Gilgamesh, Decameron, Canterbury Tales, Metamorphoses, The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel, Works and Days, Theogeny, Beowulf I've read at least once. If Longfellow's long poems can be considered epic then "A Song of Hiawatha", "Evangeline", and "Tales of a Wayside Inn".

Speaking of poetry, I put some MP3s of Tolkien reciting his own here: Licorice Pizzas

the Odyssey, the Iliad, the Aeneid, the Divine Comedy

I didn't read these ones, I had to
In Italy they are all compulsory reading matter in high school, and they are all, just Italian students worst nightmares.
Lately I read a few line of the Divine Comedy in English on the web, and I can assure you is far easier to read it in English than in original. No one in Italy is able to read it without glancing at the footnotes every two lines; as a matter of fact we had to learn the most part of it by heart. Instead, in English I can easily (with the exception of some words) to follow the plot and the meaning.

grelobe

I've been thinking it is about time for a re-read of some of these, but high on the list is Ovid's Metamorphoses. I've been trying to find my copy of the Nibelungenlied which I read in college (and remember really liking it), and I've never read the Song of the Volsungs. Some others that haven't been mentioned that I own and have read include:

Poem of the Cid
Grendel, John Gardner (can I count this one; it's a must have for Beowulf fans)

On my wish list:
The Finnish Epic, The Kalevala

I'm also interested in hunting for some of the Persian/Eastern epics (none of which I've read). What was the one mentioned by Amir in The Kite Runner?

I think there is a new translation out for the Shahnameh (Persian Book of Kings) that is highly recommended. I don't know if that is prose or verse, though.

I have read abridged versions of the Indian epics Ramayana and Mahabharata in English, both are interesting as they are both living literature in India today and you get some insight into Indian ways of thinking. I read Heinrich Heine's verse epic Deutschland, ein Wintermärchen (Germany, a Winter Tale) not long ago and loved it. Good verse and sharp, ironic and funny comments on the state of Germany at the time.
I read Beowulf in English but found it hard although the Old English is sometimes closer to modern Swedish than to modern English. It is of particular interest to Swedes as large parts of it is set in Sweden, or rather, before it became Sweden.

Gawayne and the Grene Knight, Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde, Beowulf - I had to read these in the original early or Middle English for my degree. Paradise Lost, too - though I didn't get through it all. Also Metamorphoses, in Latin (English translation at the ready, next to it!).

Then, there's Wordsworth's Prelude which is an absolutely beautiful autobiographical epic - probably the first - maybe the only one - of its kind.

The contemporary English poet Christopher Logue has written several fascinating renderings of parts of Homer's Iliad: War Music, Kings, The Husbands to name 3: Poetry Book Society recommendations, published by Faber. He was intending to render the whole of the Iliad, eventually.

Dido

Hey, Grelobe, I always wondered about that. You make Dante sound like Chaucer for English-speakers (although it's a rare high school in the US that requires Chaucer). I read recently that Shakespeare is easier to read in translation because the modern language is used.

disputantum
Yes it's just the same for Dante, last February I was on vacation in the mountains and I had a nephew of mine as a guest, he's at high school at the moment and had The Divine wiht him, I opened the book and...nothing, I remebered the characthers of course, and the reason why Dante put them in a circle of hell rather than in another one, but I couldn't follow the meaning, I had to have a look at the footnoes every two lines

In Italy a great scholar of Dante is Roberto Begnini, I think some of you know him, because won an Academy a few years ago (we call Academy prize: Oscar, don't ask me why)
he knows The Divine Comedy by heart, and sometimes he does theatrical tour and you can see his performances in Tv
First, he explains what is about to read and the meaning, and just this, is fantastic, then he recites the lines with his mimicry, and it is wonderfull
If Italian students had professors like him The Divine would be sold out all the time

grelobe

sorry I forgot, disputantum, don't quit your metalworking projects, I think they are terrific, I'm not an expert but..just my opinion
also the rest is good of course
and keep filling me up about the Murder House's new owner (creepy)

grelobe

I just finished listening to a Modern Scholars series of 14 lectures (Recorded Books) on The Divine Comedy taught by professor Timothy B. Shutt of Kenyon College. It was marvelous! According to the short biography on Professor Shutt, he teaches Dante, Homer, Virgil, the Greek historians, the Bible, Plato and Aristotle every year to a packed house. Lucky students!

Been some years since Homer at UC berkeley, but I remember the class was taught by a professor emeritus...he was good and it was a small class.

We read translations and I will always remember certain lines at the beginning of the Odyssey...it was translated (referring to certain of Odysseus' men) "Fools, they slaughtered the cattle of Helios, the Sun God, and he who walks through the skies, took from their eyes the dawn of their return." How literal a translation that is I'm not sure but I thought that was a neat turn of phrase in any case.

Chaucer on the other hand, did not thrill me at the time.

>Gawayne and the Grene Knight

I almost forgot about that one. I read that in college, too.

I remember having to memorize and recite lines from Chaucer for either my 9th or 10th grade English course. That turned me off of Chaucer for quite some time.

So do people have a favorite translation for the Iliad and Odyssey? We read the Lattimore translations in college. I remember there was a particular translator my professor disliked, but I don't remember which one. I agree with the statement that a professor/teacher can make all the difference in the world when reading these.

Thanks for the compliment, Grelobe.

Georgia, my current favorite translations of Homer are those by Stanley Lombardo. He developed them by oral performances to see what worked best in spoken English. He's done other classical poets also such as Virgil and Hesiod.

On another book forum, the Kalevala was highly recommended and someone from Greece mentioned Erotokritos which I'd never heard of. To my surprise, I found a recent translation of the latter on Amazon.

I remember seeing a documentary series on PBS, hosted I think by Michael Grant, that showed oral epic poetry being recited from memory in a cafe in Turkey to musical accompaniment. It's interesting that such traditions are still alive in this day of electronic entertainment. Grant speculated that Homer performed much the same way millennia ago.

They're long poems not epics, but I thought I'd mention De Rerum Natura and In Memoriam, A.H.H.; both very interesting. I've also read Idylls of the King which I didn't like and Don Juan which I did.

If you are interested in the Kalevala I actually found an English language translation of it online. I've been debating for a while now whether to buy it or just read it online. This site actually has a lot of epic prose and verse for countries around the world, including Russian, Eastern European/Slavic nations, Portugal and Italy. I just wish I had time to read more of them. Right now, I'm slowly but surely trying to read as many of the Icelandic sagas that I can find (obviously prose not verse). I was excited to find some at this site that I thought I was going to have to buy in order to read. There's some good historical background for many of these, too.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sacred Texts - Legends and Sagas

I listened to the Fitzgerald translation of Iliad but reference the Lattimore version when I want to revisit. I think Fitzgerald has prettier language, but I suspect it isn't as accurate.

I've never ever been able to get into The Divine Comedy although after reading The Birth of Venus I thought I might make another try at it.

As to Chaucer, I wanted to grow up to be The Wife of Bath. I haven't revisited the poem in decades, so haven't a clue as to what I'd think today.

A couple that haven't been mentioned that I've read are Spenser's The Faerie Queene and Ariosto's Orlando Furioso. The latter is easier for English readers because you'll get it in translation. You don't need to read much more than the first few cantos of FQ to figure out if you want to read it all. I do recommend a copy with good notes if you decide to tackle it--much of the allegory is pretty obscure to us today.