Lascelles Abercrombie Quotes

The language of the heroic is something that has evolved over time.

If epic poetry is a definite species, the sagas do not fall within it.

The author of the Iliad is either Homer or, if not Homer, somebody else of the same name.

One of the greatest, most noble, and most sublime poems which either this age or nation has produced.

But a voice inside her whispered, There are no heroes, and she remembered what Lord Petyr had said to her, here in this very hall. 'Life is not a song, sweetling,' he'd told her, 'You may learn that one day to your sorrow.' In life, the monsters win, she told herself.

Heroic poetry has ever been esteemed the greatest work of human nature.

The higher Greek poetry did not make up fictitious plots; its business was to express the heroic saga, the myths.

In a way, Anglo-Saxon poetry cannot be translated.

The Border Ballads, for instance, and the Robin Hood Ballads, clearly suppose a state of society which is nothing but a very circumscribed and not very important heroic age.

As I get older I find myself thinking it all begins with Shakespeare.

Fiction has consisted either of placing imaginary characters in a true story, which is the Iliad, or of presenting the story of an individual as having a general historical value, which is the Odyssey.

I still like to listen to the people that I came of age on.

I am aware of the words 'national treasure' being attached to me occasionally. It just makes me feel old.

To be a hero or a heroine, one must give an order to oneself.

I like portraying heroes of antiquity whose values were grander and more spectacular than those of today.

Western civilization is the most successful civilization the world has ever seen. And some of the reasons for that is it's borrowed from other cultures along the way, back to Mosaic law, the Greek age of reason, Roman law and the Roman order of government, and the Republican form of government, by the way that we're guaranteed in our constitution.

Bath was dusty and a little shabby when we moved here. It did look its age and you felt its history in its streets and buildings and little alleyways. The sense of the past was palpable. There were some bad modern buildings but there was a patina of age.

For me, clothing has always been connected to history. That's what draws me in.

I love and I'm intrigued by what history does to people and to subjects that matter.

Tradition in fashion is held with such a high regard.

For us Icelanders, the Sagas are like the Bible, only much better.

The epic disappeared along with the age of personal heroism; there can be no epic with artillery.

Part of what we want to do with the Heroic Imagination Project is to get kids to think about what it means to be a hero. The most basic concept of a hero is socially constructed: It differs from culture to culture and changes over time. Think of Christopher Columbus. Until recently, he was a hero. Now he's a genocidal murderer! If he were alive today, he'd say, "What happened? I used to be a hero, and now people are throwing tomatoes at me!

In every domain of art, a work that corresponds to the need of its day carries a message of social and cultural value. It is the artist who crystallizes his age ... who fixes his time in history.

It's really important in our society to tell stories, and I feel grateful and honoured that I get to do that in this day and age.