For aficionados of the epic, to be in London between the summer of 1964 and the winter of 1972 must have been very exhilarating. During that period the London Seminar on Epic convened 31 times to hear lectures on diverse epics from both nearby and remote cultures, delivered by specialists of these poetic narratives and their literary traditions. The 12 articles that constitute the present volume are partial result of the seminar work. They are devoted to the "heroic and/or epic traditions in general terms," while a second volume, planned for the future, will include "detailed investigation, quoting original texts, of problems of diction, prosody and versification, observations on voice-production of bards" (p. 1), and similar concerns.