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Maese Delta

Maese Delta

Banned
Attention to all of you, in this forum...

I welcome you to Epic Earth:)

:D I, Maese Delta, have something special I'd like to share with you.

Well, first things first, if you really want to earn your love for such kind of stories, you'll do well to not only read the books, but also watch the movies, and more important, read the epics that inspired them.

As you might guess, this will be a long thread, but I have no time yet to explain all I want to tell you. But, I have something urgent now.

Here I go: I am totally an Epic Lover, it's the literary and film genre by excelence. I am writing a story of such a genre, and I've spent 6 years in the making, though I still keep on the work. My first and greatest inspiration was The Lord the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Since then, I've followed, read and watched as many epic I've found. And also, my story was conceived.

And now, here is the glimpse of what this thread will speak of:

What of the following epic movies have you seen, and which ones are your favorites? If you have seen most of them, how will you rank them?

Note: The order the movies are listed does not represent my preferences... well, just a bit, yet I don't remember very well how was my ranking for them.

1. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
2. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
3. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
4. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
5. Braveheart
6. Gladiator
7. The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc
8. King Arthur
9. Kingdom of Heaven
10. Troy
11. Alexander
12. 300
13. Spartacus (1960/2004)
14. Ben-Hur
15. The Passion of the Christ
16. The Ten Commandments
17. The Prince of Egypt
18. The Greatest Story Ever Told
19. Barabbas
20. Attila
21. The Fall of the Roman Empire
22. The Lion in Winter (1968/2003)
23. Helen of Troy (1956/2003)
24. Alexander Nevsky
25. Alexander the Great
26. The Vikings
27. Beowulf & Grendel
28. Excalibur
29. Gangs of New York
30. Lawrence of Arabia
31. Quo Vadis
32. Napoleon
33. Julius Caesar
34. Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World
35. Apocalypto
36. Hero
37. The Curse of the Golden Flower
38. The Seven Samurai
39. The Last Samurai
40. Gone with the Wind
41. Dragonslayer
42. Cleopatra
43. Ladyhawke
44. Pathfinder
45. The 300 Spartans
46. Saving Private Ryan
47. The Mahabharata
48. The Patriot
49. Tristan & Isolde
50. Willow
51. Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace
52. Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones
53. Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith
54. Star Wars IV: A New Hope
55. Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back
56. Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi
57. Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl
58. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
59. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End
60. The Mummy Returns
61. The Robe
62. The Last Emperor
63. Eragon
64. Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
65. The Adventures of Robin Hood
66. Erik the Viking
67. Krull
68. The Count of Monte Cristo
69. Dances with Wolves
70. The Last of the Mohicans
71. Elizabeth
72. Gandhi
73. Jason and the Argonauts
74. Zulu
75. The Black Shield of Falworth
76. The Emperor and the Assassin
77. The Lion King
78. Alatriste
79. Ran
80. El Cid
81. Seven Swords
82. The Last Legion
83. Anna and the King
84. Asoka
85. The Emperor’s Shadow
86. Kagemusha
87. Princess of Thieves
88. Patton
89. Sodom and Gomorrah
90. The Promise
91. Brotherhood of the Wolves (Le Pacte des Loups)
92. Letters from Iwo Jima
93. Dragonheart
94. Conan the Barbarian
95. Flags of Our Fathers
96. Demetrius and the Gladiators
97. Apocalypse Now Redux
98. Clash of the Titans
99. Pan’s Labyrinth
100. Musa (The Warrior Princess)

I have to say that some of them are not quite understood or created as epics, they're just adventure movies, but for me, I have identified some things that has made them worthy of my liking, and that they are here on my list.

The ones marked with asterisk are the movies I have seen... And about Prince Caspian and Eldest, of course I haven't seen them, but since they're being filmed, they should be on the list.

Well... that was 'Phew!' for you. But, now you know, that shows at least a glimpse of my love for the Epic. On the next days, I'll update this thread and ask you about how many epics you have read. I hope you're interested to know more about this genre in both books and films. And, why not, perhaps to build a group which I call 'Glaerendilis', which means: 'Friends' or 'Lovers' of the Epic in Sindarin, one of the Elvish tongues of Tolkien in Middle Earth.

And don't be afraid of all of this, and please, do not feel offender nor scared. The Epic shows many things, you'll see... besides, what is the Epic about? It is always a long journey, and there many things to face. You are not afraid of such overwhelming things like this, and have you never felt once in your life like if you were in one of those stories?

Now, here I go with the Epic Literature. Remember, some of them may be considered well in such a genre, even when some stories were not understood and/or written as epics:

1. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
2. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
3. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
4. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew
5. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
6. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Horse and his Boy
7. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
8. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
9. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair
10. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Last Battle
11. The Holy Bible
12. The Divine Comedy
13. The Iliad
14. The Odyssey
15. The Aeneid
16. The Battle of Moyture
17. Cath Maige Tuired
18. Mabinogion
19. Beowulf
20. The Nibelungenlied
21. The Volsungs Saga
22. Lay of Mio Cid
23. Song of Roland
24. Epic of Gilgamesh
25. Ivanhoe
26. Jerusalem Delivered
27. Orlando Furioso
28. Paradise Lost
29. Paradise Regained
30. The Araucana
31. The Austriad
32. The Lusiad
33. Julius Caesar’s Gallic Wars
34. Le Mort d’ Arthur
35. Pharsalia (Civil War)
36. Shah-Namah
37. Robin Hood and his Adventures
38. Anabasis
39. Erec et Enide
40. Lancelot or the Knight with the Cart
41. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
42. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
43. The Danish History
44. The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway
45. The Cattle Raid of Cooley (Táin Bó Cúailnge)
46. The Fall of Troy
47. The Kalevala
48. Laxdaela Saga
49. The Life and Death of Cormac the Skald
50. The Mahabharata
51. The Ramayana
52. The Poetic Edda
53. The Prose Edda
54. The Ring of the Nibelung
55. The Saga of Grettir the Strong
56. The Story of the Ere-Dwellers
57. The Saga of Hervor King Heidrek the Wise
58. The Story of Burnt Njal
59. The Story of the Heathslayings
60. Ulysses
61. Yvain or the Knight with the Cart
62. The Life of King Alfred
63. The Argonautica
64. The Knight of the Two Swords
65. The Quest of the Holy Grail
66. De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things)
67. The One Thousand and One Nights
68. Epic of King Gesar
69. The Faerie Queene
70. Henriade
71. Ossianic Ballads
72. Don Quixote
73. The Count of Montecristo
74. War and Peace
75. The Silmarillion
76. The Hobbit
77. Les Miserables
78. Moby-Dick
79. Thebaid
78. The Tale of the Heike
80. Metamorphoses
81. Eragon
82. Eldest
83. Empire
84. The Destruction of Da Derga's Hostel

I leave you my email: maesedelta@yahoo.com.mx

Oh... and I should not have forgotten these ones, two of them have already taken shape and other has been recognized:

Epic in Everdant I: The Forlorn’s Hope (The book I'm writing)
Epic in Everdant II: The Will of the Three (The second part of the book)
Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem (A fell, ominous and 'must-have' game of psychological horror)


So that you may send further comments to me about what you have learned today with this thread.

Farewell to all of you.

Maese Delta (Glaerendil)
 
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I've read Narnia and LOTR, but that's about it on that list. I've seen all six Star wars films several times (and I have to rank them first, then the Pirates films, then LOTR, then Narnia.)
 
"Excalibur" is one of my favorite movies on your list, because it puts the spotlight where it belongs, on Arthur himself instead of on the supposedly "noble" adultery between Lancelot and Guinevere. See my quote at bottom.

My absolute NON-favorite of all those films is "Dragonslayer," because it goes out of its way to make Christianity look weak, useless and inferior. There are many historical fantasies which take the same attitude--that Christianity rose to power and importance NOT because of ANY truth or virtue in itself, but because a meaningless blind fate gave it a lucky break for no particular reason.

As for the authentic ancient epics, one that I did not notice on your list was "The Destruction of Da Derga," a rather odd pre-Christian Irish saga. In it, the Celtic gods (again, for no particular reason) decide they want to kill a king named Conaire (no connection to any Nicolas Cage movies); so they cause a huge band of pirates to attack an inn where Conaire is staying. The pirates get their butts badly kicked, but Conaire does die--almost the ONLY casualty on his side.

==============================================


"I was not born to live the life of a man, but to be the stuff of future memory. The fellowship of the Round Table was a beginning: a fair time that cannot be forgotten. And because it will not be forgotten, that fair time may come again."
 
Another movie I noticed on the list is "The Fall of the Roman Empire." Probably few members here know that this movie was the plot basis for the recent film "Gladiator." The old and new movies have one annoying thing in common: although their historical period is one when Christianity was very active in the Roman Empire, both movies pretend that Christians did not even exist at all.
 
Copperfox said:
Another movie I noticed on the list is "The Fall of the Roman Empire." Probably few members here know that this movie was the plot basis for the recent film "Gladiator." The old and new movies have one annoying thing in common: although their historical period is one when Christianity was very active in the Roman Empire, both movies pretend that Christians did not even exist at all.
Click to expand...

Way to go for you! You've shown some good facts to this thread, and I knew them also. There are other movies who don't show at all the Christians, or even worser, they did not mention them at all.

Well, but we can't ask such a fact to other movies to speak about Christianism when the very story takes place in a world created by the mind of the author, either in book or movie.

:) Oh! And thanks for the epic you told me about... now that you see I'm a totally epic-freak, I'm living through certain epic moments, and also, saving money and spending several minutes on the web and stores looking for the most rare written epic and films... and not to mention the special editions:D

Oh, and something else, about... urrhg, Eragon... after all, I must consider even by a glimpse amongst such grand films and, oh... how I love the epic. But, ERAGON! It's a pain in the ... I tell you this, I know not when the Book III
is going to be released, nor if the movie of Eldest is already being filmed, but I tell you this:

Whoever (mostly a child or teenager, because frankly, I don't believe any adult could suffer this) that does not know The Lord of the Rings, nor Star Wars nor Harry Potter will say that Eragon is original.

And at last, if Eragon could be worser (BARF! :mad: PUKE!) I'll send them with these ones:

The 13th Warrior
Dungeons & Dragons

And... I leave this task to you.:cool:

Maese Delta
 
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I'm not quite sure of the purpose of this thread, but I tend to enjoy epic literature. Movies I've seen of your list are as follows

1.The Fellowship of the Ring
2.The Two Towers
3.The Return of the King
4.The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
63.Star War IV: A New Hope
64.Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back
65.Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi

Yah... I'm not a huge movie fan. I probably won't ever see most of them. Books are a different story! At least I've read these:

1. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
2. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
3. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
4. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew
5. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
6. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Horse and his Boy
7. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
8. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
9. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair
10. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Last Battle
11. The Holy Bible
15. The Aeneid
19. Beowulf
25. Ivanhoe
34. Le Mort d’ Arthur
41. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
75. The Silmarillion
76. The Hobbit
81. Eragon

...and I'm looking to read more of the ones on your list! Thanks for sharing, and if you count me worthy to be included in whatever your club is, that would be cool! :)
 
SweetWaters said:
I'm not quite sure of the purpose of this thread, but I tend to enjoy epic literature. Movies I've seen of your list are as follows

1.The Fellowship of the Ring
2.The Two Towers
3.The Return of the King
4.The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
63.Star War IV: A New Hope
64.Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back
65.Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi

Yah... I'm not a huge movie fan. I probably won't ever see most of them. Books are a different story! At least I've read these:

1. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
2. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
3. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
4. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew
5. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
6. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Horse and his Boy
7. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
8. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
9. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair
10. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Last Battle
11. The Holy Bible
15. The Aeneid
19. Beowulf
25. Ivanhoe
34. Le Mort d’ Arthur
41. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
75. The Silmarillion
76. The Hobbit
81. Eragon

...and I'm looking to read more of the ones on your list! Thanks for sharing, and if you count me worthy to be included in whatever your club is, that would be cool! :)
Click to expand...

First, this thread is just an invitation, and is meant for this reason: In this forum, with the wide variety of fans from Narnia to the Lord of the Rings, I suppose it is needed that you get to know what the epic is, in both movies and literature. And I'm being serious, because you'll understand the current torrent of epics in movies and the incoming books when you have seen (at least, the half of them) those movies and books, either in prose or poetry.

Second, somehow I'll care more about this thread, for I'm looking for some help to design a web page and a blog. That will take too much time, yes... but you better start to imagine what would that be.

Now, I hope that you've got at least a glimpse of my purpose. But this thread is meant to be known by many people, and the first ones must be all the people who admires a good epic or fantasy movie or book.

For myself, I intend to comprehend the epic in a deeper way (as I'm studying Philosophy in the University). And with this, I'll display here some things that you may know well about this genre. As time passes by, I hope more people
know this thread. When there are more people who have posted their comments in my thread, I'd like to ask them many things, what do they think and feel about those movies and books for themselves, and also, how it has affected your life. And not to mention some analysis of the movies and books, comparisons, favorite quotes, etc.

Remember what Treebeard said: 'Don't be hasty'

But I'm not able to say 'Good morning' and last 7 hours in the pronounciation:)

By the very fact that wrote to me in this thread, my answer is YES! (Fred Fredburger) You're worthy to be in my group!

Once more, don't be hasty!

After all, who knows?... One day, or perhaps, just a few breathes and blinkins, and we may be surrounded by hundreds and thousands of worthy people like us, for I want to share epic with all of them, and with them, I want to take the epic to a major level, as it is meant to be (What's the epic all about?:)

And I said surrounded not in a bad manner. It's better, we'll be GATHERED as the mighty glorious armies depicted in the epics, and as we think of ourselves, we'll do the same with our families, friends, and any other person worthy. And above all us, God leads us.

Don't you like that?

Farewell.

Maese Delta.
 
A side topic which might be worthwhile here is the way people sometimes MIS-use epic elements. I have in mind the classic Biblical movie "The Ten Commandments," with the great Charlton Heston as Moses. The screenwriters wasted an hour or so of movie time on a plotline which had no basis in the Bible: namely, Moses being made to compete with Ramses for the succession to the throne of Egypt. There is actually no evidence to show that Moses ever had even the slightest little chance of becoming a Pharaoh; but the writers figured it would make the movie more epic-like, more dramatic, if he did have that chance. As a result, they had to leave out many events that WERE in the Bible.
 
In the secular-music thread, I posted an entry about Hans Zimmer's music for "King Arthur," and said it was too bad that the movie blatantly bashed Christians. This led my mind to recall a serious anti-God author, Howard Fast. His best-known book was "Spartacus." In it, one of the major heroes curses God for all the evil in the world, even wishes he could kill God. Writers like Fast try to separate God from the God-given qualities of justice, love and bravery.

Everyone knows how atheists often accuse Christians of cultural narrow-mindedness; but the atheist Howard Fast betrayed serious cultural narrowness of his own. I recall his novel "My Glorious Brothers," about the Maccabean war of liberation in Israel of the 2nd century B.C.; in it, Fast showed that he couldn't stand the thought of his heroes wearing _clothes_ too different from what he was accustomed to. Israelites throughout Biblical times would predominantly have worn things like robes and kilts, because trousers are a far more complicated kind of garment to make. But Fast insisted on describing Judas Maccabaeus wearing PANTS, so that he could portray the Greco-Syrian villains as looking sissy by comparison in their kilts. It's funny how many "atheistic puritans" there are.
 
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Turning back to fantasy in the usual sense, consider that there is high fantasy and low fantasy. Low fantasy goes for sensation as an end in itself; if the other guy's book features a fifty-foot-long monster, you write a book with a sixty-foot-long monster. High fantasy uses the fantastic elements as means to an end, always wanting the reader to be led into thoughts about life, eternity, right and wrong, etc.

The old original Conan of Cimmeria stories were low fantasy. The tales of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser were much subtler and wittier, but in the end were still only low fantasy. The best-known examples of high fantasy don't even have to be named; but I am fond of "Watership Down," which I consider high fantasy even though its action takes place in the known world in modern times. "Watership Down" addresses questions about the existence of God and His will for His creatures.
 
Well, I know also that low fantasy is about stories that happen in our age, our world (and not needed to break the 'Fourth Wall'). For example, Harry Potter is low fantasy. On the other hand, high fantasy tells about a highly detailed world created by the author.

Even so, I need to remark that though Middle Earth and Narnia are high fantasy, both happened to exist once in our world. Our world actually is Middle Earth, only in another age. And about Narnia... you know the rest.
 
Well, thanks. My brother Maese Alastair is learning plenty of things from me. Actually, he's been 'educated' by most movies of one of my threads. And also, he tends to see more about WWII and the airborne dogfights. He's still young as much as I am. He's 15 while I'm 21, but we've learnt about many things through our ages till now, and what surely is to come.

I'm preparing other stuff for this thread to show other people about how epics should be done and admired.
 
Epic Posters

Hey, I hope that you may like this...

Soon, I'll post ALL the posters of my beloved epic films. And thus, I'll start another thread which will be 'Favourite Epic Poster', which will have a Poll for you to vote for your favourite epic movie poster.:D

You don't know how many of them are, actually...and, well... you just wait for the time I post all those pics.:D

From those old films to the latest ones... there are plenty of those, and believe it or not, it shall not be easy to choose one.:)

'Favourite Epic Poster' Coming soon.
 
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