Talk:Epic of the Forgotten

Latest comment: 14 years ago by Varlaam in topic The word "epopee"

The word "epopee" edit

"Epopee" is not a real English word. English uses "epic poem" where the French might say épopée.

If you do a web search for this word, you will find that it always comes up in contexts where someone has translated a foreign language source, typically French, but sometimes Slavic, into English, and is creating, or reviving, a word which does not exist, or barely exists.

There is a 19th c. citation for the word. The author in that case has a Francophone name.

Occurrences of "epopee" in the Library of Congress catalogue are all in French and Slavic contexts.

If you do a web search for "Beowulf epopee" to see whether an English-speaking scholar has ever referred to the English classic in that way, what you see is épopée anglo-saxonne. Many uses of the term, always by the French.

Varlaam (talk) 20:33, 30 March 2010 (UTC)Reply