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Gilgamesh
An epic adventure from the earliest days of civilization, this is a tale of greatness and glory that has been passed down through untold generations. Stephan Grundy -- whose stunning retellings of timeless legends have earned him resounding international acclaim-now reawakens a peerless hero as old as human memory and celebrates once more his mighty deeds and magical destiny.
GILGAMESH
"I am Ensi of Erech, son of
Lugalbanda and Rimsat-Ninsun,
two-thirds god and one-third man."
A warrior, impetuous and proud, an insatiable lover, and a man of restless, violent spirit, Gilgamesh has been chosen to guide his kingdom in times of war and peace. His strength and courage are unsurpassed, yet his reckless heart threatens the land and the people who are dependent upon his sober, benevolent rule. He has spurned the gods with his arrogant refusal to take part in a sacred ritual. And they, in turn, have responded by creating one who is his equal -- a beast-man, lord of his own feral domain -- who will lead Gilgamesh on a remarkable quest of accomplishment and discovery, and hasten the destruction of a tragically flawed hero's realm and legend.
Moving across a richly evoked Mesopotamian landscape and written in a style that brilliantly and faithfully recalls the great epics throughout history, Stephen Grundy's Gilgamesh is an extraordinary achievement: a sweeping saga of gods, magic, adventure, and poignantly imperfect humanity that is at once compelling, original, and relevant to any epoch.
575 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1975
About the author
Stephan Grundy
18 books26 followersDr. Stephan Grundy (born 1967 in New York, U.S.) is an American author. Being versed in particularly the Germanic mythology and cultural history, Grundy is known best for his modern adaptations of legendary sagas. Some of his work is published under the pseudonym Kveldulf Gundarsson.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
October 25, 2013
I must admit that I expected a lot more from "Gilgamesh" than the authors delivered.
Considering the source material: twelve tablets of minuscule cuneiform; I was ready for an elaborate rendition of mankind's oldest epic story: an adventure, overflowing with emotion. What I got, instead, was a passable book of one man's struggle against common literary conflicts, and his sexual escapades with women... and men.
Now, don't get me wrong, I know that all great literature builds off of one of the classic conflicts: Man vs Man, Man vs Society, Man vs Nature, or Man vs Self, and that sex is a part of our history. "Gilgamesh" certainly doesn't lack in any of those departments, delivering explicit sex, and harrowing encounters with man, monster, and god.
My real qualm with the novel is what it does lack: fantasy.
At its heart, the Epic of Gilgamesh is a legendary Sumerian fantasy, about one man's battle against himself, the world he lives in, and the gods who oversee it. The cuneiform tablets are full of commonly encountered fantastical elements: monsters, heroes, trials, gods, spirits, and vibrant worlds. What the Grundy's have done though, is replace all of that with hardline history.
And the story, ultimately, suffers for it.
"Gilgamesh" begins with a young Gilgamesh, the son of Lugalbanda (a legendary war-lord), who stands to inherit his father's city: Erech, as well as the role of Ensi (high priest) of Inanna, his city-state's tutelary goddess.
Right away we encounter one of the literary conflicts: man vs society. In order for Gilgamesh to become Ensi he must participate in the sacred marriage ceremony with the high priestess of Inanna, called Shamhatu. The Shamhatu selected to be Gilgamesh's wife, and the avatar of Inanna on Earth, is a girl named Puabi, who had been Gilgamesh's rival when they were in the Sumerian school system.
Due to the influence of ancestral myths passed down in Erech, Gilgamesh has come to believe that the sacred marriage will result in his death, or, at the least, his subjugation to the Shamhatu. This fear, of death and of the role he is expected to fill in the religious/societal system, is the primary conflict of the novel.
What follows is a six-hundred page exposition on how Gilgamesh fights against his duties to the city, then against his gods and faith, and eventually against his own mortal nature, before learning that he is just a man among forces far greater than himself, and that he must inevitably fulfill the role set out for him.
Along the way Gilgamesh will embark on a journey that requires him to tame and teach a wild-man, who becomes his gay lover, and joins him in a military campaign to free Erech from the tyranny of Agga, the king of Kish, a rival city-state (man vs man).
Then Gilgamesh will attempt to destroy Humwawa, the terrifying scorpion-like guardian of the Cedar Forest, so that he can obtain beautiful wood with which to build a gate that will echo his greatness for all eternity, before doing battle with the Bull of Heaven, a plague sent by the gods to punish Gilgamesh (man vs nature).
And finally, Gilgamesh will watch as his lover dies, before travelling to the Land of the Dead himself, where he will confront his own fear of death, and the ghost of his lost lover, before learning the truth about the nature of human life (man vs self).
There is so much potential here for great story-telling, and epic mythological literature.
Unfortunately, the Grundy's opted to try and rationalize Gilgamesh, to re-interpret the myth in search of possible kernels of truth. While I cannot complain about the effort, as they certainly fill the book with plenty of history, culture, and religious information that I did find enlightening, I cannot help but feel that some of the magic of the myth was discarded in the process.
Gilgamesh is a legend, about demi-god, whose story is meant to take us to places that we, as mere human beings, simply cannot follow, and I feel like the Grundy's "Gilgamesh" never truly left the world into which he was born.
Considering the source material: twelve tablets of minuscule cuneiform; I was ready for an elaborate rendition of mankind's oldest epic story: an adventure, overflowing with emotion. What I got, instead, was a passable book of one man's struggle against common literary conflicts, and his sexual escapades with women... and men.
Now, don't get me wrong, I know that all great literature builds off of one of the classic conflicts: Man vs Man, Man vs Society, Man vs Nature, or Man vs Self, and that sex is a part of our history. "Gilgamesh" certainly doesn't lack in any of those departments, delivering explicit sex, and harrowing encounters with man, monster, and god.
My real qualm with the novel is what it does lack: fantasy.
At its heart, the Epic of Gilgamesh is a legendary Sumerian fantasy, about one man's battle against himself, the world he lives in, and the gods who oversee it. The cuneiform tablets are full of commonly encountered fantastical elements: monsters, heroes, trials, gods, spirits, and vibrant worlds. What the Grundy's have done though, is replace all of that with hardline history.
And the story, ultimately, suffers for it.
"Gilgamesh" begins with a young Gilgamesh, the son of Lugalbanda (a legendary war-lord), who stands to inherit his father's city: Erech, as well as the role of Ensi (high priest) of Inanna, his city-state's tutelary goddess.
Right away we encounter one of the literary conflicts: man vs society. In order for Gilgamesh to become Ensi he must participate in the sacred marriage ceremony with the high priestess of Inanna, called Shamhatu. The Shamhatu selected to be Gilgamesh's wife, and the avatar of Inanna on Earth, is a girl named Puabi, who had been Gilgamesh's rival when they were in the Sumerian school system.
Due to the influence of ancestral myths passed down in Erech, Gilgamesh has come to believe that the sacred marriage will result in his death, or, at the least, his subjugation to the Shamhatu. This fear, of death and of the role he is expected to fill in the religious/societal system, is the primary conflict of the novel.
What follows is a six-hundred page exposition on how Gilgamesh fights against his duties to the city, then against his gods and faith, and eventually against his own mortal nature, before learning that he is just a man among forces far greater than himself, and that he must inevitably fulfill the role set out for him.
Along the way Gilgamesh will embark on a journey that requires him to tame and teach a wild-man, who becomes his gay lover, and joins him in a military campaign to free Erech from the tyranny of Agga, the king of Kish, a rival city-state (man vs man).
Then Gilgamesh will attempt to destroy Humwawa, the terrifying scorpion-like guardian of the Cedar Forest, so that he can obtain beautiful wood with which to build a gate that will echo his greatness for all eternity, before doing battle with the Bull of Heaven, a plague sent by the gods to punish Gilgamesh (man vs nature).
And finally, Gilgamesh will watch as his lover dies, before travelling to the Land of the Dead himself, where he will confront his own fear of death, and the ghost of his lost lover, before learning the truth about the nature of human life (man vs self).
There is so much potential here for great story-telling, and epic mythological literature.
Unfortunately, the Grundy's opted to try and rationalize Gilgamesh, to re-interpret the myth in search of possible kernels of truth. While I cannot complain about the effort, as they certainly fill the book with plenty of history, culture, and religious information that I did find enlightening, I cannot help but feel that some of the magic of the myth was discarded in the process.
Gilgamesh is a legend, about demi-god, whose story is meant to take us to places that we, as mere human beings, simply cannot follow, and I feel like the Grundy's "Gilgamesh" never truly left the world into which he was born.
August 11, 2009
Gilgamesh is an amazing ancient text that despite its antiquity can still resonate with us today. It goes into exploring some of life greatest themes and doesn’t leave you with any forced conclusions.
February 2, 2008
I love this rendition. I think it is a marvelous translation that blends the original facts seamlessly with extrapolated details.
It makes the epic very approachable and story-like.
It makes the epic very approachable and story-like.
November 9, 2024
Very disappointing. The pacing is odd: you get 30 pages of Enkidu on his deathbed and the siege of Uruk (Erech) takes up almost a hundred pages, but the fight with Humbaba is over in a couple of pages, and the fight with the Bull of Heaven is just a few paragraphs. Grundy seems more interested in padding out the lives of background characters and describing the sexual relationship between Gilgamesh and Enkidu (and just about everyone else) than retelling the core elements of the myth. Mind you, when you turn 12 tablets of cuneiform into 500+ pages, I guess you're going to end up with a lot of padding.
It doesn't help that much of it is dreadfully overwritten, in mock heroic/poetic style: "and then did mighty Gilgamesh his powerful arm draw back, the royal spear cast forth, the point of bronze his foeman's chest with unstoppable force pierced through..." It's like a bad schoolboy translation that preserves the original word sequence with no attempt to write actual English.
I only finished it because I wanted to see how he covered the journey to the underworld and Utnapishtim. Shouldn't have bothered. I was thinking of reading his version of Rheingold, but I'm really not sure now.
It doesn't help that much of it is dreadfully overwritten, in mock heroic/poetic style: "and then did mighty Gilgamesh his powerful arm draw back, the royal spear cast forth, the point of bronze his foeman's chest with unstoppable force pierced through..." It's like a bad schoolboy translation that preserves the original word sequence with no attempt to write actual English.
I only finished it because I wanted to see how he covered the journey to the underworld and Utnapishtim. Shouldn't have bothered. I was thinking of reading his version of Rheingold, but I'm really not sure now.
March 20, 2018
I loved the last hundred pages of this novel when the author actually got to Gilgamesh’s journey to the Underworld and his transformation and return. It just seemed that the author could have gotten there without taking 400 pages to do it. But I’m glad I read it and now have an idea and some knowledge about the original hero’s journey.
June 25, 2010
I am forcing myself to read this book, mostly because I was lucky enough to see a traveling exhibit of "The Royal Tombs of Ur." I fell in love with Queen Puabi and her flex-straw of pure gold, and the book opens with a foundling, Puabi, who is chosen to become the High Priestess Shamhatu, representative of the Goddess Innana. Is this (former) Puabi the same as my Puabi? This novel is not given to reference notes, maps, timelines, or guides to pronunciation and so probably I will never know. Still, it's Ur. Sometimes I snap it closed and say, "This book is a dog!" And yet... I will finish it. For Queen Puabi's sake.
Having finished it finally, I have to say it's not a dog -- it's an epic! The sex scenes in the early part of the book threw me off. Possibly Mr. Grundy felt compelled to put them in so the book would sell. However, as soon as Gilgamesh hooked up with the Lion guy, all sex became implicit. It's still a 3.25.
Having finished it finally, I have to say it's not a dog -- it's an epic! The sex scenes in the early part of the book threw me off. Possibly Mr. Grundy felt compelled to put them in so the book would sell. However, as soon as Gilgamesh hooked up with the Lion guy, all sex became implicit. It's still a 3.25.
August 3, 2012
I read this LONG text for the slimmest of reasons - a reference from a great STNG episode. And while I recognize that this story predates most known literature and therefore demands the crown for source material - I can't say this epic moved me. I certainly would gain from being steeped in ancient Sumerian culture when reading this, but as I'm not, other stories more familiar to my knowledge and culture resonate more deeply. All the familiar elements of man's battle with arrogance, faith, nature, and death are eloquently told in this translation, but I found I contemplated these weighty subjects more following completion of the Lord of the Rings trilogy or JB (MacLeish) for instance. But now to watch that STNG episode again...
June 26, 2007
This book was a gift from my sister, Julia. I initially thought, "what's she doing giving me this heavy historical mumbo jumbo? I don't want to. I'm not gonna read it." But curiosity is what it is and I opened the cover.
I love epics and adventures especially with heroes that are true with all their faults and honor and dignity and regrets and pride. I especially enjoyed this author's writing style, which was rich in cadence and read like poetry more than prose.
Definately top 5.
I love epics and adventures especially with heroes that are true with all their faults and honor and dignity and regrets and pride. I especially enjoyed this author's writing style, which was rich in cadence and read like poetry more than prose.
Definately top 5.
July 1, 2012
Found most of this to be very uninteresting.
The plot and storyline was weak, the characters boring, and even the climax of the novel had no pizazz at all.
This is more like a 1 1/2 star book.
The plot and storyline was weak, the characters boring, and even the climax of the novel had no pizazz at all.
This is more like a 1 1/2 star book.
Read
February 10, 2013Bailed 100 page sin- no review or rating.
March 23, 2013
I was well entertained.
August 31, 2015
I had to read this for school and it wasn't anything great. It was a little confusing, but mostly just boring. I understand the great historical meaning and all that, it just wasn't for me.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews