Helen of Troy by Andrew Lang

by Andrew Lang

Andrew Lang's epic poem about Helen of Troy.

Genres: Classics, Poetry, Fantasy, Mythology, Fiction, Ebooks, Greek Mythology

130 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1882

About the author

Tales of the Scottish writer and anthropologist Andrew Lang include The Blue Fairy Book (1889).

Andrew Gabriel Lang, a prolific Scotsman of letters, contributed poetry, novels, literary criticism, and collected now best folklore.

The Young Scholar and Journalist
Andrew Gabriel Lang, the son of the town clerk and the eldest of eight children, lived in Selkirk in the Scottish borderlands. The wild and beautiful landscape of childhood greatly affected the youth and inspired a lifelong love of the outdoors and a fascination with local folklore and history. Charles Edward Stuart and Robert I the Bruce surrounded him in the borders, a rich area in history. He later achieved his literary Short History of Scotland .

A gifted student and avid reader, Lang went to the prestigious Saint Andrews University, which now holds a lecture series in his honor every few years, and then to Balliol College, Oxford. He later published Oxford: Brief Historical and Descriptive Notes about the city in 1880.

Moving to London at the age of 31 years in 1875 as an already published poet, he started working as a journalist. His dry sense of humor, style, and huge array of interests made him a popular editor and columnist quickly for The Daily Post, Time magazine and Fortnightly Review. Whilst working in London, he met and married Leonora Blanche Alleyne Lang, his wife.

Interest in myths and folklore continued as he and Leonora traveled through France and Italy to hear local legends, from which came the most famous The Rainbow Fairy Books . In the late 19th century, interest in the native stories declined and very few persons recounting them for young readers. In fact, some educationalists attacked harmful magical stories in general to children. To challenge this notion, Lang first began collecting stories for the first of his colored volumes.

Lang gathered already recorded stories, while other folklorists collected stories directly from source. He used his time to collect a much greater breadth over the world from Jacob Grimm, his brother, Madame d'Aulnoy, and other less well sources.
Lang also worked as the editor, often credited as its sole creator for his work despite the essential support of his wife, who transcribed and organised the translation of the text, to the success.

He published to wide acclaim. The beautiful illustrations and magic captivated the minds of children and adults alike. The success first allowed Lang and Leonora to carry on their research and in 1890 to publish a much larger print run of The Red Fairy Book , which drew on even more sources. Between 1889 and 1910, they published twelve collections, which, each with a different colored binding, collected, edited and translated a total of 437 stories. Lang, credited with reviving interest in folklore, more importantly revolutionized the Victorian view and inspired generations of parents to begin reading them to children once more.

Last Works
Lang produced and at the same time continued a wide assortment of novels, literary criticism, articles, and poetry. As Anita Silvey, literary critic, however, noted, "The irony of Lang's life and work is that although he wrote for a profession... he is best recognized for the works he did not write," the folk stories that he collected.

He finished not the last Highways and Byways of the Border but died.

Reviews

[Michelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Helen of Troy bizarrely came to my attention when I read The Red Word by Sarah Henstra which explores rape culture, ideology and Greek mythology (a very good book by the way and my review can be found here https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ) and from there I wanted to know the story of Helen as she features fairly heavily.

Andrew Lang has written this book from the point of view of Helen and it's almost in a poem format which was interesting for me as usually I storm away from poetry.

An interesting story, I'm glad I've read it, its left me kind of toying with the idea of reading The Odyssey by Homer.

While I'm glad I've read this, I didn't love it, I'm sure I can find better books out there to indulge my Helen curiosity.

This book is currently free on Amazon, a no brainer if your interested in dipping into this subject.

[Bren fall in love with the sea.]

I went into this thinking it was a book from my past. Unfortunetly, I had the wrong book.

This IS the story of Helen but it's told in poetry, which really isn't my thing and that was why I knew immediately I had the wrong book.

I remember a book from decades ago about Helen and have been on a quest to find it.

While the prose is undeniably beautiful in this, and the words fluid and lovely, reading about her life through poetic verse is simply not for me.

[Julesmarie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was just beautiful. It was wonderfully lyrical. And the different interpretation of the events was intriguing. Most interesting was the way all of the main events were blamed on Aphrodite.

Some Favorite Quotes:
wistful did she lie,
Till dark should change to grey, and grey to red,
And golden throned Morn sweep o'er the sky.

and his blue
Glad eyes no sorrow had the spell to mar
Were clear as skies the storm hath thunder'd through.

"But vainly doth a man contend with Fate!"

Love that doth the world unmake

Ah, where is he but knows the bitter pain
To wake from dreams, and find his sorrow true

[Mollie · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was nice to see another adaption of this tale but I kept missing plot points that I knew from previous exposure to the story behind Helen. Still an ok read but nothing mind-blowing.

[Fatih Çetin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yunan mitolojisi (genel anlamda mitolojiler) ilgimi çeken eserler olduğu için kısa sürede okudum. Yazarın bu masalsı anlatımı çok hoşuma gidiyor. Daha önce bu serideki Kral Arthur kitabı da aynı yazara aitti ve onu da zevk alarak okumuştum. Kitabın detaylı konusuna geçmeden önce kitap kapağı ve editörlükten bahsedeyim. Kitabın konusunda büyük bir yer kaplayan Truva atının kitap kapağına resmedilmesi hoş olmuş. Editörlük açısından da herhangi bir sorunla karşılaşmadım.

Kitabın konusuna gelecek olursak; kitap 2 bölümden oluşmaktadır. 1. bölümde kendisini tanıdığımız Ulysses'in diğer Tanrılar için Truva Savaşına katılması ile başlayan olaylar Ulysses'in savaştan galip ayrıldıktan sonra kendini denizlerde kaybedince evine dönme çabaları ile devam ediyor. Burada bir sürü Yunan mitolojisinden varlıklar ile karşılaşıyoruz. Özellikle Kirke karakterinin bahsedildiği 4-5 sayfalık öykü hoşuma gitti. Son zamanlarda çıkan Ben Kirke kitabını okumadım ama burada görünce memnun oldum.

Kitabın içinde yer alan olay ve karakterler için aşağıya bazı yazılar ve videolar bırakacağım. Kitabın yanında bunları da okuyup veya izlerseniz kitabın içeriğini daha rahat anlarsınız. Kitabı, Yunan mitolojisini merak edip masalsı bir kitap okumak isteyenlere tavsiye ederim. Puanım 5/5.

Bu kitap içinde yer alan ve genel anlamdaki Yunan mitolojisi karakterleri için;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjeZe...

Truva Savaşı anlatımı için;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ba3dh...

Ulysses'in öyküsü için;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZU-D...

Genel anlamda konu hakkında bilgi almak için;

https://ozhanozturk.com/2018/02/03/od...
https://ozhanozturk.com/...en-yunan-m...
http://ozhanozturk.com/2018/01/21/tro...
http://ozhanozturk.com/...si-gercekte...
http://ozhanozturk.com/...os-yunan-mi...

[Joshua Gross · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was interesting to get the Victorian poetry viewpoint of the Trojan War, though little is done with the story to change it or expand on it. The poetry is lovely, and Lang conjures up some beautiful imagery at times. The most interesting part for me, though, was the end where he just talks about the many interpretations of Helen and her character.

[Beatrice Drury · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually enjoyed this more than I thought. It is a long poem, but completely understandable. The language is a bit dated. I knew little about Helen and found the story interesting. Another case of someone's life messed up by the gods interference.

[Sebastian Sanio · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story of Helen of Troy written in rhyme.

It's interesting that all is written in rhyme but at the same time that makes it lose parts of the plot and dramatism.

I would look for another version of the story.

[Howard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poetic Rendition For a Timeless Classic

Homer's story about the Trojan War is retold with great beauty and skill as only an artist of language can paint with words. Andrew Lang is a master of words that will capture your attention with this rendition of the classic. The value of using poetry for this tale is a masterpiece you will never forget.

[cosmic · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is very different from what I thought it would be.

I had known beforehand that the war was due to Helen and her beauty, but I had not known that all of this was caused by the Gods. It's like they were playing with the lives of the humans and less-than-gods. I suppose that is a fairly common theme in the mythologies.

I sympathize with Helen a lot. It wasn't really her fault that the war happened, even though she was the cause of it. If it was left to her, she would never have gone with Paris to Troy. Such a sad story.

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a retelling of the Greek myth of Helen of Troy and her abduction by Paris, which lead to the Trojan War. Lang has created a vivid and emotive version of this well known tale that brings the characters and era to life through the words themselves and the rhythm and speed of the poem itself, as it ebbs and flows depending on the scene described. An enjoyable version of this epic tale which shows Helen to be a stronger character than some have portrayed her.

[Caitlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lang shares the lyrical tale of the beautiful Helen. Paris is introduced early on in the text, and he is painted in a much more flattering light here than in the works of Homer. The ultimate blame was thrust upon the goddess Aphrodite, as many do strange things while under one of her spells. Easy read but it helps to have a the context.

[J Crossley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good historical book about Helen of Troy, the subject of so many literary works.