature Like A Professor. New York: HarperCollins, 2003)

A. Galenet

Gale Virtual Reference Library – GVRL (e-books)

Cite as book or reference source- online “epic poetry”

Literature Resources from Gale

Discovering Collection—search your epic

Literature Resource Center - LRC

LitFinder for Schools—a source for full text Greek epics

Cite as an online database.

User and password: New27591 or pioneer

There are a number of ways to search Gale’s Literature Resource Center, including by:

Name of Work,
Person,
Keyword,
Time Period,
Content Type (Criticism, Overviews, Reviews, etc.)

EbscoHost Literary Reference Center (User ID: npsd, Password: pioneer)
Proquest K-12 Discovering Collection (User ID: 00-1303 Password: bigchalk)
netTrekker – educational search engine

Use to find educational websites about epic tales/poems, some offer digitized

full text. Cite website or for text, as book posted on the Internet.

NPHS login: npsdhs Password: pioneer

Selected Websites:

student/teacher discussion community

Online books page, University of Pennsylvania

The internet archive

For full text search Project Gutenberg at

Safari Montage educational video also available

Metasearch engines:

How to Use Noodle Tools

If you are here in the library you can just click on Noodle Tools
Log on to the New Providence School District home page (
Click on NPHS or NPMS, then on Media Center
OR just go to internet and
Click on Citation Toolsin the left column.
Select Noodletools. At the top of the Noodletools home page select Current Users: Sign In.
(If you are at home and are asked for a school username and password, use npsd as the username and pioneer as the password.)

CREATING YOUR FOLDER

If you do not already have a NoodleTools folder, click on Create a Personal ID.

1. Select STUDENT

2. Select a user name and password. We suggest that you

use your school network personal ID and password.

3. Retype the password.

4. Fill in your initials and the last four digits of your phone number.

5. Click Register.

STARTING A NEW LIST

1. Click the plus sign to the upper right of the screen to Create a New Project .

2. For Citation Level choose Advanced Citation Style should already be marked as MLA.

3. Type a name for your project in the Description window. In this case, choose the Word “Epic” or the name of your epic.

4. Click Create Project.

General Directions for each citation

For each Citation you will:

Go to Components on left of screen click Works Cited. Next, go to MLA Works Cited and click Create Citation.
Create Citation by choosing from the drop down box list. Then click Create Citation.
If you are sure of what you are creating choose Continue. The green box.
When you get to the template, fill in the information you have about your source. Remember, information from a book comes from the TITLE PAGE**Important: you must click Submit when you have finished your work to save it.
Check for errors, omissions, etc. If you want to correct it, you may choose “edit” You are now ready to start another citation.

Remember: NoodleTools does not correct spelling or wrong information. We recommend that you create a notecard with each citation entrance at the same time, while you are using the text.

HOW TO PRINT YOUR BIBLIOGRAPHY:

When you are finished entering all your sources, choose button Print/Export. (To bypass the school’s pop-up blocker, click the blue words, click here.) Click Open. Your list will open looking like a word document, which you can edit or print. 10/12

Student instructions for sharing Noodletools projects with teachers.

Your teacher may ask you to share your project. This gives your teacher the ability to look at your work and send you helpful feedback. On your assignment sheet, your teacher will tell you the assignment drop box name to use when sharing your project.

Sharing a project

Open the project you wish to share and then (a) click the Share this project with my teacher link on the Dashboard screen or (b) click the Share button at the top of the Bibliography screen.

Enter the assignment drop box name where prompted.

Note: The name will auto-complete as you begin to type, so once you see the right one, just select it from the dropdown list.

Enter your name in the First and Last Name field so that your instructor will know who you are (he or she may not recognize your personal ID).

If your teacher has asked you to author your paper in Google Docs and share that as well, mark the checkbox next to “Share my Google Docs paper.”

Click Share Project.

When you return to the Dashboard for your project, information about the assignment drop box(es) the project is shared with appears in the Sharing section. On the My Projects screen, the project you shared will have a checkmark in the Shared column.

Figure 43: Shared projects (one with new comments)

When a teacher views your shared project and writes comments to you, you will notice that the checkmark displayed in the right-hand Shared? column of your personal folder is replaced with a yellow “new” indicator (). Open the project to view the new comments. Your teacher’s comments appear directly below the relevant citation or notecard. If there is more than one comment on a particular citation or notecard, the most recent comment is displayed at the top.

If you have many notecards, it can be difficult to find notecard comments when they are all displayed on the Bibliography screen. To only display notecards on which your instructor has written comments, click the Show only notecards that have comments link in the Notecard display bar near the top of the screen.

Figure 44: Teacher's comment displayed below a student's citation

Following each comment, you will find the name of the teacher who wrote the comment, as well as the date and time the comment was written.

When you have read and acted on the comment, you can permanently remove the comment from your view by clicking the Delete comment link.

Note: Even if they are not removed via the Delete comment link, comments will not appear in RTF files generated by the Print option in NoodleBib.