german being talked in a large part of switzerland and of austria, these countries claim a great share in the teutonic epics, many of whose episodes are located within their borders. both the swiss and the austrian nations are formed, however, of various peoples, so while some of the swiss boast of german blood and traditions, others are more closely related to the french or to the italians. to study swiss literature one must therefore seek its sources in german, french, and italian books. it is, though, considered very remarkable that there exists no great swiss epic on the deeds of william tell, a national hero whose literary fame rests almost exclusively upon folk-tales and upon schiller's great drama.[37]
no political division boasts of a greater mixture of races and languages than the austro-hungarian empire, whose literature is therefore like a many-faceted jewel. aside from many germans, there are within the borders of the empire large numbers of czechs or bohemians, who in the thirteenth century delighted in translations of the alexandreis, of tristram, and of other epic poems and romances, and whose first printed volume in 1468 was a reproduction of the trojan cycle.
there are also the hungarians, whose literary language continued to be latin until after the reformation, and whose earliest epics treat of such themes as the "life of st. catherine of alexandria." it was, therefore, only in the seventeenth century that zrinyi, gy?ngy?si, liszti, and other poets began to compose magyar epics which roused their countrymen to rebel against their foes, the turks. in the nineteenth century patriotism was further fostered among this people by the stirring epics of czuczor, pet?fi (whose masterpiece is janes vilez), and of v?r?smarty, and then, too, were compiled the first collections of genuine hungarian folk-tales. among these the adventures of the national samson (toldi) have served as basis for arany's modern national epic in twelve cantos.
part of poland being incorporated in the austro-hungarian empire, it cannot be amiss to mention here the fact that its literature is particularly rich in folk-tales, animal epics, apologues, religious legends, and hero tales, although none of the poetical versions of these works seem to be of sufficient weight or importance to require detailed treatment in this volume.
with the exception of ancient greece,—whose epic literature is so rich and still exerts such an influence as to demand separate treatment,—there do not seem to be any epics of great literary value among the various races now occupying the balkan peninsula. old rumanian literature, written in the slavic tongue, boasts a few rhymed chronicles which are sometimes termed epics, while modern rumanian prides itself upon joan delaemi's locally famous epic of the gypsies.
in servia one discovers ancient epic songs celebrating the great feats of national heroes and heroines, and relating particularly to the country's prolonged struggle for independence. after translating the main works of tasso from the italian for the benefit of his countrymen, one of their poets—gundulitch—composed a twenty-canto epic entitled osman, wherein he described the war between the poles and turks in 1621. the servian dramatist palmotitch later composed the christiad, or life of christ, and in the nineteenth century milutinovitch wrote a servian epic, while mazuranie and bogovitch penned similar poems in croatian. as for the bulgarians they do not seem to have any epic of note.
turkish literature having been successively under persian, arabic, and french influence, has no characteristic epics, although it possesses wonderful cycles of fairy and folk-tales,—material from which excellent epics could be evolved were it handled by a poet of genius. the asiatic part of turkey being occupied mainly by arabians, who profess the mohammedan religion, it is natural that the sayings and doings of mohammed should form no small part of their literature. the most important of these collections in regard to the prophet were made by al-bukhari, muslem, and al-tirmidhi.
