A vast verse epic, 11 hours long, it's been described both as one of the towering achievements of the western imagination and denounced as a prolix, politically incorrect mess.

The Shmuel-Bukh is a midrashic verse epic written in Yiddish.

The two had much in common - including an interest in fantasy fiction, the Kalevala (the Finnish verse epic), and the music of Sibelius.

The verse epic appeared in 1844 published by Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg.

Of Finnish descent, Petaja's best known works are a series of science fiction novels based on the Kalevala, the Finnish verse epic.

Of Finnish descent, Petaja's best known works make up a series based on the Kalevala, the Finnish verse epic.

Parchment was used for prestigious and presentable volumes of verse epics their owners would have recited on festive occasions (see the Troilus and Criseyde illustration below).

The early European novelists were unaware of most of these works; instead they were influenced by novellas and verse epics.

Western traditions of the modern novel reach back into the field of verse epics, though again not in an unbroken tradition.

This stern admonition resounds powerfully in the plot of "Peer Gynt," Ibsen's sprawling verse epic that ranges wildly across realms rustic, exotic and fantastic.