Philippine Folk Literature Series: The Epics

Philippine Folk Literature: The Epics presents twenty-three folk epics collected from some fourteen ethnolinguistic groups in the country. This is the eighth volume being added to the original seven-volume Philippine Folk Literature Series.  Folk epics are long heroic narratives in verse which recount the adventures of tribal heroes and in the process express the customs, beliefs, and ideals of the people who sing them. The introductory essay, The Philippine Folk Epic," gives a detailed discussion of the features and characteristics of Philippine folk epics their geographic distribution; epic singing and singers; the epic hero, his adventures and his outstanding qualities; epic conventions; dominant motifs: and the customs, beliefs, and values expressed in them. The epics are arranged in geographic order from north to south, starting with Lam-ang (Northern Luzon), then to Labaw Donggon (Visayas), and on to Mindanao, where the greatest number of our folk epics come from (Tuwaang, Agyu,