THE HORSE AS AN EPIC 

 CHARACTER 



When we compare epic heroes, such as Roland, with 

 romance heroes, like those of the Arthurian poems, we 

 usually consider that the former live in a world more or 

 less prosaic like our own, while the latter inhabit one of 

 mystery, where the phenomena of nature are subject to 

 the caprices of supernatural beings or mortals possessed 

 of magic power, where also the boundaries between 

 men, animals, and plants are wavering and uncertain. 

 This distinction is not an imaginary one. Neverthe- 

 less, if, instead of limiting our vision to the scenes of 

 the exploits of, say, French and Spanish heroes, we 

 extend it over that immense region which stretches 

 from Ireland in the West to India and Siberia in the 

 East, we must modify our conception to a considerable 

 degree. Superficially there seems then to be little 

 difference between this epic world and that of romance. 

 Certainly the former is infinitely vaster than the one we 

 know, for it comprehends not only the surface of the 

 globe but the subterranean regions peopled by the 

 dead, by the powers of evil, by gnomes, water sprites, 

 and other supernatural beings. It includes also the 

 heavens, and the intermediate space between them and 

 the earth, inhabited by gods, valkyrias, swan maidens, 

 and other creatures of the air and sky. 



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