Philippine Folk Literature Series Series by Damiana L. Eugenio

This anthology presents a bird's-eye view of the whole range of Philippine folk literature.

Philippine Folk Literature: The Myths constitutes Volume II of the author's eight-volume Philippine Folk Literature Series. The present volume focuses on myths, simply defines as sacred narratives explaining how the world and man came to be in their present form... morePhilippine Folk Literature: The Myths constitutes Volume II of the author's eight-volume Philippine Folk Literature Series. The present volume focuses on myths, simply defines as sacred narratives explaining how the world and man came to be in their present form. An "Introduction" distinguishes myth from legend, with which it is usually confused, and offers a system of classification of myths, which follows the arrangement of mythological motifs in Stith Thompson's Motif-Index of Folk Literature. The myths in this collection are arranged according to the eight categories in the system of classification mentioned above: 1) the Gods: their Activities and Relationships; 2) Cosmology and Cosmogony; 3) Topographical Features of the Earth (water and land features); 4) World Calamities (The Great Flood); 5) Establishment of the Natural Order; 6) Creation and Ordering of Human Life; 7) Origin of Animal Life and Characteristics; and 8) Origin of Plant Life and Characteristics. Within each category, the myths are arranged by region -- Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao. Exceptions were made in the myths on the origin of animals and plants, which are arranged alphabetically. As with the other volumes in the series, the selections are given in English translation, in order to make them accessible to an international readership. As in the other volumes, also, this collection is intended to be national in scope. Care was therefore taken to ensure that it contains as wide a representation as possible of different types and sub-types of myths and that it represents as many Philippine ethnolinguistic groups as possible. less

"Philippine Folk Literature: The Epics" presents 23 folk epics collected from some 14 ethnolinguistic groups in the country. This is the eighth volume being added to the original 7-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... more"Philippine Folk Literature: The Epics" presents 23 folk epics collected from some 14 ethnolinguistic groups in the country. This is the eighth volume being added to the original 7-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," give 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, Bantugan, etc.). A distinctive feature of Philippine epic literature is that while other countries have one national epic hero, e.g. England's Beowulf, Spain's El Cid, etc., the Philippines has no national epic hero but more than a dozen tribal epic heroes. This volume thus gives the reader an opportunity to get acquainted with these folk epic heroes and the values and ideals they stand for. As in other volumes in the Philippine Folk Literature Series, the selections are given in English translation, but a sampling of the text in the original language is given at the beginning of each selection. less